The history of the Hebrew Bible's reception in the Koran: possibilities of inter-religious dialogue from the sources

The Hebrew Bible's process of reception in the Koran reveals moments of approach and others of distance: on the one hand, it shows dependency - if not from the written source, at least from the oral tradition -; on the other hand, it asserts the Arabian prophet's own position, taking his religious experience as its standpoint. The prophetic element, characteristic of the three monotheist communities, has its origin in Ancient Israel. The prophetic religion, understood as religion of resistance, may be taken as a point of access to proceed to the comparative study of Israelite and Arabian prophecies. While surprising points of convergence may be detected, nevertheless the uniqueness of the two prophetic streams also gains relevance. The reception of the Hebrew Bible, i.e., of some of its subjects, into the Koranic surahs occurs in 7th century of our age, a world then permeated by a Gnostic vision of the cosmos, determining themes and traditions of readings. Abraham's narrative, examined in this article, reveals an interesting dynamics of interdependence in the literature that has its origin in the Hebrew Bible. Traditions about Abraham in the Koran, for instance, seem taken for granted by the original Torah, as well as by traditions assembled in rabbinic literature. As the narrative is integrated into the Arab context, a new process of rereading occurs when facing the new public. This final product, or part of it, once again circulates amidst the Jewish community, as a passage in the rabbinic literature seems to indicate. The tense dialogue between the Arabian prophet and the Jewish community in Medina also marked this reception history. The struggle is to understand the two perspectives, shown in these references in the Koran, from the historical context of the rise of the early Islamic community.