REVELATION!
The Single Story of Divine Prophesy
To Abraham and His Descendants–
The Jews, Christians & Muslims
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction…………………………………………………………Page 000
Chapter 1: From the Beginning of Time to the Time of Abraham,
up to 2000 bc ……………………………………………………Page 000
Chapter 2: Revelation to the Ancient Hebrews,
from Abraham to the Birth of Jesus,
from about 2000 bc to 1 ad …………………………………Page 000
Chapter 3: Revelation to Jesus & the Early Christians,
from 1 to 320 ad ………………………………………………Page 000
Chapter 4: The Conversion of Constantine & the Nicene Council,
from 320 to 570 ad ……………………………………………Page 000
Chapter 5: Revelation to Mohammed,
from 570 to 632 ad ……………………………………………Page 000
Chapter 6: The Koran, Part One,
Old Testament References………………………………..Page 000
Chapter 7: The Koran, Part Two,
New Testament References……………………………….Page 000
Conclusions... ……………………………………………………… Page 000
Revelation!
The Single Story of Revelation to Abraham and His Descendants:
The Jews, Christians & Muslims
INTRODUCTION
This is the narrative of a personal journey. It is not a physical journey, but rather a journey of the mind and heart. It is, in a real sense, a religious pilgrimage. I suppose it began in 1973 when my mother and I went on a church-sponsored tour of the Middle East. In Israel I experienced a strong sense of deja vu. The trip prompted me to learn more about the Middle East and religion. After receiving a Master’s degree in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute, I decided to go to a Lutheran seminary. I chose a Lutheran seminary simply because I had been raised a Lutheran. This move baffled friends, but it had its own interior logic. My aim was not to become a pastor, but, as I blithely told them, to study God.
In 1976 while I was a student at Luther/Northwestern Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, I chose to write a paper on Islam. A fifth of the world’s people are Muslims, yet I knew almost nothing about what they believed. Like most of us, I am hostile toward that which I do not understand, and thus I was hostile toward Islam. What began with suspicion and lack of comprehension became over the years, as my knowledge and understanding increased, a love affair, nearly an obsession.
I have written this book based on the conviction that the truth is one, no matter how imprecise our understanding of it. Much of what we think is invented is not so much invented as discovered: it was there all the time just waiting for someone with eyes to see it. So, if I say that I made some exciting discoveries along the way, they were things that have been there all the time. I now believe this journey will not end until I die, but I have the essence of what I want to say as the result of my study and my having brought things together in a slightly different fashion.
Two keys to this exposition were given to me in my student days when I began to study the early history of the Christian church. A third key arrived when I began a careful study of the Koran twenty years later.
A part of any study of the early church involves the study of heresy. Heresy can be defined as an opinion or doctrine at variance with established religious belief, especially dissension from or denial of Roman Catholic dogma by a professed believer or baptized church member. The early church was plagued by many heresies, but none more difficult to eradicate than the Arian heresy to be taken up more fully in this book. Briefly, it is the heresy that claims that Jesus is not fully God as God is God. Because I was required to write a paper on heresy, I thought more deeply about Arianism than I might otherwise have.
The line of my thinking went something like this: as a human being living in the 20th Century, I had two sources of knowledge—that which I gained from study and that which I knew from my own experience. When I thought about Jesus from my own experience, I could believe that he was a human being, just as I am a human being. I could believe that he was an especially anointed human being who was designated to be the Messiah, one who had closer contact with God than any other person who has lived, but I could not believe he was God in the same way that God is God. I could believe that Jesus performed miracles—to heal the sick, to turn water into wine, to walk on water, even to raise Lazarus from the dead—but I believed this was because he was empowered by God, not because he was God. I could identify with him more closely if I viewed him as a frail human being, as I knew myself to be, if he were entrusted with his mission as the Messiah, the savior, but if he did not know whether he would be able to complete it, just as none of us know whether we have really done the things we have been set on this earth to do.
When one reads history, as I have done for the last ten years, one often finds that the people who contributed significantly to our society died in poverty not knowing entirely what they had achieved. Ferdinand Magellan died before his men completed their circumnavigation of the world. Christopher Columbus died not really knowing what he had discovered. Johannes Gutenberg died impoverished and without seeing his invention of the printing press flourish. Galileo died without knowing the entire significance of his discoveries. On and on the list goes–the people who have made the great contributions to our world usually had a strong inclination of the importance of their activities but did not live to see them come to fruition.
Therefore, I saw Jesus as a man who completely submitted himself to the will of God (which, by the way, is the definition of a Muslim,) and in so doing grew into the man he was designated to be. But, finding myself in agreement with Arius’s view of Jesus was not something I wanted to go around shouting.
I left the seminary without graduating after my mother died, and I returned to Montana to live in our family home until my siblings and I could decide what to do with it. I did not seek ordination as a pastor partly because secretly I considered myself a heretic—an Arian.
The second key came when I read the fascinating account of the first Nicene Council held in 325 ad during the time when the nature of Jesus was being hotly debated and the doctrine of the Trinity as stated in the Nicene Creed was established. This creed has dominated Christian orthodoxy ever since. Prior to reading this account, I assumed, like most Christians, that the Nicene Creed was somehow divined by the church and was true: why else would Christians throughout the centuries recite it? When I learned that it was the result of a vote after considerable fighting and intrigue by the 300 bishops who attended the council, I was scandalized. On too many occasions I had watched people vote for things that I felt were wrong or misguided to trust that something as important as the nature of Jesus could be established by voting. Again, I kept my ideas to myself, as I did not want to further alienate myself from orthodox Christianity.
The third key came from my continuing study of Islam after I left the seminary. When I carefully studied the Koran many years later, I had no idea that these three keys would come together to perhaps unlock the doors that have divided Jews, Christians and Muslims for centuries.
For the next almost twenty years, from 1977 to 1997, I studied Islam the way a person studies something that interests her, not because I thought I was on any particular quest. I did it merely because it interested me. After reading several biographies on the life of Mohammed, I was no closer to revering him than before. How, I thought, could someone who was as much involved with warfare and killing as Mohammed be of the stature of Jesus? A rapid reading of the Koran only accentuated its strangeness to me, and I considered it inferior to the Bible.
In 1980, when I was living in California I met my first Muslim, a woman from Morocco, who was a friend of a friend. This will probably sound naive, but I was delighted to find that she was as human and as moral a person as I considered myself to be. I pestered her with so many questions about Muslims and the politics of the Middle East, what little I knew of them then, that she finally stiffened and said she hoped the next time she saw me, we would not discuss politics!
In that same year I wrote a paper that I never tried to publish, for obvious reasons, which I called, “Is Mohammed a true prophet?” Admiration for Malcolm X had contributed to my interest in Islam. I was particularly impressed by the description in his autobiography of the fellowship of men from all races that he encountered when he went on his hajj to Mecca.
Recently, I pulled the paper from my file to look it over and was amused by much of it, but, unwittingly, in asking the question, “Is Mohammed a true prophet?” I had put my finger on something I believe to be of vital importance. In the paper I begged the question—obviously, I was not knowledgeable enough then to answer it. Nevertheless, it is a question that I believe must be answered by non-Muslims, particularly by Jews and Christians.
One of the problems I had when I wrote that paper was that I did not yet have a clear definition of what I meant by “revelation.” Revelation with a small “r” can mean the kind of enlightenment any individual might have in the course of his or her life with respect to any subject. Revelation as it is used in this study is spelled with a capital “R” and means information from God imparted to mankind through a chosen prophet.
Jews and Christians today will not come out and say they think Mohammed was an imposter who devised Islam from his imagination and a rudimentary knowledge of the Old and New Testaments, but they treat him, as they have done historically, as if he were. They conclude, therefore, that Islam is counterfeit religion. This is because if they were to recognize Mohammed as an authentic prophet of God within the Judeo-Christian heritage and the Koran as much a record of actual Revelation as are the Old and New Testaments (something Muslims, of course, believe without question!), the implications would be disturbing.
Christians would then be required to adjust their beliefs and subsequent dogma to correspond with the Koran’s commentary, and this would require them to cease their recitation of the Nicene Creed with its Trinitarian formula of God.
I could not answer the question for myself until 1996, when I bought a copy of the Everyman’s Library edition of The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, an explanatory translation by Marmaduke Pickthall, and began to study it carefully, verse by verse, surah by surah, making notations and comparing passages with comparable passages from the Bible. But before I relate what I experienced then, I shall mention a few other things that happened before this time.
In 1981 I moved to New York City. At that time, it was common to see black Muslims riding on the subways, handing out tracts to whoever would accept them. I found their tracts nearly unintelligible, but I was always struck by how pristine and proud these men were. How they managed to keep their white robes immaculate when they spent their days walking up and down in trains in the New York City subway system handing out tracts was beyond me. When I learned their headquarters were in the Bushwick area of Brooklyn, I rode the train there to look them over. Again I was impressed by the cleanliness and orderliness in a neighborhood known mostly for decline and crime.
An inveterate reader, I read travel books the way other people read murder mysteries, but the ones I particularly sought out were travel books about the Middle East. Some of my favorites are Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik, an Ethnography of an Iraqi Village, published in 1965, and Wilfred Thesiger’s Arabian Sands, published in 1959. Through my reading I was increasing my understanding of Muslims and furthering my love affair with Islam. As I became more familiar with the Islamic way of life, what had been a cursory interest gathered force.
By 1996, a beautiful new mosque was completed in Manhattan at the corner of 96th Street and Third Avenue. That summer I decided to visit it for the Friday prayer service. The men who greeted me when I entered the mosque were careful to conceal the degree to which they were probably shocked by my appearance, for it was a hot, summer day, and I was dressed accordingly. Graciously they conducted me to the lower level and turned me over to some women, who soon corrected my attire. I could no longer recognize myself, for I was covered from head to foot, and the ladies were trying to tuck my unruly short hair beneath the scarf they had placed over my head. Leaving my shoes near the entrance to the mosque, I went up a short flight of stairs to join the other women there for the service. The railing that separated us from the main area made it almost impossible to see into the men’s section where an imam mounted the lector to give a sermon first in Arabic and then in English.
On September 7th of that year I bought my copy of the Koran and began my study. I felt that the book was holy from the outset and that I should wrap it in a special cloth and keep it in a special place on my bookshelf. For the next six months or so, on the mornings when I did not have to be somewhere early, I would take it down and for a half hour to an hour I would study it. Inexplicably, my study made me happy. When I mentioned this to a Muslim friend, he said, yes, that Muslims believe that the study of the Koran will make the day go well for a believer. It was during this time that I was finally able to answer my question, “Is Mohammed a true prophet?” with a resounding YES. If one thinks as I did when I started my study that the Koran is right when it says that the Christians exaggerated their religion by calling Jesus God, then everything in the Koran seems to be true.
One day, a sentence came to mind, and it was, My God, it’s all of one fabric! This would mean that the stories of Judaism, Christianity and Islam were not three separate stories of three separate religions, but a single story of God’s Revelation to Jews, Gentiles and Muslims. I wondered what would happen if it were told as ONE STORY. It was then that I decided to try to tell that story, and this book is a result of that decision.
It should be understood at the outset that in this study I am presenting revelatory texts from the Old and New Testament and the Koran and taking them at face value. I am therefore not engaging in the numerous discussions concerning the validity of these texts, apropos modern biblical criticism. To do so would only mean that I would become bogged down in arguments concerning when these texts were finalized into their present form and by whom.
Birth was given to this book when I wondered what would happen if the Revelation, found in the Old Testament, the New Testament and Koran, were compiled into one book. It is written from the standpoint of a belief in God, and a belief that he has periodically communicated with us through Revelation to various prophets. I do not therefore indulge in debates concerning the existence of God and the veracity of Revelation lest I be required to prove things I cannot prove. What I have tried to do, as best I could, was to compile Revelation as it has been handed down to us in its present form in these three books that we might see where it corresponds and where it differs.
Some Jews and Christians who read it may find some of the precepts of their faith challenged, and some Muslims may, likewise, dispute various interpretations. In writing this book, it is not my intention to increase the chasms that divide Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but rather to bridge those chasms with something more than mere tolerance. To do so it is necessary to say things that some might find disturbing.
As a child of a Lutheran family, I had been indoctrinated into the faith as a child, but during the years when I was married to a man who was an agnostic, I had strayed from it. After the trip my mother and I took to the Middle East, I returned to Christianity. Then I thought it was the one true faith of the world and that all other religions were, therefore, misguided, incomplete or false. In other words, I was exclusive in my view of the truth, and I was hoping for the day when others would see the error in their views and convert to Christianity. Along the way, as I began to believe the truths I found in the Koran and to believe that it is authentic Revelation, and began to think that Judaism, Christianity and Islam as all of one fabric, I was liberated from my previous prejudice. Because the Koran teaches that prophets have been sent to all peoples, I became more receptive to what the other religions of the world have to offer. The experience has been deeply enriching and personally satisfying.
I have written this book with a sense of urgency. Call it apocalyptic fever, a sense of the disease that has gripped the world as we approach the 21st Century, a feeling that things are out of balance and that we human beings are to blame for what ails the planet. Everywhere, the world over, the cancer has spread. Call it over-commercialization. It is our failure as the stewards of the planet to preserve its resources and distribute them fairly among all people, and it is our failure to build peace. We seem to have found ourselves guilty and await our punishment. This sense of a shortness of time until the long awaited Judgment Day has caused me not to view this book as something I might write ten years from now and take ten years to write (the amount of time it would likely take to do justice to my topic,) but a book that I needed to write as quickly as possible.
The Koran says: “Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).” (Surah 3: 64) and “And argue not with the People of Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender.” (Surah 29: 46) The time has come when a new attitude has formed among people of integrity. They believe that if people of differing persuasions engage in dialogue with one another, they will come to understand the obvious: that we are all brothers and sisters living on the same planet, governed by One God.
Like any strenuous physical journey, this one has not always been comfortable. At times I felt as precarious as if hiking over rocky terrain or attempting to scale a sheer cliff. Sometimes I wondered if I had lost my way and if what I was attempting to articulate made any sense at all, if anyone would find what I had to say of interest, but it was never been dull, especially when I did not know what would greet me at the next turn in the road. Now that I have come to the end of this study, I must warn the reader that I did not reach the conclusions that I expected when I began, but that is okay. After all, when does a journey turn out exactly the way we anticipate?
I invite the reader who finds this of interest to come along with me now as I try to tell the single story of Revelation as given to Abraham and his descendants—the Jews, Christians & the Muslims.
JMM
June 22, 2000
Brooklyn, NY
CHAPTER ONE:
FROM THE CREATION OF THE WORLD THROUGH THE TIME OF ABRAHAM, ABOUT 2000 BC
The world is very, very old. The Arizona Desert Museum, about fifteen miles southwest of Tucson, constructed a walkway, 52½ feet long, called “Life Zones.” It represents the evolution of life on earth since it began as a molten mass four billion years ago. One can walk along it and view each stage in the development of life, from primitive cells to human beings. (The difference between million (1,000,000) and a billion is beyond the comprehension of many people -- a billion is a thousand million, or 1,000,000,000; thus 4 billion is 4,000,000,000 years.)
The longer people have lived here on the earth, the more they have learned of the universe and its history. Prior to the 19th Century, people believed that the earth had existed for a much shorter length of time than it actually has, because they assumed the creation stories in the Bible were literally true when they said God created the world in week.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw the light was good; and God separated the light from darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, one day. And God said, “Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day. And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. And God said, ‘Let the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, upon the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third day. And God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years, and let them be lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And God made the two great lights, the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night; he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light upon the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a fourth day. And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the firmament of the heavens.” So God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day. And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the cattle according to their kinds, and everything that creeps upon the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, a sixth day. (Genesis 1: 1-31) Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all his work which he had done in creation. These are the generation of the heavens and the earth when they were created. (Genesis 2: 1-4)
The disturbing notion that it took ages for life to evolve on the planet (and that mankind has existed long before the Jewish date for Creation in 4004 bc) was accepted only when overwhelming scientific evidence proved the world was much older than 6000 years old. Actually, the Creation Story in Genesis is an excellent synopsis of evolution if we think of a day as hundreds of thousands of years. The Koran comes closer to affirming the actual length time creation took. Verse 38 of the 50th surah says, “And verily We created the heavens and the earth, and all that is between them, in six Days, and naught of weariness touched Us,” but verse 4 of the 70th surah says that, “a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years.” We can assume that fifty thousand years is a symbolic number.
The earth was lifeless as the moon, or, as we now know Mars is, for three quarters of its existence. The 52-½ foot walkway at the Arizona Desert Museum shows that the earth existed for three billion years without any form of life on it. The first cells appeared one billion years ago, and eight hundred million years ago, algae appeared. Six hundred million years ago, simple animals— jellyfish and sea worms—evolved, and five hundred million years ago, mollusks, dragonflies and conifers emerged.
The first forms of life on the planet were primitive prototypes. The first plants, for example, were conifers, ferns, and pines that reproduce themselves through sporing (by producing spores that give rise to new plants) rather than through seeds. Seed-bearing plants have a more sophisticated method of reproduction: seeds must be fertilized before they can sprout new plants whereas spores do not. It took another 3½ hundred million years, 150 million years ago, before flowering (seed-bearing) plants appeared. Their advent is significant: without seed-bearing plants, there would not have been sufficient food on the planet to support its emerging forms of life.
Dinosaurs are relative latecomers in the history of the earth, appearing about one hundred million years ago—in terms of the life the earth, they evolved during the last 1/40,000 of its age. We now believe that their extinction mostly likely was caused by sudden changes in atmospheric conditions wrought by a meteorite or comet hitting the earth.
It seems that God had to work at creation through trial and error, improving the species as he went along, at times eradicating awkward and inefficient types to make way for improved species. Perhaps he was not happy with the large, cold-blooded creatures he had created and decided to do away with them, so he could make way for mammals, which, in comparison, are graceful, efficient, and warm-blooded. (Recent studies of dinosaur skeletons show they were riddled with arthritis, so perhaps they can be excused for their bad temper.) The era of the dinosaurs lasted about 90 million years. The rise of primates and mammals began a mere two million years ago.
Insects developed before mammals. In the fall of 1996 the New York Museum of Natural History gave an exhibit on amber, the golden, translucent resin that seeps from trees, like maple syrup, and solidifies. Insects had been trapped in some of the pieces on display. They had been encased there for over 25 million years. One could see the delicate remains of a damselfly or a preying mantis and imagine all the time that had passed since the creature had lived—long before people had evolved.
The Koran says that all Allah has to do to bring forth life is to say, “Be!” and it is. While this is no doubt true, an examination of life around us suggests that a great deal of trial and error went into the design and functions of each earthly creature and plant that exists today. The perfection of all living things suggests they must have taken millions of the years to evolve.
Fifty-five million or so years ago, primitive mammals were of two main sorts. One took to the trees; the other rodent-like mammals remained on the ground. The competition of the two types for resources was thus lessened. Strains of each have survived to become the creatures we know today. The second group is now called prosimians. We are among their descendants, for they are the ancestors of the first primates.
MAN IS CREATED IN DIVERSE STAGES—FROM PRIMATES TO HOMO SAPIENS
Most creatures alive today evolved from simpler forms, but none took longer or more steps to evolve into its present form than mankind. This is no doubt due to our complexity. The Koran says, “What aileth you that ye hope not toward Allah for dignity. When He created you by (diverse) stages?” (Surah 71: 13-14) The first apes and monkeys—the more developed primates—appeared 25 million or so years ago. From them evolved the “hominids.” Fossil remains suggest that some who can be reckoned among our ancestors appeared between three and four million years ago.
The Australopithecus, as the ape-like creatures have been named, were about four feet tall and had thighs, legs and feet more like those of humans than those of apes. Their skull was fairly apelike, but held a brain about as big as that of a gorilla, and had massive jaws. Scholars think they provide the first evidence of building—they built windbreaks of stone. They were toolmakers, as they made crude choppers and cutting tools. With the Australopithecus, about two million years ago, technology began.
About the same time different strains of hominids evolved. The biological strain leading to humanity showed its superiority by surviving climatic ups and down spanning millions of years. They adapted to such trying conditions as the Ice Ages lasting between fifty and a hundred thousand years. Other species did not.
About 800,000 years ago another important step in human evolution was taken: a creature of a new physical type spread gradually over the whole world. Its earliest forms are called Homo habilis, “clever man” or handy man. Later this strain developed into a species, called Homo erectus, or “upright man.” Homo erectus was a very successful species with yet a larger brain. A change in diet seems to explain his emergence: he had improved his skill in hunting, and eating more meat helped him to survive and reproduce.
But the greatest of the technical and cultural advance of Homo erectus was that he learned to manage fire—the first tapping of energy other than by the conversion of food inside the body. Dependent on meat, he became also dependent on the herds of game and had to follow them. He was more likely to settle and multiply in some places than others. Home bases have been found which were occupied for thousands of years.
Families that lived at the home base were also developing. Human children need maternal care long after birth. Prolonged infancy and the dependence of children on the family during immaturity meant that human families developed in a way unlike other families of animals. Human mothers were more tied down than the mothers of other primates, while the fathers were more involved with hunting in order to provide food for their families. Learning and memory became more important, thus the Homo erectus was becoming more human than other forms of pre-human life.
HOMO SAPIENS
On the scale of prehistoric times our own species, Homo sapiens, has not been on the earth for very long. Homo erectus lived here about ten times longer than we have. There are no firm lines. We suspect that different species of hominids must have coexisted on earth for thousands of years.
THE NEANDERTHALS
In Europe two skulls were discovered that are a quarter of a million years old. They have a shape different from those of the Homo erectus and have larger brains. They indicate a big step forward, for they are the first traces within the family Homo of the species called sapiens. Since they were found in the Neanderthal valley in Germany, they have been called Neanderthals. Remains of Neanderthals have been found from Morocco to China. The earliest Neanderthals in China go back to 200,000 bc, just before the onset of another Ice Age.
Neanderthals wore skins, lived in caves and buried their dead. They sought to control nature by carrying out certain rites. We might call this the beginning of religion. Neanderthals reached a new mental level: they were able to think abstractly. They lived beside other human stocks, and all eventually vanished when Homo sapiens supplanted them.
Our members are traceable first in the Levant, the Near East, and the Balkans between 50,000 and 40,000 bc. By 40,000 bc the so-called “Cro-Magnon Man” was established in western Europe. In about 30,000 bc humans crossed the Bering Strait, after the retreat of the ice, and entered the Americas. For the next fifteen thousand years, their successors moved slowly southward until human beings lived all over the Americas. Others reached Australia, where the first human remains have been dated to about 25,000 bc.
If we say that human beings have been lived here for the last half million years, it is but a fraction (1/8000th) of the age of the planet!
I have begun this book on Revelation with the beginnings of the earth to show how short a time human beings have lived on it.
The Koran, like the Old Testament, refers to Adam being commissioned to name the animals. God must have been very proud of the creature he had at last evolved. Many surahs refer to his command to the angels to prostrate themselves before Adam (original man): “And when We said to the angels: Prostrate yourselves before Adam, they fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever.” (Surah 20: 34)
“And We created you, then fashioned you, then told the angels: Fall prostrate before Adam! And they fell prostrate, all save Iblis, who was not of those who made prostration. He said: What hindered thee that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee? (Iblis) said: I am better than him. Thou createst me of fire while him Thou didst create of mud. He said: Then go down hence. It is not for thee to show pride here, so go forth! Lo! Thou art of those degraded. He said: Reprieve me till the day when they are raised (from the dead). He said: Lo! Thou art of those reprieved. He said: now, because Thou hast sent me astray, verily I shall lurk in ambush for them on Thy Right Path. Then I shall come upon them from before them and from behind them and from their right hands and from their left hands, and Thou wilt not find most of them beholden (unto Thee.) He said: Go forth from hence, degraded, banished. As for such of them as follow thee, surely I will fill hell with all of you.” (Surah 7: 11-18)
Surahs 15: 30-44, 17: 61-64, 18: 51, 20: 116, 26: 95, and 38: 75-86 repeat the same story of Iblis and his being granted the right to deceive human beings until Judgment Day.
Though the world’s population falls into three major groups—Negroid, Caucasoid and Mongoloid—human beings are all members of the same species. After about 40,000 bc they spread out to establish themselves all over the globe, and only later did enduring physical differences appear.
The majority of the time human beings have lived on earth falls in what is called pre-history— before language was invented so that their history could be recorded. Three terms have been invented to talk about pre-history: the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, based on the fact that mankind successively learned to use stone, bronze and iron. The ‘Paleolithic’ or Old Stone Age takes up the greater part of human prehistory, continuing until about 10,000 bc.
The pace of change was very slow in Paleolithic times. There was little variety except that imposed by the availability of food. Hunting and gathering were the main activities. The Cro-Magnon Europeans were expert fishermen and hunters, developing nets and barbed arrows. The first cutting tools were made from whatever suitable materials came to hand—pebbles, quartz, or fossil wood, but as time passed, flint was used. The first clothes were furs from animals.
THE COMING OF AGRICULTURE
The first great cultural revolution occurred about 7,000 to 8,000 bc, at the end of the last Ice Age, when hunting gave way to crop cultivation and animal husbandry and the first steps towards modern civilization were achieved. As ancient as these times seem now to us, we might consider that the length of time our species has walked the earth is but a tiny fraction of the earth’s existence: less than a sixteenth of an inch along that 52½ foot walkway at the Arizona Desert Museum!
J. Bronowski, in his The Ascent of Man, comments:
The largest single step in the ascent of man is the change from nomad to village agriculture. What made that possible? An act of will by men, surely; but with that, a strange and secret act of nature. In the burst of new vegetation at the end of the Ice Age, a hybrid wheat appeared in the Middle East. It happened in many places: a typical one is the ancient oasis of Jericho.
Before 8000 bc wheat was not the luxuriant plant it is today; it was merely one of many wild grasses that spread throughout the Middle East. By some genetic accident, wild wheat crossed with a natural goat grass and formed a fertile hybrid. That accident must have happened many times in the vegetation that sprung up after the last Ice Age. The hybrid was able to spread naturally, because its seeds are attached to the husk in such a way that they scatter in the wind. (Bronowski, J. The Ascent of Man. Boston/ Toronto: Little, Brown & Co., 1973, pp. 64-65.)
The ramifications of this genetic “accident,” of course, are that it precipitated mankind’s ability to settle in one place rather than remain nomadic, to cultivate the land, and to create civilizations. As much as we might see the hand of God in the advent of flowering plants (which gave an enormous boost to the amount of food available on the planet,) we might see it also in this genetic “accident”.
THE EARLIEST CIVILIZATIONS
The first civilizations emerged about 3500 bc in Mesopotamia, Egypt and in Crete. By 2500 bc civilizations had arisen in India and in China. They depended on agriculture, developed writing, organized societies, and built cities. They used animals and humans to carry materials but began also to harness wind and water for power and maritime travel. A favorable geographical setting was essential. Most early civilizations developed near river valleys, like the Tigris and Euphrates in Mesopotamia, the Indus valley in India, and the Nile in Egypt, where water was available and the soil was rich and easily cultivated. The area surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Mesopotamia is called the “cradle of civilization” because it gave rise to the Sumerian civilization.
THE GENIUS OF MONOTHEISM
One of man’s foremost apprehensions is the vulnerability of his existence—to natural disasters, disease, infirmity, warfare, and the inevitability of death. This has always prompted him to seek the aid and protection of powers greater than himself. It has provided him with his impulse towards religion and magic. Man has always manipulated his environment to provide security for himself and his loved ones. He has succeeded in manipulating his environment to an astounding degree, yet he has failed to alleviate his sense of impending disaster.
More than any other species we worry. It may be a function of our intelligence that we worry about things unforeseen. The other animals with which we share life also know fear, but they seem to exist more blissfully than we. They usually do not experience fear until disaster is upon them, and then they readily surrender themselves to death if that is to be their fate.
We have evidence of our religious impulse in early cavemen, who painted delicate and sophisticated renderings of bison on the walls of the caves of Lascaux in southern France. We still have it today, though in modern men it seems to have been diverted into faith in science, health food and exercise rather than faith in gods.
The earliest religions that people developed were polytheistic. The reason is easy to understand: they thought that a spirit or god governed each of the natural elements —the sun, the moon, water, wind, procreation, and so forth. Naturally, they thought they had to make supplication to each of these spirits.
Every society had its system of beliefs. The systems of all the earliest civilizations were polytheistic. Only from those who had mastered a system of writing we can know what their beliefs were. Both the Sumerians and the Egyptians were literate and left documentation concerning theirs.
THE SUMERIANS
Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia predated Abraham. It lasted from roughly 3300 to 2000 bc. At an early date on cylindrical seals they produced little pictures that were rolled into clay. These pictograms may have been the first writing. This evolved into a style called cuneiform, which used signs and groups of signs to stand for sounds and syllables. The invention of writing allowed them to keep records and to preserve their literature.
The oldest written story in the world is the Sumerian epic of Gilgamesh, a tale that written down soon after 2000 bc. Gilgamesh was a real person, the ruler of the city of Uruk. He became the first hero in world literature. The epic gives an account of the creation in which the earth emerged from the waters. The most striking part of the epic is the record of a great flood which obliterated mankind except for a favored family who survived by building an ark; from them sprang a new race of people.
The epic of Gilgamesh also tells us something of the gods of early Mesopotamia. This ancient society felt utterly dependent on their wills. A pantheon of individual gods existed, personifying the elements and natural forces. Each city had its own god. Each god had his or her role (like the later Greek gods and goddesses): there was a god of the air, another of water, another of the plough, and a goddess of love, procreation and war. At the top of this hierarchy was a trinity of three great male gods: the father of the gods; a “Lord Air”, without whom nothing could be done; and a god of wisdom and of the sweet waters, which meant life to the Sumerians.
Temples to these gods grew bigger and more elaborate as the centuries passed partly because they were built on the mounds enclosing their predecessors. Sacrifices were offered in them to ensure good crops and favorable weather. “No other ancient society at that time gave religion quite so prominent a place or diverted so much of its collective resources to its support.”(J. M. Roberts. A Short History of the World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 43-44.)
The Sumerians thought that the gods lived in elemental forces and might be approached in high places, so they built brick towers or ziggurats that they would climb in order have closer communication with their gods. In Genesis 11, the story of the tower of Babel is a record of God’s response upon seeing the tower that people had built in order to have closer access to the heavens.
Now the whole earth had one language and few words. And as men
migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So, the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.
We may find the Lord’s reaction to the tower strange. “This is only the beginning of what they will do; and nothing they propose to do will now be impossible for them” resonates in us when we view what modern science has accomplished. It suggests that God himself was surprised when he realized how clever human beings are. He retarded our development by confusing our speech. According to the Old Testament, this was the first time God spoke since He spoke to Noah. This passage indicates that He was watching what men would do.
The Sumerians were a clever people. They originated the tradition of seers, soothsayers and wise men. They were very conscious of power of female sexuality and were the first people to write about passion. They developed the earliest surviving potter’s wheel, found at Ur—the first known exploitation of rotary motion. And they invented the wheel, the greatest invention of all time. Once the wheel was implemented, methods of transportation were greatly improved. They also produced glass, bronze casting, and irrigation canals.
In the Near East there was a growing confusion of peoples. Eventually an army of Amorites joined the Elamites to overthrew the armies of Ur and destroy the supremacy of the Sumerians. They made way for a new empire in Mesopotamia: Babylon. This happened about 2000 bc, about the time of Abraham.
One of the first Babylonian kings was Hammurabi. We know little about him except that he was a lawgiver. In his code, we find the first statement of the principle that an eye should be given for an eye that has been taken. Hammurabi’s code was carved into stone and set up in the courtyard of temples for the public to consult which insured its survival. We can study its 282 articles dealing with wages, divorce, fees for medical attention, and other matters. Babylonian society was contemporary with Abraham. Rather than examine it further, let us turn our attention briefly to the other great civilization that preceded Abraham, the Egyptian.
THE EGYPTIANS
Sometime after civilization appeared in Sumer, it also appeared along the bank of Nile River in Egypt. By 3300 bc a substantial number of people lived along its banks in villages and hamlets. These people farmed and knew how to make boats, to carve stone and hammer copper. They had a form of writing called hieroglyphics, which were also pictographs.
At the beginning of 19th Century, Napoleon’s troops discovered the Rosetta Stone in northern Egypt, which eventually found its way to the British Museum in London. Since the same text was inscribed in Greek and Egyptian hieroglyph, historians were able to decode hieroglyphs and to translate them.
By 3000 bc Egypt was already divided into northern and southern kingdoms. Historians divide ancient Egyptian civilization into three kingdoms—Old, from 2664-2155 bc; Middle, from 2052-1786 bc; and New, from 1554 to 1075 bc. In the Old Kingdom the king or Pharaoh was the absolute lord and was as a god. “He is a god by whose dealings one lives, the father and mother of all men, alone by himself, without an equal,” wrote an Egyptian civil servant of the Pharaoh in about 1500 bc. (Ibid. p. 53.)
Though most of the people were peasants, Egypt had an elaborate hierarchy of bureaucrats and scribes. Its laborers made possible the building of the pyramids.
The pyramids were tombs for the Pharaohs and other high-ranking individuals and belie the core of the Egyptian religion: a preoccupation with death. The Egyptians were obsessed with death. From their mummies, grave-gods and funeral chambers, we know they believed that man could prepare for an afterlife. The Egyptians thought men could be happy in a state of changeless well being.
Their pantheon included about two thousand gods, including various animal deities, one of which was Horus, the falcon god. The Pharaoh was thought to be an incarnation of the sun god. Horus later was transformed as the offspring of Osiris and his consort Isis, the goddess of creation and love.
This does not do justice to the constellation of Egyptian gods and their mythology, but for our purpose, we can note that, like the Sumerians, the Egyptians, constructed a panoply of gods and thought the Pharaoh himself was a god.
Egypt reached the peak of its prestige and prosperity under Amenhotep III (c. 1410-1375 bc), and he was fittingly buried in Thebes in the largest tomb ever prepared for a king. His successor, Amenhotep IV attempted a religious revolution, substituting a monotheistic cult of the sun god Aton for the ancient religion. This may have constituted man’s first intuition that supplication to gods would be more effective if there was only one God to whom appeals must be made.
Though ancient Egyptian civilization lasted for several millennia, it was never successfully spread abroad and in some measure seems to have been stillborn. Colossal resources of labor and materials were amassed under the direction of civil servants, but only to build the most awesome tombstones the world has ever seen. “It is difficult not to sense an ultimate sterility, a nothingness, at the heart of this glittering tour de force.” (Ibid. p. 60.)
NOAH
It would seem that the God of Abraham spoke directly to neither the Sumerians nor the Egyptians, but then our record of his communication with mankind comes from the Old Testament, where he is immediately present. From the time of the creation through the time of Moses, he had a direct, personal relationship with a few people whom he had chosen. All of these people had found favor with him because they were virtuous. God told them that he was disappointed with creation, and he threatened to destroy it. Rather than doing so, he saved a small remnant, apparently with the hope that mankind would improve. In the early days of Revelation he spoke directly to men, without using angels and prophets as intermediaries, as he did later.
According to Genesis 6: 5-8, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Verse 9 says that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation,” and “Noah walked with God.”
According to Genesis, the Lord instructed Noah to build the ark and gave him its dimensions, and when all the people and animals were enclosed, the Lord Himself shut them in. The flood rose until it covered all dry land. All the people and creatures then living were drowned except for those in the ark. When the waters subsided, Noah, his family and the animals left the ark and stepped onto dry land. God promised Noah that he would never send another flood to cover the earth. He sealed his promise by sending a rainbow to span the sky.
ABRAHAM—THE FATHER OF THE JEWS, CHRISTIANS AND MUSLIMS
Three thousand years ago may seem like a very long time back, but it is only a small sliver compared to the age of the planet. By then people had already become quite sophisticated, and in the story of Abraham we can recognize ourselves.
The 11th chapter of Genesis relates that Abraham was of the lineage of Noah, (but then so were all the people of the world, if the flood destroyed all inhabitants of the world except Noah and his family.) Abraham was descended from Noah’s son, Shem. Terah was Abraham’s father. The 31st verse says, “Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran (Abraham’s brother), his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans (Mesopotamia) to go into the land of Canaan (present day Israel); but when they came to Haran, they settled there.”
With no preliminary, Genesis 12: 1 says, “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.” Since Abram and Sarai were childless it might seem that God was something of a joker, but this was to test him.
In Genesis 13: 16, God tells Abram, “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.” In Genesis 15: 2 Abram says to God, “O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus. Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.” Genesis 15: 4 says that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.” And God brought Abram outside and said, “Look toward the heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. So shall your descendants be.”
So Abram, who was then 75 years old, took his wife Sarai, Lot, his brother’s son, and all their possessions and went to the land of Canaan. A famine in the land forced them into to Egypt. Fearing that he would be killed if the Pharaoh knew Sarai was his wife (because she was exceedingly beautiful), Abram told her to say she was his sister. Sarai was taken into the Pharaoh house, and her sake he dealt well with Abram. But the Lord afflicted the Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, so the Pharaoh sent Abram and Sarai from Egypt. He and Lot and their families traveled to Negeb as far as Bethel. By then he and Lot had so many possessions their families could not dwell together. So there would be no strife between them, Lot and his family traveled to the land to east and Abram to the west. After Lot departed, the Lord again spoke to Abram, saying, “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your descendants also can be counted.” (Genesis 13: 16)
When Lot was captured by the kings of the east, Abram led his men and pursued them as far as Dan, where he defeated them and rescued Lot. The 15th chapter of Genesis begins with, “After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus? Behold, thou hast given me no offspring; and a slave born in my house will be my heir.’ and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, ‘This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your heir.’ And he brought him outside and said, ‘Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be.’ And he believed the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15: 1-6)
In the 16th chapter of Genesis, we learn that Abram’s wife Sarai was barren.
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar, and Sarai said to Abram, ‘Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.’ And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And he went into Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, ‘May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!’ But Abram said to Sarai, ‘Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.’ Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
But the angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, ‘Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?’ She said, ‘I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.’ The angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Return to your mistress and submit to her.’
The angel of the Lord also said to her, ‘I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.’ And the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘Behold, you are with child and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the Lord has given heed to your affliction. He shall be a wild ass of a man, his hand against every man and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.’ (In these days of conflict, especially between the Jews and Arabs of Israel, I often think of this verse: “He shall be a wild ass of a man.”) So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, ‘Thou art a God of seeing’ for she said, ‘Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing Him?’ Therefore the well was called Beerlahairoi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.
And Hagar bore Abram a son and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael. Abram was 86 years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram.” (Genesis 16)
In Genesis 17, God appears again to Abram (now 99 years old) and tells him that He will make a covenant between himself and Abram. He renames Abram Abraham. He instructs him to circumcise every male in his family. He renames Sarai Sarah, and tells Abraham that he will give Sarah a son and she will be the mother of nations. Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, saying to himself, “Shall a child be born to a man who is 100 years old? Shall Sarah, who is 90 years old, bear a child?” But God tells him that Sarah will nevertheless bear him a son.
We can assume that Abraham made supplication on behalf of his first-born son Ishmael, for in Genesis 17: 20, God says, “As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him and make him fruitful and multiply him exceedingly; he shall be the father of twelve princes and I will make him a great nation. “But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this season next year.” (Genesis 17: 21)
Abraham did as the Lord told him and had Ishmael and all the men of his house circumcised when Ishmael was 13 years old.
Chapter 18 repeats the story in Chapter 17, but in this version, as Abraham was sitting at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, three men stand in front of him. Abraham lavishes hospitality on his visitors, instructing Sarah to make some cakes for them, while he slaughters a calf and prepares curds and milk. When they are eating, they ask him where Sarah is. The Lord, one of the three men, tells Abraham that Sarah will have a son in the spring. So Sarah, who is listening, laughs to herself and says, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?” (Genesis 18: 12)
Before the Lord and his companions leave, he tells Abraham that he intends to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, the cities where Lot and his family live, because their sin was very grave. Abraham intercedes for them.
In the 21st Chapter, Sarah gives birth to Isaac. Now that she has a son of her own, trouble again arises between her and Hagar. “And the child (Isaac) grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar, the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, play with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac.’”
We can imagine the distress Abraham must have felt when Sarah ordered him to cast Hagar and Ishmael out. It must have been as any father would feel if requested to cast out the first-born son he loved.
“And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, ‘Be not displeased because of the lad and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your descendants be named. And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring.’
“So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba. (Beersheba is in the land of Canaan, about 20 miles south of Hebron, just north of the Negeb.)
