Human? Prophet? God?
As we all know, Jesus is central to Christianity. Not many Christians or even Muslims for that matter, know how important Jesus in the Qur’an is. Contrariwise to the Qur’an though, which is more of a homiletic book¹, the Bible contains large parts of narratives, especially in the Gospels where Jesus’ actions are depicted in great details.
Hence, we can get a very clear picture of the Jesus of the Bible’s (4) Gospels. He is sent by God, but is closer to Him than a simple messenger or prophet. His title of Son (Mathew 3:17) seems to indicate that Jesus has the same nature as God, that he is from the same essence. This is confirmed by his title of Son of Man (Luke 19:10 as reference to Daniel 7:13), which is actually a way Daniel used to describe the divine nature of Jesus in a prophetic way a couple of centuries before. Likewise, Isaiah mentions a Deliverer, Counsellor, a Mighty God, Prince of Peace soon to come (Isaiah 9:6), again, a couple of centuries before the birth of Jesus. He even calls him by the name of Emmanuel (Isaiah 7:14), which literally means God with us, among us… On the other hand, Jesus refers to himself also as the only Way to God (John 14:6), the Door to the Father (John 10:9). He claims to be the Life (John 11:25), and clearly lets himself be worshiped in several occurrences:
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Gospel of John 9:35–38
Now how about the sacred writings of the Muslim faith? Jesus is mentioned 93 times in the Qur’an, directly or indirectly. He is mostly known under his Arabic name عيسى or Isa (25 occurrences), but has also various titles. Let’s examine how Jesus is described to understand how Muslims see him or ought to see him, based on their sacred writings. There are (10) points I wanted to share that I think are of great relevance for both the Christian and Islamic religions.
1. Jesus the Christ, or Messiah.
Christ, or Χριστός in Greek, means the anointed one. When reading the Qur’an², it is quite striking to find the same title to refer to Jesus. See here for example, in Surah 3:
“O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary — distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah].”
Qur’an 3:45
Actually, the title of Messiah or anointed one is used 11 times to refer to him! Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem to understand or point at anything special. It is more a surname or a family name, similarly to the way many Christians use it today, unwillingly. Even if Jesus is called the Messiah, the Qur’an insists that Jesus should not be called Allah or the Son of Allah. This is often done by opposing Christian teachings, such as here:
“The Messiah, son of Mary, was not but a messenger; [other] messengers have passed on before him. And his mother was a supporter of truth. They both used to eat food. Look how We³ make clear to them the signs; then look how they are deluded.”
Qur’an 5:75
or:
“The Christians say, “The Messiah is the son of Allah.” That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?”
Qur’an 9:30
It appears that, to Muhammad, the only reason Christians call Jesus the Son of God is because they are being deceived or in rebellion against Allah. Nevertheless, according to the Qur’an, Jesus still holds the cryptic title of Messiah, whose usefulness remains therefore obscure.
2. Jesus the Son of Mary
This might not sound like breaking news. Interestingly enough though, Jesus is the only character of the Qur’an to be called the son of his mother⁴. This is quite remarkable as it is very rare in the Bible. This term is actually used only once to qualify Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 6:
“Isn’t this the carpenter? Isn’t this Mary’s son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren’t his sisters here with us?”
Gospel of Mark 6:3
In the Qur’an though, this title can be found quite often in: Qur’an 3:45; 4:157; 4:172; 5:17; 5:72; 5:75; 9:31.
“They have certainly disbelieved who say that Allah is Christ, the son of Mary.”
Qur’an 5:17
According to many scholars such as Prof. G.S. Reynolds of Notre Dame University[1], this might be a way to oppose and correct the Christian views that claim that he is the Son of God, and possibly the Jews that refer to him as the son of Joseph, his father. For Muhammad, Jesus is something else. Neither divine, neither a simple man. He therefore choses to call him the son of Mary repeatedly.
3. Jesus born of a virgin
Remarkably, even if the Qur’an insists on the fact that Jesus is not the Son of Allah, it clearly mentions a miraculous conception, borrowing from the event described in the Bible:
She [Mary] said, “My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?” The angel] said, “Such is Allah; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’, and it is.”
