The Qur’an also accuses the People of the Book of concealing, twisting, and writing scripture with their own hands (2:79, 3:78, 5:13). Doesn’t reading those alongside 5:47 dissolve the dilemma?

A Muslim reader will raise 2:79 and 3:78 immediately, and they belong in the discussion. The Christian reply is that the criticism verses are about interpretation, concealment, or selective quotation, not about the text in circulation being different from the original; and that 5:47 commands the Gospel’s people to judge by what is in it now, which presupposes that what they have is trustworthy. Whether the two sets of verses can be reconciled is the debate. Read both sets, and weigh whether the text a seventh-century Christian was told to judge by can also be a text that had already been corrupted beyond use.