“When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went, and sat down over against him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot: for she said, ‘Let me not look upon the death of the child.’ And as she sat over against him, the child lifted up his voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of the God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Fear not; for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him fast with your hand; for I will make him a great nation.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water and gave the lad a drink. And God was with the lad, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran (The Wilderness of Paran is the western part of the desert of the Sinai peninsula); and his mother took a wife for him from the land of Egypt.” (Genesis 21: 8-21)
Ishmael is mentioned three more times in Genesis. In Chapter 25, when Abraham was 175 years old, he breathed his last and died in a good old age. “Isaac and Ishmael his sons buried him in the cave of Machpelah, in the field of Ephron the son of Zohar the Hittite, east of Mamre, the field which Abraham purchased from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried, with Sarah his wife.” (The burial place of Abraham and Sarah was the site of recent disputes between the Arab and Jews, when an Israeli settler assassinated Arabs who were praying at the mosque at Hebron.)
The descendants of Ishmael, his twelve sons are listed in the 25th Chapter. “These are the descendants of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, whom Hagar the Egyptian, Sarah’s maid, bore to Abraham. These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, named in the order of the birth: Nebaioth, the first-born of Ishmael; and Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, Mishma, Dumah, Massa, Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah. These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their villages and by their encampments, twelve princes, according to their tribes. These are the years of the life of Ishmael, 137 years; he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his kindred. They dwelt from Havilah to Shur, which is opposite Egypt in the direction of Assyria (the Arabian peninsula); he settled over against all his people.” (Genesis 25: 12-18)
Isaac, Abraham’s son by Sarah, married Rebekah, who, like Sarah, was barren, until God granted her prayer, and she conceived and bore twins, Esau and Jacob. Esau was a hairy man and a hunter, while the smooth-skinned Jacob was a quiet man who liked to dwell in the tents. We know the story of Esau selling his birthright to Jacob, and Jacob securing the blessing from Isaac in his old age. Jacob came to be known as Israel, and he had twelve sons, (six from his wife Leah; two, Joseph and Benjamin, from Rachel; two from Bilhah, Rachel’s maid; and two from Leah’s maid.) Esau went to Ishmael and took a wife, besides the wives he had, Mahalath, the daughter of Ishmael, Abraham’s son, the sister of Nebaioth. (Genesis 28: 9)
Jacob’s twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel. When Joseph’s brothers stripped him of the coat of many colors that his father had given him and sold him to a caravan on their way from Gilead to Egypt, the caravan was of Ishmaelites, the descendants of Ishmael. With this bit of information, Ishmael and his descendants fade from the Old Testament account. Hereafter, it is the story of the descendants of Jacob and the twelve tribes of Israel, the Jewish nation. The Old Testament does not tell the story of Abraham and Ishmael traveling to Mecca to build the Ka‘bah.
Just as Abraham was the genealogical father of the Jews, he was likewise the genealogical father of the Arabs, because he was the father of Ishmael. The Jews and the Arabs are therefore far-distant cousins. Since the definition of a Muslim is one who submits his will to that of Allah, Abraham can be considered the first Muslim (after Noah,) because he submitted to the will of God and trusted in his promises.
Arab sources pick up the story of Abraham by giving us an account of him traveling with Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca, where he and Ishmael built the Ka‘bah. According to the Koran, Surah 2: 125ff:
And when We made the House (at Mecca) a resort for mankind and a sanctuary, (saying): Take as your place of worship the place where Abraham stood (to pray). And We imposed a duty upon Abraham and Ishmael, (saying): Purify My house for those who go around and those who meditate therein and those who bow down and prostrate themselves (in worship).
And when Abraham prayed: My Lord! Make this a region of security and bestow upon its people fruits, such of them as believe in Allah and the Last Day. He answered: As for him who disbelieveth, I shall leave in contentment for a while, then I shall compel him to the doom of fire—a hapless journey’s end!
And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Hearer, the Knower.
Our Lord! And make us submissive unto Thee and of our seed a nation submissive unto Thee, and show us our ways of worship, and relent toward us. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Relenting, the Merciful. Our Lord! And raise up in their midst a messenger from among them who shall recite unto them Thy revelations, and shall instruct them in the Scripture and in wisdom and shall make them grow. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Mighty, Wise.
Mecca lies about 625 miles south of the land of Canaan, on the west side of the Arabian peninsula. This seems an especially long way for Abraham to have traveled in order to establish Hagar and Ishmael in their own land. The Arab historian Tabari presents this account:
According to . . . al-Suddi: Sarah said to Abraham, “You may take pleasure in Hagar, for I had permitted it.” So he had intercourse with Hagar and she gave birth to Ishmael. Then he had intercourse with Sarah and she gave birth to Isaac. When Isaac grew up, he and Ishmael fought. Sarah became angry and jealous of Ishmael’s mother . . . She swore to cut something off her, and said to herself, “I shall cut off her nose, I shall cut off her ear—but no, that would deform her. I will circumcise her instead.” So she did that, and Hagar took a piece of cloth to wipe the blood away. For that reason women have been circumcised and have taken pieces of cloth (as sanitary napkins) down to today.
Sarah said, “She will not live in the same town with me.” God told Abraham to go to Mecca, where there was no House at the time. He took Hagar and her son to Mecca and put them there. According to Mujahid and other scholars: When God pointed out to Abraham the place of the House and told him how to build the sanctuary, he set out to do the job and Gabriel went with him. It was said that whenever he passed a town he would ask, “Is this the town which God’s command meant, O Gabriel?” And Gabriel would say: “Pass it by.” At last they reached Mecca, which at the time was nothing but acacia trees, mimosa, and thorn tress, and there was a people called Amalekites outside Mecca and its surroundings. The House at that time was but a hill of red clay. Abraham said to Gabriel, ‘Was it here that I was ordered to leave them?” Gabriel said, “Yes.” Abraham directed Hagar and Ishmael to go to al-Hijr, and settled them down there. Than he said, “My Lord, I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivatable valley near Your Holy House . . . that they may be thankful.” Then he journeyed back to his family in Syria, leaving the two of them at the House. (Tabari, Annals as quoted in The Hajj by F. E. Peters, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994, p. 4.)
When he and his mother were expelled from Abraham’s household, Ishmael must have been about sixteen years old, certainly old enough to assist his father in the construction of the Ka‘bah. Yet in the story of Hagar searching for water to give to Ishmael, he is an infant, which may mean, as Mr. Peters, author of The Hajj—the Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places, notes, that Abraham must have returned later to build the Ka‘bah with him.
Then Ishmael became very thirsty. His mother looked for water for him, but could not find any. She listened for sounds to help her find water for him. She heard a sound at al-Safa and went there to look around and found nothing. Then she heard a sound from the direction of al-Marwa. She went there and looked around and saw nothing. Some also say that she stood on al-Safa praying to God for water for Ishmael, and then went to al-Marwa to do the same.
Then she heard the sounds of the beasts in the valley where she had left Ishmael. She ran to him and found him scraping the water from a spring which had burst forth from beneath his hand, and drinking from it. Ishmael’s mother came to it and made it swampy. Then she drew water from it into her water skin to keep it for Ishmael. Had she not done that, the waters of Zamzam would have gone on flowing to the surface, forever. (Tabari, Annals 1. 278-279, II. 72-74.)
The Hajj ritual of “running” back and forth between the two hills of Safa and Marwa on the eastern side of the Meccan sanctuary has its origin here, with Hagar’s frantic search for water for Ishmael.
Other Muslim authorities, such as Zamakhshari (d. 1144 ad) have added various details to the story of Abraham and Ishmael building the Ka‘bah: “Then God commanded Abraham to build, and Gabriel showed its location. It is said that God sent a cloud to shade him, and he was told to build on its shadow, not to exceed or diminish. It is said that he built it from five mountains: Mount Sinai, the Mount of Olives, Lebanon, al-Judi, and its foundation is from Hira. Gabriel brought him the Black Stone from Heaven. The Black Stone, still in the Ka‘bah, though it was removed several times, is revered by Muslims. Many legends proliferated concerning it. Among the greatest privileges of the Hajji is the kissing of the Black Stone, surely one of the oldest of revered objects in the world. It is said that Abraham would build it as Ishmael would hand him the stones.” (Zamakhshari)
An interesting detail that Tabarsi relates is that “God made the stone underneath Abraham’s feet into something like clay so that his foot sunk into it. That was a miracle.” (Tabarsi. (d. 11563 ad)) The footprint of Abraham is claimed to still be near the entrance of the Ka‘bah.
Once the Ka‘bah was completed, God ordered Abraham to make public proclamation of the pilgrimage to be performed there:
Announce to the people the pilgrimage. They will come to you on foot and on every lean camel, coming from every deep and distant highway that they may witness the benefits and recollect the name of God in the well-known days over the sacrificial animals He has provided for them. Eat thereof and feed the poor in want. Then let them complete their ritual and perform their vows and circumambulate the Ancient House.
Such is it (that is, the pilgrimage). Whoever honors the sacred rites of God, for him is it good in the sight of his Lord. (Surah 22: 27-30)
The Old Testament mentions none of this. After Abraham, it focuses solely on his descendants through Isaac—Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, Moses and Aaron, Joshua, Saul, David, and Solomon. The story of Ishmael and his descendants on the Arabian peninsula goes unrecorded because the life style of the nomads of the Arabian peninsula did not lend itself to recorded history. In the West we know little about them. As civilizations waxed and waned in the fertile crescent, trade routes increased, and conquests dominated the Middle East, the prodigy of Ishmael played a minor role in world history.
We have every reason to believe that the Ka‘bah was the first house of God built in the world, preceding by four hundred years the building of the Ark of the Covenant, a chest symbolizing God’s presence that was carried by the Israelites after the Exodus. It was the most sacred object in the tabernacle. The first Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon in about 1000 bc, a thousand years after the Ka’bah was built.
Abraham, who was promised that his descendants would be as numerous as the dust of the earth or the stars of the sky, was thus the genealogical father of the Jews and the Muslims. He is also considered the spiritual father of the Christians. He and Noah can be called the first Muslims, the first to submit their will to that of Allah, their Creator.
CHAPTER TWO:
REVELATION TO THE ANCIENT HEBREWS FROM ABRAHAM TO THE BIRTH OF JESUS
FROM ABOUT 2000 BC TO 1 AD
This chapter is the story of Revelation to the descendants of Abraham through his son, Isaac. The descendents of his other son, Ishmael, were various nomadic tribes in Arabia and were insignificant players on the world stage from his time in about the 20th Century bc until Mohammed’s time in the 7th Century ad (27 centuries!). As a result, information regarding them is scant here in the West. We will discuss them in Chapter Five, the chapter on Mohammed. For the present we will concentrate on Abraham’s descendants through Isaac because it is through this line that the Jewish people and the Old Testament record of Revelation came into being.
Three books, the Old Testament (the Jewish Bible), the New Testament and the Koran, tell the story of Revelation to the descendants of Abraham. Actually, a fourth book, The Book of Mormon, qualifies as Revelation to the descendants of Abraham. We will discuss it briefly in the last chapter of this book. The Old Testament is the record of Revelation to the Israelites from the creation of the world to their return from Babylonian captivity in approximately the 4th Century bc. The New Testament is the record of the life of Jesus, the Messiah, as told in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It also contains the book of Acts and some of the letters of Paul, Peter, James and John. The Koran is Revelation that was given to and recited by Mohammed. These three books of Revelation are related. The Old Testament, the first of them, is the literary expression of the religious life of ancient Israel. The New Testament refers to various passages from the Old Testament to substantiate that Jesus is the Messiah promised to the Israelites. The Koran refers to both books, retelling incidents from each, as well as given information concerning the Muslim code of conduct. The Koran is more reminiscent of the Old Testament than the New Testament. Just as in the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the Koran gives Muslims injunctions pertaining to their daily lives. Its tone seems as harsh and unrelenting as some passages in the Old Testament. We will deal with the Koran’s references to the Old Testament in Chapter 6 and its references to the New Testament in Chapter 7.
Much that is published on these three books today makes use of the biblical critical method. This method was devised by German scholars in the 19th Century and proposes to study these books as historical documents just as any other historical documents. As useful as this approach has been to academic study and to our growing knowledge of Biblical times, it tends to open questions regarding the truth of the some of the information in the three books we are considering. This causes some readers to doubt the authenticity of Revelation. Since this is a study of Revelation, in whatever manner it has been passed down to us and to whomever it was given, we will regard the information imparted by Revelation as true. In this study Revelation is given more authority than the words of scholars because we trust that it has come from God—indeed, “For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.” (1 Corinthians 3: 19)
Because many Western readers are more familiar with the Old and New Testaments than with the Koran, we will give the testaments an abbreviated handling, but the Koran needs a more extensive treatment. The problems among Jewish, Christian and Muslim theologies exist because their dogmas disagree; however, those dogmas have been modified by men over the centuries and are no longer the same as those given through Revelation. There is little disagreement in the dogmas of the three faiths as given in Revelation itself. Furthermore, when the Koran is treated as authentic Revelation, it helps to resolve points of contention between Jews and Christians!
A DEFINITION OF REVELATION
In this study Revelation is defined as having been initiated by God. By Revelation, spelled with a capital “R”, we mean those rare times in the course of human history when God has spoken to mankind through his chosen prophets, those rare occasions when he has broken into the mundane lives of people with specific messages to them.
The process of Revelation went on from the time of Noah until the time of Mohammed, about 2500 years. Mohammed is called the “Seal of the Prophets,” meaning the last in the Revelatory chain of prophets. After the Revelation given to him in the 7th Century ad, God no longer spoke in this fashion to people. It appeared that He has said all He intended to say through Revelation and that people now had all the information they needed because the voice of prophecy fell silent after Mohammed. Thus people have lived for the subsequent 1,300 years without new Revelation. In that time, revelation has continued in the sense that various people have received revelations, some of a spiritual nature and some of a scientific nature, but we will refer to those revelations with a lower case “r” because they do not fall into the strict pattern of Revelation, as we are defining it here.
(This may not be true. In the first quarter of the19th Century Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, describes having received Revelation from Moroni, an angel who revealed to him the location of some inscribed gold plates buried in upstate New York. For more information on Mormonism, please see the conclusions of this book.)
On the one hand, Allah was so pleased with the human beings he had created that he asked the angels to prostrate themselves before them. On the other hand, when he observed the evil of which they were capable, he alternated between threatening to destroy them and pitying their hapless condition. Instead of destroying mankind, he chose to give them guidance. Surely, if they would but follow his edicts they would be able to live a good life.
THE PROCESS OF REVELATION
Men, called “seers” in the ancient world, were called “prophets” (nabi) in the book of Samuel and afterwards. A seer was someone who could predict the future, but a prophet had a different kind of power—he was the proclaimer of the Word of God, possessing an authority from God himself. He was God’s mouthpiece, so to speak. While the ancient seers forecast events, the prophets prescribed what men should believe and how they should live. A seer may have seen things on earth that others could see, but the prophet carried messages from God and the world beyond this one. It was through the prophets that God told the Israelites how they should live and thus governed them.
The process of Revelation, whether to the prophets of the Old Testament, or to Jesus, or to Mohammed, followed a uniform procedure. The means by which prophecy was conveyed varied according to the personality of the individual prophet, but the message was essentially the same: that there is only One God who rules over all creation. People should love Him with all their hearts and minds and treat their neighbors as they would like themselves to be treated. This message was consistent in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran. The process of Revelation consisted of the following steps: (1) a CALL and its RESPONSE, (2) the MESSAGE, usually a warning of some kind, (3) the CONSEQUENCES that will ensue if the warning is not heeded, and (4) a PROMISE of redemption.
THE CALL and RESPONSE
In every case of Revelation, God handpicked his human messenger and called him. The person God chose to act as his intermediary and the recipient of divine communication to the people may have tried to avoid his assignment, as in the case of Jonah, but his resistance was invariably overruled, and he was forced into God’s service.
In the earliest accounts of Revelation to Abraham and Moses, according to the Old Testament, God himself initiated contact with the prophets. Exodus 33: 11 says, “Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” As Revelation progressed, however, God stopped initiating contact with the prophets, sending instead an angel as his spokesman. According to our testaments, the arch-angel Gabriel guided Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael when they went to Mecca; he announced the birth of John to his father Zechariah and of Jesus to Mary; and he initiated contact with Mohammed and conveyed messages to him.
The call could take various forms. The most common form was auditory—the prophet heard the Word of the Lord. To some prophets, for example, Isaiah and Ezekiel, the call came first in the form a vision and then a hearing of the Word of the Lord. Some prophets, such as Joseph and Daniel, received Revelation through dreams and the ability to interpret them, both their own and those of others. Often, when a prophet received a message from the Lord, he was in state of ecstasy and so seemed touched with madness.
Usually the call was at first resisted. Moses complained that he was slow of speech (some think this meant that he was a stutterer); Jeremiah, that he was only a child; Mohammed, that he did not know how to read and write. Only Isaiah said, “Here I am. Send me.” But a call from God is irresistible and cannot be denied. Whether the prophet likes it or not, he is pressed into God’s service.
THE MESSAGE
The overall message was always the same, i.e., Sovereignty of God. The prophets were given specific messages to deliver relative to their times. Usually they were to warn their people that unless they repented and reformed, they would suffer consequences from the hand of God.
In all the books of prophecy in the Old Testament, God is the Sovereign Lord of creation, orchestrating events and working hand and glove through the prophets. The predominant idea is that the Lord God governs the happenings in the world of nations. Whenever Israel won or lost a war, it was predetermined by him and predicted ahead of time by the prophets—whether it was the northern kingdom of Israel’s fall to the Assyrians, the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile, or Babylonia’s fall to the Persians. God often used the enemies of Israel to wreak destruction on it.
The prophets used different means to convey God’s messages. Most often they recited them, as did Moses, Isaiah, and Mohammed. Sometimes they symbolized them, as Jeremiah often did—by wearing a yoke to symbolize Judah’s coming oppression by the Babylonians. Some, like Ezekiel, used a combination of symbolism, allegory and recitation. Jesus favored telling parables and performing miracles. Some of them, like Joseph and Daniel, had the ability to interpret dreams. If the message was refused, another method was often resorted to.
The people often were not happy with the messages their prophets gave them. They would have rather heard good news than bad. They tended to resist the messages of the prophets, seeking to silence or kill them, but God protected the prophets and the plots to destroy them were foiled.
We should note that the messages of the prophets to the people of Israel and Judah imply free will. God had so constituted mankind that human beings have the right to choose their course of action: they can choose to follow the will of God or their own inclinations. God will not revoke this gift, but will use various means to try to persuade people that they should live as he intends them. For 2300 years, from the Exodus in the 16th Century bc until the time of Mohammed in the 7th Century ad, God sought to guide and persuade people through his messages to the prophets.
CONSEQUENCES
Had the warnings of the prophets been heeded, the people could have avoided the punishments that were predicted. They seldom did. Had the people of Judah reformed, they could have avoided the Babylonian captivity. People are so constituted that they usually must make their mistakes and be punished before they undertake reformation. It is part of our maturation process, and the story of Revelation is the story of some important steps taken in the maturation of civilization.
THE PROMISE
Though the message of the prophets was that destruction awaited those who refuse to conform to the edicts of God, a promise of restoration invariably followed. All the prophets of Judah predicted the destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian exile, but they also predicted that a remnant would be preserved through which Jerusalem would be restored.
THE TEST OF A TRUE PROPHET OF GOD
God did not choose those people who designated themselves as prophets, and their prophecies were not the same as those of the authentic prophets. What was there to prevent anyone who liked to claim that he or she was a prophet and to prophesy? Particularly during Jeremiah’s time, there were self-appointed prophets who told the people that Jerusalem would not be destroyed. They were much more popular than Jeremiah.
The test of a true prophet is simple: his prophecies consistently come true. Some of those of a false prophet may occasionally come true, but ultimately most do not. Only the test of time can reveal those who were the true prophets of God.
THE OLD TESTAMENT—GOD’S REVELATION TO THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL
More than a thousand years separate the earliest and latest compositions of the Jewish Bible. This Bible reflects many facets of the life of Israel, and its literature takes many forms; in it are prose and poetry, epic poems, laments, parables and allegories. As early as the time of David and Solomon, out of a matrix of myth, legend and history, there emerged the earliest written form of the story of the saving acts of God from Creation to the Promised Land. Later, in modified form, it became Scripture.
Jews reckon three divisions within Scripture: the Law, the Prophets and the Writings. The Law is the Pentateuch, the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Prophets consist of the Former Prophets and the Latter Prophets. The Former Prophets are Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings. The Latter Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the books of the Twelve Minor Prophets, from Hosea to Malachi. The remaining books belong to the Writings. In the Hebrew Bible, Ruth, Lamentations, and Daniel are placed among the Writings, a section that begins with the Psalms and ends with 1st Chronicles and 2nd Chronicles. The earliest manuscripts of the Old Testament were in Hebrew and Aramaic.
The Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, tell the story of Revelation from the creation of the world through the settlement of Canaan after the return of the Israelites from Egypt. After the story of Abraham and Isaac, it tells the stories of Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, of Moses leading the Hebrews from their captivity in Egypt, and their forty years wandering in the Sinai peninsula where they received the Law.
What is remarkable about this small band of Semitic people is that they survived at all in the midst of the warring powers of their times. Because they did, their religious thought still influences modern thought. The great pagan nations, much mightier than the Hebrews, that existed at the same time as they—the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Phoenicians, Hittites and Philistines---all vanished from the face of the earth, their remains to be dug up by archaeologists, while the Jews are still a viable force in the modern world.
When we read their history, we sense a humanity that is lacking in the literature of their contemporaries. In the psychological sense, the ancient Hebrews were the first modern people—we can identify with the stories of the Old Testament: Abraham’s sorrow over having to abandon Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness, Joseph’s forgiveness to his brothers for what they did to him, the grumbling of the Israelites when they wandered the Sinai peninsula—even, their tendency to become beguiled by the idols of Baal—David’s lust for Bathsheba, Ruth’s loyalty to the people of her mother-in-law — all these stories smack of a humanity we can recognize in ourselves these thousands of years later.
They were different from the other peoples with whom they were contemporary because they had a personal relationship with Yahweh, the Creator of the universe, and this communication with him lent them their added humanity. They had not initiated the contact—they had been called by Him to become his Chosen People. This gave them an enormous psychological advantage over their neighbors. It was to the Israelites that the Law was given. This gift has been handed down throughout the centuries to us today. It has formed the basis of the moral code for civilization.
Perhaps the entire Jewish Bible can be called Revelation, but the individuals to whom it was transmitted personally were Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, Solomon, and the prophets.
The prophets were the voice of Israel’s conscience, reminding it whenever it strayed from the will of God that unless it hearkened back to his Word, disaster would follow. It was through the admonitions of the prophets that the Jewish people became religiously astute. Through them they learned that the best way of life comes through an adherence to righteousness. That meant that they were to revere family life and eschew debauchery, that they were to undertake a collective obligation to care for those too weak to care for themselves, and that they were to punish those among them who had sinned. Our present legal system has its basis in the Law of the ancient Hebrew as recorded in the Jewish Bible. Furthermore, they were to offer thanks to God, their Creator, in offerings and in temple worship.
REVELATION BEFORE MOSES, AS RECORDED IN GENESIS
In Chapter One we recalled the story of Abraham, both in the Old Testament and the Koran. Because of his faithfulness, all his descendants, those through Isaac and those through Ishmael, were blessed. God spoke directly to Abraham and is thought to have been one of three visitors who came to him to announce the birth of Isaac. God gave Abraham specific instructions for the building of the Ka’bah. Abraham is avowed as the father of all three of the great monotheistic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Jews and Christians trace their lineage from Abraham through Isaac, the Muslims through Ishmael.
Isaac married Rebekah, who was Abraham’s niece, and Hagar found an Egyptian wife for Ishmael. The Old Testament lists twelve sons born to Ishmael and his wife, but Rebekah, like Sarah, was barren until she conceived and gave birth to twin sons, Esau and Jacob. They could not have been identical, because Esau was a hirsute man and Jacob’s skin was smooth. The story of Esau, the first-born, selling his birth right to Jacob is recorded in Genesis 25, and Chapter 27 tells of Rebekah helping Jacob to deceive Isaac into giving his blessing to him rather than to Esau.
Jacob is considered an early Old Testament prophet partly due to the dream he had when he was fleeing from Esau. In it he saw a ladder set up on the earth, reaching into heaven with angels ascending and descending it. (Genesis 28: 12) Jacob saw God standing above the ladder, and God said to him:
I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your descendants; and your descendants shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and by you and your descendants shall all the families of earth bless themselves. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done that of which I have spoken to you.” (Genesis 28: 13-15)
Jacob married two daughters of Laban, Leah and Rachel, and through them and their handmaidens, had twelve sons. Before he and Esau were reconciled, he had another dream: in this one he wrestled with an angel until the break of day. When the angel said to him, “Let me go, for the day is breaking,” Jacob said, “I will not let you go, unless you bless me.” The angel then said, “What is your name?” When he answered that his name was Jacob, the angel told him, “Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven against God and with men, and have prevailed.” The descendants of Jacob, therefore, were called the Israelites.
Of Jacob’s twelve sons, he loved Joseph more than any other because he was the son of his old age; he made for Joseph a long robe with sleeves. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than them, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. When Joseph told them what he had dreamt—that he and his brothers were binding sheaves in the field and his sheaf arose and stood upright and their sheaves bowed down to his—they hated him even more. As though to add salt to their wound, Joseph had another dream in which the sun and moon and eleven stars bowed down to him.
Though his brothers wanted to kill him, they dared not. So, they stripped him of his robe and cast him into a pit. Then they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites with their camels on their way to Egypt. So they sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites, and he was taken to Egypt, where Potiphar, the captain of the guard, bought him. Genesis 39: 2 says, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man,” but Joseph earned his wrath when he resisted Potiphar’s wife’s attempts to seduce him. She falsely accused him, and he was thrown into prison.
In prison Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams became known, so when the Pharaoh had some dreams that his magicians could not interpret, Joseph was brought to him. He successfully interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and was made an administrator over all of Egypt. When famine came to the land of Canaan Jacob sent his sons to Egypt to buy grain. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. The book of Genesis ends with the reconciliation of Joseph with his father and his brothers in Egypt.
MOSES
Historians date the time of Abraham as probably about 2000 bc, and the story of Joseph a hundred years later, about 1900 bc. About four hundred years passed while the Hebrew descendants of Joseph toiled in Egypt. The book of Exodus accounts for that time by saying, “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.” (Exodus 1: 8) By this time the people of Israel had so multiplied that they were too numerous for the comfort of the Egyptians. Even though they were oppressed, they continued to multiply, so Pharaoh sought to kill the male Hebrew children to reduce their might. When Moses was an infant, his mother hid him in a basket in the bulrushes where he was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter and raised as her own child. When Moses was grown, he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew and was obliged to flee or be killed himself. He fled to Midian where he became a shepherd and married a Midian woman, Jethro’s daughter, Zipporah.
Moses would have been unknown in history had things remained as they were, but Exodus 2: 23-24 says, “In the course of those many days the king of Egypt died. And the people of Israel groaned under their bondage and cried out for help, and their cry under bondage came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.” Therefore, God elected to call Moses to lead the Hebrew children from their bondage.
The call to Moses came in the form of an angel of the Lord in a fire out of the midst of a bush that was burning but was not consumed. When Moses tried to turn aside, God called to him. When Moses answered, he was told to remove his shoes, for the place on which he stood was holy. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look at God. Then God told him that he had come to have him bring the Israelites out of Egypt and that he wanted Moses to go the Pharaoh. Moses answered, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the sons of Israel out Egypt?”
Moses’s conversation with God is recorded in Exodus 3 and 4. At last Moses complained, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, but am slow of speech and tongue,” but God overruled him, saying, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” God also permitted Aaron, Moses’ brother, to be his spokesman.
Chapters 5 through 14 in Exodus tell the story of plagues sent upon the land of Egypt until at last the Pharaoh, after his first born son died, relented and allowed the Israelites to proceed from Egypt. They tell of the parting of the Red Sea to let Israelites pass through and its closing over the Pharaoh’s horsemen and charioteers, all of whom were drowned. The Jews commemorate this story each year on Passover. It is the story of the Exodus, and it is frequently referred to in the Koran.
FORTY YEARS IN THE WILDERNESS AND THE GIVING OF MOSAIC LAW
Moses may have been the greatest prophet of all. At least he may have been the most influential. Though he is most often associated with leading the Hebrew children from their bondage in Egypt, his most important contribution is that through him the Mosaic Law was given to civilization.
During the forty years the Israelites wandered on Sinai they became the Jewish nation, and it was then that they received the Law. Christians usually think of the Law as the Ten Commandments that Moses received on the two stone tablets when he went up onto Mount Sinai, (recorded in the 20th chapter of Exodus), but the Law, recorded in the book of Leviticus, was much more extensive, governing every aspect of Israelite life. Similarly, laws governing every aspect of the lives of Muslims are given in the Koran.
The significance of the giving of the Law cannot be underestimated. Surely, people before then had a sense of right and wrong, but it was confused, as it generally is when left solely to human reasoning. The Law can be seen as a gift from God to all the people of the world. The Koran calls it the “Criterion” for right and wrong.
The advantage of having the Law is that it is unequivocal. No matter how one might justify stealing, for example, if he knows the Law, he knows, “You shall not steal.” The Law also commands that people shall have no other gods before God, so it steadies mankind in the belief that there is only one God who governs the world. Much of the Pentateuch concerns itself with the Hebrews’ tendency to stray from this knowledge.
Other peoples of the world had legal codes before the giving of the Mosaic Law. The most famous of these was the Code of Hammurabi, a Babylonian king who died in 1750 bc, about 350 years before the Israelites received their Law. Other mid-eastern civilizations also had also devised codes of law, but just as monotheism was a radical improvement over polytheism—what would expiate one god might offend another—so the Mosaic Code of Law was an improvement over theirs because it had a stability theirs lacked. This was because it was God-centered rather than monarch-centered. Just as the “gods” might be capricious, so were men. As long as a code of ethics was subject to the caprice of men, it could not be firmly set, and the people who lived under it would be subjected to the changing wills of their changing monarchs. Perhaps God understood this and so gave mankind a code of Law that would not be arbitrary.
Paul Johnson in A History of the Jews (Harper and Row; 1987) says that the giving of Mosaic Law “is one of the greatest turning points in history, perhaps the greatest of all,” (p. 30). Mosaic Law was so important to the development of civilization that we base our legal code today on its principles.
Mosaic Law defined justice in a revolutionary fashion for its time. It was one of the first articulations of democratic principles: under it, each individual, because he was created and formed by God, was of equal value to any other; therefore, a poor slave deserved as much protection as did the most powerful man in the world. Of course, throughout the centuries this principle has been often sadly compromised, but the important thing is its expression, so that people can recognize it as the ideal by which they should live.
Just as Muslims claim that the mere hearing of the Koran has the power to move men to tears, so the hearing of Mosaic Law has the power to summon knowledge of what is truly just.
We are told in the 24th Chapter of Exodus, “Moses wrote all the words of the Lord. And he rose early in the morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel.” . . . “He took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the Lord spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’”
Then the Lord told Moses to come again to him on the mountain. “I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandments, which I have written for their instruction.” Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. God told him, “And let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. According to all that I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.” (Exodus 25: 8-9) God instructed the people to make him an ark according to specific instructions. Scripture cites several times when God gave specific instructions for the building of places of worship. Muslim sources affirm that Abraham and Ishmael were given specific instructions for the building of the Ka’bah. The ark was portable as long as the Hebrews were nomadic. When Solomon built the Temple in Jerusalem, he was given measurements for its design and construction. God told him what the priests who tended the ark were to wear and what offerings they should make. After these instructions, “He gave to Moses, when He had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.” (Exodus 31: 18)
When Moses returned from the Mount, he found that in his absence the people had already strayed from their promise. They had asked Aaron to make them a golden calf for them to worship. In anger Moses dashed the stone tablets to the ground.
Exodus reports that Yahweh was so incensed that he wanted to consume the Israelites and make a great nation of Moses, but Moses used a bit of psychological reasoning to dissuade him, saying, “Why should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and consume them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou didst swear by thine own self, and didst say to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants and they shall inherit it for ever.’ And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people.” (Exodus 32: 12-14)
This aspect of Revelation, the times when a prophet was permitted to argue or reason with God, is one of the most interesting recorded in the Jewish Bible. It was not new with Moses. When God wanted to destroy Sodom, Abraham persuaded him to relent if ten righteous men could be found. Exodus 33: 11 says “the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend.”
Two new tables of the Law were given, and the covenant was renewed. “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand as he came down from mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he has been talking with God. And when Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.” (Exodus 34: 29-30) Moses solved the problem by wearing a veil whenever the people saw him after he had spoken with God.
LEVITICUS
Leviticus is pre-eminently a book of worship. It falls into six parts—laws dealing with sacrifices, the consecration of the priests to their office, laws setting forth the distinction between clean and unclean, the ceremony for the annual day of atonement, laws to govern Israel’s life as a holy people, and an appendix of religious vows. Throughout the various rituals and laws is the conviction that God is in the midst of his people during their pilgrimage. His nearness accentuates the people’s sense of sin and prompts them to turn to him in sacrificial services of worship.
God conveyed these Laws to Moses. The instructions for the offerings were elaborate and specific, as for example:
When anyone brings a cereal offering as an offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour; he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense on it, and bring it to Aaron’s sons the priests. And he shall take from it a handful of the fine flour and oil, with all of its frankincense; and the priest shall burn this as its memorial portion upon the altar, an offering by fire, a pleasing odor to the Lord. And what is left of the cereal offering shall be for Aaron and his son; it is a most holy part of the offering by fire to the Lord. (Leviticus 2: 1-3)
There is in Leviticus a test for leprosy and advice for the cleansing of lepers. There seems to be a preoccupation with cleanliness, as the Laws that govern what is clean and unclean are extensive. Much of the Law has to do with hygiene and was instituted for reasons of health. For example, “when a woman has discharge of blood which is her regular discharge from her body, she shall be in her impurity for seven days, and whoever touches her shall be unclean until the evening.” (Leviticus 15: 19)
The Law forbad the eating of blood and incest. Chapter 19, verse 17 says, “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason with your neighbor, lest you bear sin because of him. You shall not take vengeance or bear any grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” The Law forbad augury and witchcraft. “Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19: 31) It enumerated sexual offenses, such as homosexuality. Leviticus appointed the feasts that the Israelites are to observe. The Law was “an-eye-for-an-eye” law. There are laws to govern redemption, loans and slavery. Punishments were allocated for disobedience, and lastly, laws were given to govern tithes.
We might assume that the Hebrew tribes in Egypt, where they had lived for many generations, did not have the culture they attained after they were brought from their captivity. They were a barbarous group, given to the same practices as neighboring tribes. The time when the Israelites wandered in the wilderness of the Sinai peninsula was formative—it was then that they became the Jewish nation, distinct from other peoples. What set them apart from the other tribes were the extensive laws that governed every aspect of their existence and the fact that they worshipped a single God rather than the multiple gods of other nations.
People familiar with the Laws given to the Israelites when they wandered in the Sinai peninsula before they entered the land of milk and honey will not be surprised by the correspondence to the Laws given to the Muslims in the Koran. The Muslims of Mohammed’s time, even though they lived a thousand years after the Israelites, lived in the wilderness of Sinai and had more in common with them than with their contemporaries.
NUMBERS
“In the Wilderness” would be a more fitting name than Numbers for the fourth book of the Pentateuch. It takes its name from the opening account of the numbering of the people. The book falls into the following sections—preparations for departure from Sinai, the journey to Kadesh, from where an abortive attack upon southern Canaan was made, and the journey from Kadesh via Transjordan for the purpose of approaching Canaan from the east. Many traditions portray the Israelites as a people who continually complained of their existence in the wilderness. They grew tired of eating manna and craved meat. They are pictured as faithless, rebellious and blind to God’s signs. Yet the same traditions are infused with the conviction that God was guiding, sustaining and disciplining them so they might know their dependence upon him and be prepared for their pilgrimage.
DEUTERONOMY
The basic theme of Deuteronomy is the renewal of the covenant, but it is reinterpreted in terms contemporary with the return from the Babylonian exile. At the end of the book of Numbers Israel was encamped in the plains of Moab, preparing for an attack upon Canaan from the east. Deuteronomy is essentially Moses’ farewell address to the people in which he relates the mighty acts of the Lord, solemnly warns of the temptations of the new ways of Canaan, and pleads for loyalty to and love of God as the condition for life in the Promised Land. (Before Mohammed died in 632 ad he also gave a farewell address to the first Muslims, in which he asked if he had conveyed the message from God to them. Like Moses, he warned them to uphold the laws that he had conveyed to them.) Deuteronomy contains three addresses by Moses. This book’s distinctive teaching is that the worship of the Lord is to be centralized in one place, so that the pagan shrines might be eliminated. The Jerusalem temple was regarded as the central sanctuary. Though Deuteronomy rested on ancient tradition, it is a rediscovery and reinterpretation of Mosaic teaching in the light of later historical understanding.
In his addresses, Moses appealed for obedience to the commandments of God. “Only take heed, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things which your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.” (Deuteronomy 4: 9) “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.” (Deuteronomy 4: 26) He reiterated the Ten Commandments and gave the great commandment: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6: 4)
Deuteronomy ends with Moses’ death at the age of 120 years and Joshua’s appointment as his successor to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. “And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him for all the signs and the wonders which the Lord sent him to do in that land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, and for all the mighty power and all the great and terrible deeds which Moses wrought in the sight of all Israel.” (Deuteronomy 34: 10) The Koran concurs with this estimation of Moses. It mentions him more than 35 times.
Moses’ death ends the book of Exodus; he died before the Hebrew children had entered the land of milk and honey; nevertheless, the books of Leviticus and Numbers are attributed to his authorship.
A SHORT HISTORY OF ISRAEL, FROM THE TIME OF THE CONQUEST TO AFTER THE BABYLONIAN EXILE—from about 1400 to 300 bc
THE BOOK OF JOSHUA
After Moses died permission came at last for the Israelites to conquer the Promised Land. The story of Joshua is the story of the conquest, so it is the story of a Holy War. It opens with the passage over the Jordan River and the sack of Jericho. It tells how the Hebrew armies moved from the Jordan Valley into the highlands to capture Ai, and, through a series of deceptions, became allies of the Gibeonites. This led to a great battle with the chieftains of five other Canaanite cities and the conquest of the South. A final engagement in the north resulted in the complete destruction of Canaanite power in Palestine. The book describes the division of the land among the tribes. Israel entered into a covenant to serve forever the God whose might had been awesomely demonstrated. It bears witness to Israel’s faith in a God who intended to establish his rule upon earth and has clearly exhibited his power to do so.
THE BOOK OF JUDGES
Despite the optimistic report in the book of Joshua that Israel conquered Palestine in a brief series of campaigns under a single leader, it is evident from the book of Judges that the process took several generations before the land was securely in Israel’s hands. The tales of the book are of the exploits of various heroes— the “judges.” The book opens with an account of the conquest of Canaan, parallel to that in the book of Joshua, and then relates the adventures of Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, Deborah, Gideon, Gideon’s infamous son Abimelech (who came to a bad end when he tried to make himself a king), Jephthat, Samson and some minor judges. The moral lesson is that loyalty to God is a requisite for success and disloyalty is a guarantee of disaster.
FIRST AND SECOND SAMUEL
There are three principal characters in the books of Samuel—Samuel, Saul, and David. Samuel is the less important figure, a modest prophet, not a ruler in his own right. Saul became the first king the Israelites had after they conquered Palestine. He lived a sedentary existence and was a noble but tragic figure. David is the real hero, but a very human hero who did both noble and ignoble deeds. Second Samuel is made up almost entirely of the story of King David and could very well be called “the book of David.”
The first chapter tells that the prayer of Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, for a son was granted, and she gave birth to Samuel. Because God answered her prayer she consecrated her son to him, and he became the helper of the priest Eli. Eli’s own sons were worthless men, but Samuel grew in spirituality. The third chapter of 1 Samuel tells of the call to Samuel:
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the Word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.’” (I Samuel 3: 2-9)
When the Lord called Samuel a fourth time, Samuel answered as Eli has instructed him. The Lord told him that he was about to do a thing in Israel that “will make the two ears of every one that hears it tingle.” He was about to punish Eli’s house because of his sons’ blasphemy and to raise up Samuel as his prophet.
When Samuel was old, the Israelites came to him, asking for a king. Samuel gave them a severe lecture on the evils of kingship before yielding. The Lord instructed him to “hearken to their voice, and make (choose) them a king.”