Qur’an 3:47
or
“And [mention] the one who guarded her chastity, so We blew into her [garment] through Our angel [Gabriel], and We made her and her son a sign for the worlds.”
Qur’an 21:91
This is a feature that definitely sets Jesus apart from all other characters, and even from the other prophets in the Qur’an (Biblical figures such as Abraham, Moses, and Lot, or extra-biblical characters such as Harun or Saleh…). It is very interesting to see, that despite Jesus being a mere prophet just like Abraham or Moses, his birth remains miraculous, unlike theirs.
4. Jesus the Word of God
This is quite a surprising finding when reading the Qur’an. Let me give you some background first. Christian teachings that developed in the centuries that followed the writing of the Gospels (Ist century AD) start to refer to Jesus as the Word of God more and more consistently. Why? This is mainly due to the beginning of the Gospel of John:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made […] The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Gospel of John 1:1
The Greek word for word being logos, exegetes naturally associated John’s use of Word of God with Jesus. There is actually a very strong consensus on this matter. John is definitely introducing a book, whose narrative will revolve around the character of Jesus. It just makes perfect sense. This was in fact strengthened by the parallel that can be made with Genesis 1, where God creates by his spoken word⁵. In any case, the title stuck, and most Christians now associate Jesus with the Word of God, bringing some confusion as it is also used to refer to the Bible or to divine revelation more generally. From what we can read in the Qur’an, even if this theme is not developed in greater detail, it is obvious that Muhammad knew Jesus as the Word:
“O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary — distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah].”
Qur’an 3:45
Again, the Qur’an being more homiletic than the biblical narratives, it is not surprising that no further explanation is provided to the reader. It is nevertheless striking that this title can be found in the islamic sacred writings.
5. Jesus the prophet of God
Even though this title is more implicit that explicit, this is how Jesus is mostly known in Islam. Indeed, in Islam, there is no other god but Allah, and all other holy figures can therefore at most, be prophets. Hence, this becomes the only category Jesus can fall into, and this is confirmed by ayats such as this one found in surah 61:
Jesus, the son of Mary, said, “O children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of Allah”.
Qur’an 61:6
Even if Islamic teachings makes Jesus simply one of the prophets whom Allah has sent, not someone uniquely divine, the Qur’an is extremely interested in the person of Jesus. He is mentioned (25) times under his name Isa. This is much less than Moses for example (136 times) or Abraham (69), two central (and again biblical) figures of the Qur’an. Still, the way the Qur’an speaks about Jesus is very unusual,even for a prophet.
6. Jesus helped by the Holy Spirit
I was personally surprised to even see the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Qur’an. For Christians, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God. There is one God, who reveals himself in 3 different forms. Just like a man can be a father, a son, and husband at the same time, God can manifest Himself in different aspects or persons through the same essence. While on earth as Jesus promised to still be present through his spirit after his departure:
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
Gospel of John 14:26
In Greek, the word for Helper or Counselor is Παράκλητος. The message conveyed here is, simply that after revealing Himself through the person of Jesus, God will still be present with us through His Holy Spirit. It is unclear what Muhammad had in mind when mentioning the Holy Spirit in the Qur’an, however, Jesus being supported by the Holy Spirit definitely is a recurring theme.
We gave Jesus, the son of Mary, clear proofs and supported him with the Holy Spirit.
Qur’an 2:87; 2:253
Some interpretations such as Taq Usmani’s try to minimize this correlation by translating الروح القدس by Pure Spirit instead of Holy Spirit, however, the word قدس surely means holy, نقي or زَكِيَّ both being much closer words for pure. Oddly enough, some scholars try instead to use the Greek to, quite poorly I must say, if I were to base my judgment on a purely scholarly basis, demonstrate a link between the Holy Spirit and Muhammad⁶ . From the sole reading of the Qur’an, the Holy Spirit is sent to assist Jesus while he was ministering in the Ist century AD. Also, Jesus would not have announced a Helper in the person of Muhammad, since, objectively-speaking, the deeds and actions of Muhammad as a person as recorded in the most trusted hadiths, would have been at great odds with the non-violent and self-sacrificing character of the biblical Jesus:
“But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.
