Dating of Two Most Indicative Traditions Regarding the Falsification of the Bible

Among the Islamic narrations about the Bible, there are two special narrations which seem to denote the most explicit tenor against the authenticity of the Jewish-Christian scriptures: one on the authority of ʿUthmān in interpretation of Q. 2: 78, and the other a tradition on the authority of Ibn ʿAbbās forbidding Muslims from consulting Jews and Christians. This paper aims to date these narrations based on the method of isnād-cum-matn analysis and source criticism. This survey shows that they are, at best, the outcomes of the intellectual developments of the second century.