Chapter Nine tells of a man named Kish of the tribe of Benjamin, who had a son whose name was Saul. Saul was a handsome young man. Kish sent Saul to look for some lost asses, and he went to Samuel to ask him for instruction for the journey on which he had set. But, the Lord had told Samuel that on that day he would find the man whom he should anoint as the prince over Israel. When treated as royalty by Samuel, Saul said, “Am I not a Benjaminite, from the least of the tribes of Israel? And is not my family the humblest of all the families of the tribe of Benjamin? Why then have you spoken to me in this way?” (I Samuel 9: 21) Shortly afterwards Saul was anointed by Samuel as Israel’s first king.
SOURCES
Biblical scholars conjecture that the Old Testament is composed of four major narratives, the “J,” “E,” “JE,” and “P” documents woven together. The “J” documents are so named because in them God is referred to as “Jehovah.” They are the oldest, written about the 9th Century bc in the southern kingdom of Judah. The “E” documents, so called because in them God is referred to as “Elohim,” were written about a hundred years later in the 8th Century in the northern kingdom of Israel. Scholars assume the “P,” or “Priestly,” documents were composed some two hundred years after “E” in about 600 bc. In the 5th Century bc, Jewish priests combined portions of “J” and “E”, adding a little handiwork of their own. They are referred to as the “JE” documents, since God in these passages is referred to as “Jehovah Elohim,” (translated as “Lord God.”) The final fusion of the Five Books of Moses, called the Pentateuch, occurred around 450 bc. This was from eight to sixteen hundred years after some of the events narrated in them had taken place. Many changes must have occurred as the stories were handed down orally from generation to generation.
Paul Johnson’s A History of the Jews says, “We must not allow the academic prejudices bred by Hegelian ideology, anti-clericalism, anti-Semitism and 19th Century intellectual fashions to distort our view of these texts. All the internal evidence shows that those who sat down and conflated these writings, and the scribes who copied them when the canon was assembled after the return from Exile believed absolutely in their divine inspiration and transcribed them with veneration and highest possible standards of accuracy, including many passages which they manifestly did not understand. Indeed, the Pentateuch text twice gives solemn admonitions, from God himself against tampering: ‘Ye shall not add unto the words which I command you, neither shall you diminish aught from it.’” (A History of the Jews, p. 89)
JUDGES & KINGS
By the 12th Century bc the Jews had settled in Palestine. They lived in a corridor for the armies of warring empires. The Canaanites lived in loosely confederated city states, each ruled by a petty king. Before they could unite against Israel, Joshua crossed the River Jordan and crushed an alliance headed by the Jebusite king, then swerved north, where he defeated the tribes led by King Hazor. The Jews did away with the abominable Canaanite religious practice of human sacrifice to Baal and sacred prostitution in the names of Asherah or Baala.
With the settlement of Canaan, the Jews ceased being a nomadic people. It was the Shoftim, or Judges, who were thought of as divinely inspired men and who established the world’s first democracy—a weak central government fused of the twelve tribes. The Elders dispensed justice within each tribe, and above their authority was that of the Judges. The Judges were the Commanders-in-Chief. They could summon the popular assembly and propose subjects for deliberation. The assembly was all of Israel. For two centuries government by Judges worked, but the system had one fatal weakness—it did not provide a basis for a strong, centralized leadership, and this prevented the development of a stable government. The Jews met this challenge by establishing a constitutional monarchy in about 1000 bc, the first of its kind in the world. The Jewish idea of kingship differed from that of the pagans. The pagans attributed divine descent to their kings, but the Jews never thought of their kings as the descendants of God. The Jewish kings were held accountable for their conduct the same as any ordinary citizen.
THE KINGS
Saul was the first anointed king of Palestine, though he was one in name only. The first actual king was David, and the second was his son Solomon. David extended the kingdom by war; Solomon preserved it by peace. But David’s greatest achievements were unconnected with war: he made Jerusalem the capital of Palestine and a holy place; he earmarked the Temple for that city; and he enshrined the Ark in Jerusalem. Because he was a man of war, he was not permitted to build the Temple. That task was entrusted to Solomon. During David’s reign the Ark was kept in a special tent. Solomon enshrined it in the Temple. Jerusalem thus became the center of Judaism, and later a center for Christianity and Islam.
When David died, his kingdom extended from the Euphrates River to the Gulf of Akaba, about five times the size of present day Israel. The Jebusites had been driven out, and the Philistines were subdued. They rebelled then and tried to regain their lost lands. They did not regain Jerusalem or Palestine, but they did regain their other lands. King Solomon did not attempt to retake them. He made peace, and then he set about to urbanize the agricultural society. He asserted federal control over tribal power. To do this, he divided the country into twelve taxable units. But he tried to accomplish these changes too quickly and laid the seeds for future discord. Palestine even in the days of King David was a weakly fused, dual kingdom, with Israel in the north and Judah in the south. The king of Judah could not govern in Israel without the consent of the Israelites.
A KINGDOM DIVIDED
To be sure Israel would accept his son Solomon as king, David had to take him to Israel for a coronation under his supervision. When Solomon died in 931 bc his son Rehoboam succeeded him only to the throne of Judah. He had to proceed to Shechem in Israel to be crowned there. The spokesman for the Israelites was Jeroboam. When Rehoboam refused to listen to the grievances of the Israelites, his army was defeated, and the kingdom of Palestine was torn asunder. Within a year of Solomon’s death, Jeroboam became king of Israel, which was comprised of ten northern tribes, and Rehoboam remained ruler of Judah, composed of the remaining two southern tribes. A civil war broke out between Israel and Judah and lasted for one hundred years.
TWO KINGDOMS, 933 bc
The independent kingdoms of Israel and Judah lasted for 300 years. During this time they were concerned with preventing themselves from being absorbed by the pagan neighbors, maintaining the morality of Mosaic Law, and preserving their unique identity. Israel was the first kingdom to fall to the Assyrians in 722 bc, and in another 136 years, in 586 bc, Judah fell to the Babylonians.
Nine dynasties rose and fell in Israel’s 212-year monarchy. Jeroboam began his reign by deepening the rift between the two countries when he built a Temple in Bethel to rival the one in Jerusalem. During this time the “J” documents were written in Judah. A few decades later the “E” document were composed in Israel, perhaps in competition. A succession of inept rulers brought Israel to the brink of chaos until King Omri ascended to the throne in 866 bc. Omri reformed the laws of the country and tried to expand his kingdom. His success spread his fame throughout the ancient world, but he also laid the foundations for future disaster by marrying his son Ahab to Jezebel, a Sidonite princess. When she introduced Baal worship and sacred prostitution, the Israelites rose up in outrage.
THE PROPHET ELIJAH
First Kings, chapters 17 through 19, tells the story of the Hebrew prophet Elijah who rose up in defiance to the power of Jezebel. Elijah went to Ahab and said, “By the Lord God of Israel, before whom I stand, there shall not be any dew nor rain in the years to come, except when I say it shall be.” The Lord then told Elijah to flee for his life and to hide by the brook of Cherith near Jordan. There he would have water to drink from the brook, and the ravens would bring him food.
When the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land, God sent Elijah to Zarephath where he was told a widow woman would care for him. When he saw a woman gathering sticks, he asked for water and a small piece of bread. “The Lord God knows I have no bread,” she replied. She was planning to take the handful of meal she had left and bake it for her son and her to eat, and then they would die. Elijah told her to bake him a loaf, that the barrel of meal and oil jar would not be empty until the Lord sent rain on the earth. When she did as he requested, they had food to eat for many days. When the widow’s son became sick and stopped breathing, Elijah prayed, and the child’s life came back into him.
After a long time of drought and famine, the Lord told Elijah to go to Ahab and tell him that he would send rain on the earth. When Ahab saw Elijah, he said, “Are you the man who makes trouble in Israel?” Elijah told him, “It is you and your father’s people who have disobeyed the commandment of the Lord and have worshipped Baal.” He told him to gather the people of Israel on Mount Carmel, with 450 prophets of Baal.
Elijah then addressed the people: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but, if Baal, then follow him.”
“I am the only one left of the Lord’s prophets, but there are 450 prophets of Baal. Let them kill and dress an animal for sacrifice and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it, and I will dress another and lay it on the wood and put no fire under it. Then call to Baal and I will call to the Lord, and the god who answers by fire, let him be God.”
So the priests laid the sacrifice on the wood and called to Baal from morning till noon, but there was no answer. Elijah mocked them. They shouted and cut themselves with knives, as was their custom, but there was no answer. Elijah then poured water down on his altar until it filled the trench to overflowing. Even though it was drenched, when Elijah called upon the Lord, fire came down and consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the dust. Then the people knew who God was. Elijah then killed the priest of Baal, as the rains came down in torrents.
When Jezebel heard that all of Baal’s prophets had been killed she threatened Elijah’s life, but he escaped into the desert.
Jezebel led Ahab by the nose in domestic politics, but he used his own head in foreign affairs. He smashed the armies of Phoenicia, Damascus, Sidon and Tyre and then embraced them as brothers because he saw the danger of Assyria rising in the East. For a thousand years the Assyrians had dreamt of an empire, and in the 10th Century bc their dreams were realized. By 9th Century they had subjugated Babylonia and adjacent territories, and in the 8th Century they were ready to expand westward. Egypt was the prize, but the path led through Israel. Ahab was prepared. In the battle of Karkar (854 bc) he defeated the Assyrians.
THE END OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM OF ISRAEL
The death of King Ahab was a signal for the release of all the pent-up hatred against Jezebel. Conspirators, led by the prophet Elisha, Elijah’s successor, picked Jehu as their leader in the crusade against the “harlot of Sidon.” Jehu assassinated not only Jezebel, but also every member of the house of Ahab and then ascended to the throne. Baal worship was eradicated from the land. Fifty years of peace followed, broken when Tiglath-Pileser II seized the throne of Nineveh. He threatened to march against Israel unless the Israelites paid him a huge sum as tribute. This demand divided the people into pro- and anti-Assyrian factions. This division among the people became a theme that was to be repeated whenever Israel was threatened by more powerful empires. This time the Israelites chose to fight and almost won. They inflicted several defeats on Tiglath-Pileser who was only able to wrest several minor provinces from them. His successor, Shalmaneser V, had no more luck. Finally, Sargon II, his successor, captured Samaria, the capital of Israel, in 722 bc. Sargon deported the entire population, and the kingdom of Israel was demolished.
THE HISTORY OF JUDAH FROM 722 BC TO THE BABYLONIAN EXILE IN 586 BC
The history of Judah parallels that of Israel. Though the Davidic line ruled in the 347 years of its life, twenty kings held the throne. Judah was invaded by Egypt and had no sooner thrown off its yoke, than it embarked on an expansionist policy of its own. The Phoenicians, Arabians, Philistine, Moabites, and Syrians were defeated and sizable parts of their territories were incorporated into Judah. But Judah was unable to hold onto these nations, and in another hundred years it was reduced to the size it had been when it started.
If Israel had a Jezebel, Judah also had one in the form of Jezebel’s daughter, Athaliah, who married Jehoram, the King of Judah. After a number of assassinations, Athaliah ruled for six years before the Davidic line was restored with the coronation of seven-year-old Jehoash.
When Assyria staged its comeback under Tiglath Pileser, Judah, acting under the advice of the Prophet Isaiah, stayed out of the fracas. The kings of Judah paid heed to his words and paid the tribute demanded. In terror they had watched the devastation of Israel when it stopped paying tribute, but a pro-Assyrian, pro-Egyptian debate ensued and began to tear Judah apart. The pro-Egyptians advocated an alliance with Egypt and Syria to fight Assyria, and they prevailed. Syria and Egypt, however, when beholding Assyria’s vast armies, sued for peace and left Judah to face the enraged Assyrians by itself.
Then a miracle happened. One morning the Jews were surprised to see the besieging Assyrians outside the gates of Jerusalem breaking up camp and departing in haste. The Jews celebrated this as a good sign from heaven, but Herodotus believed that a plague of mice bringing typhus had struck the Assyrian camp. Assyria had little time to enjoy her victories when the Babylonians, the first people it had defeated, rebelled, sacked Nineveh and annihilated the Assyrian forces.
THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
Now Judah fell into the hands of the Babylonians. After a few years of Babylonian domination, Judah rebelled in 600 bc. When King Nebuchadnezzar sent an army to quell the uprising, it was trounced. So Nebuchadnezzar himself came at the head of his forces, and Jerusalem was besieged and finally fell in 597. Nebuchadnezzar took the 18-year-old King Jehoiachin into captivity and deported 8,000 of the country’s leading citizens, appointing 21-year-old Zedekiah as the puppet ruler of Judah. When Judah aligned itself with Egypt to strike for independence, Nebuchadnezzar returned and laid siege to Jerusalem. The Judeans held out for a year-and-a-half, but in 586 bc the Babylonians breached the walls of Jerusalem, and the Temple was destroyed. This time everyone was deported except the poor, the sick and the crippled. This was the beginning of what we refer to as the Babylonian Exile. The kingdom of Judah was finished, 136 years after the fall of Israel.
THE BABYLONIAN EXILE
One might expect that with the fall of Judah that the Hebrew people would be assimilated into the Babylonian culture and vanish from the face of earth as a separate people, but that was not the case. It is true that the ten tribes of Israel never reappeared after their defeat at the hands of Assyrians, but something happened between the defeat of Israel in 722 bc and that of Judah in 586 bc that made it possible for the latter to survive and begin a new phase of Jewish life.
For this to happen there had to be a conscious, ongoing effort to retain its national and religious identity. According to Max Dimont’s Jews, God and History, “Judah met the challenge of the times by responding with two ideas which not only saved her from national extinction, but are still influencing the Western world today. The first idea was the canonization of part of Holy Scripture, making it the word of God. The second idea was the ‘packaging’ of Jewish religion for export.” (Max Dimont. Jews, God and History. New York: Penguin Books. 1964. P. 65.)
During the reign of King Josiah in 638 bc, he entrusted to his High Priests a plan for editing and fusing parts of the “J” and “E” documents into Scripture. When finished, these revised documents were hidden in the Temple. With great fanfare King Josiah proclaimed that a book written by Moses at the command of God had been found and would be read aloud to the people. This Book is now known as Deuteronomy or the “D” document. Jews from every part of the kingdom came to listen to the words of Moses being read to them. This brought about a religious awakening in the nation. It was so effective that the Jews, out of an inner discipline, imposed upon themselves the willingness to obey the authority of the Book.
The prophets perfected this work. The people believed that the prophets were sent by God to show mankind the path to righteousness. They also believed that as the Chosen People they must set an example for the rest of the world.
THE LATER PROPHETS: THE LIVING CONSCIENCE OF ISRAEL
A common belief underlies the message of all the Hebrew prophets—the eternal presence of God in life. Everything had significance only as it related to him. Nothing was ever done except that he dictated it. Good and evil came to men only because God judged their acts— thus, there was a direct relationship between the acts of mankind and whatever befell them.
The prophets were ahead of their times in their denunciations of social ills. Through Revelation to the prophets, the concept of Yahweh underwent a major revision that altered the manner in which he was worshipped. The revolutionary importance of the Hebrew prophets cannot be underestimated. Their words are as relevant today as they were 2400 years ago.
Eighteen books of prophecy follow the books of Chronicles in the Old Testament—Ezra, Nehemiah, Isaiah (first and second), Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Because many of these books of prophecy are redundant (which is not to belittle their content or importance), in this work we will consider only three in depth—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel—as they relate to the process of Revelation.
The pattern of prophecy that we observed earlier was firmly established with the Old Testament prophets, from Hosea and Amos. From before the fall of Israel to the Assyrians and the destruction of the Northern Kingdom in the 9th Century bc to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the temple after the Babylonian Exile in the 5th Century bc, the style and manner in which they conveyed their message differed, but the message was consistent. It was also consistent with the message of the earlier prophets, except for some evolution in thought, which we can assume came as a result of God Himself seeking ways to improve His relationship with Israel and individuals. The voices of the prophets were the living conscience of Israel and were accepted as the medium through which God spoke to them. In other words, they were divinely inspired.
Throughout the Old Testament there is the sense of God working hand in glove through the various prophets He selected to convey His messages to people. Foremost is the message of His Sovereignty; the worship of idols is useless and forbidden. The world itself has been created by and is sustained by God; therefore, whatever befalls mankind is the result of God’s actions. Everything has significance only as it relates to Him. Nothing is ever done unless He directs it. Good and evil come to men only because God judges their actions. The sense of God’s primacy in the affairs of men has lessened in modern times in the Western world. The last time God spoke to prophets, if we are to believe that Mohammed was the “seal” or the last of the prophets, was in the 7th Century ad. For 1300 years the world has been without prophecy, and this has caused some people to doubt that it ever was given.
AMOS AND HOSEA
Through Revelation to the latter prophets, God revised the manner in which he wanted to be worshipped. He was no longer interested in sacrifice, but wanted men to act justly. We first see this change in the prophecy of Amos, a simple herdsman from Tekoah, a man seemingly unfit to condemn the vices of urban life. It was probably during the prosperous period of Jeroboam’s reign that Amos came to the religious festivals at Bethel in the northern kingdom, where he saw crowds of merry-makers swarming in the streets and prosperous merchants vying with nobles in the lavishness of their sacrifices. He mocked the self-righteous, who came with prayers and offerings for Yahweh. Yahweh needed none of them. He abominated their sacrifices. What good were fatlings when the hearts of the givers were sodden with filth, when men lay before the altar in clothes torn from debtors, when they drank sacramental wine purchased by the sweat money of the oppressed?
I hate, I despise, your feasts,
And I will not smell the savor of your festivals,
And the peace offerings of your fatlings, I will not regard with favor.
Banish from me the noise of your songs,
For to the melody of your lyres I will not listen.
But let justice roll on as a flood of waters,
And righteousness like an unfailing stream.
Seek good, not evil, that you may live.
Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is.
Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.
Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of
Joseph. (Amos 5)
Amos had turned a corner in the history of religious thought. Denunciations of social evil were not new, but he linked them to a concept of God. In this he was ahead of his time. He rose above the idea that God was only a Jewish God. He was the God of all people, and He was pleased when they were righteous and angered when they oppressed others. He challenged the complacency of those who identified goodness with ritualistic piety.
Scarcely had Amos ceased preaching when the evils he predicted were fulfilled with startling precision. Jeroboam II died in 743 bc, and anarchy followed. Following that “the Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold” ending the independent life of the kingdom. But before the end, a second prophet arose to continue the work of Amos.
Hosea was as bitter as Amos. His tongue lashed every class—false prophets, profiteers, priests, rulers and nobles. He saw through to the roots of the social disease. Israel was “a cake unturned, burnt on one side, the heart raw and sour.” What could follow but its destruction?
Hosea’s own tragic experience taught him tenderness. His wife Gomer, who had been his pride and happiness, proved to be unfaithful and turned to sin. When he pleaded with her to abandon her adultery for the sake of their children, she was obdurate and went openly to her lover. When he abandoned her, she sank to the lowest degradation, but Hosea could not give her up to her punishment. He took her back to live with him. His tragedy taught him that the one who loves does not cease loving when the beloved pains or disappoints him. From his own experience, he drew the moral of Israel’s betrayal of God:
How can I give thee up, Ephraim,
Abandon thee, Israel?
How can I make thee like Admah,
Treat thee like Zeboim?
My heart is turned within Me,
My compassions are kindled together.
I cannot work out the heat of My wrath,
I cannot again make havoc on Ephraim;
For I am God, and not man—
The Holy One is in the midst of thee;
I come no more to consume. (Hosea 11: 8-9)
The analogy of Israel as a harlot, betraying her true husband, God, by taking other lovers, is found in Hosea and was a theme repeated many times in the words of the prophets who followed him. Hosea also preached the doctrine of a God who cared with the solicitude of a loving father for the welfare of his children. With Hosea mankind climbed another step in its struggle to understand God and become more humane. Jeremiah based his teaching on a God of love, and the heart of the message of Jesus was the gospel of love, but before Jeremiah and seven centuries before Jesus, Hosea strove to bring his people to a God of love. Soon after Hosea, the Assyrians conquered and uprooted the northern kingdom, the house of Israel.
MICAH
Another prophet, inspired by Isaiah, appeared during Hezekiah’s reign, the simple democrat, Micah. He despised the religious leaders who pandered to the wealthy classes. He used the imagery of cannibalism to express his bitterness for the oppressors of the poor: “Ye who hate the good and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from them, and their flesh from off their bones; who also eat the flesh of my people and flay their skins from off them and break their bones, and chop them in pieces as for the pot, and as flesh for the cauldron.” (Micah 3: 1-3) From Micah we have the summary of religious duty:
What doth the Lord require of thee
But to do justly, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with thy God? (Micah 6: 8)
First ISAIAH
After Solomon’s monarchy, Judah had fallen out of sight and had been overshadowed by Israel, but the mid-8th Century bc was a bright interlude for Judah in terms of material prosperity. The outstanding figure of this period, the reign of Hezekiah, was Isaiah, whose eloquent voice was one of the most profound of all the prophets. He insisted that the fundamental weakness of the state lay in its reliance on material forces. “If ye will not have faith, ye shall not endure.”
God demanded holiness from his people—a spirit of consecration for the highest purposes. Those who went on desecrating their lives were like dry, rotten branches— they would wither and die. But a remnant would remain to continue serving God and to preserve Israel.
Historians believe there were two Isaiahs; it is generally accepted that Chapters 1 through 39 were written by the first Isaiah, a prophet to Judah, the son of Amos, and who lived during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Aha, and Hezekiah, all kings of Judah. He preached before the time of the Babylonian exile, from 742 bc to 687 bc, the period in which the Northern Kingdom of Israel was annexed to the Assyrian empire while Judah lived uneasily in its shadow as a tributary. He may have been a priest— certainly he had the ear of the kings, particularly that of Hezekiah.
Second Isaiah came after the fall of Babylonia to the Persians, when Cyrus of Persia reigned in 539 bc, nearly two hundred years later. His writings have stylistic differences from those of First Isaiah, shown by a different historical context, a different literary style and a different essence to his message. If First Isaiah warned of the fate that would befall Judah and Jerusalem, Second Isaiah comforted the exiles with the promise of the restoration of the Jerusalem and the Temple. Second Isaiah opens with one of the most beautifully reassuring passages in the entire Bible:
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God,
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her
That her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned,
For she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40: 1-2)
We will concern ourselves only with the first Isaiah. He was a contemporary of Amos, Hosea and Micah. He attacked social injustice as indicative of Judah’s tenuous relationship with God and exhorted his hearers to place their confidence in God and to lead lives that manifested his presence among them.
Chapter Six described Isaiah’s call as having been initiated with a vision:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” (Isaiah 6: 1-8)
(Isaiah’s vision of the Lord and his seraphim is consistent with but elaborated upon in a vision Ezekiel had when he was first called during the Babylonia exile. It is related in detail in the book of Revelation to John.)
Isaiah seems to have readily accepted his commission—that he go to the people and tell them that they hear but do not understand and that they see but do not perceive. When he asked how long he would have to warn them, he was told “Until cities lie waste without inhabitants, and houses without men, and the land is utterly desolate, and the Lord removes men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the Land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains standing when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.” (Isaiah 6: 11-13) In other words, Isaiah’s ministry would last a long time – until the Babylonian exile.
The dominant idea conveyed in First Isaiah is that the Lord God governs the happenings in the world of nations. Whenever Israel won or lost a war, it was determined by God and predicted by the prophets: the fall of the ten tribes of Israel to the Assyrians, Judah’s fall to the Babylonians, the Babylonian exile, and the fall of Babylonia to the Persians. Even before the Lord God punished Judah, its salvation was predicted: “I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted and they came to pass.” (Isaiah 48: 3) And, “Have you not heard? Long ago I ordained it. In the days of old I planned it, and now I have brought it to pass.” (Isaiah 37: 26) Significant here is the idea that the events of the world have been planned by and are known to God long before they transpire.
Another example of the foreknowledge of the Lord is described in Isaiah 39: 1-8, when King Hezekiah showed the envoys from Babylon all his treasures, and then Isaiah told him that all he had shown them would be carried off to Babylonia. Hezekiah thought slyly, “Then there be peace and security in my life time.”
The second idea in Isaiah is the sovereignty of the Lord. There is no God but God; the idols fashioned by people were useless.
Chapters 36 and 37 tell the story of when Judah was threatened by the invasion of Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, during the reign of Hezekiah. When Hezekiah heard the threats from the ambassadors of Sennacherib, he rent his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. He sent priests to Isaiah to learn whatever he would have to say. Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor, and return to his own land; and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’” (Isaiah 37: 5) “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, or shoot an arrow there, or come before it with a shield, or cast up a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city,’ says the Lord. ‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.’”
“And the angel of the Lord went forth, and slew a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went home and dwelt at Nineveh. And as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, slew him with the sword, and escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son reigned in his stead.” (Isaiah 37: 36-38)
Shortly after this Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. Isaiah told him to put his house in order, because he would soon die. So Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, asking him to “remember how I have walked before thee in faithfulness and with a whole heart, and have done what is good in thy sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. Then the word of God came to Isaiah: “Go and say to Hezekiah, Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: ‘I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.’” (Isaiah 38: 1-5) Significant here is the idea that, though God had minutely planned the events of the world and of each individual’s life, including when each soul will die, nevertheless, the supplications of men and women and their actions can alter these events.
The fourth theme presented in Isaiah is that a messianic savior will be born and that he will be the prince of peace:
For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will
be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9: 6)
We will study these messianic prophecies more fully in the next chapter on Jesus. They are linked with the idea of a Suffering Servant who carries the sin of the whole of mankind and by his sacrifice purges them. Isaiah himself and Jeremiah might be seen as this servant, but, rather than debate who the Suffering Servant is before leaving it, we should note the maturing of the religion of Yahweh we find in Isaiah. He is not concerned with the religion of an official cult but is concerned with an ethical religion of the heart. God is concerned with justice and with judgment, the judgment of nations and the judgment of the individual soul.
JEREMIAH
The 6th Century bc produced various religious geniuses who influenced the progress of civilization—in the far east, Leo-Tse founded Taoism and Confucius laid down his moral precepts; Guatama taught the Eightfold Path which became the heart of Buddhism. Israel produced Jeremiah.
Out of his melancholic suffering came a new understanding of a personal God. God had not chosen nations; he had chosen individuals. He was in every form of nature, the divine in man. The reverence and awesome contemplation of nature in Jeremiah is the similar to that in the Koran. God’s presence linked all men in kinship and made them all brothers—this idea too is present in the Koran. When Israel and Judah were overtaken by mightier nations, it was because God Himself had wreaked devastation on them as punishment for their sins.
We can take comfort from Jeremiah’s call, comfort that before we were born, we were known to the Lord:
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1: 4-5)
His call came in about 626 bc. He came to Jerusalem when the Scythians were threatening to invade and the inhabitants were panicking:
Behold, like clouds he comes up,
His chariots a storm-wind;
Swifter than vultures his horses!
Woe to us; we’re undone.
O Jerusalem, wash thee from sin
If thou wouldst be saved.
How long shall lodge in thy heart
Thy dissolute thoughts? (Jeremiah 4: 13-14)
The Scythians skirted Judah without harming the country, and Judah under King Josiah lived in peace for a short period of time, but soon Egypt, marching towards the Euphrates, conquered the tiny kingdom of Judah and killed Josiah. Egypt, in turn, was overwhelmed by Babylon, which then became the ruler of Judah. As long as King Jehoiakim remained loyal, the country was not harmed.
Jeremiah awoke and pleaded for loyalty to the suzerain power, insisting that Judah, wedged between mighty nations, could find salvation by remaining outside alliances and coalitions. He did not share in the popular belief that Jerusalem could not be destroyed, and thus he became the most unpopular man in Jerusalem. The priests, the patriots, and the mobs reviled him. He was imprisoned. When he was released, he wrote out the sermons he had preached and sent them to the king. When Jehoiakim destroyed them, Jeremiah rewrote them, elaborating on them, and he continued to preach that Judah would fall. God would have to refashion his work, for Judah had failed him.
As Jeremiah spoke, King Nebuchadnezzar swept down and overwhelmed Judah. The king and the leading citizens were transported to Babylonia, leaving only a hapless remnant under Josiah’s youngest son, Zedekiah. Jeremiah then gave advice to the exiles, offering them solace and comfort, assuring them that a remnant would spring from them in time to bring the resurrection of Jewish life.
When the zealots left in Jerusalem preached resistance, Jeremiah again took up the unpopular cause of pacifism: he walked through Jerusalem with a yoke on his shoulders to illustrate what would happen if Judah adopted the suicidal policy of resistance. The yoke was torn off and he was spat upon, but still he persisted.
Throughout his writing are confessions of doubts, fears and his hopes, adding a personal psychological element to his work. He went beyond his predecessors in his concept of a personal God. God’s bond was with each individual. Jeremiah’s suffering and the patience with which he bore it, his doubts and the faith by which he triumphed over them, provide us with a portrait of God’s chosen servant and a symbol of eternal Israel.
He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53: 3-5)
The prophets of the 8th, 7th and 6th Centuries bc changed the religion of the Hebrews. They crystallized the progressive ideas that had been developing for three centuries and gave them an expression that has influenced religious thought ever since. They placed individual and social life on a moral basis, holding conscience higher than law. They did not repudiate the forms of religion, but their abuse.
The study of Revelation and history sometimes seems to be at odds the same way that the study of myth and history may be. History often seems like an endless, ongoing account of the rise and fall of civilizations, while Revelation breaks through it not only with warnings but also with words of enlightenment and encouragement. If a leader is enlightened, that is fortuitous for the people for the time he rules, but Revelation imparts enlightenment that sustains them from one time to another. The steady march of history seems to be towards a more enlightened and humane way of life. In this sense Revelation can be seen as the engine that drives mankind towards enlightenment.
If this is true, what has mankind gained from the Revelation that was imparted to the Hebrew prophets? The prophets changed Jehovah from a Jewish God to a universal God and from a collective God to a personal God. They clarified that God was not as nearly as interested in sacrifice and ritual as he was in the content of the human heart and how it was demonstrated. What he wants, the prophets tell us, is that we live morally upright lives with compassion and justice. Real sin, they held, was corruption and the perversion of justice. Moreover, they taught that the spiritual and moral message of Judaism was meant for all mankind.
These new ideas helped the Jews carry their religion with them into captivity. The Law bound the Temple to Jerusalem, and sacrifice had to be offered in it according to rigid ritual and formula. By undermining the value of sacrifice and by making morality superior to ritual, the prophets freed the Jewish religion from the confines of time and place. Revelation to the Old Testament prophets gave mankind a giant step forward.
Instead of a Temple for sacrifice, in Babylon the Jews built synagogues for religious assembly. There, instead of performing rituals, the Jews offered prayers to God. The synagogue became the prototype for churches and mosques, and prayer became the universal mean of devotion to God. This meant that the Jews could set up shop in any land because their religion was portable.
In the 6th Century bc Babylonia was ruled by a series of enlightened kings who treated the Jews with tolerance. Though there were those who wept by the rivers of Babylon, the rest fell in love with the country, prospered, and became cultured. But there was a shadow on the horizon of Babylonia. In another fifty years, it would be wiped off the face of the earth by a people forming to its north: the Persians.
EZEKIEL
Among the first group of the elite forced into Babylonian exile in 597 bc was a learned priest named Ezekiel. His wife had died during the siege of Jerusalem, and he lived in lonely exile on the banks of the Chebar Canal near Babylon. One day, while sitting on its bank in bitterness and despair, he had one of the most remarkable visions of God ever experienced by a human being on earth. Though it may seem quaint to modern people, there is nothing to equal it in Scripture other than the Revelation accredited to St. John, received when he was imprisoned on the Island of Patmos in the 1st Century ad, six hundred years later. Even Mohammed’s journey to Jerusalem on the back of Buraq and his passage through the seven circles of Heaven to an audience with God, do not equal the vision given Ezekiel. He meticulously recorded it:
In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month on the fifth day, while I was among the exiles by the Kebar River, the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming bronze. And from the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the form of men, but each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. And the four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings touched on another; they went every one straight forward, without turning as they went.
As for the likeness of their faces, each had the face of a man in front; the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the four had the face of an ox on the left side, and four had the face of an eagle at the back.
Such were their faces. And their wings were spread out above; each creature had two wings, each of which touched the wings of another, while two covered their bodies. And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they went, without turning as they went. In the midst of the living creatures there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures darted to and fro, like a flash of lightning.
Now as I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel upon the earth beside the living creatures, one for each of the four of them. As for the appearance of the wheels and their construction: their appearance was like the gleaming of a chrysolite; and the four had the same likeness, their construction being as it were a wheel within a wheel. When they went they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went.
The four wheels had rims and they had spokes; and their rims were full of eyes round about. And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them, and when the living creatures rose from the earth, the wheels rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they went, and the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those rose from the earth, the wheels rose along with them; for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.
Over the heads of the living creatures there was the likeness of a firmament, shining like crystal, spread out above their heads. And under the firmament their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another; and the each creature had two wings covering its body. And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the sound of many waters, like the thunder of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of a host, when they stood still, they let down their wings.
And above the firmament over their heads there was the likeness of a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness as it were of a human form. And upward from what had appearance of his loins I saw as it were gleaming bronze, like the appearance of fire enclosed round about him.
Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about.
Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard the voice of one speaking. (Ezekiel 1)
EZEKIEL IS CALLED “SON OF MAN”
Whenever Ezekiel is addressed by God, he is called “Son of man.” This appellation seems fairly straightforward in Ezekiel, meaning a human being born of a woman. It is of significance that this is also the designation by which Jesus most commonly refers to himself in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. The gospel of John is another story, as we shall see. (See discussion concerning Son of God/son of man in the next chapter.) In Ezekiel 2: 1-2 he says, “And he said to me, ‘Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak with you.’ And when he spoke to me, the Spirit entered into me and set me upon my feet; and I heard him speaking to me.”
“And he said to me, ‘Son of man, I send you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels, who have rebelled against me; they and their fathers have transgressed against me to this very day. The people also are impudent and stubborn: I send you to them; and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ And whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house) they will know that there has been a prophet among them.” (Ezekiel 2: 1-4)
In the manner recalled in the book of Revelation when John is given a scroll to eat, Ezekiel is told to open his mouth and to eat what he is given. “And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me, and lo, a written scroll was in it; and he spread it before; and it had writing on the front and on the back, and there were written on it words of lamentation and mourning and woe.”(Ezekiel 2: 9-10) “So I opened my mouth, and he gave me the scroll to eat. And he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it,’ Then I ate it; and it was in my mouth as sweet as honey.” (Ezekiel 2: 2-3) (In the 11th Chapter of Revelation, when the angel gives John a scroll to eat, he says, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach, but sweet as honey in your mouth.” And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. (Revelation: 10: 9-10))
Ezekiel is then given a harsh commission:
Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears. And go, get you to the exiles, to your people, and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; whether they hear or refuse to hear.” Then the Spirit lifted me up, and as the glory of the Lord arose from its place, I heard behind me the sound of a great earthquake; it was the sound of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the sound of the wheels beside them, that sounded like a great earthquake. The spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness in the heart of my spirit, the hand of the Lord being strong upon me, and I came to the exiles at Telabib, who dwelt by the river Chebar. And sat there overwhelmed among them seven days. [Muslim sources say that whenever Mohammed received Revelation, his body became very heavy, he perspired, and then became cold. After his first Revelation, his wife Khadjida had to wrap him in blankets.] And at the end of the seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ‘Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die, and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you will have saved your life. Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because you have warned him, he shall die for his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you will have saved your life. (Ezekiel 3: 10-21)
THE MESSAGES EZEKIEL IS TO CONVEY TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL IN EXILE
Many times Ezekiel symbolized God’s messages to his compatriots in Babylon. He is asked to take a brick and portray Jerusalem on it and put a siege work against it to symbolize the siege of Jerusalem, to shave his head and weigh and divide the hair to symbolize the fate of the Jerusalemites, and to prepare himself an exile’s baggage to symbolize their exile. Sometimes he gave the message through allegories, such as the allegory of the useless vine (Ezekiel 15), and of Jerusalem as the Lord’s unfaithful wife who paid her lovers (Ezekiel 16).
In Ezekiel we have an early articulation of the principle of individual responsibility: a person is not responsible for the sins of his father or his community, only for his own sins: “The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father, nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” (Ezekiel 18: 20)
REFRAINS IN EZEKIEL
Ezekiel is replete with certain refrains that add to its impact. The most common of these comes whenever the Lord completes an action that Ezekiel has prophesied. He says, “And then they will know I am the Lord.” Ezekiel prophesied judgments against Jerusalem, Samaria, Ammon, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Sidon, and Egypt. “They will know that I am the Lord, when I disperse them (the Israelites) among the nations and scatter them through the countries.” (Ezekiel 12: 15) “When you have been defiled in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 22: 16) “When this happens (the desecration of the Temple in Jerusalem), you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 24: 24)
Chapter 33 ends with the Lord saying, “When this comes, as it surely will! Then they will know that a prophet has been among them!”
Another refrain common to Ezekiel is that of God saying “As surely as I live. . .”
With all the judgment and wrath poured down on Israel and her neighbors during the time of Ezekiel, it would almost seem that God takes pleasure in killing, but He says in Ezekiel 33: 11: “Say to them, ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign Lord, ‘I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel?’”
THE VALLEY OF DRY BONES
No discussion of the prophet Ezekiel would be complete with mention of his vision in Chapter 37 of the valley of dry bones, which symbolized the rebirth of Israel. Ezekiel says that the hand of the Lord was upon him and brought him out by the Spirit of the Lord and set him in the middle of a valley full of dry bones. And he was asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel answered, “O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.” So the Lord told Ezekiel to prophesize to them and he would make his breath enter them and they would come back to life. He would attach “tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin: I will put breath in you and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37: 5-6)
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE
Cyrus the Great founded the Persian Empire. In 560 bc he became king of a petty city-state in the hinterland. Ten years later he was the king of Media. By 539 bc he defeated Babylonia, and by 530 bc he handed his son Cambyses the new Persian Empire, extending from the Indus River to the Mediterranean.
As inheritor of the Jewish “problem,” Cyrus took a surprising action—he gave the Jews permission to return to Palestine, for he was sure they would rebuild Jerusalem and the country and turn them into sources of revenue for Persia. Cyrus was also a Zoroastrian and believed in one, eternal, beneficent being, “Creator of all things through the holy spirit.” Because of this belief the Persians respected the religious beliefs of subject peoples. According to Second Isaiah, it was the Lord who commanded this restoration by Cyrus. About a fourth of the Jews living in Babylonia took advantage of his edict and returned to Jerusalem; in succeeding waves, more Jews returned, and Jerusalem became prosperous again.
The crowning of Jeshua as High Priest gave the Jews a form of self-government. For the next five hundred years Palestine was ruled mostly by High Priests. Actually there were two exoduses from Babylonia; the first set the political boundaries of the homeland and the second, its spiritual framework. Two highborn Jews, Nehemiah and Ezra, helped find the answers for their survival. Nehemiah was appointed governor of Judah. He enacted social reforms and rebuilt the walls surrounding Jerusalem.
Ezra helped establish a Jewish consciousness by re-instituting Mosaic Law as fundamental Law and earning for himself the title of the “Second Moses.” In 458 bc Ezra headed the second mass exodus and joined hands with Nehemiah. Their first move was to institute a ban on intermarriage between Jews and non-Jews to help them survive the waves of assimilation that would have destroyed them as a people. The book of Ruth may have been written at this time as a protest against such discrimination.
Secondly, they not only revised the book of Deuteronomy, but also added it to the four other books of Moses, fusing them into the Pentateuch. After that, no deletions, changes or additions were allowed. In 444 bc they introduced the Pentateuch. Heralds were sent into every corner of the Persian Empire to spread the news that on the Jewish New Year’s Day the Five books of Moses would be read aloud to all the people. Interpreters were on hand to explain in Aramaic all difficult passages. The idea proved popular and became an institution in Jewish life. A school of Midrash (exposition) developed. Ezra and Nehemiah also decreed that the Pentateuch be read in every synagogue throughout each year on the Sabbath and twice during the week. At the beginning of each Jewish New Year, the reading started anew with Genesis. Eight hundred years after the death of Moses Jewishness was established as the result of the reforms of Josiah, the doctrines of the prophets, and the innovations of Ezra and Nehemiah.
The Babylonian Jews infused Jerusalem with a new intellectual life. When the Temple built at this time was destroyed by the Romans in 70 ad, Babylonia became the repository for Jewish learning for the next thousand years.
But, on the horizon in the 3rd Century bc was another challenge to the integrity of the Jewish way of life, one that would challenge its inner life. Alexander the Great of Macedonia was on the march in quest of an empire that would bring Greek culture to the lands he conquered, including Israel.