Gospel of Matthew 5:44
7. Jesus the sinless man
Quite strikingly, even if Jesus is thought to be a mere prophet, he is quickly set apart from other prophets in the Qur’an, in that he is the only one to be called pure or sinless:
He said, “I am only the messenger of your Lord to give you [news of] a pure boy.”
Qur’an 19:19
The word used here is زَكِيًّا, which literally means pure, and is mostly used to oppose the sinful nature of an action or of a person. I find this pretty amazing that the Qur’an compels us again and again, to focus on Isa as a very, very special character, among all the prophets.
8. Jesus the miracle worker
In the Gospels, Jesus performs many miracles. Even Jewish writings (Talmud) depict Jesus as a “false prophet” who practiced “magic”, thereby indicating that inexplicable deeds were recorded during his life.
“The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.”
Gospel of Matthew 11:5
Likewise, the Qur’an insists, about 600 years later, on Jesus having been a miracle worker too. In Qur’an 19:30–32, Jesus, while still an infant in the cradle, speaks:
“I am indeed a slave of Allah. He has given me the Book and made me a Prophet, and He has made me blessed wherever I may be. And He has enjoined upon me prayers, and to pay the alms, as long as I live and (He has made me) kind to my mother.”
Quran 19:30–32
Also, in Qur’an 3:49:
“Indeed I have come to you with a sign from your Lord in that I design for you from clay [that which is] like the form of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird by permission of Allah . And I cure the blind and the leper, and I give life to the dead — by permission of Allah . And I inform you of what you eat and what you store in your houses. Indeed in that is a sign for you, if you are believers.”
Qur’an 3:49
Healing the sick definitely constituted a large part of Jesus’ ministry on earth as recorded in the Gospels. There is no report of Jesus speaking as an infant though, or performing miracles as a child. The story of Jesus breathing life into birds is most likely taken from a Gnostic apocryphal writing, the Infancy Gospel of Thomas:
Now Jesus made of that clay twelve sparrows: and it was the Sabbath day. And a child ran and told Joseph, saying: Behold, thy child playeth about the brook, and hath made sparrows of the clay, which is not lawful. And he when he heard it went and said to the child: Wherefore doest thou so and profaneth the Sabbath? But Jesus answered him not, but looked upon the sparrows and said: Go ye, take your flight, and remember me in your life. And at the word they took flight and went up into the air. And when Joseph saw it he was astonished.
Apocryphal infancy Gospel of Thomas, XV:1,
Now, to be very clear, this is a writing from the IInd century, found among the Nag Hammadi papyri that has always been rejected by the Christian church, simply because its various narratives show strong Gnostic beliefs that are incompatible with the Christian faith. Jesus is basically depicted as a mischievous child, whose superpowers are mostly used to get out of trouble when breaking the Sabbath (rest day in the Jewish culture), or when hurting one of his friend when playing rough games. There is still some overlap between the Qur’an and the biblical record in that Jesus is depicted as being able to heal the sick. In any case, the Qur’an insists, rather quite clearly, on the fact that Jesus was a miracle worker, while making sure he remains a mere prophet, by always needing the permission of Allah to perform his wondrous deeds.
9. Jesus the dying man
Despite acknowledging Jesus as a Holy Spirit-supported prophet, Messiah, and miracle worker, the Qur’an definitely does not understand Jesus’ death on the cross the same way Christians do. There is a couple of reasons for that:
- in Islam, there is only one god. The Christian God reveals himself in different persons, and this is an unacceptable sign of polytheism for Muslims. Jesus can at most, be a prophet calling us back to a monotheistic religion. There is therefore, no purpose in him dying for us. As a mere prophet, his death cannot redeem us.
- the death on the cross is too gruesome for a prophet. Jesus might have died as every man should, but not in such a shameful way.
In actuality, the Qur’an is not opposed to Jesus’ death, not even Jesus’ death on the cross. What the Qur’an strongly rejects though, is Jesus’ death meeting these (3) points simultaneously:
- Jesus killed,
- by the Jews,
- by crucifixion.
