Torah scroll
Torah scrollIsrael news photo: file

A new Muslim claim surpasses all boundaries: an Algerian paper reports that an old Torah scroll found near Temple Mount includes the name of Mohammed. However, the reporter apparently has mixed up his understanding of "scrolls" and Hebrew adjectives.

This latest claim, reported in the Algerian Al Nahar newspaper by Ahmed Ibrahem Buray, alleges that “the political circles, religious groups in Israel were shaken last week over the impact of the discovery of the largest known history of the Jews fraught with distortions in the Scriptures...and the fake people of God."

Buray wrote that the "Torah scroll" was found in a corner of the Old City near the Al Aqsa mosque, located on the Temple Mount where the Jewish Temples once stood. Buray added in Al Nahar, “The miracle of G-d came to frustrate their [the Jews'] opponents and their claims... The original copy of the Torah written in Hebrew -  according to sources familiar with it -  belongs to the second century AD, the oldest ever."

Mohammed lived in the sixth century.

However, it turns out that Buray's supposed citing of the term "Mohammed" is not from the Torah,the Five Books of Moses, but is from the Song of Solomon, one of the five "scrolls" in the section of the Bible commonly referred to as "Writings,"  and is actually the corruption of a Hebrew adjective. The other four "scrolls" are the Scrolls of Esther, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Ruth.

Buray's claim duplicates another report he filed several weeks ago that a documentary film in Britain confirms scientific proof that Mohammed’s name appears in the Hebrew adjective “makhmad,” meaning "lovely” or “delightful.” This adjective appears in the Song of Songs and in later Jewish poetry, and the name Mohammed may be based on it.

Undaunted by the Hebrew phrase, he explained that the “distorted” Hebrew version is from the eighth century and that it replaced the name "Mohammed” with “makhmad.”

Buray also reported that the scroll was discovered in excavations, was turned over to the Chief Rabbinate and that its authenticity was verified. He stated that three unnamed “rabbis” in San Francisco translated the scroll into Arabic.

His allegations follows Muslim allegations over the last several years that the "binding of Isaac,” as described in the Torah, actually refers to Ishmael, the son of Abraham and Sarah’s maidservant Hagar. The Arab world has followed this up with assertions that the First and Second Holy Temples never existed. They also claim that the Western Wall, the remaining outer wall surrounding the ancient Temple courtyard, really was a hitching post for the horse of the prophet Mohammed.