THE HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE
About the time Israel was defeated by the Assyrians in the 7th Century bc, an Aryan people, the Greeks, invaded the Aegean peninsula from Anatolia and established the city-states of Athens, Sparta and Corinth. By the 5th and 4th Centuries bc, the Greeks excelled in almost every field of endeavor but religion. The 5th Century bc was their Golden Age, but it was also a time when they lived under the threat of domination by the Persians. The Greeks were not particularly interested in expanding their empire until Alexander the Great, dreaming of a world empire, crossed the Hellespont in 334 bc with 32,000 infantrymen and shattered the empires of the Persians and Egypt. The High Priest of Jerusalem headed a formal procession to welcome Alexander in 332 bc.
It was Alexander’s intention to extend Hellenic culture the world over—he wanted the people he conquered to speak Greek and act like Greeks. Within the 25 cities in the Middle East that he founded, he ordered his men to intermarry with the native populations and beget children. After his early death at the age of 32 his empire was ripped apart by his generals contending for power. Antigonus claimed Greece; Seleucus took possession of Asia Minor and Syria, founding the Seleucid Empire; and Ptolemy took control of Egypt and Palestine, founding the Ptolemaic Empire.
Every Greek city in Asia Minor and in Alexandria had a sizable Jewish population. Exposure to Greek culture caused an internal struggle among the Jews over Hellenization. Greek culture infected their language, manners, and customs, and even encroached upon their morals, ethics and religion. Jews assumed Greek names and wore the Greek tunic for political purposes. Synagogues came to resemble Greek temples. Many Jews became enamored of aspects of Greek culture. Though belief in the panoply of Greek gods held no allure for them, Jewish intellectuals came under the spell of Greek philosophy. Greek philosophy would in turn play a part in how the early church would define the nature of Jesus. Orthodox Jews were alarmed by the trend, particularly by the Epicureans who taught that the gods did not interfere in human affairs and that there was no such thing as morality and immorality, only pleasure. Immorality and licentiousness challenged the Jewish values of chastity and faithfulness.
Under the Ptolemaic kings the Jews in Palestine were left alone as long as they paid taxes, but, after 125 years of struggle, when the Seleucids gained control, Antiochus tried to unify the empire and erected statues of Greek gods and of himself throughout the domain. The Jews were now asked to show their loyalty by erecting statues of the king in their temples. When his son Antiochus Epiphanes enforced this policy, the Jewish anti-Hellenizers revolted, throwing the Jewish Hellenizers over the walls of the Temple. In retaliation Antiochus slaughtered 10,000 Jewish inhabitants of Jerusalem. Out of spite he outlawed the Sabbath and forbade circumcision.
THE MACCABEES
In a little town near Jerusalem, a Greek official attempted to force an aged Jewish priest named Mattathius, of the Hasmonean house, to sacrifice to Greek gods. Rather than commit this sacrilege, Mattathias slew the officer. He and his five sons then lead a war against the Greeks. They became known as the Maccabees from the Hebrew word for “hammer,” because they dealt the Seleucid army one blow after another. The Greeks were amazed by these people who would stoically die for their beliefs. The Jews would not submit. In 164 bc they shattered Antiochus’s army and recaptured Jerusalem. The Temple was purged of idols and rededicated to God, giving birth to the feast of Hanukkah, an eight-day festival commemorating the victory in 165 bc of the Macabees over Antiochus Epiphanes and the rededication of the Temple at Jerusalem. Twenty-five years later the Seleucids retreated from Palestine. Mattathias and four of his five sons had been slain in the war. Simon, the sole survivor, became the king, the first of the Hasmonean dynasty.
THE HASMONEAN DYNASTY—143 - 37 bc
In 143 bc, with the second establishment of Judah, the Jewish people were 1,875 years old; they had survived longer than any other group of people in the world. Simon was never anointed king but is still regarded the first of the Hasmonean dynasty. He was a wise and shrewd ruler. Realizing that the Seleucids and Ptolemies were biding their time, waiting to strike back against Judah, he signed a mutual defense pact with Romans. It was not Roman perfidy, however, but internal strife over the issue of Hellenism that brought down the new kingdom. Three political parties had emerged, each with a different attitude toward the problem: the Sadduccees, the Pharisees, and the Essenes.
The Sadduccees stood for Temple, Priest and Sacrifice—in other words, for the old religious order. They, however, represented the liberal, enlightened political viewpoint, that neither the country nor Judaism would be jeopardized by a reasonable amount of Hellenic influence.
The Pharisees, standing for Synagogue, Rabbi, and Prayer, were against Hellenization because they viewed it as an alien culture. Thus, the Sadducees were liberal in their political views and conservative in their religious thinking, and the Pharisees were conservative in their politics but liberal in their religion. They believed in the principal of religious evolution, stressed the new Oral Law and approved of the reinterpretation of Mosaic Law.
The Essenes, on the other hand, having no taste for politics, withdrew from secular life to devote themselves to religious contemplation, developing a messianic religion that played a role in the lives of John the Baptist and Jesus.
Trouble brewed when Simon was murdered by his son-in-law, and his son John Hyrcanus was crowned king and anointed High Priest. He offended his own party, the Pharisees, when he hired foreign mercenaries, struck coins bearing his name, and plundered the tomb of King David. When the Pharisees demanded he leave office, he switched to the Sadduccee party and introduced further Hellenistic measures. He annexed the Idumeans and Galileans.
Murder, fratricide, matricide, and regicide marked the ascension of his son, Aristobulus I, to the throne. He was an ardent Sadducee who carried Hellenization to offensive extremes. He was succeeded by his brother, Alexander Janneus. The schism between parties caused an outbreak of civil war, and the Pharisees asked the Seleucids for help. The Pharisees, realizing the folly of asking their archenemies for help, then joined Janneus in defeating them. When Janneus’s wife Alexander succeeded him, Judah had a short time of relative peace, which was ended by the rivalry of her sons for the throne. When she died, Hyrcanus II seized the throne, only to be deposed by his brother Aristobulus. When Hyrcanus wrested the throne back, Aristobulus appealed to the Romans for help.
By 67 bc the Romans under Pompey had finished their conquest of Syria. They ordered Hyracanus off the throne and out of the country. Now Hyrcanus appealed to Pompey to be reinstated, but Aristobulus pleaded to keep his job. The Pharisees, sick of all this, petitioned Pompey to recognize neither. Pompey heeded none of them. In 63 bc he marched into Judah, conquered it, and named it Judea.
The Romans never had the cultural impact on the Jews that the Greeks had. Roman rule began with civil war raging in both the Roman Empire and Judah. Pompey appointed Hyrcanus the High Priest and ethnarch of Judea and named Antipater, an Idumean, as political adviser. After Julius Caesar defeated Pompey in 48 bc, he named Antipater as administrator in Judea. When Caesar was assassinated, Antipater played up to his successor, Cassius, until he was poisoned and succeeded by his son, Herod.
The Hasmonean dynasty was soon to end. While Herod was in Rome, the last descendant left. Antigonus, defeated the Romans and drove them out of Judea. Herod, who had been proclaimed king of Jews by the Romans, was not about to concede. For three years Herod and his Roman legions battled Antigonus, and in 37 bc they captured Jerusalem.
Despite many political intrigues, Herod was able to rule for 46 years, but it was a time of political turmoil. Two parties were formed in Judea and Galilee. One, the Zealot party, was the War Party, urging a stand against Roman rule; the other, the Peace Party, cautioned against such folly. Into this time of political turmoil and hardship for Judea, Jesus, who would be known as the Messiah to Christians and eventually even to Muslims, was born.
CHAPTER THREE:
REVELATION TO JESUS & THE EARLY CHRISTIANITY
FROM 1 TO 320 AD
During the time of the prophet Isaiah, in the 7th and 8th Centuries bc, a new type of prophecy entered Revelation—prophecies that a messianic king born to the Israelites would usher in a period of peace and prosperity. Messianic prophecy was foreshadowed in the Psalms of King David in the 10th Century bc, but it found a fuller voice in the prophecies of Isaiah two hundred years later. In Psalm 22: 18, for example, we read, “they divide my garments among them, and for my raiment they cast lots.”
The first instance of messianic prophecy in Isaiah comes in a seemingly innocuous manner. In 734 bc, before the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians, when Ahaz was king of Judah, his kingdom was threatened by Rezin, the king of Syria, and Remaliah, the king of Israel. According to Isaiah, the Lord told him to go to Ahaz and told him not to fear the evil that Syria and Ephraim (Israel) intended because, “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass.” (Isaiah 7: 7) Then the Lord spoke to Ahaz and told him to “ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be as deep as Sheol or high as heaven,” but Ahaz declined, saying, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
This apparently angered the Lord, because then Isaiah said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah—the king of Assyria.” (Isaiah 7: 10-17)
Then Isaiah prophesied that the Assyrians would sweep upon Judah like a river overflowing its banks, but he also prophesied more fully concerning this messianic king:
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shined.
Thou hast multiplied the nation, thou hast increased its joy;
they rejoice before thee as with joy at the harvest, as men rejoice when they
divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden and staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, thou hast broken as on the day of Midian.
For the boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment
rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be
upon his shoulder, and his name will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end,
upon the throne of David, and over his kingdom, to establish it, and to
uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and
for evermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. (Isaiah 9: 2-7)
As the Assyrian invader Sennacherib approached from the north toward the outskirts of Jerusalem, Isaiah continued to prophesy concerning the rule of the Messiah:
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall
grow out of his roots.
And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge
and the fear of the Lord.
And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by
what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;
But with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity
for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his
mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall slay the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist, and faithfulness the girdle
of his loins.
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the
kid, and the calf and lion and the fatling together, and a child shall lead them,
The cow and the bear shall feed; their young shall lie down together
And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The sucking child shall play over the hole of the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.
In that day the root of Jesse shall stand as an ensign to the peoples; him
shall the nations seek, and his dwelling shall be glorious. (Isaiah 11: 1-10)
Through Second Isaiah, who lived during the time of the Babylonian exile, came the concept of a “suffering servant” who was wounded for the transgressions of the nation and through whose suffering salvation would be achieved:
For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of the dry ground;
he had no form of comeliness that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief.
And as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has born our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
and we have turned every one to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the will of the Lord to bruise him;
he has put him to grief;
when he makes himself an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand;
he shall see the fruit of the travail of his soul and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous;
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out his soul to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many, and intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53: 2-12)
In the prophecies of first and second Isaiah we have the first full expositions of the Lord’s promise that he would do a new thing to bring about a change in the hearts of men.
Messianic prophecies occur also in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea and Micah:
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The Lord is our righteousness.’” (Jeremiah 23: 5-6) This prophecy is repeated in Jeremiah 33: 14-16.
The prophecies in Ezekiel developed the concept of the Lord as the good shepherd, who will search for his sheep and rescue them from the places where they have been scattered. “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over, I will feed them in justice.” (Ezekiel 34: 16) He speaks of the “new heart” which will be given to people: “A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36: 26)
Daniel, in his vision of the four beasts, also speaks of “a son of man” to whom dominion over the earth would be given:
“I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man, and he came to Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7: 13-14)
Hosea 11: 1 says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I call my son.” And Micah 5: 2 says, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days.”
For about seven hundred years the Jews lived with the expectation that a king greater than David would be born to them— long enough for the idea of a Messiah to become embedded in their psyches.
MESSIANIC HOPES
The four generations of Roman rule that followed Pompey’s capture of Jerusalem were filled with vain sedition. No year passed without its toll of lives, and gibbets and crosses at every crossroad proclaimed the foolhardiness of the Zealots who continued to defy the Roman legions. At length the masses ceased to hope for relief by martial means and submitted sullenly and bitterly to the inevitable.
A small group turned for solace to the promises of the prophets, promises of a Messianic day when bloodshed would cease and justice would again prevail. With pathetic earnestness they searched the prophetic words, striving by computation and interpretation to deduce the exact date for the advent of the kingdom of God. A whole apocalyptic literature grew up dealing with the Messiah and his coming. Little sects appeared, some living simple, quiet lives, aloof from the harshness of the world, others practicing mystical rites in preparation for the inauguration of the new era. Every few years a new prophet arose, claiming to be the long-expected Messiah and carrying hundreds of desperate followers to ruin with him.
“It was in these years of political despair and Messianic hope that the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth fell. His career was destined to change the history of the world more profoundly than that of any other single individual who ever lived.” (Abram Leon Sachar, A History of the Jews. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1965, p. 124.)
THE CONTEXT INTO WHICH JESUS WAS BORN
As we saw in the last chapter, Jesus of Nazareth, who would be known as the Messiah and accepted by the Christians as such, was born into this time of turmoil in Israel.
In the 4th Century bc Palestine was conquered by Alexander the Great, who spread Hellenism, Greek mythology and philosophy, to the areas he took over. Many educated Jews fell under the spell of Greek philosophy, but there was religious conflict between the polytheistic Hellenists and the monotheistic Jews, as well as among the Jews themselves. In 63 bc Pompey had conquered Palestine and brought it under the jurisdiction the Roman Empire, bringing a political unity that stretched from England to Persia. The local Roman governors tended to be tolerant of the religions and customs of conquered peoples as long as they complied with Roman law.
Therefore, Jesus was born when Roman law governed Palestine, but Jewish and Greek cultures predominated. The Hasmonean dynasty had ended, and the Romans controlled Judah, but it had a king, Herod the Great, a quixotic, murderous and paranoid ruler, who had embarked upon rebuilding the Temple.
Most of the Jews living in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus belonged to one of three groups— the Pharisees, the party of the populace whom Jesus rebuked on numerous occasions; the Sadducees, the conservative aristocracy; and, the Essenes, an ascetic sect who lived in seclusion in caves to the west of the Dead Sea. In the troubled land of Judea in the 1st Century ad, bleeding under Rome’s rule, many prophets, preachers, and holy men, representing many religious sects, went about proclaiming the coming of the Messiah who would deliver the Jews from the evil of the Roman yoke. Each sect preached its own brand of salvation. Some of the preachers were the Essenes, but history has shown us that the most important of them all was Jesus. Yet, had it not been for remarkable events that followed his life, he might have faded from history as his contemporaries did.
At the time of Jesus, Alexandria, not Rome or Athens, was the cultural and philosophical center of the Roman Empire. It was there that Platonism had been transformed into Neoplatonism. Alexander the Great, for whom the city was named, had imagined a great library there, and the Ptolemies who ruled Egypt for the three hundred years following his death in 323 bc had turned his dream into reality. Of course, there were no printed books. Books then were in the forms of scrolls, each of which had been carefully copied from an original manuscript or another copy. At its height the library at Alexandria contained approximately a half-million such scrolls.
One significant occurrence had been the translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek. Ptolemy II had brought together 72 Jewish scholars and asked each of them individually to translate the whole Hebrew Bible. According to legend, the 72 versions were identical. This Greek version, called the Septuagint (from the Latin Septuaginta, meaning 70, from the number of its translators) became the Old Testament Bible of the early Christian church. It contained the Messianic prophesies of the coming of Christ and greatly influenced the early church fathers.
Shortly before the birth of Jesus the Ptolemy dynasty came to an end with the death of Cleopatra, the seventh Ptolemy ruler, in 30 bc. She had used all her wiles to keep the dynasty alive. After being Caesar’s mistress for a short time in Rome, she returned to Egypt and had her brother, with whom she shared the throne, murdered. When she failed to win back Caesar, she seduced and married Marc Antony, a Roman politician and soldier, hoping to win an Egyptian monarchy separate from the Roman Empire. This hope was smashed at the naval battle of Actium in 31 bc, after which Antony committed suicide. Refusing to be conquered by Octavian, who became Caesar Augustus, she too committed suicide. These momentous things happened shortly before the birth of Jesus.
PHILO
Perhaps the most interesting contemporary of Jesus and the one who would have the greatest bearing on the course of the development of early Christianity was a Jewish scholar living in Alexandria by the name of Philo (c. 25 bc to c. 50 ad). Educated in Greek philosophy, Philo attempted reconcile Mosaic Law to it. For Philo, Greek philosophy was the “handmaiden” to theology: philosophy depended on reason, but theology depended on Revelation and the inspiration of the prophets.
Philo’s work would have a greater effect on the development of Christianity than it would on Judaism, yet at the time he lived, Philo had no knowledge of one Jesus Christ living in Palestine. Similarly, it is doubtful that Jesus had any knowledge of him.
THE NEW TESTAMENT
During the two-thirds of a century following the life of Jesus, his followers, who began to call themselves Christians, compiled accounts of his life and ministry. Those that survived and were accepted into the canon of the New Testament are the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Matthew, Mark and Luke are considered the synoptic gospels because their accounts parallel one another; the gospel of John stands apart as a gospel written independent of the others.
The Gospel according to Mark is commonly thought to have been written first—the date of its writing, though uncertain, was probably prior to the fall of Jerusalem in 70 ad. Though the gospel is anonymous, ancient Christian tradition may well be correct in ascribing it to the apostle John Mark who is said to have composed it at Rome as a summary of Peter’s preaching there. Mark is the shortest and fastest-paced of the gospels. It depicts Jesus as being almost constantly on the move. A favorite word in Mark is “immediately,” which occurs about forty times in its 16 chapters. Mark also records fewer of the actual words of Jesus than do the other gospels.
In the Gospel according to Matthew Jesus is set forth as Israel’s Messiah in whom God’s purpose culminates and by whose words and life his followers may gain divine forgiveness and fellowship. Matthew is the most concerned of the gospels with proving that the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament found their fulfillment in Jesus and thus is full of references to them. Because of this, we will examine Matthew’s account closely, but we will refer to certain accounts in Luke that are missing in Matthew. We will also pay attention to how Jesus himself expressed his relationship to God in the gospel of John, noted for having the greatest Hellenistic influence of the gospels.
The Gospel of Matthew is also anonymous. The unknown Christian teacher who prepared it during the last third of the 1st Century may have used a collection of the sayings of Jesus that was not apparent to Mark. In time the title of Matthew was assigned to lend apostolic authority to it.
Whereas Matthew tries to convince the Jews that Jesus was their long-awaited Messiah, Luke emphasized his universal mission. This gospel, too, is anonymous, but there are considerations supporting the early Christian tradition that its author was the physician, Luke, a Gentile convert and friend of Paul’s. It appears to have been written, like Matthew, in the last third of the 1st Century, although the precise date is unknown.
The fourth gospel, John, explains the mystery of the person of Jesus, assigning to Jesus eternal preexistence: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1: 1-3) Verse 14 then says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”
The pronoun “he” is of interest here, as it seems to indicate a person rather than the Word being an attribute of God. We might ask where the author of the gospel of John derived the authority to make such far-reaching claims concerning Jesus. There is nothing in the gospels of Matthew, Mark or Luke to indicate that Jesus was with God and was God from the beginning of time. Was it derived from Revelation to John, and, if so, when and how did he receive this Revelation? Or was it a wild and poetic leap of his own imagination? If he is right that Jesus was the Word and was with God and was God from the beginning of Creation, and that he was Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, then there can be no bridging of the gap between Christians and Muslims, for John elevates the person of Jesus so that he is indivisible from God and is God from the beginning of time. Many Christians, of course, would state, because the gospel of John was accepted into the canon of the New Testament, it must be the Word of God and therefore qualifies as Revelation. Sadly, we possess no documentation to inform us how the author of John reached this conclusion.
This is no small item in terms of our discussion, for the gospel of John greatly influenced how the early church would decide to interpret the person of Jesus and very well might be the most significant source of the conflict separating Christians and Muslims.
Tradition says the gospel of John was written by the apostle John, whom Jesus loved. It appeared around 90 ad. Some scholars suggest that it may have been written by a disciple of John who recorded his teaching. Several other books in the New Testament are likewise assigned to John: these include several epistles and the enigmatic book of Revelation, which John composed when he was imprisoned on the island of Patmos at the end of the reign of the Emperor Domitian (81-96 ad).
Critics may question the veracity of the gospels because they did not come into being until more than a half-century after the life of Jesus, giving plenty of time for inaccuracies and distortions to creep in, but even if this is the case, they remain remarkable documents that have had the power to ignite Jesus’ spirit in the hearts of believers for all these centuries. A solid case can be made that these gospels were divinely inspired and that they accurately convey the essence of Jesus’ prophetic mission.
JESUS LEAST FITS THE PROPHETIC PATTERN
Of all the prophets, including Mohammed, Jesus fits the strict pattern of prophetic tradition the least, probably because of his special designation as the Messiah, a distinction the others lack. Rather than having been called in the manner of the other prophets, Jesus’ coming was announced ahead of time by John, the Baptist. Jesus seems to have internalized God to such an extent that rather than receive prophetic messages from time to time, as they did, he embodied the Word of God and was seldom without this sense. Furthermore, he had an Authority that they lacked, an Authority that periodically seemed to cause him to defy Mosaic Law, at least in the eyes of the Pharisees. This sense of Authority would get him into trouble. The Pharisees, like the enemies of Socrates, would eventually seek his death for the crime of blasphemy. As important as the prophets Moses and Mohammed were, they never attained the special relationship with God that Jesus possessed.
For our account of his life, let us turn to the gospels of Matthew and Luke.
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW
Matthew’s gospel opens by tracing the genealogy of Jesus from Abraham through Jesse, the father of King David and through King Hezekiah. After the Babylonian exile, his lineage is traced through Jechoniah to Joseph, the husband of Mary. Matthew then describes how the birth of Jesus took place. But, before we go on with Matthew’s account, let us briefly turn to the gospel of Luke, who begins his account with the birth of John. (The Koran also tells the story of the birth of John.) As Luke relates it:
In the days of Herod, the king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah; and he had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years. (We are here reminded of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, of Rebekah, Isaac’s wife, and of Rachel, Jacob’s wife.)
Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, it fell to him by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer is heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth; for he will be great before the Lord, and he shall drink no wine nor strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”
And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” And the angel answered to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God; and I was sent to speak to you, and to bring you this good news. And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things come to pass because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time.”(Luke 1: 5-20)
When Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, was in her sixth month, Gabriel went to Mary to announce the birth of Jesus. When Mary said to him, “How shall this be, since I have no husband?” (Luke 1: 34) Gabriel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Luke 1: 35) Gabriel also told Mary that her kinswoman Elizabeth, who was barren, had conceived, “For with God nothing will be impossible,” (Luke 1: 37) a theme often repeated in the Koran. Luke also says that when Mary visited Elizabeth, the babe in her womb leaped for joy, and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1: 41) According to Luke, Mary then recited what has come to be known as the “Magnificat,” which is actually based largely on Hannah’s prayer in I Samuel 2: 1-10 at the birth of her son Samuel.
My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has regarded the low estate of his handmaiden. For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, he has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent empty away. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his posterity forever. (Luke 1: 46-55)
Zechariah remained dumb until the birth of his son John. (The Koran says that he remained dumb for three days.) John was born, and his neighbors and kinsmen wanted to name him Zechariah, but Zechariah wrote on a tablet, “His name is John,” and his tongue loosed, and he spoke.
Chapter 2 of Luke tells of the birth of Jesus, the account recited in the Christian churches the world over at Christmas:
In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them, and glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, “Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased.” (Luke 2: 1-14)
In verse 21, Luke tells, “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
Matthew tells us that when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant, he resolved to leave her quietly, but an angel of the Lord appeared to him in dream and told him not to fear to take Mary as his wife, for that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1: 21) He then says, “All of this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet [referring to Isaiah 7: 14]: ‘Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel’ (which means, God with us). (Matthew 1: 22-23)
Matthew tells the story of the wise men from the East coming to Jerusalem looking for baby Jesus. When King Herod enquired where he was to be born, they told him “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet [Micah 5: 2]: ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will govern my people Israel.’”(Matthew 2: 5-6)
Since Herod sought to kill this baby, an angel of the Lord appeared again to Joseph in a dream, telling him to take the child and his mother, and to flee into Egypt. “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet [Hosea 11: 1], ‘Out of Egypt have I called my son,’” When Herod in a rage killed all the male children in Bethlehem, it was to fulfill what Jeremiah had written [Jeremiah 31: 15]: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they were no more.” (Matthew 2: 18) Then Joseph was told in another dream to take Mary and Jesus back to Israel. It was to fulfill what the prophets had written, “He shall be called a Nazarene.” (Matthew 2: 23)
From the time of their return to Nazareth until Jesus was baptized by John the gospels tell us little about his life. Luke says, “And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.” (Luke 2: 39) He recounts the following story when Jesus was twelve years old:
Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up according to custom; and when the feast was ended, as they were returning, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem. His parents did not know it, but supposing him to be in their company they went a day’s journey, and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintances; and when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions; and all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. And when they saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously.” And he said to them, “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” And they did not understand the saying which he spoke to them. And he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. (Luke 2: 41-50)
Obviously Jesus was a learned man, well acquainted with Hebrew scripture, to which he often referred. He was not, as was Mohammed, illiterate, but this was because most Jewish boys of his time were schooled in Scripture, whereas Arab boys of Mohammed’s time were not. Jesus was a teacher and was called “rabbi” by some of his disciples. Jesus knew Mosaic Law, the writings of the prophets and the psalms, but it is unlikely he knew much about the history of the world or Hellenistic philosophy.
Before Jesus began his ministry, at about the age of 30, according to Luke, the Word of God came to John and he went into the region around the Jordan preaching baptism and repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
As it is written in book of Isaiah the prophet,
The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
Prepare the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight.
Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low,
And the crooked shall be made straight,
And the rough ways shall be made smooth;
And all the flesh shall see the salvation of God.”(Luke 3: 4-6)
John must have been a formidable and austere man. He wore a garment of camel’s hair and tied a leather girdle around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to him for baptism, he said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.” (Matthew 3: 7-9) John also told them that “he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry; he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”
When Jesus came to John, asking to be baptized, John at first resisted, saying it was he that should be baptized by Jesus. When he baptized Jesus, Matthew, Mark and Luke all say that the heavens were opened and the Spirit of God, like a dove, alighted on Jesus, and a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3: 17)
Many of the prophets of the Old Testament had long ministries—first Isaiah’s lasted for 55 years, and Mohammed received Revelation for a span of 22 years —but Jesus’ ministry was very brief, lasting less than three years. After he was baptized, before he started preaching, he went into the wilderness and fasted for forty days and forty nights. There he was tempted three times by the devil: Jesus was very hungry: when the devil suggested, if he was the Son of God, he could command the stones to become loaves of bread, Jesus answered, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” (Deuteronomy 8: 3) When he suggested that he could throw himself down and the angels would take charge of him, lest he strike his foot against the stone, Jesus replied, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 6: 16) And, when the devil offered Jesus the world if he would worship him, Jesus answered, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.” (Deuteronomy 6: 13) “Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.” (Matthew 4: 1-11)
Then Jesus returned to Galilee and went to the synagogue on the Sabbath. When he stood up to read, he was given the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened it and found the place where it was written; “The Spirit of the Lord was upon me because he has anointed me to preach the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Isaiah 61: 1- 2; 58: 6) Jesus closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. All eyes were fixed on him. He said, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4: 21) Those within his hearing were enraged by his assertion—they wanted to throw him from a cliff, but he disappeared from among them.
Jesus began his ministry by calling twelve men to follow him—Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, another James, Simon, Judas, and Judas Iscariot. “And he went about all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every infirmity among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them.” (Matthew 4: 23-24) According the gospels Jesus possessed powers in excess of the Old Testament prophets. He was able perform miracles: to heal the sick, to cast out demons, and to forgive sin.
The parallel gospels divide their accounts of the Jesus’ ministry roughly into the following parts: the Sermon on the Mount, the story of the Gardarene demoniacs, various parables by which he taught, the feeding of the five thousand, the transfiguration, warnings of hell, the cleansing of the temple, signs of the end of the age, and his passion. His “passion” is described by his entrance into Jerusalem, the last supper, his trial, crucifixion, and resurrection from the dead. (To keep our momentum we will not go into the ministry and passion of Jesus as we might in a study having to do only with the life and ministry of Jesus.)
Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount, with its recitation of the “beatitudes”, is the most complete of those found in the parallel gospels:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they
shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5: 3-10)
Jesus’ attitude toward Mosaic Law was of great concern to the Jews, particularly to Pharisees. In the Sermon on the Mount he told them that he had not come to abolish the Law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, but he advocated a stricter code of conduct than the Law required: he insisted that the Law must be fulfilled within people’s hearts. “You have heard that it was said to men of old, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment,” (Matthew 5: 21-22); “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5: 27-28)
Jesus’ message is a radical extension of the Jewish Law, requiring his followers to love and pray for their enemies. Exodus 21: 23-24, Leviticus 24: 19-20, and Deuteronomy 19: 21 all express the ancient Law that an eye must given for the taking of an eye. No one can question the inherent justice in this, but as long as that Law is the primary Law of justice, what occurs is an endless progression of retribution. Jesus’ advice to turn the other cheek and to love and pray for one’s enemies is intended to bring about a change of heart in those who have been wronged and thus to stop this progression. Perhaps there is no greater embodiment of the preaching of Jesus than what has come to be known as the Golden Rule:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth,’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if any one would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5: 38-45)
During the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gave what we know as the Lord’s prayer: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6: 9-13)
He also told the crowd gathered to hear him that they should not judge others: “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” (Matthew 7: 1-2) Luke adds wonderfully to this verse, “Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” (Luke 6: 38)
“And when Jesus finished these saying, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.” (Matthew 7: 28)
THE GADARENE DEMONIACS
Among the powers Jesus possessed was the ability to cast out demons. At the end of Chapter 8 of Matthew he encounters two demons in the country of the Gadarenes, who cry out to him, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?” (Matthew 8: 29) Jesus sends the demons into a herd of swine feeding nearby, and whole herd rushes down a steep bank into the sea and perishes in the waters. When the Pharisees accuse him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub, he retorts, “If Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself; how then will his kingdom stand?” (Matthew 12: 26)
Jesus’ story is intertwined with that of his cousin, John, the Baptist. Herod had John thrown into prison for criticizing his marriage to Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” When John heard in prison about the deeds of Jesus, he sent word by his disciples, asking, “Are you he who is come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus answers, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” (Matthew 11: 2-6)
The prophet Elijah was expected to reappear before the Messiah would come. Jesus affirms that John is Elijah who has come again. Though he wanted to put him to death, Herod feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias, Salome, danced before the company and so pleased Herod that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.” Herod was dismayed, but, because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given. He had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. (Matthew 14: 3-15)
When Herod then heard about the fame of Jesus, he feared, “This is John the Baptist—he has been raised from the dead.” Jesus, when he heard that John had been beheaded, was greatly troubled and wanted to withdraw, but crowds of people kept pressing round him, asking for healing.
If we trace Jesus’ ministry, we see that he was working his way to Jerusalem in preparation for his entry to it—from Galilee, he went to Capernaum, to the country of Gadarenes, to Tyre and Sidon, to Caesarea, to Jericho and Judea, finally coming to Beth’phage and to the Mount of Olives. All the time he taught in parables and healed the sick. The common people welcomed him, but the scribes and Pharisees came to test him, hoping to trip him up with their questions and thus condemn him. Finally he set his face towards Jerusalem, where he knew he would be killed, “even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 28)
When at last Jesus arrived in Jerusalem, he went into the temple where he saw the moneychangers buying and selling. The most violent act he ever committed was to overturn their tables, saying to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” (Matthew 21: 13)
The Pharisees took counsel how to entangle him in his talk, and asked him if it was lawful to pay taxes to Caesar. Jesus asked to be shown a coin, and when they brought him one, he said, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” When they answered, “Caesar’s,” he said, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”(Matthew 22: 15-21)
When they asked which the greatest commandment in the Law, he said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22: 37-40)
Then Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” When they answered that he was the son of David, he replied, “If David calls him (the Christ) Lord, how is he his son?” (Matthew 22: 41-45)
THE PROPHECIES OF JESUS
The only immediate prophecy that Jesus made was that the Temple would again be destroyed. His other prophecies concern the close of the age or the end of times. Chapters 24 and 25 of Matthew deal most extensively with these prophecies:
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed; for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and the kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places; all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs. (Matthew 24: 6-8)
The prophet Daniel had prophesied concerning “the desolating sacrilege.” Daniel 11: 31 says, “Forces from him (the contemptible person) shall appear and profane the temple and fortress and shall take away the continual burnt offering and they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate.” By this Daniel meant that the Gentiles would offer sacrifice to pagan gods in the Temple. Jesus, in his discourse on the end of times, says, “So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place, then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains; let him who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house; and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his mantle.” (Matthew 24: 14-18) (For those who think the prophecies of the end of times are yet to happen, this prophecy poses a small problem, because the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 ad and has never been rebuilt.)
Jesus continued to prophesy concerning “a great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been shortened, no human being would be saved; but for the sake of the elect those will be shortened.” (Matthew 24: 21-22) “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and powers of the heaven will be shaken; then will appear the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” (Matthew 24: 29-31)
“When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels before him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the King will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 25: 31-34)
THE PASSION OF JESUS
“When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said to his disciples, ‘You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of man will delivered up to be crucified.” (Matthew 26: 1-2) Already the chief priests and elders had gathered and were taking counsel in order to arrest Jesus. Judas Iscariot went to them and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” He was paid thirty pieces of silver. Jesus nonetheless prepared the Passover for his disciples, where he instituted the ceremony Christians refer to as Communion:
Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed, and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26: 26-28)
After this, they went to the Mount of Olives, where Judas came with a great crowd with swords and clubs. When Judas kissed Jesus to indicate he was the one they should seize, one of those who were with Jesus drew his sword and struck off the ear of a slave of the high priest, but Jesus restrained him, saying, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by that sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But then how should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26: 51-54)
When Jesus was brought before him, the high priest said, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?” Jesus said to him, “You have said so.” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has uttered blasphemy.”
Judas repented of what he had done and returned the thirty pieces of silver, but the priests would not put them back into the treasury because they were blood money. So with them they bought a potter’s field in which to bury strangers. “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, ‘And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, and they gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord directed me.’" (Matthew 27: 3-10)
Then Jesus was taken before Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate tried to gain his release because at the Passover it was the custom to release one prisoner, but the Jews asked for the release of Barabbas instead. So Jesus was taken and crucified. “And those passing by derided him, saying, ‘If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’” (Matthew 27: 39-40) Matthew tell us that when Jesus died, “Behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom; and earth shook, and the rocks were split; the tombs also were opened, and many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised.” (Matthew 27: 51-52) “When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, ‘Truly this was the Son of God!’”(Matthew 27: 54)
All four gospels end after Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. After Jesus died Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate to let him take his body and bury it in an empty tomb nearby, according to Jewish custom. According to John, on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb while it was still dark and found the stone had been taken away. She ran and found Simon Peter and John, and when they came, they found the linen burial cloths lying there. Mary stood outside weeping. When she stooped to look into the tomb, she saw two angels in white who asked her why she was weeping. “Because they have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him,” she replied. Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?” he asked. Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus then said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus told her not to touch him “for I have not yet ascended to the Father.” (Matthew 20: 1-17)
Following this Jesus appeared to the disciples several times. Matthew’s account ends with Jesus giving the disciples a commission: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28: 18-20)
THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
The gospel of John stands apart from the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, not only because it does not parallel their accounts, but because in it Jesus is presented unequivocally as the Son of God.
THE PRE-EXISTENCE OF JESUS
The opening verses of the gospel of John are well known to many seminary students. When they begin to learn Greek, they learn these verses because of the simplicity of their wording. Our understanding of them, however, is far from simple:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1: 1-5)
Verse 14 says, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.” Not only do they declare that Jesus is the Son of God, but that he existed with God before the creation of the world. Verse 18 says, “No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of Father, he has made him known.”
The 8th Chapter of John tells of Jesus going to the Mount of Olives. While he was teaching the people who had gathered there, the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery to him, saying to him, “Teacher, the law of Moses commanded us to stone her. What do you say about her?” Verse 6 says that Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground (as nomadic peoples have done for centuries). Then he stood up and said, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. Dismayed, they all left, and Jesus, alone with her, said, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”
Jesus’ conversations with the Jewish scribes and Pharisees continue in John. They concern their understanding of the descendants of Abraham—the Pharisees say in verse 33, “We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one.” Jesus replies, “I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my words find no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 1: 37-38)
The Pharisees answer that, “Abraham is our father,” but Jesus tells them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would do what Abraham did, but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did. You do what your father did.”
When they claim that God is their Father, Jesus replies that their father is the devil, and their will is to do his desires. Then they accuse Jesus of having a demon, but he says, no, “but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.” He makes an assertion that dismays them: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death.” They reply, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death.’ Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you claim to be?” (John 1: 52-53) In verse 56, Jesus says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad.” The Jews then say, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” and Jesus tells them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” Here we have again in John’s gospel Jesus’ claim of his pre-existence with God, even before the time of Abraham.
Jesus continued on his way and the controversy over him continued to ferment. In Chapter 10, the Jews take stones to stone him, but he asks, “I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of these do you stone me?” They reply, “It is not for a good work that we stone you but for blasphemy; because you, being a man, make yourself God.” Jesus shows command of Jewish scripture when he answered them: “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods’?” (Psalm 82: 6 reads, “I say, ‘You are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you; nevertheless, you shall die like men and fall like any prince.’”) Jesus continues, “If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” (John 10: 35-36)
In Chapter 11, before Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, he tells Mary and Martha, “This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.”
The debate continues between the Pharisees and Jesus until the time when Jesus is brought before Pilate before his crucifixion. Pilate, disgusted with the Jews and finding no crime that Jesus has committed, cries, “Take him yourselves and crucify him, for I find no crime in him.” And the Jews answer, “We have a law, and by that law he ought to die, because he has made himself the Son of God.” (John 19: 7)
Infused throughout the gospel of John is the affirmation of Jesus’ Son-ship—his closeness to God. We will not here list all the verses in John that refer to Jesus as God’s Son, only those that are of special interest to our discussion.
Most Christians have memorized the famous verse, John 3: 16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son (The King James Bible, most often memorized, reads “only begotten Son.”) that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Some know as well: “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” (John 3: 17-18) Verse 36 states, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon him.”
Chapter 5 tells how incensed the Pharisees were when they saw Jesus working on the Sabbath, but in John 5: 17-18, Jesus says to them, “‘My Father is working still, and I am working.’ (The Koran asserts also that God is always at work.) This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill him, because he not only broke the Sabbath, but also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.”
Jesus’ supposed blasphemy continues. In John 5: 21-23 he says: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.”
John is often thought of as the most mystical of the gospels, but we see here that in it Jesus wages his harshest opposition to the Pharisees. Perhaps the Pharisees are speaking literally, while Jesus is speaking figuratively. Jesus continually refers to his closeness to God, so close that he is in God—“Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.” (John 14: 11) When Jesus claims his pre-existence and his Son-ship, he may not have been claiming he was literally begotten by God as human beings are begotten by their human fathers.
SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN TERMINOLOGY
Pertinent to our discussion is how the person of Jesus came to be interpreted by the Christian church—was he a prophet, was he the Messiah, was he the Christ, was he literally the Son of God? In the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, others may refer to Jesus as the “Son of God,” but he tends to refer to himself as the “son of man.”
Presumably any living person could refer to himself as the “son” (or “daughter”) of man, because that term implies someone who is begotten by a human father and born of a human mother. Because God is our creator anyone can likewise refer to himself as God’s child in a figurative sense.
In Luke’s account, when Gabriel brings Mary the news that she will give birth to Jesus, he tells her that the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. The voice that came from heaven after Jesus’ baptism by John, says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” When the devil tempted Jesus while he was fasting in the wilderness for forty days, he says, “If you are the Son of God . . .” The demoniacs who encountered Jesus seem to know who he is and address him, “What have you to do with us, O Son of God?” Peter confesses, “You are the Christ, Son of the living God.” Again at his transfiguration, the voice from heaven says, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” Before his crucifixion, the high priest asks, “I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God?” and Jesus answers, “You have said so.” The crowd taunts Jesus when he hangs from the cross with, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” The chief priest and scribes and elders say that he has blasphemed by calling himself the Son of God, and the centurion concludes at his death, “Truly this was the Son of God.” Mark’s gospel begins with, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
In Luke 9: 18-20, Jesus asks the disciples, “Who do the people say that I am?” Some answer John the Baptist, and others say Elijah, and others that he is one of the prophets of old who has risen. “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answers, “the Christ of God.” Jesus says, “All things have been delivered to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Though Jesus repeatedly alludes to his identity as the Son of God, he tends to directly refrain from saying so.