“And [for] their (the Jews’) saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger for Allah.” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of its except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.”
Qur’an 4:157
It is noteworthy that although the Qur’an presents the Jews as people who typically killed prophets sent by Allah according to Qur’an 4:155:
…their (the Jews’) killing of the prophets without right…
Qur’an 4:155
it equally insists that, for certain, the Jews did not kill Jesus. This discrepancy with pagan (Roman), Jewish, and Christian historical records, might have come from Muhammad’s exposure to Gnostic writings. Even if most Muslim scholars prefer to explain Jesus’ death on the cross away by a last-minute replacement by one of his disciples (the evil Judas if possible), there are other passages that allow them to accept Jesus being nailed on the cross, not by Jews, but ultimately being victoriously raised up from the cross by Allah, rather than dying in such a shameful fashion. We see this in surah 3 for example:
“[Mention] when Allah said, “O Jesus, indeed I will take you and raise you to Myself and purify you from those who disbelieve”
Qur’an 3:55
and again in surah 5:
“[…]but when You took me up, You were the Observer over them, and You are, over all things, Witness”
Qur’an 5:117
Although this is a very hot topic of debate among Muslims scholars, the active participle مُتَوَفِّيكَ and the verb تَوَفَّيْتَنِي used for I will take you and raise you (surah 3:55), and took me up (surah 5:117), share in fact the same root. In particular, تَوَفَّيْتَنِي is a verb of the form V that explicitly express the action of passing away, indicating that Jesus did die. A way for Muslim scholars to circumvent this embarrassing statement is to admit that Jesus died, maybe even on the cross however, it is Allah who took/raised him up while he was on the cross, and not the Jews who killed him. Again, we can see here, the concern in Islam to avoid shame. In cultures that are not based on shame and honor (the West in a broad term) it doesn’t really matter who killed Jesus or how he was killed, whether the Jews by crucifying him, or Allah by raising him up before he actually died. It is a matter of decency more than historical reliability, that Jesus, if he did die on a cross, did by the powerful hand of Allah, of a miraculous death that resembles more a victorious rapture than a human, gruesome death.
10. Jesus, the resurrected Messiah
Amazingly, even though the death of Jesus is disputed among Muslim scholars and often explained away by his miraculous replacement or rapture by the hand of Allah in a culture that is very much influenced by shame and honor, we can’t help but notice that Jesus explicitly prophesied about his death and resurrection in surah 19. Here, in this same passage where Jesus speaks as an infant in ayat 33, Jesus says:
“And peace is upon me the day I was born, the day I shall die, and the day I shall be raised alive again.”
Qur’an 19:33
And in case we had any doubt, ayat 34 confirms by saying:
This is Isa, the son of Maryam.
Qur’an 19:34
Now, this is an extremely important passage. Jesus, speaking about himself, confirms that he is going to die and rise again from the dead. To avoid any confusion, here is a snapshot of the Arabic taken from the www.quran.com website:
أَمُوتُ literally means I die. There is no way around this one, as it is even nowadays, how you would express death in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) or colloquial dialects. Now the verb أُبْعَثُ comes from the root بعث , which literally means to prompt, excite, reanimate, resurrect…it can also mean to send or dispatch. However, if this wasn’t enough, the word حَيًّا is added at the end to avoid any confusion. This last word literally means alive, thereby confirming that Jesus is indeed speaking about himself raising from the dead. We might sometimes get lost in translating a text, wishing to see in it what we want to see. This is definitely not the case, as the Arabic language itself here, is very clear.
Conclusion
I have shared with you (10) important features of the person of Jesus in the sacred Muslim text, the Qur’an. From these (10) points, here is the picture we can get of Jesus or Isa:
- Jesus was the son of Mary,
- Jesus was born of a miraculous birth as Mary did not know any man when she conceived,
- Jesus was sinless,
- Jesus was the Messiah,
- Jesus was a prophet sent by Allah,
- Jesus was supported by the Holy Spirit, a supernatural Helper given by Allah,
- Jesus performed many miracles,
- Jesus might have died while being crucified on cross, but not by the hands of the Jews,
- Jesus rose from the dead and is now alive again,
- Lastly, Jesus is not the son of Allah.
