Update
The Talmud is a human narration on the Torah (just like a Tafsir), however it is actually a narration on the Mishna which is the ORAL Torah. The Jews believed that Moses came down from Sinai with two Torahs - a written one and an oral one. Their belief is that Moses had revealed to him a written Torah and a Torah which must be orally communicated.
At some point Rabbis noticed that there were slight variations in the recitals which had come about over the years, for example "one life" / "one soul" so a few of them decided to write them down - this is how a Talmud came about. When reading a Talmud such as the one I linked to you will see uppercase and mixed case writing. The mixed case writing is the opinion of the Rabbi who finalised the Talmud, the uppercase text is the text which is believed to have been revealed by God directly to Moses explaining the written Torah.
So,
Torah = Written laws
Mishna = Oral Torah (explaining the Torah - literally means "To study orally")
Talmud = Mishna written down and commented on.
What I can see from this is that the "If we slew a single person....." text is in the Mishna, so Jews believe it WAS Gods words. However, of the 5 Talmuds...
Talmud Bavli (babylon) - Chapter. 4 Page 3 A
Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem) - Chapter. 4 Page 5.
Rambam-Mishne Torah - Hilchot Sanhedrin - Chapter 12.
Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 37a
Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin 4:1 (22a)
Apparently none of them have the exclusion mentioned in the Quran "for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth". It's a shame that when Muhammad plagiarised such a profoundly beautiful verse he made it ugly. However, there is more
Quran 6:154 - We gave the Scripture unto Moses, COMPLETE for him who would do good, an explanation of ALL things
Implication: What Moses was given on Sinai was COMPLETE and had ALL things explained, so no revelations came to any of the Jews to form any part of scripture.
Quran 7:145 - We wrote for him, UPON THE TABLETS, the lesson to be drawn from ALL things AND THE EXPLANATION OF ALL THINGS
Implication : The "scripture" that was given to Moses was only that which was written onto stone tablets.
I am only as far as Sura 17 so I still have some reading to do yet, but so far the implication is that what the Quran calls "Scripture" is that which was WRITTEN down for Moses ONTO STONE TABLETS and NOT anything that was orally recited. The "Slew the people" text does NOT appear in the Torah (scripture) but only in Mishna (something the Quran does not mention so far).
So, if an Islam apologist wants to say that God said the "Slew the people" line then they must concede that Mishna (Oral Torah) is part of scripture. But if they want to say that Mishna is part of scripture then Quran 7:145 is incorrect because God didn't write down an explanation of ALL THINGS on the tablets.
In Torah - "Aazinu" section it is written "ve et torotay tishmoru ve asitem otam" - "and my Torahs(plural) you shall keep" - means more than one Torah was received. One written and one oral.
I also find it interesting to note that in Quran 7:50 it says
"And when Moses returned unto his people, angry and grieved, he said: Evil is that (course) which ye took after I had left you. Would ye hasten on the judgment of your Lord? AND HE CAST DOWN THE TABLETS".
Can you imagine the whole written Torah (by Moses) and ALL the Mishnayot (Plural for Mishna) written down on stone tablets? Would it be possible for a single man to lift them, let alone throw them? This is wrong because Jews believe Moses received the following on Sinai
1: Two tablets (with the main commandments on)
2: The whole 5 Torah books - Bereshit, Shmot, Vaikra, Bamidbar,Dvarim
3: The Mishna
So in Judaism Moses threw down 2 tablets, that makes perfect sense (except for the fact that it mentions God
) - but in the Quran it says that God WROTE DOWN ALL THINGS UPON THE TABLETS - and that Moses was still able to both lift them AND throw them.
Clearly Muhammad heard that the tablets had the laws written on them and that the written Torah was given to Moses too and made the mistake of thinking that all of it was written on stone tablets. He then later confused written Torah with Oral Torah and included a phrase from the latter as part of his "written down scripture", plus bastardised it in a horrible way.
Investigations are fun, it's nice to learn new things! Does anyone else have anything to contribute based on their knowledge of the Quran?
Topic: Talmud Sanhedrin 37a