We might ask what these terms—the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God—had come to mean to people living in Jesus’ time. It would seem that “son of man” and “Son of God” were terms that were used commonly among these people, even among non-Jewish people. From the discussions between Jesus and the Pharisees, as recorded in John, and from various statements made by people in the other gospels, we can deduce that by Jesus’ time the term “Son of God” had acquired a special meaning, closely associated with “the Christ,” the “Anointed One” or “the Messiah,” and in that sense had become fairly specific. The fact that the Pharisees found it blasphemous for Jesus to refer to himself as the “Son of God,” or for others to refer to him as such, would indicate that they felt only the Messiah was entitled to that title, and they could not believe that this man, who defied Mosaic Law, could be the Messiah.
It is doubtful they took the term, “Son of God”, in the same literal sense that early church fathers later decided it had. Whether they literally thought God would beget a Son who would be the Messiah is also doubtful. “Son of God” seems instead to have become the highest title that could be bestowed on a human being and was meant to designate a human being who was exceedingly close to God because of his virtue.
In the ancient Near East there was nothing extraordinary in someone calling himself a “son of god.” This is clear from the many theophoric names; Ben-Hadad, for example, means “son of the god Hadad”, and Abiel means “the god El is my father.” The Semitic peoples thought divine son-ship was acquired by adoption, and these names were intended to express the bearer’s trust in the fatherly protection of the respective gods. The king in particular was regarded as the son of a god. (Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Bible. New York: McGraw Hill, 1963. p. 2264.)
In Egypt the Pharaoh was the “Good God” and the first of the five great names that he received upon his enthronement was “Horus,” a title designating him as the earthly manifestation of the falcon god Horus, the ancient dynastic god of Egypt. His incarnation was assumed.
The Semitic rulers of Akkad, a people contemporary with Abraham, claimed divinity for themselves, thus the ruler, Naram-Sin called himself ilu-A-ga-de, or “God of Akkad.” The Sumerian kings who followed had their names prefixed by a term designating their divinity and enjoyed worship. Hammurabi was called the “God” and “Sun” of his people.
Likewise the Syrian kings claimed divinity. In Ezekiel 28: 2-10, the king of Tyre is mocked for claiming to be divine and occupying the throne of Elohim: “‘Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says the Lord God:
Because your heart is proud and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of the gods, in the heart of the seas,’ yet you are but a man, and no god, though you consider yourself as wise as a god—you are indeed wiser than Daniel; no secret is hidden from you; by your wisdom and your understanding you have gotten wealth for yourself, and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased you wealth, and your heart has become proud in your wealth—therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you consider yourself wise as a god, therefore, behold, I will bring strangers upon you, the most terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and defile your splendor. They shall thrust you down into the Pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the heart of seas. Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you, though you are but a man, and no god, in the hands of those who would kill you? You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners; for I have spoken, says the Lord God.”
According to Virgil and Silius Italicus, the kings of Tyre traced their descent to Baal. The later Seleucid rulers of Syria, after Alexander the Great died, claimed to be theos, God, and they continued old rituals in which the king enacted the role of the sun god. Josephus reports a worship of the deceased rulers of Damascus in his day.
In the Old Testament, the term, “Sons of God,” was used to refer to the king, the people of God, or the heavenly hosts or angels. The Israelite king could be called ’Elohim, or God. Among the five names for the royal child who sat on David’s throne was ’el gibbor or “Mighty God,” but it was more common to refer to the king in Israel-Judah as the “Son of God.” This was a royal title throughout the Ancient Near East. (The Anchor Bible Dictionary, volume 6, Si-Z. p. 128.)
The rulers of the Ancient Near East sought to legitimatize their claims to the thrones of their countries and to enhance the royal office and their own personage by laying claim to being a god or the son of a god. It was a common political and public relations ploy of the day.
In Nathan’s prophecy (II Samuel: 7) the relationship between God and the Israelite king is described as a father-son relationship. God was the “Father” of the king, his “firstborn.” The king was “born” from God when he was installed, as it made clear by the declarations of Yahweh in the two Psalms, to which Jesus referred. They were used as liturgical texts in the enthronement ceremony: “You are My Son; this day I have begotten thee,” (II Samuel 2: 7) and “In holy ornament out of the womb of Dawn, I have fathered thee as Dew.” (II Samuel 110: 3) (Ibid. p. 128.) The Nathan prophecy served to guarantee the perpetuity of the Davidic dynasty, and this prophecy gave rise to the “messianic” expectations in Isaiah.
Israel itself was called God’s “Son.” All the people were therefore God’s sons and daughters, or children. This usage designates Israel as God’s chosen and protected people. The term, “Son of God,” in Jewish literature was used to designate the expected Messiah, the righteous people of Israel, various charismatic individuals, or an exalted angel.
The designation of the people of Israel as the “children” of God can be found down to the period of the rabbis. God’s “sons” were the righteous among the people. Surah 4: 10 says that the one treating orphans and widows compassionately will be “like a son of the Most High.” The righteous thus call upon God as their “Father.” According to Wisdom 5: 5, the righteous man who is persecuted and killed by the godless is counted among God’s “sons,” angels after death, but already on earth, he calls God his “Father” and is his “son.” (Ibid. p. 130)
The Hellenistic-Roman kingship ideology was taken from the East, but there were certain antecedents in Greece. The Spartan general Lysander was venerated as divine after his victory over the Athenians in 404 bc. A watershed date was the year 331 bc when an oracle in the Libyan desert called Alexander the Great the “Son of Ammon”. In Greek terminology, this meant he was the son of Zeus. Alexander addressed Zeus as his “Father” and was said to have been engendered by him. Plutarch asserts that Alexander regarded this apotheosis as politically pragmatic.
The Ptolemaic rulers were styled “Savior God” and “Son of Helios”, and could trace their ancestry to Dionysus. The Seleucid rulers and smaller kings in the East claimed the title “God.” In Ephesus, Caesar was declared “God Manifest” and “Savior” of all humankind. Two years after his death, he was declared divinus Julius, the divine Julius, and his statue was placed among the statues of the gods in the Pantheon.
Also pertinent to our discussion would be an attempt to understand how people in general saw their rulers close to the time of Jesus. About fifty years before his birth, Julius Caesar ruled the Mediterranean. Like his predecessor Alexander, he had no hesitation in acting as he felt his star directed him. After all, he came from a family who believed themselves to be descendants of the goddess Venus—and, to gods, or demi-gods, all things were possible. His insouciance perhaps came from his feeling that he was of divine origin. On March 27, 45 bc he entered Alexandria in triumph. For the benefit of the superstitious Egyptians the story circulated that Caesar was an incarnation of the god Amon, more or less the equivalent in the Egyptian pantheon to Zeus and Jupiter in the Greek and Roman pantheons.
Cleopatra was held as being synonymous with the goddess Isis. When Caesar installed a statue of Cleopatra in the temple to Venus Genetrix, the Mother of All, the implication was that Cleopatra was the incarnation of Isis, the Egyptian equivalent of Venus. Therefore, both of them were of divine origin. (Ernie Bradford. Cleopatra. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1972) The tragic deaths of Marc Antony and Cleopatra may be traced to their failure to fulfill their roles as gods.
Caesar’s adopted son, Octavian, was called “son of the divine;” his name Caesar Augustus associated him closely with divinity.
It is worth mentioning that when people worship pantheons of gods and goddesses, the distance between a god and a mortal is not as great as it is once they accept the idea that there is only one God, who is the creator and sustainer of the entire universe.
The gospel writers and Paul were not exactly coining a new phrase when they referred to Jesus as the Son of God but were using an appellation that had long existed in the ancient world. The people who conferred the title “Son of God” on Jesus may have not thought of him literally as the Son of God but were using the symbolic expression to indicate their belief that he was the Messiah.
The apostle Paul agrees with John that the purpose for sending the pre-existent Son of God was that his death brought salvation to humankind. In John, God is called “Father” 120 times, and Jesus is called the “Son of God” 27 times.
The first Christians began to worship Jesus as God, and they expressed his relationship to the Father with the term, “Son of God.” The term became part of their confession of faith.
THE BOOK OF ACTS
The books of Acts continues the narrative of Luke’s Gospel by tracing the story of the Christian movement from the resurrection of Jesus to the time when the apostle Paul preached the gospel in Rome. The first eight chapters of “The Acts of the Apostles” remain our best record of the earliest activities of the Christian church in Jerusalem; Chapters 9 through 28 are devoted to the missionary journeys of Paul.
From Jerusalem the Word spread to Samaria and the seacoast, Damascus, Antioch and Cyprus, Asia Minor, and finally to Rome. Much of the latter part of the book is narrated in the first person plural “we”. Many believe that it was written by the physician Luke as his travel diary; he indicates events to which he was an eyewitness: “In the first book (the gospel of Luke), O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” According to Luke, before his assumption, Jesus told his disciples to remain in Jerusalem until they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1: 1-5)
While in an upper room on the Mount of Olives, they drew lots to see who would be the disciple to replace Judas, and the lot fell to Matthias.
Chapter 2 of Acts describes the day of Pentecost, which took place in Jerusalem, where Jews from every nation lived:
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2: 1-4)
Peter preached to them and, according to Acts 2: 41, about three thousand souls were baptized. Peter attributed this to the prophet Joel: “And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and you sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” The people who heard Peter preach were cut to the heart. They sold their possessions and goods and distributed them to all, as any had need. The earliest Christians felt compelled to share whatever they owned with the other members of the church. “Now the company of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had everything in common.” (Acts 4: 32) So strong was this feeling of commonality that when Ananias sold a piece of property and kept back some of the proceeds and Peter confronted him, he fell down and died. His wife Sapphira also died when she too was confronted.
THE EARLY CHRISTIAN CHURCH
Because the earliest Christians were Jews, they did not consider themselves followers of a new religion. They did not see Jesus as a departure from Judaism but as the expected Messiah, so they kept the Sabbath and continued to worship in the synagogues. But when the majority of the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, the Christians broke away and formed their own church. Seven hundred years later Mohammed would do likewise when the Jews and Christians living in Arabia rejected his teachings.
Before his ascension, Jesus indicated his universal mission when he invested his eleven remaining disciples with his authority. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.” (Matthew 28: 19-20) In Acts 1: 8, Jesus says, “But you should receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.”
The early Christian church existed in a context of Roman law and Hellenistic and Jewish cultures. Imperial policy sought religious uniformity by syncretism, the mixing of elements from various religions, and emperor worship. The Jews and then the Christians resisted this.
The early Christians needed to define who Jesus was and to distinguish Christianity from the myriad of religious sects in the known world. The schism between them and the Jews, who refused to accept Jesus as the awaited Messiah, came first, but in the following years they also had to differentiate themselves from sects they deemed heretical to their beliefs. This process would occupy the attention of the early church for its first four centuries.
As the number of converts increased in Jerusalem, the Sadducees became jealous and arrested and imprisoned the apostles. According to the 5th Chapter of Acts, an angel opened the prison door and brought them out. When they were returned before the council, Gamaliel counseled the irate Jews to leave them alone. His reasoning was sound: if these fanatics and their following were “of men,” their plans would fail, but if they were “of God,” they would not be overthrown.
In Chapter 6 seven men from among the new converts were picked to assist in making the daily distribution to the widows of the community. One of the seven, “Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.” (Acts 6: 8) When Stephen was brought before the council and accused of changing the customs that Moses gave them, he recounted the history of Israel. This so enraged the Jews that they stoned him to death. Thus Stephen became the first Christian martyr. Saul, who became Paul after his conversion on the road to Damascus, took part in the stoning. Following Stephen’s death the church in Jerusalem underwent a great persecution, causing early Christians to scatter to Judea and Samaria.
The first Christians were entirely Jews until Peter, who had fled to Joppa, had a vision that was to change their ministry to include Gentiles, Greeks and Romans. According Acts, Chapter 10, Peter saw the heavens open and on a sheet that was let down from the four corners of the earth were all kinds of animals, reptiles and birds. He was commanded to kill and eat, but he protested, “No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean,” but he was told, “What God has cleansed, you must not call common.” Following this, Gentiles were accepted into the church.
PAUL
The apostle Paul is problematic to our discussion. Though he was an inspired apostle of the gospel of Jesus and was very important in the development of Christianity, he is not mentioned in the Koran. Paul is often credited with the invention of Christianity and the development of its Christology.
Paul was a Jew born in Tarsus, Asia Minor (present day Turkey). Through his father, a Roman citizen, he had Roman citizenship and all the privileges that accrued there from. He was a tentmaker by trade. His Jewish name was Saul. He was educated in Jerusalem, where he studied under Gamaliel and became a zealous nationalist; he was probably a Pharisee. He probably had some familiarity with Greek philosophy. Before his conversion on the road to Damascus, he actively engaged in persecuting Christians and sought to destroy what he considered to be a heretical sect.
But Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. Now as he journeyed he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed about him. And he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting; but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.”
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul arose from the ground; and when his eyes were opened, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.
Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus named Saul; for behold, he is praying, and he has seen a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon thy name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; for I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” (Acts 9: 1-16)
In our discussion, the story of the conversion of St. Paul has several items worth noting. First, it was Jesus himself who appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus, and, secondly, Ananias was told that Paul was to be “a chosen instrument” of Jesus to carry his name to the Gentiles and the Jews. Paul emphasized the fact that he was not chosen by men but by Jesus in the letters he wrote to the far-flung, fledgling Christian communities that he helped found.
After his conversion he was as zealous as an apostle for Jesus as he previously had been as his persecutor. Certainly he was the man of the hour, a man with a mission to spread the Gospel to the Gentiles—called by Jesus Christ himself and inspired by the Holy Spirit. One cannot deny his importance; had there been no Paul, Christianity may not have developed as a religion separate from Judaism.
PAUL’S MISSIONARY JOURNEYS
After his conversion, Paul became the primary missionary to spread the gospel to Jews and Gentiles living in the regions to the north and west of Palestine. He embarked on four journeys that took him to Cyprus, Western Turkey, Macedonia, Greece, and eventually to Rome. These journeys are described in considerable detail in the book of Acts, Chapters 13 through 28.
One can sense the excitement that seized the people in the cities where Paul preached. The Jews were upset because he claimed that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead and was the Messiah; the Greeks, because he told them the gods whom they worshipped were ineffectual; and the Gentiles, that their pagan worship was in vain. The Romans worried that he challenged the authority of the government. Nevertheless, he was sufficiently convincing to make converts from all these groups.
Imbued with the Holy Spirit, Paul was able to perform miracles: to cast out demons, heal the sick, and to withstand the many trials that beset him—being stoned, imprisoned, nearly assassinated, ship-wrecked, and even being bitten by a viper without falling ill.
In his first journey he traveled to Cyprus and throughout western Turkey. In Cyprus he confronted the false prophet, Bar-Jesus, and caused him to go blind. In Antioch of Pisidia, he proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah. When the Jews of that city saw that the whole city had gathered to hear the Word of God, they were jealous and drove him and his helpers from the district. In Lystra he healed a cripple, causing the Greek population to think that he and his companion Barnabas were Zeus and Hermes.
On his second journey Paul returned to communities in Western Turkey, but Acts 16: 6 says that the Holy Spirit forbade him to go to Asia. In Troas he had a vision of a Macedonian asking him to come to Macedonia to help the people there, so the intrepid Paul and his companions set sail to the country which was the birthplace of Alexander the Great and arrived in Philippi. After being imprisoned in Philippi, he traveled to Thessalonica and then to Athens. At the Areopagus he found an altar with the inscription, “To an unknown god,” and gave his famous address to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. It is related in Acts 17: 22-31.
So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God, who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all men life and breath and everything. And he made from one every nation of men to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their habitation, that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. Yet he is not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being; as even some of your poets have said. ‘For we are indeed his offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, a representation by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all men by raising him from the dead.
In Ephesus the Greeks had built a magnificent temple to the goddess Artemis, which was considered one of the wonders of the ancient world. Silversmiths there did a thriving business making silver shrines of Artemis, and they did not take kindly to Paul’s preaching. Soon the entire city was in a state of near riot. When the uproar ceased Paul took his companions and traveled again to Macedonia. (Acts 19)
When Paul returned to Jerusalem, there was more trouble—the Jews accused him of violating the Temple by bringing non-Jews into it. The Pharisees and Sadducees disputed his doctrine of the resurrection. They conspired to kill him, and the Roman centurion imprisoned him to keep the Jews from him. While he was in prison, the Lord appeared to Paul and said, “Take courage, for as you have testified about me at Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome.” (Acts 23: 11) Despite his present peril, Paul knew his ministry would continue.
Since Paul was a Roman citizen, the Roman rulers were obliged to see to his safety. When Claudius was informed of a plot to assassinate Paul, he had his soldiers transport him to Caesarea, where Felix was the governor. Paul was imprisoned there for several years. After Festus replaced Felix, Paul witnessed to the king of the area, King Agrippa. When the Jews came to Caesarea, asking for his custody, Paul appealed to Caesar. Festus answered, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you shall go.” (Acts 25: 12)
Still in the custody of the Romans, Paul and some of his companions set sail for Rome. They encountered extremely bad weather on the trip and were shipwrecked off the island of Malta. There Paul was bitten by a viper but was unharmed. From Malta, Paul traveled to Rome. For two years he lived and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Rome until he was crucified as Jesus had been.
When Paul traveled to the fledgling Christian communities and administered to their needs, he could not remain with any one community for long due to the demands of other communities and his frequent imprisonments. When he received reports that they had fallen away from the Gospel he had preached, he wrote letters to them. These letters of exhortation and advice to the early Christian communities at Rome, Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, and Thessalonica, as well as those to Timothy, his assistant, and to Titus, and Philemon comprise the Pauline Epistles of the New Testament.
It should be kept in mind that these letters are the first extant Christian documents, composed in the 50's and 60's ad. It is believed that Paul died in 64 or 67 before the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were composed.
Paul was a superb orator, but he is most famous as a letter writer. He was to letter writing as Shakespeare was to plays and sonnets. Many phrases he coined—such as “We know the whole creation has been groaning in travail,” and “For now we see through a glass darkly,” —have contributed substantially to Western literature. In his efforts to explain Jesus to the early Christian communities and to fortify their faith, he devised Christ’s place in the cosmos. He may have influenced the gospel writers.
Paul saw Jesus as the center of human history, as the key to the world’s salvation. In Romans 1: 1, he says he was called by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. In Romans 2: 2 he says, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” In First Corinthians 15: 14 he proclaims, “If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is in vain.” In Second Corinthians 5: 10, he announces that, “all must appear before the Judgment seat of Christ.” Paul insisted that a man becomes right with God only by faith in Christ. In Galatians 1: 11-12, he claims that his knowledge of Jesus came through Revelation. “For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”
According to Paul the foundation of all faith is Jesus Christ and the rock of Moses is Christ. Christ is the paschal lamb and Christians exist through him.
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman through promise. Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with children. But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. For it is written,
‘Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and shout, you who are not in travail;
for the children of the desolate one are many more than the children of
her that is married.’
Now we, brethren, (Christians) like Isaac are children of promise. But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now. But what does the scripture say? ‘Cast out the slave and her son; for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.’ So brethren, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. (Galatians 4: 22-31)
Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2: 5-11)
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus is my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. (Philippians 3: 7-15)
He (Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, and in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1: 15-20)
Thus we can see that Paul places Christ with God from the beginning of time and calls him the first-born of all creation. Does Paul refer to Jesus as God’s son? Indeed he does. Throughout the epistles Jesus is called the Son of God:
Romans opens with this passage:
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God which he promised beforehand through his prophets in holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ. (Romans 1: 1-6)
In Romans 1: 9 he says, “For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son...”. In Romans 5: 10, he writes, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” In Romans 8: 32, he writes, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, will he not also give us all things with him?”
THE BOOK OF REVELATION
Of all the books of the Old and New Testaments, the most enigmatic is “The Revelation of John.” It is reminiscent of the book of Ezekiel with a depiction of God on his throne, surrounded on each side by four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind, each of them having six wings, but John’s Revelation is much more extensive than Ezekiel’s vision. It is probable that the author, whose name was John, put the book in its present form toward the end of the reign of Emperor Domitian (81-96 ad), by whom he had been exiled to the rocky island of Patmos. Of all Revelation given to mankind this is the most difficult to understand. Because our subject is Revelation we will examine it in its entirety.
In the first chapters seven churches in Asia Minor are reprimanded--Ephesus for abandoning the love it once had, Smyrna to warn it of its coming tribulation, Pergamum for holding to the teaching of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, Thyatira for tolerating the prophetess Jezebel, Sardis for not being alive but dead, Philadelphia for those who say they are Jews and are not, Laodicea for being lukewarm: “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.’” (Revelation 3: 15-16)
Then John sees in heaven an open door and voices speak to him like trumpets. The first voice says, “Come up hither, and I will show you what must take place after this.” (Revelation 4: 1) At once John is “in the Spirit” and is shown a throne standing in heaven, with one seated on the throne. Around him are twenty-four elders, also sitting on thrones, clad in white garments with golden crowns on their heads, and four living creatures—a lion, an ox, a creature with a face of a man and an eagle. Each creature has six wings, and they are singing God’s praise.
In the right hand of him who is seated on the throne is a scroll sealed with seven seals. An angel asks, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break the seals?” (Revelation 5: 2) John weeps because no one is found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it, but then one of the elders says to him, “Weep not; lo, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, (presumably Jesus Christ) has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5: 5)
John sees a Lamb, standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes, and he goes and takes the scroll from the hand of him who was seated on the throne. Around the throne are creatures, elders and angels, “numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands”; all say, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”(Revelation 5: 11)
When the Lamb opens the first seal, a white horse and its rider with a bow and a crown ride out to conquer. When he opens the second seal, a red horse and its rider is permitted to the take the peace from the earth so that men may slay one another. When he opens the third seal, a black horse and its rider with a balance in his hand rides forth. The creatures say, “a quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, but do not harm oil and wine!”(Revelation 6: 6)
When he opens the fourth seal, a pale horse and its rider named Death and his follower, Hades, are given power over a fourth of the earth to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth.
When he opens the fifth seal, John sees under the altar the souls of those who have been slain for the word of God and for their witness. They are crying to the Lord that their blood be avenged. They are given white robes and are told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants is complete.
When he opens the sixth seal, there is a great earthquake, the sun becomes black, moon becomes like blood, and stars fall to earth, as “the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.” (Revelation 6: 13) The sky vanishes like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island is removed from its place. People try to hide in caves and among the rocks of the mountain, calling for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, “for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand before it?” (Revelation 6: 17)
Following this, John sees four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. He sees another angel ascend from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, calling to the four angels not to harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until they have sealed the servants of God upon their foreheads. At this 144,000 people (presumably a symbolic number), some from every tribe of the sons of Judah, and a great multitude from every nation, stand before the throne, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!”
One of the elders asks John, “Who are these, dressed in white robes?” And John answers, “Sir, you know.” The elder says to John, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of Lamb.” (Revelation 7: 14)
The Lamb opens the seventh seal, and there is silence for about a half hour, while the seven angels who stand before God are given trumpets. Another angel is given a gold censer and incense, “to mingle with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar before the throne.” The angel takes the censer, fills it with fire from the altar, and throws it on the earth. There are peals of thunder, voices, flashes of lightning and an earthquake.
The seven angels are made ready to blow their trumpets. (The Koran speaks of the trumpets that will be blown on Judgment Day.) The first angel blows his trumpet. There follows hail and fire, mixed with blood, and a third of the earth is burnt up, and a third of the trees are burnt up, and all green grass is burnt up.
After the second angel blows his trumpet, a great mountain, burning with fire, is thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea becomes blood, a third of living creatures in the sea die, and a third of the ships are destroyed.
After the third angel blows his trumpet, a great star falls from heaven, like a blazing torch, and it falls on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The name of the star is Wormwood, the water becomes poisoned, and many men die because of its bitterness.
After the fourth angel blows his trumpet, a third of the sun, moon and stars are struck and their light darkens, so that a third of day and night are kept from shining.
An eagle cries with a loud voice, saying, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other trumpets which the three angels are about to blow.” (Revelation 8: 13)
After the fifth angel blows his trumpet, a star falls from heaven to earth. He is given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opens the pit, and from the shaft rises smoke, like the smoke of a great furnace. From the smoke come locusts, and they are given the power of scorpions, but they are hold not to harm those who have the seal of God on their foreheads. For five month they are allowed to torture those on earth with their stings. “And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.” (Revelation 9: 6)
After the sixth angel blows his trumpet, John hears a voice from the four horns of the golden altar, saying to sixth angel, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” (Revelation 9: 14) So the four angels are released to kill a third of mankind by the fire and smoke and sulphur that issue from their mouth. Yet those left do not repent and give up worshipping demons and idols.
Then John sees another mighty angel, wrapped in a cloud with a rainbow over his head, his face like the sun and his legs like pillars of fire. He has a little scroll open in his hand. He sets his right foot on the sea and left foot on the land, but a loud voice cries out, saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down,” so the angel announces that in the days of the trumpet call of the seventh angel, the mystery of God should be fulfilled.
John is instructed to take the scroll from the hand of the angel and eat it; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.
John is given a measuring rod and is told to measure the temple of God and altar and those who worship there, but not to measure the court outside the temple, for “that is given over to the nations, and they will trample over the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant my two witnesses power to prophesy for one thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” (Revelation 11: 2-3) When they have finished their testimony, the beast that ascended from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and conquer them and fill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the streets of the great city for three days, and people will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb. Then the breath of life from God enters them and they come back to life. In the sight of their foes, they go up to heaven in a cloud. At that hour is a great earthquake, and a tenth of the city falls, seven thousand people are killed and the rest are terrified.
When the seventh angel blows his trumpet, loud voices say, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11: 15) Then God’s temple in heaven is opened, and ark of his covenant is seen within his temple.
A great portent appears in heaven, and a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and with a crown of twelve stars, is with child and cries out with birth pangs. Another portent appears, a red dragon with seven heads and seven horns and seven diadems, sweeps a third of the stars from heaven and casts them to earth. The dragon stands before the woman that he might devour her child when she brings it forth. She brings forth a male child, but the child is caught up to God, while she flees into the wilderness, where God has prepared a place for her to be nourished for 1260 days (three and a half years.)
Now war arises in heaven with Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. The dragon and his angels are defeated and thrown down to earth. Those on earth are warned that the devil has come down in a great wrath because he knows his time is short. He pursues the woman who has borne the child, but she is given two wings that she might fly into the wilderness where she is again nourished. The dragon tries to drown her, but the earth opens its mouth and swallows the water the dragon has poured on her, so the dragon goes off to make war on the rest of her offspring.
Then John sees a beast rising out of the sea with ten horns and seven heads and ten diadems upon his horns, a beast like a leopard with feet like a bear’s and a mouth like a lion’s. The dragon gives him his power and authority. One of its heads seems to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound is healed, so the whole earth follows the beast with wonder.
For forty-two months (three-and-one-half years) the beast utters blasphemies against God, his dwelling and those who dwell in heaven, and is allowed to make war on the saints and conquer them. Authority is given over every tribe and people, and all who dwell on earth (except those whose names are written in the book of life of the Lamb) worship it.
As if this were not already the most amazing dream or vision anyone has ever entertained, John sees another beast rising from the earth with two horns like a lamb and speaking like a dragon. It exercises all the authority of the first beast and makes the inhabitants worship the first beast, working signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth, thus deceiving those who dwell on earth, bidding them to make an image for the beast. It causes all to be marked on the right hand or forehead with the name of the beast or the number of its name. No one can buy or sell unless he has the mark—666.
Then John looks on Mount Zion and sees the Lamb and 144,000 who have his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. Harps are playing—they are singing a new song and are the first fruits for God. Then he sees another angel flying in mid-heaven with an eternal gospel to proclaim: “Fear God and give him glory, for the hour of his judgment has come.” (Revelation 14: 7) A second angel follows, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who made all nations drink the wine of her impure passion,” and a third, saying, “If anyone worships the beast and image, and receives the mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also shall drink the wine of God’s wrath...” (Revelation 14: 9-10)
Following several other voices, John looks and sees on a white cloud, one like a son of man, with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. An angel tells him to “put in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.” So he swings his sickle and reaps the earth. Another angel with a sickle is instructed to gather the clusters of the vine for its grapes are ripe. The grapes are thrown into the great wine press and blood flows from it, as high as a horse’s bridle for 600 arm lengths.
In Chapter 15, John sees again the seven angels with the seven plagues, and they announce that when their plagues are ended, the wrath of God is ended. He sees what appears to be a sea of glass with fire and those who have conquered the beast and its image are standing beside it with harps in their hands, singing of Moses and the Lamb and God. After this, the temple of the tent of witnesses in heaven is opened, and out come the seven angels with the seven plagues, robed in pure bright linen, their breast girded with golden girdles. The four living creatures give them seven bowls, full of the wrath of God, and the temple fills with smoke, and they go to pour their bowls on the earth.
The first angel pours his bowl, and foul and evil sores come upon the men who bore the mark of the beast; the second angel pours his bowl into the sea, and it becomes like the blood of a dead man and every living thing dies in it; the third pours his bowl into the rivers and fountains, and they become blood; the fourth pours his on the sun, and it is allowed to scorch men with fire; the fifth pours his on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom is in darkness; the sixth pours his on the river Euphrates, and its water dries up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. He sees issuing from the mouths of the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, three foul spirits like frogs, demonic spirits, who go abroad and assemble the kings of the whole world for battle at a place called Armageddon. (The field of Armageddon is in the northwestern part of Israel.)
The seventh angel pours his bowl into the air, and a loud voice comes out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!”
“And there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake, such as had never been since men were on the earth, so great was that earthquake. The great city is split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fall. Every island has fled away, and no mountains are to be found; great hailstones, heavy a hundredweight, are dropped on men from heaven, till they cursed God for “the plague of the hail, so fearful was that plague.” (Revelation 16: 17-21)
One of the angels comes to John and says, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot, who is seated upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the dwellers on earth have become drunk,” He carries John into the wilderness where he sees a woman sitting on a scarlet beast with seven heads and ten horns. She is arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, and holds in her hand a golden cup full of abomination and the impurities of her fornication. On her forehead is written a name of mystery, “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations.” She is drunk on the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus.
When John marvels at her, the angel asks, “Why marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast. The beast is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition. The seven heads are seven mountains and seven kings, the ten horns are ten kings who will receive authority for one hour, together with the beast. They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them. The waters are the people, and they and the beast will hate her and make her desolate and naked. The woman is the great city, which has dominion over the kings of the earth.
Another angel comes down from heaven and announces the fall of Babylon, which has become a dwelling place of demons, foul spirit, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness. Another voice commands my people to come out of her, least you share in her plagues. When she is laid waste, the kings of the earth who committed fornication with her will weep and wail over her, and the merchants of earth will weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo any more. And the shipmasters and seafaring men, when they see the smoke of her burning, will say, “What city was like the great city?”
Then a mighty angel takes a stone and throws it into the sea, rejoicing in her destruction: “. . . for thy merchants were the great men of the earth, and all nations were deceived by thy sorcery.” (Revelation 18: 23) Those in heaven rejoice over the destruction of the harlot.
Now the marriage of the Lamb has come and his Bride has made herself ready. When John falls down at his feet to worship him, he says to him, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” (Revelation 19: 9-10)
Then John sees heaven open and he sees a white horse, and he who sits upon it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like flames and on his head are many diadems. He is clad in a robe dipped in blood and his name is The Word of God. The armies of heaven, arrayed in white linen, follow him on white horses. From his mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations, and he will rule with a rod of iron. And they make war on the beast and capture him and the false prophet and throw them alive into the lake that burns with sulphur.
An angel comes down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain, and he seizes the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and binds him for a thousand years, and throws him into the pit and shuts it and seals it over that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years are ended, when he will be loosed for a little while.
Then John sees thrones and seated on them are those to whom judgment is committed. And he sees the souls of those who were beheaded from their testimony to Jesus and for the word God and who did not worship the beast or receive his mark. They come back to life and will reign with Christ until the thousand years are ended. This is the first resurrection.
When the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle. They march over the earth and surround the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire comes down from heaven and consumes them, and this time the devil is thrown in the lake of fire where the beast and the false prophet are, and they will be tormented forever and ever. (Revelation 20: 7-10)
Then the book of life is opened and the dead are judged by what is written in the books by what they had done. (The Koran also speaks of this book of life.) “And, if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.” (Revelation 20: 15)
Then John sees a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth have passed away. He sees a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as bride adorned for her husband. God will now dwell with his people, and “he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21: 4)
The seven angels who had held the seven bowls full of plagues come, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb,” and John is carried to a great high mountain and shown the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God. Following this is the description of the new Jerusalem, with a high wall and twelve gates, and on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel inscribed. The wall of the city has twelve foundations and on them the twelve names of the apostles of the Lamb. The city is foursquare, 144 cubits, and the wall is built of jasper, while the city is of pure gold, clear as glass. The foundations are adorned with every jewel—jasper, sapphire, agate, emerald, onyx, carnelian, chrysolite, beryl, topaz, chrysoprase, jacinth, and amethyst. The gates are made of pearls.
He sees no temple for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb, and city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, “for the glory of God is its light and its lamp is the Lamb.” (Revelation 21: 23)
Then John is shown the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruits.
John is admonished that these words are trustworthy and true. When John falls down to worship the angel who has shown him these things, he says, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.” (Revelation 22: 9)
He tells John that the time is near. “Let the evildoer still do evil, and the filthy still be filthy, and the righteous still do right, and the holy still be holy.” (Revelation 22: 11) But he warns that he will be coming soon to repay everyone for what he has done. (The Koran also says on the Day of Judgment each soul will be repaid for what it has done.) “I, Jesus have sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” (Revelation 22: 16)
The Book of Revelation ends with the warning to anyone who hears it, not to add to their words nor to take from them, lest God will add to him the plagues described.
THE APOLOGISTS
Though new converts were added wherever the gospel was preached during the first several centuries of Christianity, most of them were from the lower classes of society, and they were persecuted for their beliefs. From the time of Nero, who came to the throne in 54 ad, until Constantine became emperor of both the western part of the Roman Empire and the eastern part in 313 ad, Christians lived under persecution.
During this era the leaders, whom we call the church fathers, were Jews, Greeks and Romans. In 107 ad Ignatius of Antioch, the bishop of Antioch, was condemned to death by the authorities. He wrote letters along his journey to Rome to meet his martyrdom, in which he called himself “the bearer of God.” He said his purpose was to imitate the passion of Jesus Christ. Fifty years later when Polycarp was told he would be allowed to go free if he would curse Christ, he replied, “For 86 years I have served him, and he has done me no evil. How could I curse my king, who saved me?” So, he was burned at the stake.
During the 2nd and 3rd Centuries following the life of Jesus the Christian church was the subject of all kinds of rumors from non-Christian people, people who misunderstood Christian practices and teachings. They thought that the Christians engaged in orgiastic celebrations, that in their communion services they were cannibalistic and ate the bodies of newborns, and the like. They were criticized by cultured pagans, who claimed that they were “rabbles,” that they were intellectually wanting, and that their doctrines were foolish and contradictory. Thus it became the task of some of the ablest Christian thinkers, known as the “apologists,” to defend the faith and refute these erroneous claims. (Gonzalez, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, volume 1. The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: HarperCollins. 1984. Pp 49-50.)
Besides being an intellectual matter, this condemnation was rooted in class prejudice. Pagan intellectuals thought the Christians were barbarians, who derived their teaching from the Jews whose teachers never rose to the level of the Greek philosophers. One intellectual, Celsus, in the time Marcus Aurelius, wrote criticism of the Christians, dripping with sarcasm, in which he claimed that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary by a Roman soldier. If he was truly the Son of God, why did he allow himself to be crucified?
What could be the purpose of such a visit to earth by God? To find out what is taking place among humans? Does He not know everything? Or is it perhaps that He knows, but is incapable of doing anything about evil unless He does it in person?
Also, these Christians preach—and truly believe—that they will rise again after death. It is on the basis of that belief that they face death with an almost incredible obstinacy. But it makes no sense to leave this life, which is certain, for the sake of another, which is best uncertain. And the doctrine itself of a final resurrection is the high point of Christian nonsense. What will happen to those whose bodies were destroyed by fire, or eaten by beasts or by fish? Will God scour the world after bits and pieces of each body? What will God do with those parts of matter that have belonged to more than one body? Will they be given to their first owner? Will that leave a gap in the risen bodies of all later owners? (Ibid. p. 52.)
The Christian apologists followed two tacks: those, such as Tertullian, thought there could be no reconciliation with pagan culture. He was convinced that many of the heresies that circulated during his time were the result of attempting to reconcile pagan philosophy with Christian doctrine.
Christians agreed that the pagan worship of the gods must be rejected, so they abstained from civil ceremonies in which sacrifices and vows were made to the gods. Christians were pacifists because soldiers were required to offer sacrifices to the emperor and to the gods. Some Christians objected to classical literature, in which the gods played an important part, because of the immorality ascribed to them. The work of the Greek philosophers had presented problems for the Jews, but it presented even more problems for the Christians. To reject their wisdom would be to set aside one of the highest achievements of the human intellect; but, to accept it might be seen as a concession to paganism. Those, such as Justin Martyr, thought that the best of the Greek philosophers—Socrates and Plato—had been granted wisdom from God through “the Logos,” or reason. These apologists, while rejecting paganism, admitted that it had produced a valuable culture, especially found in the best of Greek philosophy. In the quest for truth, however, they insisted on the superiority of Revelation.
Justin Martyr was the most famous of the early apologists. He believed that in Christianity he had found the true philosophy. Three of his works are extant: two apologies, which are really two parts of a single work, called a Dialogue with Trypho, a Jewish rabbi. In the third his disciple, Tatian, wrote An Address to the Greeks, and another disciple, Athenagorus, composed a Plea for the Christians and a treatise On the Resurrection of the Dead. Later in the 2nd Century Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, wrote Three Books to Autolycus, which dealt with the doctrine of God, the interpretation of Scripture, and Christian life. In the 3rd Century Origen wrote a refutation called Against Celsus. Tertullian, one the most famous and influential of the apologists, wrote an Apology. Christian theology developed through these apologies written to pagan detractors.
Justin Martyr claimed that the best of the philosophers had spoken of a supreme being from which every other being derives its existence. Both Socrates and Plato had affirmed life beyond the physical death. Plato pointed to a world of eternal realities. Justin thought that these philosophers had been given glimpses of truth that was not accidental. To explain this agreement between the philosophers and Christianity, Justin pointed to the doctrine of the Logos. The Greek word means both “word” and “reason.” According to Greek philosophy, humans can understand reality because they share in the Logos or universal reason that under girds all reality. Both in our mind and in the universe there exists a Logos, or reason, that makes is possible for us to understand that two and two make four.
The Fourth Gospel, the Gospel of John, affirms that in Jesus the Logos or “Word” was made flesh. According to Justin, in the incarnation of Jesus, the underlying reason of the universe, or Logos, or Word of God, had become flesh. In these Logos John says is “the true light that enlightens” everyone. The next step in this progression was to say that therefore Jesus was the source of all true knowledge. Justin concluded that whatever truth there is in the writings of Plato was granted to him by the Logos of God, the same Logos that were incarnate in Jesus. Therefore Socrates, Plato and the other sages of antiquity were Christians for their wisdom had come from Jesus Christ. Thus, Justin opened the way for Christianity to claim whatever good found in classical philosophy despite its pagan origin.
GNOSTICISM
The converts who joined the early church came from a wide variety of backgrounds. This enriched the church and gave universality to its message, but it also resulted in widely differing interpretations of its message that could threaten its core. The danger was increased by those who advocated syncretism, the synthesis of truth from pieces of various systems. Of these differing interpretations none was more dangerous than Gnosticism, from the Greek word gnosis, or “knowledge.” The Gnostics believed that they possessed a secret, mystical knowledge, reserved for those with true understanding, and that knowledge was the secret to salvation.
They also believed that all matter is evil or unreal, and human beings were spirits imprisoned in evil bodies. The Gnostic goal was to escape the body and material world in which it was exiled. In their concept humans were spirits who had fallen into error. For them to be liberated, a spiritual messenger had to come to the world to bring the secret knowledge and inspiration necessary for salvation. Christian Gnostics, of course, believed that messenger was Christ, and they rejected the notion that he had a body like ours. They said that his body was an apparition, a sort of ghost that only seemed to be a real body. Notions such has this have plagued the Christian church throughout its history and have been labeled under the heresy called “docetism,” from the Greek word meaning “to seem.” The main leaders of the church firmly opposed Gnosticism because it denied the doctrines of creation, the incarnation and the resurrection.