All in all, the picture of Jesus that we get from the Qur’an is exceptionally close to the one from the Gospel and Christian writings. The main difference being whether Jesus is or is not, the son of God. Muhammad’s mostly opposes:
- Allah having a son, which implies for Muslims Allah giving in the ‘sinful’ act of reproduction, and
- a prophet like Jesus dying by the hand of men, especially Jews.
Lastly, even if the Jewish and Christian writings are believed to be too corrupt to be reliable by all Muslim authorities, it is striking to see that the Gospels are often conveniently used to prove some points, for example to demonstrate Jesus’ limited human nature. For example Mark 6:5 is often cited by Muslim scholars and apologists to demonstrate Jesus’ lack of omnipotence:
He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. He was amazed at their lack of faith.
Gospel of Mark 6:5
So, are the Gospels reliable? are they not? Just as in legal cases, it is important to look for motives. Whatever motives the early church Fathers had int the Ist-IVth centuries, a period of repeated persecutions, those lead most of them to die as martyrs. You usually are not ready to die for something you do not believe is true. Therefore, the most likely explanation is that the oral traditions and early writings depicted what Christians believed to be true. Also, manuscripts spread very fast with no authoritarian control throughout the whole Mediterranean basin, and were very quickly translated into different languages. The extreme consistency of the ~5000+ manuscripts in different languages speaks for a high reliability of the Ist-IIIrd century Christian writings.
Contrariwise, the Qur’anic materials were chosen and compiled by the Caliph Uthman in 653 AD, according to Sahih Al-Bukhari, the most respected hadith in Sunni Islam:
Hudhaifa bin Al-Yaman came to `Uthman at the time when the people of Sham and the people of Iraq were Waging war to conquer Arminya and Adharbijan. Hudhaifa was afraid of their (the people of Sham and Iraq) differences in the recitation of the Qur’an, so he said to `Uthman, “O chief of the Believers! Save this nation before they differ about the Book (Qur’an) as Jews and the Christians did before.” So `Uthman sent a message to Hafsa saying, “Send us the manuscripts of the Qur’an so that we may compile the Qur’anic materials in perfect copies and return the manuscripts to you.” […] They did so, and when they had written many copies, `Uthman returned the original manuscripts to Hafsa. `Uthman sent to every Muslim province one copy of what they had copied, and ordered that all the other Qur’anic materials, whether written in fragmentary manuscripts or whole copies, be burnt.
Sahih Al-Bukhari 4987, Book 66, Hadith 9
So the Qur’an is extremely homogeneous today. It is therefore very hard nowadays, to find any differences in the Arabic materials, especially since it was not widely printed until the 1924 Cairo edition (which incidentally ended up being another ‘Uthmanesque’ destruction of any disputed or discrepant materials). Nevertheless, homogeneous and reliable are not the same. It seems to me that Muhammad is very much influenced by the shame/honor codes he has probably been raised in. This is a very plausible explanation since, even today, most of the world still operates according to shame/honor principles (Africa, Middle-East, Asia…). Only Judaeo-Christian societies are guilt-based, and this include only a minority of the world population. This means that, rather than being bothered by the exactitude of what he was recording in the Qur’an, Muhammad clearly chose to readjust and reinterpret the widely spread and reliable pagan (Roman), Jewish, and Christian writings to fit what was most befitting in his culture. This is confirmed by the way the narrative on Moses is modified, by choosing to see in the Pharaoh, Moses’ adoptive father, giving to that story a flavor of family confrontation that is not present in the Torah nor in the Bible. In the latter, Moses actually goes back to Egypt after hearing that the Pharaoh he knew had died:
During that long period, the king of Egypt died.
Exodus 2:23
and
Now the Lord had said to Moses in Midian, “Go back to Egypt, for all those who wanted to kill you are dead.”
Exodus 4:19
Contrariwise, in the Qur’an, Moses is not merely asking Pharaoh to free the slaves, he is also asking his adoptive father to renounce polytheism and the divine position he has built himself as king of Egypt:
But Pharaoh denied and disobeyed. Then he turned his back, striving. And he gathered his people and called out and said ‘I am your most exalted Lord’.