MARCION
In the 2nd Century ad, there were those who wanted to develop their own self-styled version of Christianity. Marcion, because of his dislike of Judaism and the material world, sought to purge Christian doctrine of both. He thought the world was evil and so came to the conclusion that its creator must be either evil or ignorant. Therefore, he posited that there were two God’s, the God of the Old Testament, and the God and Father of Jesus. Hebrew Scripture, according to Marcion, had been inspired by Jehovah, an arbitrary and vindictive God. God, the Father of Christians, was not vindictive but loving, and he had sent his Son to save the world. Following his own construction, Marcion denounced Hebrew Scripture and compiled a short list of books that he considered true Scripture—the epistles of Paul and the gospel of Luke. The other Christian books, he believed, were corrupted by Jewish views. Since the epistles of Paul and Luke contained quotations from the Old Testament, he explained them as interpolations, the handiwork of Judaizers seeking to subvert its message.
THE RESPONSE: CANON, CREED AND APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION
THE CANON
Since Marcion was the first to attempt to put together a “New Testament,” it was incumbent upon the church to compile a list of sacred Christian writings. When early Christians spoke of “Scripture,” they meant the Hebrew Bible, usually in its Greek version, but there was no approved list of other writings. Gradually a consensus developed. There was no question that Hebrew Scripture was part of its canon; it was seen as proof that God had been preparing the way for the advent of Jesus. Christian faith was seen as the fulfillment of the hope of Israel, not a sudden apparition from heaven.
Even though they had been written after Paul’s letters and Luke’s account of early Christian “Acts,” the Gospels were the first to attain acceptance, and more than one Gospel was included. Even though they varied in matters of detail, the Gospels did not contradict one another. This may have been a deliberate attempt to counter the challenge of Marcion and Gnosticism, to show that Christian doctrines were not based on the supposed witness of single apostle or Gospel, but rather on the consensus of the entire apostolic tradition.
John’s Gospel, the fourth, was the slowest to gain acceptance. By the end of the 2nd Century the core of the canon was established: the four Gospels, Acts and the Pauline epistles. The book of Revelation, widely accepted by the 3rd Century, was questioned after the conversion of Constantine because its wording seemed too harsh. By the second half of the 4th Century, however, consensus was achieved, and it was admitted to the canon.
THE APOSTLES’ CREED
Another element in the church’s response to heresy was the Apostles’ Creed. The notion that the apostles had gathered and composed this creed is erroneous. It was put together in Rome in the middle of the 2nd Century and was called the “symbol of the faith.” But here the word “symbol” connotes a means of recognition, just as a messenger is recognized by an agreed upon set of words. The creed was originally devised so that Christian could distinguish true believers from those who followed various heresies. Any who would affirm this creed could be neither a Gnostic nor a Marcionite.
The creed was taken from the questions asked of those who presented themselves for baptism:
Do you believe in God the Father almighty?
Do you believe in Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who born of the Holy Ghost and of Mary the virgin, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and died, and rose against at the third day, living from among the dead, and ascended unto heaven and sat at the right of the Father, and will come to judge the quick and the dead?
Do you believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy church, and the resurrection of the flesh?
In spite of its Trinitarian formula, the Apostles’ Creed is not nearly as problematic to our discussion as is the Nicene Creed, which we will discuss in the next chapter. To be sure, Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, but is not elevated to the position of “very God of very God.” Following Jesus’ edict to his disciples before his assumption, Christians have always been baptized in “the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” Though Jesus is referred to as the Son of God, the Apostles’ Creed does make the assumption that he and the Holy Ghost are God.
APOSTOLIC SUCCESSION
Though the canon and the Apostles’ Creed were instruments for Christians to be differentiated from those who expressed contradictory views, the authority of the church resolved debates. The notion of apostolic succession therefore became important. The immediate successors to Jesus were the apostles, and following them were the bishops. Several ancient churches had lists of bishops linking them to the apostles. The church of the 2nd Century could show its connection with the apostles in a way in which the Gnostics and the Marcionites could not. At a later date the idea of apostolic succession was promoted by the idea that ordination was valid only if performed by a bishop who could prove apostolic succession. This countered the idea that Jesus’ teaching could be based on a secret knowledge conferred on a single disciple, setting forth instead the idea that it was an open and shared tradition based on the witness of all the apostles. From this concept grew the principle of the “catholic” or universal church.
THE TEACHERS OF THE 3RD CENTURY
During the early life of the church “the apostolic fathers” addressed specific problems or issues, but none of them tried to write a total exposition on Christian doctrine. Towards the end of the 2nd Century, however, due to the challenge of Marcion and the Gnostics, who had their own systems of doctrine, the church at large was faced with the need to respond with equally cogent discourses. Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Origen undertook this challenge. In the course of formulating their systems, they had to explain the person of Jesus. Each of these teachers made important contributions to the understanding of Christian theology.
IRENAEUS OF LYONS
As the Bishop of Lyon, a city in southern France, Irenaeus was above all a pastor. He was not interested in philosophical speculation nor was he interested in delving into the mysteries of the faith that were unsolved. He wrote simply to refute heresy and instruct his flock. Irenaeus saw himself as a shepherd and God as a loving being who created the world and humankind out of a desire to have a creation to love and lead. Irenaeus saw history as the process whereby God leads creation to the final goal: that human beings would grow in communion with him, eventually surpassing even the angels. As he saw it, humankind was instructed by the angels and by the “two hands” of God: the Word and the Holy Spirit. Probably he equated the Word with Revelation, as it is found in the Bible. The goal was what he called “divinization,” a process whereby humans become ever more divine. This was not to say that humans become God, only that they increase in spirituality. History was the result of sin. Even before the Incarnation, God was leading humanity towards closer communion with him. Jesus was the Word Incarnate, and he had corrected what was wrong because of sin. Thus, Irenaeus held a grand vision of history with its focal point the Incarnation of Jesus Christ.
CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA
Clement was born a pagan; once he had converted to Christianity he undertook to find a teacher who could instruct him in a deeper understanding of his faith. He found such a teacher in Pantenus, who lived in Alexandria. When Pantenus died, Clement took his place as the main Christian teacher in Alexandria. It was the most active intellectual center in the world at the end of 2nd Century, a meeting place for scholars and philosophers of varying persuasions. Syncretism was the spirit of the times, but this was something that Clement, as a Christian, had to reject.
As an intellectual, he wanted to convince pagans that Christianity was not the absurd superstition some claimed it to be. Because he believed that a good part of Christian doctrine could be supported by Plato’s philosophy, he made use of it and that of other Greeks philosophers in his Exhortation to the Pagans.” Because Clement was convinced that there is only one truth, any truth that could be found in Plato was the same truth that had been revealed in Jesus and in Scripture. He believed that philosophy had been given to the Greeks just as Mosaic Law had been given to the Jews. Both led to the ultimate truth that was revealed in Christ. A careful study of Scripture, he believed, would lead to the same truth that the philosophers had known.
Clement also propounded that Scripture was written allegorically, or “in parables.” Beyond the literal sense of the text were other meanings that the wise could discern. Clement saw himself as a “true Gnostic.” His allegorical exegesis allowed him to find ideas in Scripture that were Platonic in inspiration: God is the Ineffable One, about whom one can only speak in metaphors and negative terms. One cannot say what God is; one can only say what he is not. God has been revealed to us in the Word or Logos, which the philosophers knew, the prophets perceived, and which had become Incarnate in Jesus.
TERTULLIAN OF CARTHAGE
Tertullian took a tack opposite Clement’s. He resisted the synthesis of Christian doctrine and Greek philosophy, as indicated with his famous remarks: “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem? What does the Academy have to do with the church?” He wrote a number of treatises in defense of the faith against pagan ideology and in defense of orthodoxy against various heresies. Of a legal mind, in On the Witness of the Soul, Tertullain placed the human soul on the witness stand and questioned it, coming to the conclusion that the soul is by nature Christian. If a person persisted in rejecting Christianity, it was due to his obstinacy and blindness. In Prescription against the Heretics, he made use of the legal argument that a trial could not take place if one of the parties could show that other had no right to sue, or that the suit had not been properly drawn, or that the court had no jurisdiction. If a party had been in undisputed possession of a property for a certain time, for example, the possession became legal, even if at a later time another party claimed it. Tertullian used this analogy as if it were a case of a suit between orthodox Christians and heretics. His intention was to show that the heretics did not even have the right to dispute with the church. To this end, he claimed that Scripture belonged to the church and had for several generations. Heretics had no right to dispute its possession nor had they any right to use the Bible. They were latecomers, seeking to change what legally belonged the church. To prove this, he cited the fact that all apostolic churches agreed in their use and interpretation of Scripture. The writings of the apostles belonged to the church, and it alone had the right to interpret them.
Tertullian also affirmed that once one had found the truth of Christianity, he should abandon any further search for the truth. A Christian who still searched lacked faith. Any quest beyond Christian doctrine was dangerous, and anything that came from other sources, particularly pagan philosophy (the source, according to Tertullian, of all heresy) was idle speculation and should be rejected. Through his combination of mordant irony and inflexibility, he became the scourge of heretics and the champion of orthodoxy.
Yet early in the 3rd Century Tertullian joined the Montanist movement. Montanus and his followers claimed that their movement was the beginning of a new age: a new age had begun in Jesus, but a newer age began with the sending of the Holy Spirit. People at the end of the 2nd Century believed that the last days had already begun. The Montanists believed that the end had begun with the giving of the Spirit to Montanus. This newer age demanded an even more rigorous moral life. They explained the continuing sin of Christians as an intermediate stage, soon to be superseded by the new age of the Spirit. Tertullian was probably attracted by the Montanist rigorism. When he became disillusioned with the Montanists, he founded his own sect.
Probably the most significant of his writings is Against Praxeas. Some believe that Praxeas was a fictitious name for Calixtus, the bishop of Rome, who explained the relationship between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in a manner Tertullian found objectionable. According to Praxeas, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were simply three modes in which God appears, so that God was sometimes Father, sometimes Son, and sometimes Holy Ghost. This explanation has been called “patripassionism” (the doctrine that God the Father suffered the passion) or “modalism.” Tertullian proposed that the Trinity could only be understood as “one substance and three persons,” and Jesus as “one person and two substances or natures, the divine and human.” In so doing, he coined the formula that would become the hallmark of orthodoxy.
ORIGEN OF ALEXANDRIA
Perhaps the greatest, certainly the most prolific, of the early Christian teachers was Origen. His literary output was enormous—it was said that at times he simultaneously dictated seven different works to his secretaries.
When Origen was still in his teens, the Bishop of Alexandria, Demetrius, entrusted him with the training of catechumens, or candidates for baptism. Later he devoted himself to running a school of Christian philosophy. When conflict arose between Demetrius and himself, Origen moved to Caesarea, where he continued teaching and writing for another twenty years. Since diverse versions of Scripture existed, he compiled a Hexapla, an edition of the Old Testament in six columns: the Hebrew text, a Greek transliteration from the Hebrew, and four other Greek translations. He wrote commentaries on many books of the Bible, an apology—Against Celsus, and a systematic theology called De principiis—“On First Principles.”
Origen’s theology was similar to Clement’s; it was an attempt to relate Christian faith to the philosophy current in Alexandria, Neoplatonism. The first principle of his theology was that there is only one God, creator and ruler of the universe. Thus, Gnostic speculations were rejected. Secondly, since the apostles had taught that Jesus Christ was the Son of God, begotten before all creation, his Incarnation was such that, while becoming human, he remained divine. The Holy Ghost’s glory was no less than that of the Father’s and the Son’s. At a future time the soul would be rewarded or punished according to its life in this world, and there would be a final resurrection of the body—in other words, standard Christian doctrine.
Beyond that, Origen engaged in great speculative flights, derived from Platonic tradition, that are questionable, such as that there had been two creations, the first purely spiritual, and the second material. The physical world and its history were the result of sin. The earth, the material creation, was a temporary home for fallen spirits. Jesus Christ came to break the power of Satan and to show human beings the path they should follow in order to return to their spiritual home. Furthermore, the Devil was a spirit, like human spirits, and in the end, even he would be saved.
THE BURNING QUESTION
The burning question that plagued the early Christian church was the question concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. It was a question that the early church fathers felt compelled to answer. Simply put it was, who was this man Jesus? Was he man or God or both? And if he was God, what relationship did he have to God, the Creator and Sustainer of the universe?
Why was it so important for the early church fathers to define Jesus and especially to define him in relationship to God? Why was it not enough to say that he was a very special human being, perfect in ways that the rest of us fail, the Messiah, sent by God to save the world?
As we have already seen, for centuries monarchs had claimed divine status for themselves. Though this practice had begun to fade after the time of Jesus, as late as the 4th Century ad, the Emperor Diocletian, who preceded Constantine, claimed that he was the descendant of Zeus. Claiming they were divine was a means of validation of their claim to the throne and a means by which they hoped to win their constituents’ allegiance. This tradition began to disappear when Constantine came to throne. He did not claim that he was divine, rather called himself God’s appointed Vice-Regent on earth. In the last years of his life he used the title Isapostolos, or Equal to the Apostles, and at his death he was buried in a sarcophagus that was placed among the relics of the twelve apostles in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. With Constantine, Byzantine emperors stopped claiming divine status for themselves, but that did not stop the people of the empire from disputing the nature of Jesus. We will take this up more fully in the next chapter.
The Gospel of John states that Jesus is the Word of God Incarnate. To the apostle Paul and the early church fathers, this meant that Jesus was literally God.
To know the nature of Jesus without being informed through Revelation is impossible, but the larger problem is to determine what is actual Revelation and what is not.
The early Christians thought that they could arrive at an answer through consensus. Augustine, the great Christian teacher of the 5th Century, thought that faith precedes understanding. “Seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you might understand,” —crede ut intelligas (similar to Kierkegaard’s “leap of faith”). A man centuries ahead of his time, Augustine sensed that the Scriptures were of a higher authority than all the efforts of human intelligence. He did not believe that the Bible always needed to be taken literally because it was written to be intelligible to simple minds and used corporeal terms for spiritual realities. Likewise, he thought that (and here is the point) when interpretations differ, we must rest in the decision of the Church councils and in the collective wisdom of their wisest men. Augustine, for all his intelligence, did not say that we could only know about things beyond our understanding through Revelation.
The Christian fathers felt impelled to define the nature of Jesus for the sake of the unity of the church—so that its members would all believe the same thing. It would not do for some people to think one way about Jesus and others another because this would threaten its unity. To some extent Constantine’s conversion was a political maneuver to bring unity to an empire of many diverse peoples. Consequently, he was motivated to resolve this matter concerning the nature of Jesus, though he did not much care one way or the other what the resolution was.
In seeking to answer this unanswerable question (unanswerable, that is, without Revelation from God himself) people listed to one side of the matter and then to the other in continuing controversies, condemning as heretics those who believed differently from the majority, and pronouncing anathema on their writings. The burning question whose answer they sought divided Christians again and again and prevented their unification until, after many protracted battles, the Nicene Trinitarian formula eventually triumphed.
When Revelation again came in the 7th Century, it came to a poor man, living in an off-the-beaten-path country. It was perhaps the very answer that Christians had sought for centuries, but they largely ignored it. For the next thirteen hundred years, Christians would maintain that the Nicene Creed was the truth concerning Jesus. Muslims would agree that Jesus was the Messiah, but they would see him only as a prophet. To call him the Son of God and equal to God was blasphemy to them, as it was to the Jews. In the early centuries following the Revelation of Mohammed, Christians and Muslims would view one another as enemies, calling each other by the same epithet— infidel. They would not engage in meaningful debate to see if their beliefs were reconcilable. As a result, for all these centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims have considered themselves members of three separate religions.
CHAPTER FOUR:
THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE & THE NICENE COUNCIL
FROM 320 TO 570 AD
During the three hundred years following the death of Jesus, Christianity slowly spread throughout the Roman Empire, but those who became Christians generally came from the lower classes. They were persecuted—often because they would neither bear arms nor worship the Roman gods. Christianity appeared likely to remain an insignificant cult.
Suddenly, early in the 4th Century, a startling thing happened destined to change the course of history and the fortunes of the Christian faith. The Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity almost overnight. One might see the hand of God here, using the emperor as a means of changing Christianity’s status and insuring its success in the centuries to come.
Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire, and all citizens were required to pay homage. He placed the labarum, taken by some as a Christian emblem, on the shields of his soldiers and saw stunning military successes. What had been an underground faith practiced in secret by people of lowly status now became the widely accepted faith of all. A small sect that had started in the Middle East quickly became the major factor in the spiritual life of the empire. Rarely has one event had such enormous effect on history and the role of faith in the lives of men as the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. The roots of this dramatic change are varied and deep.
DIOCLETIAN
By the end of the 3rd Century ad the Roman Empire stretched from Palestine to England. As early as 286 the Emperor Diocletian concluded that it had grown too unwieldy to be governed by a single monarch, and so he raised his comrade-in-arms Maximian to share the throne. Diocletian recognized that Rome’s far-flung bureaucracy had become too cumbersome, and so he carved the empires provinces into smaller units. Then he split the administration between two emperors, each with the title of Augustus—one in the East and one in the West. Each emperor had an heir apparent with the title of Caesar. Diocletian himself took the post of emperor in the East, choosing Nicomedia for his capital (not far from the city soon to become Constantinople). He claimed divine status for himself and professed that he had descended from Jupiter. These steps, taken to check the disintegration of the Roman Empire, set the stage for the rise of the Byzantine Empire. In preserving the Roman Empire, he revitalized it and gave new importance to the Eastern dominions. In 305 Diocletian voluntarily abdicated, and by 311 there were four rulers, each claiming the title of emperor. One of them, stationed in the West in Britain and destined for a crucial role in history, was Constantine.
Constantine determined to reunite the empire. During his previous intrigues and civil wars, he had limited his intervention to diplomatic maneuvering, but now he began a military campaign that would eventually make him its master. When least expected, he gathered his armies in Gaul, crossed the Alps and marched on Rome, Maxentius’s capital. A brilliant campaign brought him to the outskirts of the city. Taken by surprise, Maxentius was unable to defend his strongholds, and they were rapidly occupied by Constantine’s troops. All that Maxentius could do was to collect his army before Rome and fight the invader. Rome itself was well defended, and had Maxentius chosen the wiser course and remained behind the city walls, history might have taken a different turn. Instead, he consulted his augurs who advised him to commit to the present battle.
According to two Christian chroniclers who knew him, Constantine had a Revelation on the eve of the battle. One of them, Lactantius, says that in a dream Constantine received a command to place what seemed to be a Christian symbol on the shields of his soldiers. Eusebius, his biographer, says that the vision appeared in the sky with the words, “In this you shall conquer.” In any case, Constantine ordered his soldiers to put a labarum, a symbol that looks like the superimposition of the Greek letters “chi” and “rho,” on their shields and on their standards. Since these are the first two letters of the name “Christ,” this labarum may well have been a Christian symbol. Christians have come to see this as the moment of Constantine’s conversion, but historians point out that even after this event Constantine continued worshipping the Unconquered Sun. His actual conversion was a long process—he did not receive baptism until he was on his deathbed.
As he fought on the Milvian Bridge, Maxentius fell into the water and drowned. His armies were defeated, and Rome fell in 317. The victorious Constantine became master of the entire western half of the Empire. He attributed his victory to the power of the symbol that his men had placed on their shields.
Once his campaign had begun, Constantine met with Licinius at Milan and concluded an alliance with him. It was agreed that the persecutions of Christians would stop and that their churches, cemeteries, and other properties would be returned to them. This agreement, the “Edict of Milan”, marks the end of Christian persecutions (313 ad). (Gonzales, Justo L. The Story of Christianity, volume 1, The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1984. P 107.)
Constantine resumed his efforts to reunite the empire, turning his attention to the eastern territories governed by Licinius and Maximinus Daia. By 324 ad he had gained control of their territories and became the sole Emperor of Rome. Chroniclers affirm that Licinius feared the magical power of Constantine’s labarum and ordered his soldiers to avoid looking at the emblem and not to direct a frontal attack against it. In a battle in 322, the labarum may have demoralized Licinius troops because Constantine’s smaller army won. Licinius fled to Byzantium where he hoped to be able to regroup his forces. His fleet had been stronger than Constantine’s, but most of it was wrecked at sea. With what was left, he crossed to Asia Minor. After a series of defeats Licinius lost heart. His wife Constance, Contstantine’s half-sister, went to Constantine who promised to spare Licinius’ life in exchange for his abdication. It was 324, and Constantine had realized his ambition to become master of the Roman Empire.
Constantine would reign for the next thirteen years, until his death in 337 ad. This was a period of rebuilding and prosperity. He made two decisions that had far reaching effects on the course of history. His first decision, made because he never felt at home in Rome, was to move the seat of the empire to the city he had built, Constantinople. It was strategically located at the tip of the European landmass on the Sea of Marmora across the straits from Anatolia. The second decision was to convene the first ecumenical council in Nicea in 325 to resolve the Arian controversy that was threatening to divide the Christian church. The Byzantine Empire, which had its beginning with the building of Constantinople, remained one of the longest lasting empires in the history of the world, lasting for over a thousand years, until in 1453 it was conquered by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. Constantinople became the capital of their empire and was renamed Istanbul.
CHRISTIANITY AS THE OFFICIAL STATE RELIGION OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Constantine’s adoption of Christianity as the compulsory state religion was in part the result of growing need for a strong, unifying force in an empire embracing a diversity of peoples and beset by internal dissention and by barbarian invasions. In pagan Rome emperor worship had been one of the unifying forces. Prostration in the presence of the emperor and the burning of incense before his statue were acts of political allegiance to the divine head of state. Christianity was now to foster unity in the same way. The Church readily agreed (except for some monks who objected and withdrew into the desert), rejoicing in its new status and tempted by the vision of a Christian society in which men were brought to salvation by law as well as by grace.
In succumbing to this temptation, the ministers of the Church were forgetting that such a close identification of church and state was a return to pre-Christian practices. The boundaries of the Church’s domain had been clearly stated by Christ himself, “My kingdom is not of this world.” In his life and actions he rejected all worldly status and authority. Christianity, if it were to remain true to his doctrine, could not merge with the state. The very nature of the faith demanded freedom from political control. In Byzantium, the alliance entered into by the Church and state was to result in a very complex relationship.
The conflict was not immediately apparent. Obviously Christianity, so long an oppressed religion, had emerged triumphant. Indeed, it had captured its bitterest persecutor, the Roman state. This could not seem anything less than miraculous and providential, a direct manifestation of the Divine Will in the affairs of mankind. But if the Roman Empire was now to be Christian, the church had to create a new philosophical framework to define the nature of its ruler and the source of his power.
The theory put forward by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea and one of Constantine’s closest ecclesiastical advisors as well as his biographer, was that Christianity ideally suited the needs of state and society. This theory was to serve with only minor changes as the political philosophy of the Byzantine state for more than a thousand years.
With an astute respect for prevailing traditions, Eusebius wove strands from Hellenism and Roman practice into a Christian framework. From Hellenism came the concept of the emperor as father, benefactor and savior of his people. From late pagan Rome, where the emperors had ruled as gods, came the exalted status of the ruler, who buttressed his power by adopting a favorite pagan divinity. Now the Christian emperor could claim the Christian God as the source of his strength. Constantine had demonstrated just such a source by his submission to the Cross on the eve of his victory at the Milvian Bridge, a triumph that made manifest—so the theory went—the designation of Constantine and his successors to the throne as the elect of God. Eusebius wrote: “Thus the God of all . . . appointed Constantine . . . to be prince and sovereign, so that while others have been raised to this distinction by the election of their fellow men, he is the only one to whose elevation no mortal man may boast of having contributed.” As God’s chosen instrument, the emperor was to rule on earth as God’s vice-regent and representative. Since earth was the counterpart of Heaven, the emperor was to play on earth a role analogous to that of God in Heaven. Just as there was one all-powerful ruler in Heaven, so on earth there would be but one absolute monarch—the ruler of the Roman Empire.
This exalted status, however, brought with it responsibilities. It was the emperor’s duty to prepare his people for the Kingdom of God and to lead them to it. He was to be answerable to God for the spiritual and temporal welfare of his subjects. He was to rule through the guidance and inspiration of God. Thus Constantine had himself portrayed on coins in a profile image with eyes directed upward awaiting guidance from Heaven.
Since the emperor’s responsibility in religious affairs was magnified, it was inevitable that tension would arise between emperor and Church. In cases where the interests and jurisdiction of the two collided, which authority should prevail? This vital question remained unresolved through the centuries of Byzantium’s existence. Sometimes the emperor would assert his claim to supreme authority in religious affairs; at other times the Church would dominate. For the Church these questions had several consequences. The Christian Church had emerged from the catacombs into which it had been driven by the pagan emperors of Rome. If the Roman Empire’s society was to evolve into a Christian society, the Church had to develop an active social role and be the chief instrument in determining the answers to these questions. The Church hastened to adapt its organization to that of the empire.
Ever since the time of Diocletian the Roman provinces had been organized into dioceses, so Christians adopted the same plan. Bishops were appointed to administer the churches in each diocese, and they were responsible to higher bishops, called metropolitans, who exercised authority in areas larger than the diocese. By Constantine’s time, the most important metropolitans in the eastern parts of the empire were those who presided over the key areas of Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Heraclea and Caesarea. The Bishop of Rome, as successor to St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, held a special place of honor in the Church
The town of Constantinople, when chosen by Constantine as his new capital, was no more than a minor bishopric under the jurisdiction of the metropolitan of Heraclea. By 381, however, scarcely fifty years after the city’s dedication in 330, the fathers of the second great Church council declared the Bishop of Constantinople primary among the bishops, second only to the Bishop of Rome. A later council, held at Chalcedon in 451, confirmed this hierarchy.
The Byzantine Empire was called the oekumene (the universe), so its senior patriarch was called “ecumenical.” The administrative structure of the Church gradually became centralized around the Bishop of Constantinople, and his representatives were in charge of administrative subdivisions. As there was an emperor, so there was a patriarch; and, as the emperor ruled through a senate, so the patriarch ruled through a synod.
Hand in hand with Constantinople’s transformation into the religious center of the empire went an attempt to transform the city itself into a “New Jerusalem,” an image of Heaven on earth. Constantine started this process by setting up Christian symbols in prominent places and by building the Church of the Holy Apostles and laying the foundations of the great Church of Hagia Sophia. There seems little doubt that Constantine had a sense of sacred mission, and this mystical vision of Constantinople as a holy city was to deepen and become more compelling in the following centuries.
The most tangible expression of this vision was the appearance throughout the city of monuments, memorials and various objects connected with the Christian faith. In countless churches, sanctuaries and shrines, all magnificently decorated, relics of the faith were brought from all the provinces of the empire. It was felt that possession of these relics, the earthly testimonials of saints now in Heaven, would confer something of Heaven’s influence and radiance upon Constantinople.
CHURCH DOGMA
Because Christianity became the required faith of the empire the state had a vital concern in defining and preserving church dogma. Before its alliance with the state, local councils that met to resolve questions regarding organization and dogma had formulated church regulations. These rules were adequate as long as Christianity remained a matter of individual belief and worship. But when it became the faith of the emperor—and later the official religion—answers had to be found for a host of new questions, varying from the most subtle points of doctrine down to the most ordinary practical details.
The pressure for greater elaboration in matters of church dogma and discipline resulted in a series of gatherings—known as ecumenical councils—at which the emperor and bishops met to debate the points at issue and make the necessary decisions. Generally the emperor summoned these councils when doctrinal disputes among his subjects threatened to lead to serious disturbances of the peace and the unity of the state. Out of such a need the First Ecumenical Council met at Nicea in the spring of 325 to pronounce judgment on what was known as Arianism.
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY
History is indeed strange. Some events have marked the future definitively; leaving us to comment that, had they not happened, the way we perceive our religion would be different. This is particularly true of the Christian religion.
As if his conversion was not in itself a turn definitive enough in the fate of the Christian church, no sooner had Constantine become Emperor and consequently the head of the church, he was called upon to resolve a matter that, left unresolved, may have torn Christendom apart. Constantine may have chosen Christianity as the state religion of the Roman Empire for the political purpose of unifying its many diverse peoples, but he soon found that Christians themselves were not united.
In about 320 a fierce theological controversy broke out in the Christian churches in Egypt, Syria and Asia Minor. It had to do with a definition of the nature of Jesus and was referred to as the Arian controversy, a name derived from a man named Arius who was a proponent of one view of Jesus’ nature. Constantine felt compelled to call the bishops of the empire to a council whose purpose was to reach a satisfactory compromise and quell the disturbance. In response the council, after much bickering and skullduggery, took a vote approving a Trinitarian doctrine defining the nature of Jesus that has dominated Christian dogma ever since. Because the council met at Nicea, the creed it developed was called the Nicene Creed, and Christians know it by that name to this day. The earlier history of the church had foreshadowed the need for this council.
From its very beginning, Christianity had been involved in controversy. In Paul’s time the burning issue was whether Gentiles should be welcomed into the church. Then there were the debates over Gnosticism. In the 3rd Century the main discussion was over the restoration of the lapsed Christians. All of these controversies were significant and often bitter, but none ever raged with more vehemence and had more far reaching effects than the Arian controversy.
The Arian controversy arose long before Constantine’s time because Christians had wanted to know how they should view Jesus Christ. It went back even further than that to the Hebraic understanding of Jehovah and the Greek philosophers’ understanding of God as the Supreme Mover. We saw earlier that some early Christian theologians, such as Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, had already incorporated the Platonic idea—that above the entire cosmos was an unchangeable, Supreme Being—into what they meant when they spoke of God. But it was a dangerous compromise because the Greek philosophers saw God as immutable and fixed, and Christians came to the conclusion that so, too, was the God of Scripture.
If God was the Supreme Being who ruled the cosmos, who was this man, Jesus Christ? Was he God, as God was God? Was he the Son of God? Was he sent from God to redeem the world? Was he a God-like man, who fulfilled God’s will by leading an exemplary life? Was he merely a prophet?
With all due respect to our ancient forefathers who had to grapple with these questions, their methodology and the conclusions they reached might very well be different if this same issue were debated today.
Two means were used to answer the question: what the Bible says about God and the Greek classical notion of the Supreme Being, who is immutable—an allegorical interpretation of Scripture on one hand and the doctrine of the “Logos” on the other. Allegorical interpretation holds that when the Bible says God walked in the garden and spoke to Adam and Eve, and when it says He spoke to Noah, Abraham and Moses, it is not to be taken literally. Allegorical interpretation leaves something to be desired in terms of accounting for a personal relationship with God. It cannot account for the times when, because of human supplication, God has changed his mind about something He intended to do, such as when He did not destroy the world as He said he was going to do, and instead instructed Noah to build the ark.
Another problem arises if we assume that the God speaking in Scripture is an allegorical creator. It then becomes impossible to ascertain whether certain humans have acted because they have heard directly from God or because of assumptions they have made on their own. For example, Noah may have built the ark because he thought there would be a flood, and Abraham may have moved his family to Canaan because he thought the grazing would be better there.
LOGOS
To the Greek stoics, God was all-pervading in the world, and was its vitalizing force. God was thought to be the law guiding the universe, the Logos. They thought all things developed from this force.
The earliest Hellenized Christians thought of the Logos as the Word of God and Jesus as the Word of God, or the Logos Incarnate. The Christian doctrine of the Logos was first established in the first epistle of John. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and Word was God.” The doctrine of the Logos was developed by Justin, Clement and Origen but it was confusing because the Greek idea of Logos is also akin to reason. According to Justin, when the Bible says God spoke to Moses, it means that the Logos of God spoke to him.
The Arian controversy is one of the most interesting stories in the history of theological debates, complete with intrigues, repeated banishments by proponents on both sides of the issue, public involvement, and humorous incidents. The tug-of-war between the Arians and the Nicenes went back and forth for nearly a hundred years, from about 320 ad to the end of the 4th Century. Though it was repressed, supposedly once and for all, in favor of the Nicenes, it has reappeared even in modern times.
The Arian controversy began in Alexandria when Licinius was still the ruler in the Eastern Roman empire, and Constantine governed the West. The Bishop of Alexandria, Alexander, clashed with a man named Arius who was a popular presbyter of the city. At issue was whether or not the Word of God, or Jesus, was coeternal with God.
Arius, a man of immense learning and splendid physical presence, presented a simple, common sense answer to the question of who Jesus was: Jesus was not co-eternal and of one substance with God the Father, but had been created by God at a specific time as his instrument for the salvation of the world. Although a perfect man without sin, he was subordinate to God, his nature being human rather than divine. In the eyes of his archbishop, Alexander, this was a dangerous doctrine, and he took immediate steps to stamp it out. Though he succeeded in having Arius excommunicated as a heretic in 320 by nearly a hundred North African bishops, Arius’s teaching spread like wildfire.
In those days theological arguments were of as much interest to the laity as they were to churchmen and scholars. Broadsheets were distributed. Rabble-rousing speeches were made in the market place. Slogans were chalked on walls. Everyone had an opinion. You were either for Arius or against him. Arius was a brilliant publicist—he wrote several popular songs and jingles supporting his view, and sailors, travelers, carpenters and peoples in other trades sang and whistled them in the streets. The phrase that became the Arian motto was “There was when He was not.”
The reader might understand this argument more easily if he substitutes “Jesus Christ” for the “Word”. Jesus was seen by Christians as the Word having become Incarnate. Alexander held that the Word (Jesus Christ) existed eternally with the Father; Arius, that the Word (Jesus Christ) was not coeternal with the Father. Although this may seem to us like splitting hairs, what was at stake was the divinity of the Word (Jesus Christ). Arius claimed that the Word (Jesus Christ) was not God, but the first of all God’s creations. Arius did not deny that the Word (Jesus Christ) had existed before the Incarnation. On the Word’s (Jesus Christ’s) preexistence, all were in agreement. Arius said that before anything else was made, God created the Word (Jesus Christ). Alexander argued that the Word (Jesus Christ) was divine and therefore could not be created and that he was coeternal with the Father.
Each of the two parties had its list of favorite proof-texts from the Bible, logical reasons that seemed to void the other’s argument. Arius argued that what Alexander proposed was a denial of monotheism because then there were two Gods. Alexander retorted that Arius was denying the divinity of the Word and thus the divinity of Jesus. Alexander felt that from the beginning the Christian church had worshipped Jesus and that Arius’ proposal would force it to cease such worship and declare it was worshipping a creature.
The conflict broke out in public when Alexander used his authority as bishop to condemn Arius’ teaching and remove him from all posts in the church in Alexandria. Arius appealed to the people of Alexandria and to other bishops throughout the eastern Empire. Soon there were popular demonstrations in Alexandria, with people marching in the streets, chanting and singing Arius’ motto, which he himself had set to music.
It was like the debates over the innocence or guilt of O. J. Simpson in our times. This is the most important controversy in the history of Christianity and likely in the history of the religions of the world. As we shall see, it was not easily resolved and continued to rage for years. The disagreement grew until it threatened to divide the entire Eastern Church.
Sailors and travelers were singing versions of popular ditties that proclaimed that the Father alone was true, inaccessible and unique, and the Son was neither coeternal nor uncreated because he received life and being from the Father. We hear of a bath attendant who harangued the bathers, insisting that the son came from nothingness, of a money changer who, when asked for the exchange rate, prefaced his reply with a long disquisition on the distinction between the created order and the uncreated God, and of a baker who informed his customers that the Father was greater than the Son.
People were discussing this abstruse question with the same enthusiasm as they discuss football or the World Series today. The controversy had been kindled by Arius, the charismatic and handsome presbyter of Alexandria, who had a soft, impressive voice and strikingly melancholy face. He had issued a challenge his bishop, Alexander, found impossible to ignore: how could Jesus Christ have been God in same way as God the Father? Arius was not denying the divinity of Christ; indeed, he called Jesus “strong God” and “full God,” but he argued that it was blasphemous to think that the Son was divine in the same way God was divine, by nature: Jesus had specifically said that the Father was greater than he. Alexander and his brilliant young assistant, Athanasius, immediately realized that this was no mere theological nicety. Arius was asking vital questions about the nature of God. In the meantime, Arius, a skillful propagandist, had set his ideas to music, and soon the laity was debating the issue as passionately as its bishops. (Karen Armstrong, A History of God, the 4,000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1993, p. 107.)
After his excommunication, Arius could not stay in Alexandria, so he left for Caesarea where Eusebius, the bishop there, embraced his cause with enthusiasm. Then he traveled on to Nicomedia where he was again warmly welcomed and where the bishop called a local synod that declared overwhelmingly in his favor. Another synod of Syrian prelates did likewise. Arius, his position strengthened, returned to Alexandria and demanded to be reinstated. When the bishop, Alexander, refused, rioting broke out.
By the autumn of 323, when Constantine assumed complete control of his Empire, what had started as a theological argument had become a dangerous cause celebre, not only in Egypt, but also throughout Anatolia. Strong measures would have to taken if the situation were not to escalate further. First the Emperor Constantine dispatched Hosius of Cordova to Egypt with orders to settle the dispute in whatever manner he saw fit, once and for all. When Hosius’s efforts failed, Constantine wrote to the two protagonists, “Having enquired faithfully into the origin and foundation of your differences, I find their cause to be of a truly insignificant nature, and quite unworthy of the such fierce contention.” He advised them to keep such thoughts, for which there was no authority of law, to themselves. Constantine may have put his finger unwittingly on the fact that the argument was one that could not be resolved, for neither Arius nor Alexander could prove he was right. Constantine’s counsel, however, fell on deaf ears. Both Arius and Alexander came separately to Nicomedia to present their cases before him.
Towards the end of 324 Constantine decided that the solution to the problem would be to convene a universal Council of the Church, a Council of such authority and distinction that both parties would be bound to accept its rulings. The Emperor had every intention of participating in it himself. Since Nicea boasted an imperial palace, it was selected as the site, and the great Council was held between May 20th and June 19th, 325. Despite the Emperor’s hopes for a large attendance from all over the empire, the western churches were poorly represented because the controversy was of little interest to them. Only a handful came from the West along with two priests sent from Rome by Pope Sylvester, more as observers than anything else. The East was represented by 270 bishops, bringing the total to approximately 300. Constantine opened the proceedings in person. Eusebius writes:
. . .all rising at the signal that indicated the Emperor’s entrance, at last he himself proceeded through the midst of the assembly like some heavenly Angel of God, clothed in a garment which glittered as though radiant with light, reflecting the glow of a purple robe and adorned with the brilliant splendor of gold and precious stones. When he had advanced to the upper end of the seats, he at first remained standing; and when a low chair of wrought gold had been set for him, he waited to sit down until the bishops had signaled to him to do so. After him, the whole assembly did the same. (De Vita Constantini, II, pp. 64-72.)
Constantine initially was not interested in the doctrinal point in question. He was essentially a military man, used to conducting campaigns, but since he now saw himself as the Christian benefactor, he was determined to put an end to the controversy. He played the role of diplomat in the debate that ensued, urging the importance of unity and the virtue of compromise, but this was not a military campaign, and it did not lend itself to a definitive solution.
Since Arius was not a bishop he was not allowed to attend, and Eusebius of Nicomedia led the contingent supporting his position. This group was so convinced that Arius’ position was so patently correct that all that was needed was a clear exposition of its logic and the assembly would vindicate Arius and rebuke Alexander for having condemned him.
Another group of bishops was convinced that Arius’ views threatened the very core of the Christian faith and therefore that it was necessary to condemn him in no uncertain terms. Their leader was Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. Among his followers was a young man who, as a deacon, could not sit in the Council, but who would become famous as the champion of the Nicene Creed—Athanasius of Alexandria.
Another small group was the “patripassionists” who believed that the Father and the Son were the same and that, therefore, God had suffered death on the cross. The majority of those present did not belong to any of these groups. Through negotiation, they hoped to achieve an easy compromise.
Things did not go as expected. When Eusebius stated his view that the Son was no more than a creature, no matter how high a creature, he provoked an angry reaction from many of the bishops. “You lie!” “Blasphemy!” “Heresy!” they shouted. His speech was torn from his hands, ripped into shreds, and trampled underfoot. Now the mood of the majority changed. They became convinced that they had to reject Arius’s teaching in the clearest way possible. When it became evident that it would be difficult to reject Arianism by using biblical texts, they decided to agree on a creed that would express the faith of the church in such a way as to exclude Arianism. Except for the last paragraph, most Christians still recite the creed they devised, the Nicene Creed.
We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, that is, from the substance of the Father, God of God, light of light, true God, begotten not made, of one substance (homoousios) with the Father, through whom all things were made, both in heaven and on earth, who for us human and for our salvation, descended and became incarnate, becoming human, suffered and rose again on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and will come to judge the living and dead.
And in the Holy Spirit.
But those who say that there was when He was not, and that before being begotten He was not, or that He came from that which is not, or that the Son of God is of a different substance (hypostasis) or essence (ousia), or that He is created, or mutable, these the catholic church anathematizes.
It was Constantine himself who proposed the insertion of the key word that was to settle the question against Arius and his doctrine. This word was homoousios, meaning consubstantial, or “of one substance,” and was used to describe the relationship of the Son to the Father. Its inclusion in the draft was tantamount to a condemnation of Arianism. Many of the Arian bishops protested, but Constantine won them over, pointing out that the word could be interpreted “in its divine and mystical sense”—in other word, however they wished. By the time he had finished, nearly all the pro-Arians, including Eusebius, agreed to sign the final document. Seventeen maintained their opposition, and those were reduced to two on the threat of excommunication. The verdict of Council was that Arius was formally condemned, and his writings were deemed anathema and were ordered burned. He was forbidden to return to Alexandria.
After dealing with some other ecclesiastical matters, the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church was concluded, one day less than a month after it began. For Constantine it was a triumph—he had succeeded in getting every major issue settled in the manner he desired. The voting had been almost unanimous, if somewhat pressured. He invited the bishops to stay on another few weeks so that they might attend the magnificent banquet he would give to celebrate his vicennalia, or twenty years on the throne.
He probably hoped that the Arian question had been settled once and for all. With the conclusion of the First Ecumenical Council, the die was cast: the creed they devised would be the creed to be recited by Christians from then on. The dispute, however, would continue. Arius’s ideas about Jesus, and the ideas of others that would likewise be deemed heretical, would echo in the Church for the next several centuries, forcing emperors again and again to call ecumenical councils to deal with them. The Christian world would remain divided. Harsh measures would be taken to force people with differing views into the fold. In another thousand years, in the 15th Century, this would culminate with the Spanish Inquisition, which would last about 350 years and would be unequaled in its brutality. Eventually mankind would lose its desire to persecute those who disagreed with Christian orthodoxy and would admit that it was impossible to control the thoughts of others. Many people would just lose interest in these matters.
ATHANASIUS
As a young man Athanasius was so short and dark his enemies referred to him as “the black dwarf.” He came from lowly origins, born in a small town on the shores of the Nile. He was likely a Coptic Christian. During his early years, he lived with the monks in the desert, from whom he learned austere discipline. Later he wrote a biography of the most famous of the desert hermits, Saint Anthony. He had close ties with the people among whom he lived, and his faith, his fiery spirit and unshakable convictions made him a formidable opponent. Arius, by contrast, was a well educated and much more sophisticated man.
At the time the Arian controversy broke out, Athanasius was serving as secretary to Alexander, the Bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius believed that the core of the Christian faith was the Incarnation of God in Jesus Christ. So, when Athanasius heard that Arius claimed that Jesus was not truly God but a lesser being, a human being, he felt that Christianity itself was threatened.
Arius had been banished from Alexandria by Constantine at the Nicene Council, but he had managed to gain favor with the Emperor for his cause, and in 328 Constantine revoked his sentence. Arianism was regaining support, and the battle lines were being redrawn. Arius himself died shortly after his recall from exile, but that did not lessen the intensity of the struggle.
When Bishop Alexander was on his deathbed, everyone thought Athanasius would succeed him, but, seeking peace, Athanasius fled to his friends in the desert as he was to do many times in the coming years. In spite of that and against his own wishes, he was made Alexander’s successor as the Bishop of Alexandria.
Eusebius of Nicomedia recognized that Athanasius was the most formidable enemy of the Arian cause and took steps to assure his downfall, circulating rumors that he dabbled in magic, and that he had killed a man, Arsenius, an Arian bishop, and had cut off his hand in order to use it in magical rites. Constantine ordered Athanasius to appear before a synod in Tyre to answer the charges that had been brought against him. When Athanasius went to Tyre and heard the charges, he brought into the room a man covered in a cloak. After making sure that several people in the room knew Arsenius, he uncovered the face of the hooded man revealing Arsenius. Then he uncovered one of Arsenius’ hands, which was still intact. “It was the other hand!” some shouted, but Athanasius then uncovered his other intact hand, shouting, “What kind of a monster did you think Arsenius is? One with three hands?” (Justo L. Gonzalez. The Story of Christianity, volume 1. San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1984. p. 176.) Laughter broke out from some while others were enraged that Athanasius had made them look like fools.
Freed from these accusations, Athanasius went to Constantinople to present his case to Constantine. When he was refused audience with the emperor, he jumped in front of Constantine’s horse when the emperor was out for ride, grabbed the horse’s bridle, and refused to let go until he was granted audience. Such antics only served to convince Constantine that Athanasius was a dangerous fanatic, and instead of giving his cause sympathy, he banished Athanasius to the city of Trier in the West.
Just before Constantine died, Eusibius of Nicomedia, his biographer and also the leading proponent of Arianism, baptized him. He apparently had forgotten his struggle to gain control of the empire when there four Roman emperors because he was succeeded by his three sons, Constantine II, Constans and Constantius. Immediately the three brothers recalled all exiled bishops to their own sees, so Athanasius was allowed to return to Alexandria, but other difficulties awaited him. When he returned from Trier, Arians in Alexandria claimed he was not the legitimate bishop. A rival claimant, Gregory, had the support of the government. Athanasius decided that to avoid further violence, he should leave the city, so he convinced the captain of a boat to smuggle him to Rome where he was able to gain the support of the Roman Bishop Julius. After the death of Constantine II, through the intercession of Constans, he was able to return to Alexandria.
In his absence Gregory had so mismanaged affairs in Alexandria that Athanasius was given a hero’s welcome and gained support for the Nicenes, but Constantius was a convinced Arian who thought it best to rid the empire of this champion of the Nicene faith. In 353 ad, after the death of Constans, Constantius unleashed a pro-Arian policy and forced an increasing number of bishops to accept Arianism. He sent troops to Alexandria and ordered Athanasius to leave the city. Athanasius again demonstrated his cleverness—he showed the troops his imperial order for permission to return and said there must be some mistake, since the emperor would not contradict himself. Shortly after that the troops stormed the church where Athanasius was celebrating communion, causing chaos. Athanasius ordered the congregation to sing, “For His mercy endureth forever,” (from Psalm 136), then fainted, and was spirited to safety. He could not be found as he had again taken refuge with his desert allies who transferred him from place to place whenever officers of the Empire came looking for him.
Imperial policy was now openly in favor of Arianism, and numerous synods declared themselves Arian. A council gathered in Sirmium openly rejected the decisions of Nicea. Orthodox leaders called this the “blasphemy of Sirmium.” When Constantius also died, his cousin Julian succeeded him. Julian canceled all orders of exile against the bishops, hoping that the two parties would weaken each other with their struggles while he restored paganism.
Athanasius again returned to Alexandria now in the spirit that some compromise must be reached. Some feared that the assertion that the Son was of the same substance of the Father was the same as saying there was no distinction between the Father and Son. Rather than use the word, homoousios, they asked to use the word, homoiousios, (of a similar substance.) Through a series of negotiations, Athanasius convinced Christians that the creed as is could be interpreted in such a way as to respond to their concerns. On the basis of this understanding, the Nicene Creed was re-ratified at the Second Ecumenical Council that gathered in Constantinople in 381 AD.
Athanasius died before he saw the final victory of the cause to which he had devoted his life. As he approached old age a new generation of theologians, devoted to the Nicene cause, arose, the Great Cappadocians—Basil of Caearea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus. All three of these men were of a mystical bent, and they thought of the Trinity as a paradigm for God, who could not be rationally comprehended by the human mind.
A theme woven throughout this debate is the difference between a literal understanding of God and Jesus and a figurative, or symbolic, understanding. Mystics, be they Jewish, Christian or Muslim, often assert that the Reality of God cannot be explained by reason and words and can only be understood through the practice of individual mediation and through the contemplation of symbols. Therefore, the great Cappadocians had no quarrel with the Nicene Creed. The Eastern Orthodox Church has historically been known for its symbolism. The trouble with the “the mystery of the faith” argument is that it may be used to support assertions that are erroneous.
The Koran presents a literal interpretation of God and Jesus. It does not suffer the confusion that has historically surrounded Christian dogma and its Trinitarian formula. God is God, the supreme Creator of the universe, and Jesus was his devoted servant, the Messiah, a prophet like the Jewish prophets and Mohammed.
ARIANISM AFTER ATHANASIUS
Arianism was not stamped out after the time of Athanasius and would repeatedly arise in the future, but its cause was weakened in subsequent centuries because Christian orthodoxy forced believers to pledge their allegiance to the Nicene Creed or be condemned as heretics. It never again gained the foothold it had in the early days of the controversy. If Christians felt a little confused by the doctrine of Trinity, they were told that it was a mystery, the mystery of the faith.
The logic of Arius’s argument was such that it would appeal again and again to Christian thinkers of a more rational mode, but each time, before they could gather enough force to threaten orthodoxy, they were defeated. Adherents to Arianism were declared heretics and often were put to death unless they recanted. Because of the threat of Arianism the church became obsessed with orthodoxy. Though the church suppressed it time and time again, Arianism returned just as often to haunt it.
OTHER HERESIES, FROM THE 4TH TO 7TH CENTURIES
Battles over the nature of Jesus did not end when the Second Ecumenical Council reaffirmed the Nicene Creed. They continued to rage throughout the 5th and 6th Centuries, taking one form and another, and generally weakening the unity of the Christian world.
If these battles, in which logic seems to have played small part and in which neither side could ever prove its view correct, seem strange to us, it is because we are children of the Enlightenment and are used to scientists asserting that they do not know when they do not have the answers to certain questions.
SAINT AUGUSTINE
“No doctrine is so fundamental to the Christian faith and yet so difficult of interpretation as that of the Trinity. It has been observed that by denying it one may be in danger of losing one’s soul, while by trying to understand it one may in danger of losing one’s wits. ‘I am compelled, says Saint Augustine, embarking on his large inquiry into this topic, ‘to pick my way through a hard and obscure subject.’” (Cyril C. Richardson’s Essay, “The Enigma of the Trinity,” from Companion to the Study of St. Augustine edited by Roy W. Battenhouse. New York: Oxford University Press, 1955. p. 235.) Saint Augustine knew that the Trinity was a stumbling block to the intellect; for fifteen years he worked on his most systematic production—De Trinitate—struggling to find analogies in human experience for three persons in one God.
They who have said that our Lord Jesus Christ is not God, or not very God, or not with the Father the One and only God, or not truly immortal because changeable, are proved wrong by the most plain and unanimous voice of divine testimonies; as, for instance, ‘In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.’ (I John 1: 1) For it is plain that we are to take the Word of God to be the only Son of God, of whom it is after said, ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,’ on account of that birth of His incarnation, which was wrought in time of the Virgin. But therein is declared, not only that He is God, but also that He is of the same substance with the Father; because, after saying, ‘And the Word was God,’ it is said also, ‘The same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made.’ Not simply ‘all things;’ but only all things that were made, that is, the whole creation. From which it appears clearly, that He Himself was not made, by whom all things were made. And if He was not made, then He is not a creature; but if He is not a creature, then He is of the same substance with the Father. For all substance that is not God is creature; and all that is not creature is God. And if the Son is not of the same substance with the Father, then He is a substance that was made: and if He is a substance that was made, then all things were not made by Him; but ‘all things were made by Him’ therefore He is of one and the same substance with the Father. And so He is not only God, but also very God. And the same John most expressly affirms this in his epistle: “For we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know the true God, and that we may be in His true Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.’
Such is the beginning of Saint Augustine’s defense of the Trinity, written in about 419. Augustine believed that everything in the Bible was the product of direct Revelation from God. Not until the 19th Century would the “biblical critical method” be adopted, and then some biblical scholars would question the sources and veracity of various passages.
Much has been written about the Gospel and Epistles of John; modern scholars comment at length on the mystical nature of the writings and on their symbolism. The problem is whether they should be interpreted literally or figuratively. Many now think that the writings of John are best interpreted figuratively.
As lovely as it is, in the phrase, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God,” is the Word synonymous with Jesus? A more likely meaning may be God’s power to create by saying a Word. Consider the difference between reading the verse, as “In the beginning was Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was with God and Jesus Christ was God,” with “In the beginning was the Power to Create and the Power to Create was with God and the Power to Create was God.” “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,” may mean that when God said the Word, Jesus was conceived by Mary and was made flesh, and dwelt among us. As for the passage, “The same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made,” Does this mean that Jesus was with God when he created the world four billion years ago? Perhaps Jesus as the instrument for the salvation of mankind was in the mind of God from the beginning, but, as we have noted in Chapter One, human beings would not exist for another 3.95 billion years. Even if we accept that the Jesus is the true Son of God in the sense that he perfectly submitted himself to the Will of God, does it mean that he is “very God of very God,” as stated in the Nicene Creed?
The contribution to Christianity made by the great Saint Augustine is undeniable. Saint Augustine was born in 354, nearly 25 years after the Nicene Council and 216 years before the birth of Mohammed. After his conversion, he spent a good part of his time defending the Christian church against various heresies, but the heresies he devoted most of his attention to were Manicheism and Donatism, Manicheism because he had been a Manichist in his youth, and Donatism because the Donatist controversy raged throughout north Africa where he was the bishop at Hippo. There is little in his voluminous works that directly addresses Arianism other than his defense of the Trinity.
The faith and writings of Saint Augustine were formative for the Christian church, and he greatly contributed to its understanding of itself. He was the greatest of the early Christian fathers. Unwittingly, he contributed to orthodoxy with his defense of the Trinity. Just as unwittingly, he contributed to the defense of the Nicene Council, with his comment, “When interpretations differ we must rest in the decision of the Church councils, in the collective wisdom of her wisest men.”
The works of Saint Augustine were to guide the development of Christian theology. He was one of its foremost authorities. There have been times when the supposed wisdom of a group, even a group of wise men, even a group of Christian wise men, has not arrived at the truth. The collective wisdom of the wisest of men cannot compare to the truth provided through Revelation.
If we accept that Mohammed was the recipient of Revelation from God, then what the Koran has to say about the nature of Jesus is more accurate than the “wisdom” of the bishops from the Nicene Council or the writings of Saint Augustine.
NESTORIANISM
In 428 Emperor Theodosius II named Nestorius, an abbot of Antioch, as patriarch of Constantinople. Nestorius outraged the Catholic world by opposing the use of the title “Mother of God” for the Virgin on the grounds that, while the Father begot Jesus as God, Mary bore him as a man. Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, contradicted this view, and both sides appealed to Pope Celestine I. The Council of Ephesus was convened in 431 to settle the matter. This council, reaffirmed by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, clarified orthodox Catholic doctrine, pronouncing that Jesus Christ, true God and true man, has two distinct natures that are inseparably joined in one person and partake of the one divine substance. Nestorius was deposed, sent to Antioch, to Arabia and finally to Egypt. By 451 Nestorianism was dead in the empire.
EUTYCHES
Eutyches was archimandrite in Constantinople and the most vocal opponent of Nestorianism. Whereas Cyril agreed with the Antiochenes in 433 that Christ had two natures, Eutyches insisted that Christ’s humanity was absorbed in his divinity and that to accept two natures was Nestorian. Eutyches was accused of heresy and deposed. Eutyches appealed to his friends, and the Emperor Theodosius called a general council to meet in Ephesus in 449. This synod, known as the Robber Synod, was deplorable from the beginning. Diocurus presided and disenfranchised most of the clergy opposing Eutyches, whom the council reinstated and declared to be orthodox. After the death of Theodosius in 450 his orthodox successors convened at the Council of Chalcedon to right the “wrongs” of the Robber Synod.
THE COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON
The Fourth Ecumenical Council was convened in 451 by Pulcheria and Marcian, empress and emperor of the East, to settle the scandal of the Robber Synod and to discuss Eutychianism. It deposed the principals of the Robber Synod and destroyed the Eutychian party. Its great work was its Definition regarding the nature and person of the Jesus Christ. Based on the formula given by Pope Leo I in his famous Tome to Flavian, it declared that the second Person of the Trinity has two distinct natures—one human and one divine. It was also proclaimed that these two natures exist inseparably in one person. This definition became the test of orthodoxy in East and West. The Roman Catholic Church, it might be added, never admitted a decree of the council that made the patriarch of Constantinople the single head of the Church in the Eastern Europe.
MONOPHYSITISM
Monophysitism, a heresy of the 5th and 6th Centuries, grew out of a reaction to Nestorianism. It was anticipated by Apolinarianism and agreed in principle with Eutyches, whose doctrine had been rejected at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. Monophysitism challenged the orthodox creed and taught that in Jesus Christ there were not two natures, divine and human, but one divine nature. In the East the Council of Chalcedon was declared invalid by the emperor. In 481 the Emperor Zeno attempted to mediate the dispute, recommending a formula that left a loophole for the Monophysites, but neither side was satisfied, and extremist Monophysites refused to accept the compromise.
The Pope excommunicated the East for abrogating the Council of Chalcedon, but the schism ended in 519 when the Emperor Justin enforced the creed of Chalcedon. Later, Justinian tolerated the Monophysites, but they were becoming intransigent. In 544 he pronounced anathema upon them on the grounds that their dogma was tainted with Nestorianism. The Second Council of Constantinople in 553 condemned their writings. Justinian’s successors alternately favored and oppressed them, so that by the time of the Arab invasions in the 7th Century, many of them who resided in Syria welcomed the Muslims as liberators from the oppression of the Byzantine church.
Since nothing could be proved as fact, we may tend to see all these arguments over the nature of the Jesus in the Christian church of the 4th, 5th and 6th Centuries as rather silly, but to the people who argued for one concept or another, they were of great importance. In the ensuing centuries, orthodoxy was an overriding concern of the Christian church. People were not allowed to think for themselves. If someone offered a view that proffered the light of reason, he was forced to recant or face death.
Pre-Christian tradition had conditioned people to desire Jesus to be God, rather than a human being who had been sent by him. By asserting that Jesus was God, the church thought it would have more authority than it would if he were seen merely as the Messiah. Thus there was much at stake in how the church interpreted Jesus. The church felt it was unacceptable to see him as a man, albeit an extraordinary man who was the Messiah because, if he were merely human, worshipping him, his mother and the other saints would be called into question.
CHAPTER FIVE:
REVELATION TO MOHAMMED
FROM 570 TO 632 AD
In 570 ad in Mecca on the Arabian peninsula, an area isolated from the theological and political struggles of early Christendom and 245 years after the First Nicene Council, a man was born who would be called the last Prophet, or the “Seal of the Prophets”. He came from modest circumstances. If we see God confounding people by having Jesus, the Messiah, born to poor people in a stable, we can see that the same was true with Mohammed’s birth. Mohammed was an illiterate Arab orphan, born in a country of barren waste whose only importance to the world at that time was its trade routes to other lands. From these inauspicious beginnings he became the world’s most powerful and influential prophet.
Before Mohammed there were many Arab prophets who are unknown in the West. Some of them are mentioned in the Koran. As we have seen earlier, when Abraham brought Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca in approximately 2000 bc, according to the Koran, Abraham and Ishmael built the Ka‘bah and instituted the hajj around it.
The Ka’bah is the holiest Muslim structure. It is located in Mecca in what is now Saudi Arabia. It is called the Ka’bah (sometimes rendered as Kaba), a word derived from the Arabic word for “cube”, because it is cube-shaped. It is not very big, being something under 50 feet east-to-west by 35 feet north-to-south by 40 feet high. It has been reconstructed several times during its existence, the last time in 1996 when everything was rebuilt except the original stones. It is also called Bait ul Ateeq which means the “earliest and ancient” or “independent and liberating”. Both meanings could be taken.
Hajj is the pilgrimage of Muslims to the Ka’bah at Mecca during Dhul Hijjah (month for Hajj). Hajj is required of all capable Muslims at least once in their lives. One of the rituals during the pilgrimage is to “circumambulate” the Ka’bah seven times in a counter-clockwise direction. An optional lesser pilgrimage to Mecca called Umrah, when performed independent of Hajj, may be accomplished anytime during the year.
Originally Ishmael’s descendants were monotheists, but many of them had reverted to paganism in the approximately 2570 years before the coming of Mohammed. Arab authorities are uncertain who is responsible for turning Ishmael’s holy place of worship into a pagan shrine. The Bedouins were splintered into tribes and clans of various sizes, some of them settled in one location but most of them nomadic, ranging seasonally with their herds over a broad terrain. The inhabitants of Hijaz (an area on the Arabian peninsula which included Mecca and Medina, now a part of Saudi Arabia) worshipped the way they lived, the settled populations at fixed shrines in oases, the Bedouins in transit, carrying their gods with them. They worshipped the gods they thought resided in stones and trees and heavenly bodies, not unlike the nomadic Indian tribes that roamed the plains of the Americas before Spanish missionaries converted them to Christianity.
There was a distinctly tribal aspect to the Arabs’ worship. Each tribe or confederation had a divine patron whose cult gave the group a focus for their solidarity. The Bedouins came into the towns to worship at the fixed shrines of gods there, but they were ill at ease in close quarters, and blood feuds often erupted. The solution was to announce a truce during sacred months when violence and weapons were restrained by civil injunction.
Ibn al-Kalbi, in his pre-Islamic study, Books of Idols, connects the idol worship to the Banu Ishmael (“banu” is an Arabic word translating roughly as “tribe” or “clan”):
The reason that led them [the descendants of Ishmael] to the worship of images and stones was the following. No one left Mecca without carrying away with him a stone from the stones of the Sacred House as a token of reverence to it, and a sign of deep affection to Mecca. Wherever he settled he would erect that stone and circumambulate it in the same manner he used to circumambulate the Ka‘ba (before his departure from Mecca), seeking thereby its blessing and affirming his deep affection for the Holy House.
In time this led them to the worship of whatever took their fancy, and caused them to forget their worship. They exchanged the religion of Abraham and Ishmael for another. (F. E. Peters. The Hajj, the Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. 1994. P. 21.)
Eventually every family in Mecca had, in its home, an idol it worshipped. Whenever one of them decided to set out on journey, his last act before leaving the house would be to touch the idol in hope of an auspicious journey, and on his return the first thing he would do was to touch it in gratitude for a safe return. The Arabs were passionately fond of worshipping idols. A person who was unable to build himself a temple or adopt an idol would erect a stone in front of his campfire and walk around it as he would the Sacred House. The Arabs called these stones “betyls” (ansab), the same word their Hebrew cousins used.
When a traveler stopped to spend the night, he would select four stones, pick the finest of them to adopt as his god and use the remaining three as supports for his cooking pot. On his departure he would leave them behind and perform the same ritual at the next stop. The Arabs offered sacrifices before these stone idols. And so it came to be that the Ka‘bah over the centuries had ceased to be a place for worship of the One God and became a place where many gods were worshipped.
Members of the Quraysh tribe were the guardians of the Ka‘bah shrine in Mecca. Just east of the shrine is a well called Zamzam. It is also called the well of Ishmael. It is 115 feet deep and is marked by an elegant dome. The water is considered health giving, and pilgrims, called “hajjis”, collect it in bottles to take home. One of the last things a hajji tries to do is dip his future burial clothes in the Zamzam. Muslim tradition tells that the Zamzam was opened by the angel Gabriel to save Hagar and her son Ishmael from dying of thirst when they were out in the desert. It appears to have been revered from a time long before Mohammed, that is, from pre-Islamic times.
Near this well at the time of Mohammed the Quraysh had two idols they named Asaf and Na’il to whom they made sacrifices. Legend has it that this couple had copulated in the Ka‘bah, and God transformed them into two stones.
There was another idol in the Ka‘bah called Hubal. Hubal, the chief of the minor deities, is thought to have been brought to Arabia from Syria. It was one of many false gods the Arabs housed there. Hubal was a stone of red agate, made in the form a man with his right hand broken off. In front of him were seven divination arrows. On one side of each of these was written the word “pure” and on the other side, the word “associate alien.” If the parentage of a newborn child were in doubt, they would offer sacrifice to Hubal and shuffle the arrows and throw them. If four or more arrows landed showing the word “pure,” the child would be accepted as legitimate, but if they landed showing “associated alien,” the child would be declared illegitimate and tribe would reject it. (Ibid. p. 24.)
The interior of the Ka‘bah was decorated with pictures. One was of Abraham as an old man, performing the divination by arrows. Another was of Jesus. When Mohammed took over the sanctuary, he permitted the picture of Jesus to remain but removed that of Abraham with the dry comment, “What has Abraham to do with arrows?” (Ibid. p. 25.)
The people of Mecca also worshipped three female deities, Manat, al-Uzza, and al-Lat, known to the Quraysh as “The Daughters of Allah.” When Mohammed initially compromised with the Quraysh, allowing them to pay homage to the “Daughters of Allah,” he received revelation commanding him to excise from the Koran those verses referring to them. These verses then came to be known as “the Satanic verses.”
In the lands just to the northwest of the Arabs, Hebrew civilization and Greek philosophy had developed. The Romans governed much of the known world, and Jesus, a Jew, had been born into this mixture of Hebrew, Greek and Roman cultures. After the conversion of Emperor Constantine, Christianity had become the official state religion of the Byzantine Empire. Its creed asserted Christ’s divinity, his equality with God.
Perhaps Mohammed was sent as much as a messenger to the entire world as he was to the Arab people. If a Christian studies history and the Koran, as I have, he may come to the same conclusion as I, that Mohammed was raised as a prophet of Allah and given the Koran (as direct a form of Revelation from God as anyone has ever received) to counter the inaccuracies that had entered Christian theology because of the zealotry of early Christian theologians. This conjecture only holds up if one is convinced that Mohammed was a true prophet sent by God just as the Hebraic prophets and Jesus were.
Mohammed was born in Mecca about 570 ad. He was from the Quraysh tribe. His father’s family was engaged in trade, like most of the leading Meccan families, though it was not as wealthy as most. His father died before his birth while on a trading mission to Syria, and his grandfather also died when he was still a child. Thus, according to Arab custom, he could inherit nothing.
It was the practice among the Arab gentry and nobility in his time that mothers did not nurse their children; they were sent to be reared in the country. So Mohammed’s mother nursed him for only a few days before he was given to a nursemaid. Two years later when he was returned to his mother, Aminah, she sent him back to the nursemaid because Mecca had been stricken with an epidemic. Finally, when he was six years old, he was at last reunited with his mother. Shortly after that she took him on a journey to Medina to pay a visit to the tomb of her husband, Mohammed’s father, and on the way she died. Mohammed, still at a tender age, became an orphan.
When Mohammed was eight years old, his guardianship passed to his uncle, Abu Talib, a good man who kept the lad in his company and took him wherever he went. Mohammed was given no education in reading and writing. When he was twelve he accompanied his uncle on a trading mission to Syria. It has been said that on this journey they encountered a Christian anchorite named Bajirah who discerned in Mohammed’s face the marks of his future greatness and advised Talib to take good care of him because some day he would receive a Divine Call.
At the age of twenty the future prophet took part in the battle between the Quraysh and Qais, called “The War of Transgression” because it took place during the sacred months when warfare was forbidden. Tradition holds that he did not actually fight, but handed arrows to his uncles, and that afterwards he participated in the alliance formed to vindicate the rights of the weak and the oppressed against tyranny. The Arab people admired the Prophet for his early inclinations to render help to the distressed and show sympathy to the weak. At an early age his integrity was well known in Mecca, and he was called Al-Amin, the faithful. This sobriquet implied honesty in money matters and righteousness in all his dealings.
When Mohammed was 35 years old, the Quraysh undertook to provide the materials for the rebuilding of the Ka‘bah. A dispute arose as to who should have the privilege of laying the Black Stone. During construction of the Ka'bah Abraham ordered Ishmael to choose a piece of stone to mark its main cornerpoint. At that, the angel Gabriel supposedly appeared with a stone from heaven. Abraham fitted it in where it stands to this day. Mohammed said of it, “The Black stone descended from heaven, when it was whiter than Milk, but people’s sins have blackened it.” Kissing the stone is one of the rituals of the hajj.
This dispute might have resulted in the outbreak of intertribal feuds and the destruction of some members of many families had not an elder advised arbitration. He suggested that the arbitrator should be the first person to appear at the Ka‘bah the following day. His proposal was unanimously accepted. The first to appear was none other than Mohammed. Taking a sheet of cloth he placed the Black Stone in it with his own hands and invited principal men from every clan to hold the sheet by the four corners, thus equally sharing the honor of lifting the stone into position and averting tribal warfare.
We Westerners do not know whether these tales surrounding the life of Mohammed are true or whether they were invented later, just as the story of George Washington chopping down the cherry tree was, to lend substance to the integrity of the Prophet, but there is no denying the affection that Muslims the world over bear their Prophet.
When Mohammed was 25 years old, he married a wealthy 40-year-old widow, Khadijah, who placed him in charge of her caravan business. It soon profited from his honest dealings. They had six children and, of these only Fatimah, the youngest daughter, survived. (Fatimah married Ali, who became the fourth Caliph of Islam.)
Shortly before Mohammed reached the age of 40 he received his Divine Call. It is said that prior to his call Mohammed, troubled by the immorality of his people, had begun to immerse himself in solitary meditation. It was his habit to retire to the cave of Hira for days, and it was there he had some of his celestial visitations.
In Muslim sources there are differing accounts of this call. Sometimes he heard a divine voice saying to him, “You are the Messenger of God” (rasul Allah). Though Muslims sometimes think of Mohammed as a prophet, they normally think of him as the Messenger or Apostle of God. The most generally accepted version is that Mohammed heard a voice saying to him, “Recite,” and that he replied, “What shall I recite?” The voice then went on, “Recite in the name of thy Lord.”
One night in the year 609 ad during the month of Ramadan, the angel Gabriel (the same angel who is said to have announced the births of John the Baptist to Zarchariah and Jesus to Mary) appeared to him and commanded him to Recite! or to read out loud. Mohammed protested that he did not know how to read. Three times the angel requested him to read, and three times the Prophet pleaded his inability to do so.
The 96th Surah of the Koran is held to be Mohammed’s first recitation. It is named The Clot due to the second verse.
Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth,
Createth man from a clot.
Read: And thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who teacheth by the pen,
Teacheth man that which he knew not.
Nay, but verily man is rebellious
That he thinketh himself independent!
Lo! Unto thy Lord is the return.
Hast thou seen him who dissuadeth
A slave when he prayeth?
Has thou seen if he (relieth) on the guidance (of Allah)
Or enjoineth piety?
Hast thou seen if he denieth (Allah’s guidance) and is froward?
Is he then unaware that Allah seeth?
Nay, but if he cease not We will seize him by the forelock—
The lying, sinful forelock—
Then let him call upon his henchmen!
We will call the guards of hell.
Nay! Obey not thou him. But prostrate thyself, and draw near (unto Allah).
Muslim scholars hold that Mohammed was unable to read and that, therefore, the references in the Koran to Biblical persons could only have come from God. This is a weak argument because Mohammed could have had the Bible read to him or could have learned some Biblical stories by word of mouth. No serious Western scholar today could maintain that Mohammed had read the Bible since clearly he was ignorant of most of its contents.
The Old Testament recalls how the Hebrew prophets received the word of Lord. When Moses saw the burning bush and was called to lead the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt he protested that he could not speak well because he was a stutterer, “‘Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either theretofore or since thou spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech and of tongue.’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.’”(Genesis 4: 10-12)
The account of Jeremiah’s call is given in Jeremiah 1: 4-10:
Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a Prophet to the nations.”
Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold,
I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.”
But the Lord said to me,
“Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’;
for to all to whom I sent you, you shall go
and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Be not afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.”
Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth;
and the Lord said to me,
“Behold, I have put my word in your mouth.
See, I have set you this day over nations and kingdoms,
to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and overthrow,
to build and to plant.”
Thus in 627 bc Jeremiah was commissioned by God to speak to the wayward people of Israel.
The book of Ezekial announces:
“In the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. On the fifth day of the month (it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jerhoiachin), the word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was upon him there.”
(Ezekiel 1: 1-3)
The book of Hosea begins:
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Biblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Hosea 1: 2-3)
And, the book of Joel says:
The word of the Lord that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:
Hear this, you aged men, give ear, all inhabitants of the land!
Has such a thing happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers?
Tell your children of it, and let your children tell their children,
and their children another generation.
(Joel 1: 1-3)
So the Word of the Lord came to Amos, to Micah, to Nahum, to Habakkuk generally in the form of words, but also in the form of visions, dreams, and oracles, usually to warn the people of Israel about their sinful ways and call them back to their devotion to the one true God.
In the New Testament the words of John the Baptist come closest to those of Jeremiah: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” he said to the Pharisees and Sadducees who came to him for baptism. (Matthew 3: 7) In another of the New Testament gospels Matthew frequently quotes from the Old Testament prophets, saying that their words have been fulfilled.
The New Testament does not speak of the Word of the Lord coming to Jesus; instead it has him speak with the authority of one who has internalized the Word of the Lord. This is especially true of the rhapsodic passages in John where Jesus speaks of himself and God being inseparable, as in John 14: 11, “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me.”
Muslims speak of Mohammed as the last prophet, the last to receive the Word of the God directly from the Almighty, the “Seal of the Prophets.” (Others would challenge this opinion. For instance, according to account of the life of Joseph Smith, the founder Mormonism, the angel Moroni appeared to Smith and showed him where the gold plates he was to translate were buried.) Since Mohammed there may have been no other prophets that have this distinction. We can speak of men, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, and Malcolm X, as having prophetic voices, but this is not the same thing as being the direct recipient of the Word of God, as the Old Testament prophets, Jesus and Mohammed were.
The first surah of the Koran is consistent in tone and content with the Word as spoken particularly to the Old Testament prophets. This surah reminds us that we have been created from a clod of dirt and are thus dependent on the graciousness of the Creator. Its tone is angry. That Mohammed protests his inadequacy for the task is consistent with Moses, Jeremiah and the others who said they were not adequate for one reason or another. Only Isaiah says, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’” (Isaiah 6: 8)
Muslim sources claim that when Mohammed received the Divine Call, his entire corporeal frame was possessed with Divine Power, and his body would perspire profusely and become very heavy. It is said that after his first Revelation he went home shivering, his hands and feet so cold that he asked Khadijah to wrap him in blankets. When he related his experience to her, she encouraged him and took him to her cousin, Waraqah ibn Naufal, who was a Christian. She may have heard him speak of a Promised Prophet, the Comforter, whose advent had been foretold by Jesus. Many Muslims believe that Mohammed is the Comforter that Jesus told his followers would come to them! No sooner had Waraqah heard of the Mohammed’s inspiration when, it is said, he exclaimed, “This is the very angel God sent down to Moses,” thus confirming that Mohammed was the Holy Prophet from God.
Authorities differ on the length of time between Mohammed’s first and second revelations, but agree there was a period of cessation they call fatrat al-wahy. When the second came, probably some six months later, Mohammed is referred to as “O thou enveloped in thy cloak,” and the second revelation as recorded in Surah 74 is referred to as The Cloaked One. In this surah Mohammed is told to, “Arise and warn! Thy Lord magnify. Thy raiment purify, Pollution shun! And show not favor, seeking worldly gain! For the sake of thy Lord, be patient! For when the trumpet should sound, surely that day will be a day of anguish, not of ease, for disbelievers.”
In due course Mohammed shared the Revelations he was given with relatives and friends, and they joined him in the Islamic prayer as it is still practiced today. As his understanding of his mission became clearer to him, he began to proclaim his beliefs publicly and to acquire followers in 613 ad. Many of these earliest Muslims were young men, the sons of the leading merchants of Mecca, and some were the poor people. While Mohammed’s Revelations did not criticize the merchants directly, he insisted that people should be generous with their wealth and help the unfortunate, just as Jewish law directed and the gospel of Jesus dictates. They also taught that all would come before God on the Last Day to be judged for their actions during their earthly lives. Here the Koran diverges from the New Testament theologians who assert that we are saved by grace alone.
Eventually the leading merchants of Mecca, worried that the message Mohammed was preaching threatened their position, began to make life difficult for him and his followers. Mohammed encouraged some of his followers to migrate to Abyssinia where the Christian emperor received them hospitably and refused to send them back to Mecca when the Quraysh entreated him to do so. Mohammed and his remaining followers remained in Mecca where Mohammed was under the protection of his uncle, Abu Talib. When Talib died, his uncle Abu Lahab withdrew his protection, and Mohammed went to Taif in quest of support, but there he was rebuffed and beaten.
Karen Armstrong in her writings attributes the devising of Islam to Mohammed. She considers him to have been a man of exceptional genius, because he managed to bring all the tribes of Arabia into a united community, or ummah. “He had brought the Arabs a spirituality that was uniquely suited to their own traditions and which unlocked such reserves of power that within a hundred years they had established their own great empire, which stretched from the Himalayas to the Pyrenees, and founded a unique civilization.” She goes on to say, “It is as though Mohammed had created an entirely new literary form that some people were not ready for but which thrilled others.” (Karen Armstrong. A History of God—the 4000 Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. New York: Ballantine Books. 1993. P. 135.)
She denies that Mohammed was the chosen instrument of God or that he was the recipient of God’s Revelation to mankind in a manner similar to Abraham, Moses, the Old Testament prophets, and Jesus. The Koran is a unique document. The records of some of the Old Testament prophets begin with, “Thus sayeth the Lord. . . .” The Koran, for the most part, contains the actual Revelations Mohammed received when he was commanded to “Recite.” The Koran was compiled shortly after his death, whereas, the chronicles of the Hebraic prophets were not recorded until after the Babylonian exile. The Gospels of Jesus were not recorded until a half-century after his death. A case could be made that the Koran is the most accurate of these Revelations because there was less time for errors to creep in.
Ms. Armstrong’s premise is that whenever one concept of God ceases to have meaning or relevance, it is quietly discarded and replaced with a new theology. She believes that each generation has to create the image of God that works for it. Such ideas come close to denying the existence of God and his constancy.
There is nothing in the biographies of his life that would indicate that Mohammed was a genius who created Islam. His genius, if it can be called that, was that, like his predecessors, he was faithful to the task to which he was called. If he can be called clever, as he was in the final conversion of the Meccans, it is because he was led by God. If Mohammed were accepted as an authentic prophet who received Revelation from God, it would stand to reason that the Revelation in the Koran could be reconciled with the Revelation of Judaism and Christianity.
In Mecca, eventually the Quraysh became so threatened by Mohammed’s railing against the homage they paid to their ancestral gods that soon they sought to kill him. Mohammed was so distressed by the rift that had developed between him and his own kinsmen, particularly after he forbad them to worship the three goddesses called the Daughters of Allah that he uttered some verses that allowed the banat al-Lah to be venerated as intercessors. These verses are the so-called “Satanic” verses. They were excised from the Koran, when he received Revelation rebuking him, “These (allegedly divine beings) are nothing but empty names which you have invented—you and your forefathers—(and) for which God has bestowed no warrant from on high. They (who worship them) follow nothing but surmise and their own wishful thinking—although right guidance has now indeed come unto them from their Sustainer.” (Surah 53: 19-26)
After Mohammed received these verses, there was no chance of reconciliation with the Quraysh. From then on he was a strict monotheist, and shirk (idolatry, associating other beings with Allah) became the greatest sin of Islam. When the Quraysh asked him to adopt a solution that would allow them to worship their ancestral gods while he and his Muslims worshipped Allah alone, Mohammed vehemently rejected this compromise. As the Koran has it: “I do not worship that which you worship, and neither do you worship that which I worship. . . .Unto you your moral law, and unto me, mine!” (Surah 109) Just as Jewish scripture, the Koran is scornful of pagan deities, claiming they are totally ineffective.
Athanasius had also insisted that only God had the power to redeem, but he and his colleagues nevertheless expressed God in the doctrine of the Trinity and the Incarnation. The Koran takes umbrage with this kind of thinking, returning to the Semitic idea of the unity of God. It rejects and finds preposterous the idea that God would beget a son. We will take this up more fully in Chapter Seven of this book.
When the Quraysh’s efforts to negotiate with Mohammed failed, they went to his uncle Abu Talib, and offered to give him the best of their young men in place of Mohammed, whom they wanted to kill. Abu Talib refused. The exasperation of the Quraysh increased when one of their stalwarts, Omar, converted to Islam. At last they decided to ostracize the Prophet’s entire clan and those who protected him and his followers. They drew up a document to the effect that none of them would hold any intercourse with Mohammed’s clan, signed it, and deposited it in the Ka‘bah. For three years the Prophet and his kinsfolk were shut up in the their stronghold, which was situated in one of the gorges which run down to Mecca.