Qur’an 79:21–24
As much as the Hebrews were trying to put up a reliable historical record by writing about their military victories as much as their military defeats, which was quite unusual in the Ancient Near-East, the Qur’an is not as interested in being historically reliable as it is to convey a message more closely. What message? Associating any idol or divinity with Allah is a great sin, worth confronting and rejecting your own family. This message occurs several times, namely with Abraham. His father is renamed Aazar, and is asked to renounce the worship of false gods:
[Abraham] O my father, do not worship Satan. Indeed Satan has ever been, to the Most Merciful, disobedient.[…] [His father] said, ‘Have you no desire for my gods, O Abraham? If you do not desist, I will surely stone you, so avoid me a prolonged time.’
[Abraham] said, “Peace will be upon you. I will ask forgiveness for you of my Lord. Indeed, He is ever gracious to me. And I will leave you and those you invoke other than Allah and will invoke my Lord. I expect that I will not be in invocation to my Lord unhappy.
Qur’an 19:44–48
In both cases, Moses and Abraham are confronting their fathers on idolatry and polytheism.
As a result, we should not treat the Qur’an as a historical record of who Jesus was. Not to undermine Islam’s sacred writings, but simply because Muhammad’s own intent was never to produce a precise historical record, but a homiletic text for recitation that would remind Muslims until today, to not associate anything or anybody else with Allah. Luke’s motivations to write the Gospel are completely different:
With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.
Gospel of Luke 1:1
Moreover, Muhammad seemed to have borrowed materials from Gnostic apocryphal records in certain instances (miracles, crucifixion…), thus depicting Jesus very differently than the pagan (Roman), Jewish, or Christian sources do (a mischievous child or a prophet rescued by Allah from a shameful death).
We can’t help but notice however, the many overlapping points that should help build a bridge between Muslims and Christians. Let’s open the debate!
drsobko
Notes
1. Qur’an literally means recitation. It is a verbal noun (or masdar) of the Arabic verb qaraʼa (قرأ), meaning he read or he recited. While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, most Islamic authorities hold the origin of the word is the verb qaraʼa[2].
2. I am using the Taqi Usmani translation, or should I say interpretation, since Muslim scholars are not particularly fond of the word translation. Indeed, Islam teaches that the Qur’an has to be studied and recited in its original godly language, Arabic, and this is what Muslim typically do to get the most out of it. A translation is therefore typically called meaning or interpretation, but not translation.
3. It is important to mention that whenever Allah speaks, the plural pronoun we is used. This is not a sign of polytheism, which, by the way, Muhammad and the Qur’an vehemently oppose, but more a royal form of speech, often called royal we or majestic plural. This can be found in the creation accounts of Genesis 1 in the Bible, or even in later literature, such as in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet:
Claudius to Hamlet:
‘Hamlet, this deed for thine especial safety —
Which we do tender, as we dearly grieve’
Hamlet IV, scene iii, William Shakespeare
4. It is interesting to see that nowadays in the Middle-East, the opposite is true. Mothers are often called mother of their oldest son, as a sign of great honor. It would be very common today for Mary to be called Umm Isa, or mother of Jesus. Many westerners see this as a way to reduce the value of a woman to their first born male child. It can be, but it doesn’t have to: there is also beauty in a mother proudly taking on her firstborn son’s name with joy. I admit that it would be even greater if a mother could equally bear proudly her firstborn daughter’s name with joy, why not. Wouldn’t you be proud of having Marie Curie as a daughter?
5. I believe a solid case could also be made around a stoic use of the Greek word logos, as a way to introduce the Gospel to hellenized Jews or even Greeks to stress out the everlasting nature of Jesus as the original cause of all things. In this case, this would be a way to speak to the local culture by using philosophical ideas that were easily understood in hellenized Ist century Palestine.
6. D.B. Keldani for example, or even M.T. Usmani’s commentary on the Qur’an.
References
[1] G.S. Reynolds, The Qur’an in its biblical context, Routledge, New Yord, 2010
[2] Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2007). “Qurʼān”. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 2007–11–04.