At length some the kinder-hearted Quraysh grew weary of the boycott of old friends and neighbors and inveigled to have the document that had been placed in the Ka‘bah removed for reconsideration. It was found that all the writing had been destroyed by white ants, but for the words, Bismika Allahumma (“In thy name, O Allah.”) When the elders saw this marvel they removed the ban, and the Prophet was again free to go about the city. Nevertheless, opposition to his teaching had grown. He had little success with his mission among the Meccans, and at that point it seemed a failure. Then he came upon a group of people who heard him gladly. They came from Yathrib (subsequently called Medina), a city more than two hundred miles north of Mecca, during the season of the pilgrimage.
At Yathrib there were Jewish tribes with learned rabbis who had often spoken to the pagans of a prophet soon to come among the Arabs. When he came, the Jews would destroy the pagans, as the tribes of A‘ad and Thamud had been destroyed for their idolatry. When the men from Yathrib saw Mohammed they recognized him as the prophet whom the Jewish rabbis had described to them. On their return to Yathrib they told what they had seen and heard, with the result that at the next season of pilgrimage a deputation came from Yathrib purposely to meet Mohammed. They swore allegiance to him and returned home with a Muslim teacher in their company and soon “there was not a house in Yathrib wherein there was not mention of the messenger of Allah.” (William Montgomery Watt, from the Introduction to The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, p. 5.)
In the following year, at the time of pilgrimage, 73 Jews from Yathrib came to Mecca to vow allegiance to the Prophet and invite him to their city. They swore to defend him as they would defend their own wives. It was then that the Hijrah, the Flight to Yathrib, was conceived.
Soon those Muslims who were in a position to do so began to sell their property and leave Mecca unobtrusively. When the Quraysh got wind of what was going on, they decided to destroy Mohammed immediately because, as much as they hated him in their midst, they feared more what might become of him and his ideas if he escaped. Abu Talib’s death had removed Mohammed’s chief protector, but the Quraysh still had to reckon with the vengeance of his clan upon the clan of the murderer, so they cast lots and chose a slayer out of every clan. All these were to attack the Prophet simultaneously and strike him together, as one man. Thus his blood would be on all the Quraysh and made more difficult to avenge. At this time the Prophet began to receive Revelations that urged him to make war upon his persecutors “until persecution is no more and religion is for Allah only.” (Surah 8: 39)
The last of the able Muslims to remain in Mecca were Abu Bakr, Ali and the Prophet himself. Abu Bakr, a man of wealth, had bought two riding camels and retained a guide in readiness for the flight. The Prophet awaited God’s command to leave. It came on the night of his appointed murder. As the slayers gathered before his house, Mohammed gave Ali his cloak and instructed him to lie down on his bed so that anyone looking in might think Mohammed lay there. The slayers were ready to strike him down whether he came out during the night or in the early morning. He knew they would not injure Ali. When he left the house, it is said that he put dust on the heads of the would-be murderers so that a temporary blindness fell upon them, and he passed by without their knowing it. He went to Abu Bakr’s house and called to him, and they went together to a cavern in the desert hills and hid there till the outcry had abated. Abu Bakr’s son and daughter and his herdsman brought them food and tidings after nightfall. One search party came near their hiding place. Abu Bakr was afraid, but the Prophet told him, “Fear not! Allah is with us.” When their way was clear, the riding camels and the guide were brought to them, and they set out for Yathrib. This emigration of Mohammed and his followers and their families in small groups to Yathtrib (Medina) occurred in 622 AD. This is the Hijrah. The first day of the Arab year in which the Hijrah took place, July 16, came to be regarded as the beginning of the Islamic era.
After traveling for many days by unfrequented paths, Mohammed and his companions reached a suburb of Yathrib. For the weeks past the people of the city had been going out every morning to watch for the Prophet until the heat of the day drove them to shelter. Mohammed’s party arrived in the heat of the day after the watchers had retired. It was a Jew who called to them in derisive tones that he whom they expected had at last arrived.
In Yathrib (Medina) the community formed a federation of Arab clans with Mohammed as its chief. Several Jewish clans associated with them, but their association did not persist. According to Karen Armstrong, Mohammed tried to adapt his religion to bring it closer to Judaism as he understood it. It was unlikely that it was Mohammed’s intention to establish a new religion, as he considered himself in the line of Jewish prophets, and he hoped the Jews there would accept his Revelations. He prescribed a fast for Muslims on the Jewish Day of Atonement and commanded Muslims to pray three times a day like the Jews did. Muslims could marry Jews and should observe Jewish dietary laws. Muslims initially prayed facing Jerusalem.
Eventually some of the Jews turned against Mohammed because they believed that the era of prophecy was over. They awaited the Messiah rather than another prophet. They were also motivated by political considerations—since they had been able to gain power by throwing in their lot with the stronger of the warring Arab tribes, their power was lessened when Mohammed joined various tribes into a new Muslim community, called the ummah. They took to assembling in the mosque “to listen to the stories of the Muslims and to laugh and scorn at their religion.” (Ibn Ishag, Sira 362 in Guillaume, trans., A Life of Mohammed, p. 246.) With their superior knowledge of Scripture, it was easy for them to pick holes in the stories of the Koran, some of which differed markedly from the biblical version. They also jeered at Mohammed, saying it was very odd that a man who claimed to be a prophet could not even find his camel when it was missing.
Ms. Armstrong believes that Mohammed’s rejection by the Jews was probably the greatest disappointment in his life. It called his whole religious position into question. Some of the Jews who remained friendly to him and seem to have joined the Muslims in an honorary capacity educated Mohammed concerning Jewish Scripture. This helped him to develop some of his own insights. He learned, for example, the chronology of the prophets, a thing about which he had previously been confused. Mohammed thought that the Jews and Christians belonged to one religion, but now he learned that they had serious disagreements with each other. It came as a great disappointment to him.
Perhaps the most important thing Mohammed learned was the story of Ishmael, Abraham’s oldest son. As we have already read, Ishmael was Abraham’s son by his concubine Hagar, but when Sarah bore Isaac, she became jealous and demanded of Abraham that he rid them of Hagar and Ishmael. To comfort Abraham in his sorrow over this, God promised that Ishmael would also be the father of great nation. Some Arabian Jews believed that Abraham traveled to Mecca with Hagar and Ishmael and that when he visited them later he and Ishmael built the Ka‘bah.
We can imagine how the Prophet Mohammed felt when he learned these things. He saw himself as an Arab prophet who was within the Judaic- Christian tradition. Had the Jews of Jesus’ time accepted Jesus as their long-awaited Messiah, we would not have the two separate religions, Judaism and Christianity, that we have today. Likewise, had the Jews and the Christians of the world accepted Mohammed as a legitimate prophet in the line of the Jewish prophets and Jesus, we would not have three distinctly different religions today.
In January, 624, when it became clear that the hostility of the Median Jews was intransigent, Mohammed declared the religion of Allah as separate and commanded the Muslims to pray facing Mecca instead of Jerusalem. Through the qibla, or the changing of direction of prayer to the Ka‘bah, a shrine that had preceded the Jewish tabernacles, the Temple in Jerusalem, and Christian churches of the Byzantine Empire, Muslims were declaring they belonged neither to Judaism nor Christianity, but were surrendering themselves to God alone.
In the fourteen centuries that have since passed, the gulfs between Judaism, Christianity and Islam have become so wide that many people believe them unbridgeable, yet we can see that, at Islam’s inception, had things gone differently—had the Median Jews continued to support Mohammed and bear him allegiance, had this support then dominated the attitude of subsequent Jews, had the Christians of Mohammed’s time been willing to listen to his Revelations, had they adjusted Christian theology to the Revelations of the Koran—we would have a far different story today. As is so often the case, what begins as a small rift becomes in time a widening chasm over which bridges of understanding seem impossible to build.
“Then, when the sacred months have passed (the months of the Pilgrimage), slay the idolaters wherever ye find them, and take them (captive), and besiege them, and prepare for them ambush. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then leave their way free. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.” (Surah 9: 5)
Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you, but begin not hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth not aggressors.
And slay them wherever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter. And fight not with them, at the Inviolable Place of Worship until they first attack you there, but if they attack you (there) then slay them. Such is the reward of disbelievers.
But if they desist, then lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
And fight them until persecution is no more, and religion is for Allah. But if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against wrongdoers.
The forbidden month for the forbidden month, and forbidden things in retaliation.
And one who attacketh you, attack him in like manner as he attacked you.
Observe your duty to Allah, and know that Allah is with those who ward off (evil). (Surah 2: 190-194)
Certainly Mohammed was not the first prophet ever commanded to wage war against adversaries. God himself had caused the Egyptian soldiers who pursued the Israelites fleeing Egypt to be drowned when they entered the Red Sea after it had parted for the Israelites to cross. Moses and Joshua took Canaan by force. David slew Goliath. The Old Testament is full of battles and warfare. Of all the prophets only Jesus did not advocate the taking up of arms, telling his followers to love their enemies, to pray for them, and to turn the other cheek. Next to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, this difference between Christianity and Islam may be the hardest to reconcile. It plays its hand in the modern world—Western nations have come to realize that the Arabs do not always play by the same rules that they think civilized people should play by.
In the second and longest surah of the Koran (not the second, however, chronologically) Mohammed was commissioned to slay the enemies of Islam. This is a Medina surah, the surahs being divided between those he received while still in Mecca and those he received in Medina. For thirteen years the Muslims had been strict pacifists; now the Prophet took up the sword.
Though his first concern as a ruler was to establish public worship and lay down the constitution of the state, he did not forget that the Quraysh had vowed to make an end of him and his religion nor that he had received the command to fight against them till they ceased their persecution of Muslims. After he had been in Yathrib for a year, he led several expeditions for the purpose of reconnoitering and of dissuading other tribes from siding with the Quraysh. Blood was shed and booty taken in only one of those early expeditions, and that was against the Prophet’s orders.
In the second year of the Hijrah a Meccan merchants’ caravan was returning from Syria when its leader heard that it was the Prophet’s design to capture it. At once he sent a camel rider to Mecca to inform the Quraysh and ask for help. A force of a thousand Quraysh was soon on its way to Yathrib and was more than half way there before the Prophet set out to meet it. All three parties—the Quraysh force, the caravan and the Muslim army—were heading for the water of Badr. Before the upcoming battle and though it would increase the odds against him, the Prophet sent home from his army all who were natives of Yathrib. The battle at first went against them, but despite the odds, the Muslims emerged victorious at Badr, giving the Prophet new prestige among the Arab tribes.
Now there was a blood feud between the Quraysh and the Muslims. The next year an army of 3000 Quraysh came to Yathrib to destroy them. At first Mohammed only intended to defend the city, but the men who had fought at Badr believed that God would help them against all odds, so they thought it was a shame to stay behind the city walls. Impressed by their faith and zeal, the Prophet gave his approval to join battle outside the city’s walls, and they set out with an army of 1,000 men towards Mt. Uhud, where the Quraysh were encamped. On the way a fourth of his men withdrew from the ranks. Despite this handicap, the battle gave every indication of being an even greater victory than that of Badr but for the disobedience of a band of fifty archers the Prophet had sent to guard the pass against the enemy cavalry. Seeing their comrades were victorious, they left their post so as not to lose their share of the spoils, thus clearing the way for the Quraysh cavalry to ride through the gap and fall upon the Muslims. In the ensuing melee the Prophet was wounded, and a rumor started that he had been slain. It proved false, and when it was shouted that the Prophet was still living, the Muslims rallied to the cry. They gathered around the Prophet and retreated, leaving many dead on the hillside.
On the following day the Prophet sallied forth with his remaining army so that the Quraysh would hear he was in the field and be deterred from attacking the city. A friendly Arab from the Bedawi tribe told the Quraysh leader that Mohammed was in the field, stronger that ever and thirsting for blood, and the leader decided to return his army to Mecca.
When the Muslims were victorious, the Arab tribes were disposed towards them, and when they were not, they were inclined towards the Quraysh. Since they had suffered a reverse on Mt. Uhud, the other Arab tribes and the Jews could scarcely contain their hostility. In the fifth year of the Hijrah the idolaters made a great effort to destroy Al-Islam in what is called the War of the Clans or the War of the Trench. An army of 10,000 men rode against Yathrib. The Prophet, taking the advice of one Salman the Persian, dug a trench, a novelty in Arab warfare, before the city. Mohammed himself led the work of digging it. The cavalry found the trench impassable, so the army camped in sight of it and showered arrows on the city’s defenders. While the Muslims awaited their assault, they learned that the previously loyal Jewish tribe of the Bani Qureyzah had gone over to the enemy. They were in desperate straits, but a Muslim agent managed to sow distrust between the Quraysh and their Jewish allies, and both hesitated to act. Then a bitter wind came from the sea and blew for three days and nights. It was so fierce that not a tent was left standing nor a fire left burning. The Muslims’ enemies were in misery. At last the leader of the Quraysh decided they could no longer bear the torment and gave the order to retire.
The Old and New Testaments cite such miraculous occurrences. The story this most calls to mind is that of the Israeli King Hezekiah. In 701 bc Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, had attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them. Then the Assyrian king laid siege to the city of Jerusalem. His commanders taunted the Israeli officials, saying that God could not save them from the Assyrian army. When Hezekiah heard this he was afraid and sent some of his officials to the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah told them not to fear; because Sennacherib’s underlings had blasphemed him, his forces would not enter Jerusalem. He would be cut down by the sword after they returned to Assyria. That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up in the morning, their bodies were found, and Sennacherib broke camp, withdrew, and returned to Nineveh. One day, while he was worshipping in the temple of the god Nisroch, his sons cut him to the ground. (2 Kings: 18-20)
The next day the Prophet ordered war on the treacherous Bani who had taken refuge in their towers. After a month-long siege, they surrendered unconditionally and begged to be judged by a member of the Arab tribe to which they adhered. The Prophet granted their request, but the judge condemned the men to death and their women and children to slavery.
In the sixth year of the Hijrah, the Prophet led a campaign against the Bani al-Mustaliq, a tribe that was preparing to attack the Muslims. It was during the return from that campaign that Aisha, his young wife, was left behind and brought back to camp by a young soldier. The incident provoked a scandal when she was accused of adultery. This was denounced in the 24th Surah, verses 11-13, which decreed that four witnesses must be produced to convict men and women of adultery:
Lo! They would spread the slander are a gang among you. Deem it not a bad thing for you; nay, it is good for you. Unto every man of them (will be paid) that which he hath earned of the sin; and as for him among them who had the greater share therein, his will be an awful doom.
Why did not the believers, men and women, when ye heard it, think good of their own folk and say: It is a manifest untruth?
Why did they not produce four witnesses? Since they produce not witnesses, they verily are liars in the sight of Allah.
In the same year the Prophet had a vision in which he saw himself entering the holy place at Mecca unopposed. Buoyed by this, he attempted to make the pilgrimage. His popularity among the Arabs had increased since the miraculous discomfiture of the clans, and some of the now friendly Arabs accompanied him. Attired as pilgrims bearing their customary offerings, a company of 1400 men journeyed to Mecca. As they drew near the holy valley they were met by a friend from the city who warned the Prophet that the Quraysh had donned leopard skins and had sworn to prevent him from entering the sanctuary. They had sent their cavalry to detain him. Hearing this, the Prophet detoured through the mountain gorges and came at last to the valley of Mecca. From outside the city, he tried to negotiate with the Quraysh, explaining that he had come as a pilgrim. The first messenger he sent to Mecca was mistreated and his camel was hamstrung. The Quraysh sent disrespectful messengers to him.
Finally Mohammed sent Uthman to Mecca because of his kinship with the Umayyad family. News came that he had been murdered. The Prophet and his comrades then took an oath that they would stand or fall together. When they learned subsequently that Uthman had not been murdered, the news emboldened them to capture a troop sent from Mecca to molest them. The Prophet forgave them on their promise that they would renounce hostility. Then the proper envoys came to him; they negotiated and signed a truce.
For ten years there were to be no hostilities between the parties. Mohammed returned to Medina without visiting the Ka‘bah, but he returned the next year to perform the pilgrimage. The Quraysh promised to evacuate Mecca for three days to allow him his visit. The truce proved to be the greatest victory for the Muslims. War had been a barrier between them and the idolaters, but now both parties met and talked together, and the new religion spread rapidly. In the two years that elapsed between the truce and the fall of Mecca, Islam gained many converts. When the Meccans broke the truce two years later, Mohammed marched on Mecca with an army of 10,000 men.
In the seventh year of the Hijrah the Prophet led a campaign against Kheybar, a stronghold of a Jewish tribes in North Arabia that was a hornet’s nest of enemies. Their forts were destroyed one by one until they were expelled from Arabia during the Caliphate of Omar. It was at Kheybar that a Jewish woman prepared some poisoned meat for the Prophet. He tasted a morsel without swallowing it and warned his comrades that it was poisoned. One Muslim who had already swallowed a mouthful died immediately. From the mere taste he took, Mohammed probably derived the illness that eventually killed him. When the woman confessed that she had done it because of the humiliation of her people, the Prophet forgave her.
In the same year the Prophet’s vision was fulfilled. He visited the Ka‘bah unopposed. The idolaters, who had evacuated Mecca in accordance with the truce, watched the procession of Muslims. When their time was up, they withdrew and the idolaters returned to the city.
In the eighth year of the Hijrah Mohammed heard that the Byzantine emperor was gathering a force in Syria and planning to destroy Islam. He sent 3,000 men to Syria under the command of his freedman Zeyd. Though the campaign was unsuccessful, the Syrians were impressed by the valor of the Muslims. Though all three of the Muslim leaders were killed, the survivors managed to return to Medina.
In the same year the Quraysh broke their truce by attacking a tribe that was in alliance with the Prophet and massacred its members in the Ka‘bah. Then they feared for what they had done. The Prophet summoned all the Muslims capable of bearing arms and marched to Mecca. The Quraysh were overawed, and, just as he had seen in his vision, the Prophet entered his native city a conqueror. The Meccans expected vengeance, but the Prophet proclaimed a general amnesty. In their relief the entire population of Mecca swore allegiance to Islam. The Prophet ordered all the idols in the sanctuary to be destroyed, saying, “Truth has come, darkness has vanished away!” (Surah 17: 81) The Muslim call to prayer was now freely heard in Mecca.
In the same year an angry collection of pagan tribes tried to regain Mecca, but the Prophet met them with 12,000 men. In a heated battle the Muslims emerged victorious, and many from the hostile tribes converted to Islam. The Prophet appointed a governor for Mecca and returned to Medina.
In the ninth year, the Prophet again called an army together for a campaign against a hostile force mustering in Syria. The army advanced to Tabuk, where they learned that the enemy had not yet gathered.
Although Mecca had been conquered and its people were now Muslims, the official order of the pilgrimage had not been changed. The pagan Arabs performed it in their manner, and the Muslims in theirs. Only after the ninth year of Hijrah when Islam first dominated North Arabia was the Declaration of Immunity was announced. The Prophet sent a copy of it to Mecca with the instruction that Ali was to read it to the multitudes there. The declaration announced that those pagan worshippers who had not broken their treaty with the Muslims could worship in Mecca only until the terms of the treaty expired. After that only Muslims could worship at the Ka‘bah. The proclamation marked the end of idol worship in Arabia.
The ninth year of Hijrah is called the Year of Deputations because from all parts of Arabia deputations came to Medina to swear allegiance to the Prophet and to hear the Koran. Though the Prophet had become the emperor of Arabia, his way of life remained as simple as before. In ten years he had destroyed idolatry in Arabia, raised women from status of chattel to complete legal equality with men, stopped drunkenness and immorality, caused men to love faith, sincerity and honest dealing, transformed tribes into people with a thirst for knowledge, and for the first time in the history of world, made the universal brotherhood of all people a principle of the law. His support and guidance in all these achievement were his Revelations compiled in the Koran.
Once all of Arabia became Muslim, Mohammed, contemplating his rapid victories, conceived of the idea of a universal empire of “One Messenger, one faith, for the world!” He sent dispatches to the countries bordering upon Arabia, requesting them to cease from worshipping idols, to revere One God, and to recognize his mission. According to the Bukhari, he wrote to the Emperor Heraclius in Byzantium:
In the name of God, the Beneficent, the Compassionate! From Mohammed, the servant of God and His Messenger, to Heraclius, the chief of the Romans!
Peace be with him who follows the guidance. I invite thee into the faith. Become a follower of Islam, and thou wilt be at peace—God will give thee a double reward. If thou turnest away, on thee will be the sin of thy subjects. O Followers of the Book, come to an equitable agreement with us. Serve none but God, associate none with Him, and take unto thyselves no other masters. Proclaim thyself followers of the faith, and all shall be well between us.
We do not know whether Heraclius or Chosroes II, Emperor of Persia, ever received their messages. There is no record of Heraclius’ reply. If he had received it and had an audience with this strange prophet from the Arabia deserts, if he had recognized him as a Prophet of God following Jesus Christ, the history of the world would have been considerably less bloody. Even if Heraclius had heard about the victories Mohammed had achieved in Arabia, he probably would have considered them the victories of a backwater Arab prince and not something to which he needed to pay attention. Little could he have imagined that within another thirty years the walls of Constantinople would be threatened by this band of upstarts, nor that, in the ensuing centuries, the entire Christian world would live in terror of them. The rise of Islam was as unlikely an event as the conversion of Constantine had been.
It is said that when Chosroes received his letter, he went into a rage and tore it to pieces. When Mohammed was told this, he is supposed to have proclaimed prophetically, “Even so shall God rend his empire to pieces!” There was no doubt, however, of Mohammed’s intention— to carry his message to all quarters of the earth. The holy sword would not be sheathed until the whole world acknowledged the faith.
In the heat of summer, Mohammed gathered an army of 30,000, intending to march against the Byzantine Empire. To those who complained of the heat, he answered dryly, “Hell is hotter.” But when he reached Tabuk, halfway between Medina and Damascus, he seemed to realize that nothing would be gained from the venture, and after receiving a few tributes from Christian tribes, he decided to return.
In the tenth year of the Hijrah , the year 632, he went to Mecca as a pilgrim for the last time. There he delivered what is called his “pilgrimage of farewell” from Mt. Arafat. He reminded the enormous throng of pilgrims of all the duties Islam enjoined upon them. He told them that one day they would meet their Lord and be judged, each one according to his deeds. At the end of the discourse, he asked, “Have I not conveyed the Message?” The multitude, many of who only a few months or years ago had been idolaters, shouted, “O Allah! Yes!” The Prophet said, “O Allah! Be Thou my witness!”
During his last pilgrimage, he received his last Revelation, the Surah that is entitled “Succor” (110), which foretold his approaching death. Soon after he returned to Medina he fell ill. Early at dawn on the last day of his earthly life, he came out from his room beside the mosque at Medina and joined in public prayer. There was great relief among the people who supposed him well again. Later in the day, however, the rumor of his death spread. Omar declared that it was a crime to think that the Messenger of God could die. Abu Bakr heard him and went into Aisha’s chamber where the Prophet lay, found him dead, and kissed him on the forehead. Omar would not listen when Abu Bakr tried to convey the news to him, so Abu Bakr raised his voice to the crowd and said, “O people. Lo! As for him who used to worship Mohammed, Mohammed is dead. But as for him who used to worship Allah, Allah is Alive and dieth not.”
They recited from the Koran: “And Mohammed is but a messenger, a messenger the life of whom has passed away before him. Will it be that, when he dieth or is slain, ye will turn back on your heels? He who turneth back doth no hurt to Allah, and Allah will reward the thankful.” (Surah 3: 144)
There are many biographies on the life of Mohammed. The primary source of my retelling here has been William Montgomery Watt’s introduction to Marmaduke Pickthall translation of The Meaning of the Glorious Koran. New York, Toronto: Everyman’s Library, Alfred A. Knopf; first included in Everyman’s Library in 1909, this translation was published by Knopf in 1930 and by the Everyman’s Library in 1992.
CHAPTER SIX:
THE KORAN, PART ONE
OLD TESTAMENT REFERENCES
From July 10th, 1996, the day I purchased my copy of The Meaning of the Glorious Koran, I felt that it was sacred. I thought I should wrap it in an expensive cloth and keep it in a special place. It was the Everyman’s Library version, an explanatory translation by Marmaduke Pickthall, with an introduction by William Montgomery Watt. My intention was not to rapidly read through it as though I were reading a novel, but to study it verse-by-verse, surah-by-surah, taking as long as needed and to make notations, as best I could, of the verses that referred to Biblical verses. I was amply rewarded for my effort.
In the mornings of the following days, before I set about the tasks of the day, frequently I opened the Koran and spent a half-hour or so in study. The more I did this, the more I realized how connected it was to the Old and New Testaments, and the more excited I grew. In almost every surah there were references to these previous testaments! My study of the Koran had a spiritual as well as an intellectual benefit—it made me inexplicably happy. When I mentioned this to my Muslim friend, Tanweer, he smiled and said, yes, that Muslims believe that on a day in which they read from the Koran or hear it recited, things go well for them. “I believe Allah may be leading you in this,” he added, and the next week he presented me with a copy of Admed Deedat’s The Choice; Islam and Christianity, Volume One. Mr. Deedat, a Muslim scholar who resides in South Africa, had made the attempt to bridge the gap between Islam and Christianity from a Muslim point-of-view.
Like most Westerners, when I understood nothing of Islam I questioned even whether Mohammed was a true prophet of God. I had progressed no more than a fourth of my way through the Koran when the question I had for twenty years, “Is Mohammed a true prophet?”, was unequivocally answered with a resounding Yes! As the Koran itself says, “Say: Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof though they were helpers one of another.” (Surah 17: 88) The authority alone that it possesses should be enough to convince a non-Muslim of its authenticity:
. . .there I [Allah] shall ordain it for those who ward off (evil) and pay the poor-due, and those who believe Our revelation;
Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them. He will enjoin on them that which is right and forbid them that which is wrong. He will make lawful for them all good things and prohibit for them only the foul; and he will relieve them of their burden and the fetters that they used to wear. Then those who believe in him, and honor him, and help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him: they are the successful. (Surah 7: 156-157)
The speakers who speak to Mohammed instruct him to say:
“O mankind! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah to you all—(the messenger of) Him unto whom belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and earth. There is no God save Him. He quickeneth and he giveth death. So believe in Allah and His messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, who believeth in Allah and in His Words, and follow him that haply ye may be led aright.” (Surah 7: 158)
I will present various pieces of information contained in the Koran to let the reader decide for himself. If a Jew or Christian acknowledges that Mohammed is a prophet within the succession of the prophets of the Judaic-Christian tradition, he must reconcile Mohammed’s message with those of Judaism or Christianity. Likewise if a Jew or Muslim acknowledges Jesus as the Messiah, he must reconcile his faith accordingly. Not to do so in either case would be hypocritical. For Christians such a reconciliation requires them to reexamine some of their most cherished notions. If we are willing to adjust our beliefs according to the authority of the Koran we can come closer to understanding the single truth of God’s activity in our world and his plan for our salvation. In writing this book, I hope to help reconcile Jews, Christians and Muslims, but to do this I must question some of the tenants that are central to Christian faith. It also necessary to question some of the tenets of the Judaic faith, but that undertaking is largely beyond the scope of my considerations.
After Mohammed died his sayings were compiled in the Hadith (a narrative record of the sayings or customs of Mohammed and his companions) and in a book of the Revelations that had been dictated to him by the Archangel Gabriel. Taken together, these constitute the book called the holy Koran.
All the surahs of the Koran were recorded in writing before the Prophet’s death. Many Muslims also committed them to memory, and this practice continues to this day. Written surahs were dispersed among the people. Within two years of the Prophet’s death, when a large number of those who knew the whole Koran from memory were killed, a collection of all the recitations was made. During the Caliphate of Uthman (644-656 ad) all existing copies of the surahs were called in, and an authoritative version, based on Abu Bakr’s collection and the testimony of those who knew the whole by heart, was compiled exactly in its present wording and order regarded as the arrangement of the Prophet himself. The Caliph Uthman, his helpers and the comrades of the Prophet all agreed upon this.
The holy Koran is unique among the holy books of the world as it is the most direct record of divine Revelation known to man. Though the Old Testament may be described as the literary expression of the religious life of ancient Israel, more than a thousand years separate its earliest and latest compositions. Its literature takes many forms—prose and poetry, myth and legend, folk tale, history, scared hymns, love songs, religious and secular law, proverbs, oracles of the prophets, epic poems, laments, parables and allegories. Probably during the time of David and Solomon (the 10th Century bc) the earliest accounts of the saving acts of God from Creation to the conquest of the Promised land became Scripture, but it took even longer before the idea of assembling these accounts into a whole arose and the Old Testament took its present form.
The Koran often refers to the Jews and Christians as “the people of Scripture” or “the people of the Book.” Gabriel, who recited the Koran to Mohammed, says, “We gave unto Moses the Scripture and the Criterion (of right and wrong) [The Ten Commandments], that ye might be led aright.” (Surah 2: 53) The Koran frequently states that “we,” presumably the angels of God, gave the Scripture to Abraham, Moses, and the prophets, and the Gospel to Jesus.
As we have already noted, the Jews consider three divisions with the Scripture: the Law (Torah), the Prophets (Nebhiim), and the Writings (Kethubhim). The Law is the Pentateuch, the first five books—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Prophets are divided into two groups, the “Major Prophets” and the “Minor Prophets”. The Major Prophets are subdivided into the Former Prophets---Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings—and the Latter Prophets—Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Then there are Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi, the twelve “Minor Prophets.” The Writings include all other books. Of the Old Testament books, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles tell the history of the Israelites in the Promised Land until they were conquered and led into exile in Babylonia.
The date of the final compilation of the Pentateuch or Law is uncertain, although some have conservatively dated it at the time of the Babylonian Exile, which would be the 6th Century bc. By the middle of the 3rd Century bc, it had achieved the status as the primary Scripture of the Jews. The books of the Prophets and the Writings were added later. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the books of the twelve Minor Prophets were edited and compiled after the Babylonian exile. This editing adapted the books of the prophets to the needs of that time. It must be borne in mind that in most cases several hundred years had elapsed between their original inspiration and their final editing.
As mentioned before, the earliest Christian writings were the letters of Paul written to the Christian communities in Anatolia, Macedonia, Greece and Rome some thirty or so years after the death of Jesus. The gospels themselves were not written down until the latter part of the 1st Century, about 60 years after the death of Jesus. Jesus himself wrote nothing. When the “we” of the Koran takes credit for having given the Gospel to Jesus, presumably it means they (the “we”) inspired him with their words, which were later recorded in the Gospels.
Historians recognize that the margin of error in records tends to increase in proportion to the time that elapses between an event and when it is recorded. In modern revivals of plays and movies there is a tendency to reinterpret the originals to make them relevant for their times. Because the Koran was written during the life of the Prophet and compiled just a short time after his death, we might assume its likelihood of error is less than that for either the Old Testament or the New Testament even though their writers understood the sacred nature of their work and were scrupulous in their attention to it.
One of the characteristics hearers of recitations of the Koran acknowledge is the sensation of having the hot breath of the Creator Himself in their ears. Its very sounds have been known to move men and women to tears and ecstasy. The Koran lacks the narrative style of the Old and New Testaments; in numerous surahs various stories from the Old and New Testaments are referred to, prefaced the way relatives often reminisce with “remember when. . . .” Often a verse may refer to one story, and the next verse will jump to an entirely different story. Thus for a Westerner to read the Koran requires some getting used to.
The Koran is a unique document because of its commentary on previous Scripture. One of the of the primary reasons for its existence may be to correct errors and exaggerations that had seeped into the Old and the New Testaments—as though God Himself was irritated by how His previous Revelation had become corrupted through speculation and by the addition of things that were incorrect and wanted to voice His complaint through His Revelation to Mohammed. He may have wanted to set the record straight, and He used Mohammed as his instrument to do this:
Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, “This is from Allah,” that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby. (Surah 11: 79)
Say (Oh Mohammed, to mankind): Who is an enemy to Gabriel? For he it is who hath revealed (this Scripture) to thy heart by Allah’s leave, confirming that which was (revealed) before it, and a guidance and glad tiding to believers. (Surah 2: 97)
And the Jews say the Christians follow nothing (true), and the Christians say the Jews follow nothing (true); yet both are readers of the Scripture. Even thus speak those who know not. Allah will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they differ. (Surah 2: 113)
And the Jews will not be pleased with thee, nor will the Christians, till thou follow their creed. Say: Lo! The guidance of Allah (Himself) is Guidance. And if thou shouldst follow their desires after the knowledge which hath come unto thee, then wouldst thou have from Allah no protecting friend nor helper. (Surah 2: 120)
Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and Unto Him we have surrendered. (Surah 2: 136)
Ask of the Children of Israel how many a clear revelation We gave them! He who altereth the grace of Allah after it hath come unto him (for him), lo! Allah is severe in punishment. (Surah 2: 211)
Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for Lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).
O People of the Scripture! Why will ye argue about Abraham, when the Torah and the Gospel were not revealed till after him? Have ye no sense? (Surah 3: 64-65)
O People of the Scripture! Why confound ye truth with falsehood and knowingly conceal the truth. (Surah 3: 71)
And lo! there is a party of them who distort the Scripture, with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly. (Surah 3: 78)
There are more surahs that in the same vein, but let me continue to describe the Koran to those who are not familiar with it. Strict Arabic-speaking Muslims believe that the Koran cannot be translated, that the symphony of sounds of the Koran in Arabic cannot be repeated in another language. In worship the Koran is recited in Arabic, even to those who do not understand that language, but unofficial translations have appeared for the sake of the Muslims who do not speak Arabic.
The Koran is not arranged chronologically. Instead its units, called “surahs”, seem to be arranged roughly from the longest to the shortest with the exception of the first, which has only seven verses. Over the centuries scholars have tried to give the date for the revelation of each passage. Surahs were said to have been revealed either at Mecca before the Hijrah or at Medina after it. In time it was realized that, even if a surah had mostly been revealed at one place, some verses might have been revealed at the other. The arrangement is not easy to understand, but it is not as haphazard as may be supposed. Closer study will reveal certain logic even though some of the very early Meccan surahs are placed at the end. This is because the inspiration of the Prophet progressed from innermost things to outermost things, but readers of the Koran are most likely to progress from outermost to innermost things, and the order of the surahs is designed to reflect the reader's progression.
The Koran contains 114 surahs. The second surah, called “The Cow” contains 286 verses, where as Surah 103, “The Declining Day” contains only three. Usually a surah is named in reference to something in one of its verses. For instance, Surah 74 is named “The Cloaked One” in reference to its first verse, “O thou enveloped in thy cloak,” which refers to the Prophet himself who was accustomed to wrapping himself in his cloak at the time of his trances.
The early surahs emphasize God’s goodness and his control of the world. They indicate that believers will be vindicated. One of the often-repeated themes (which I drew comfort from as I studied) is that God is the Protecting Friend of believers, while there is no helper for evildoers:
“But Allah is your Protector, and He is the best of helpers.” (Surah 3: 150) “Allah knoweth best (who are) your enemies. Allah is sufficient as a Friend, and Allah is sufficient as a Helper.” (Surah 4: 45)
Consistent with the Judaic and Christian Scriptures, the Koran asserts that God is all knowing and He is Merciful. The One God to whom people should submit is given a thousand names in the Koran—the Beneficient, the Merciful, Forgiving, Hearer, Knower, Mighty, Wise, Clement, All-Embracing, All-Knowing, the Alive, the Eternal, Sublime, the Tremendous, and so forth:
Allah! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal. Neither slumber nor sleep overtaketh Him. Unto Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. Who is he that intercedeth with Him save by His leave? He knoweth that which is front of them and that which is behind them, while they encompass nothing of His knowledge save what He will. His Throne includeth the heavens and the earth, and He is never weary of preserving them. He is the Sublime, the Tremendous.
There is no compulsion in religion. The right direction is hence forth distinct from error. And he who rejecteth False deities and believeth in Allah hath grasped a firm handhold which will never break. Allah is Hearer, Knower.
Allah is the Protecting Friend of those who believe. He bringeth them out of darkness into light. As for those who disbelieve, their patrons are false deities. They bring them out of light into darkness. Such are rightful owners of the Fire. They will abide therein. (Surah 2: 255-257)
The Koran correlates with the Hebrew view of Yahweh (I Am Who I Am), saying “Allah doeth what he will” (Surah 2: 253b) It makes clear that disbelievers and wrongdoers lack His guidance. It indicates that Allah makes his Revelations clear to men that they might know them and be guided onto a straight path. “But it was not Allah’s purpose that your faith should be in vain, for Allah is full of pity, Merciful toward mankind.”(Surah 2: 143b)
According to the Koran, the created world is good, a sign of Allah’s sovereignty:
Lo! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use of men, and the water which Allah sendeth down from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kinds of beasts therein, and (in) the ordinance of the winds, and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth; all signs (of Allah’s sovereignty) for people who have sense. (Surah 2: 164)
Surely, whoever reads himself may find other verses that speak especially to him—my rendering of the content of the Koran is incomplete, as I am citing verses that pertain to my thoughts.
These verses refer to the wonders of Creation and God’s dominion over it. Such verses as, “No soul can ever die except by Allah’s leave and at a term appointed,” help those who believe them. Though poetry existed among the Arabs before the time of Mohammed, it is not surprising that once they converted to Islam there was a flowering of poetry in praise of Creation that spread from Arabia to Persia and Andalusia. Yet because many of the poets of Mohammed’s time often wrote verse disputing his authority, he retained a distinct distrust of them. Surah 26 is called “The Poets,” in which the difference between poets and a prophet is tersely pointed out; poets are those who say what they do not mean, while a prophet always practices what he preaches. The pagan Arabs and their poets believed poetic inspiration to be the work of the jinn, in Muslim legend, spirits capable of assuming human or animal form and exercising supernatural influence over people. Surah 26: 224 ff. says, “As for poets, the erring follow them. Hast thou not seen how they stray in every valley, and how they say that which do not?”
The Old Testament witnesses that Allah sent messengers again
and again to warn mankind and entreat them to return to the worship and
obedience of the one true God. The angels, speaking for God throughout the
Koran, take credit for having sent messengers to mankind since the time of
Adam and Eve. Gabriel, speaking for the angels of God throughout the Koran, takes credit for having sent various messengers to mankind since the time of Adam and Eve. They claim that they sent Noah to the people of old to warn them to serve no other God but Allah, or they would face the retribution of an Awful Day. Gabriel makes it clear to Mohammed that those who are contacting him are the same God and his angels who spoke to the patriarchs and prophets of the Old Testament and to Jesus.
References to them are frequent. Adam is referred to in five surahs, Iblis (Satan) in eight; there are 19 references to Noah, 12 to Lot, 20 to Abraham, 13 to Aaron, ten to Isaac, seven to Ishmael, nine to Jacob, and three to Job. The Pharaoh is mentioned 14 times, and Joseph is mentioned three times. The most frequently mentioned patriarch of the Old Testament is Moses who is mentioned 27 times. Jesus is mentioned more than 20 times; his mother Mary eight times; the father of John the Baptist, Zachariah, three times, and John the Baptist four times. The names of the disciples and the apostle Paul are not mentioned at all.
CREATION, ADAM & EVE IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, THE TEMPTATION AND FALL
As long as Jews and Christians remain ignorant of the contents of the Koran, they will remain unaware of the degree to which it corroborates the Old and New Testaments in content and tone. It describes the Creation of the Heavens and Earth. (Evolutionists can take heart in, “From Allah, Lord of the Ascending Stairways, (Whereby) the angels and the Spirit ascend unto Him in a Day whereof the span is fifty thousand years.” (Surah 70: 4))
The Koran relates the creation of man beginning with Adam. According to it God told the angels that He was about to place a viceroy on earth. When the angels protested that this viceroy, man, would do harm and shed blood, God said, “Surely I know that which ye know not. And He taught Adam all the names [of animals and plants], then showed them to the angels, saying: Inform me of the names of these if ye are truthful.”(Surah 2: 30-31) God then asked Adam to inform the angels of their names.
Allah was so proud of this man whom He had created that He asked the angels to, “Prostrate yourself before Adam, and they all fell prostrate, all save Iblis. He demurred through pride, and so became a disbeliever.” (Surah 2: 34) In the seventh surah, the story of Adam and Eve is expanded. In this account, Iblis refuses to prostrate himself before Adam, so God asks him, “What hindered thee that thou didst not fall prostrate when I bade thee? (Iblis) said: I am better than him. Thou createdst me of fire while him Thou didst create him of mud.” When Iblis was cast out because of his pride, he asked to be reprieve until the day when mankind is raised [from the dead]. God allowed him to be reprieved. Then Iblis said: “Now, because Thou hast sent me astray, verily I shall lurk in ambush for them on Thy Right Path. Then I shall come upon them from before them, and from behind them and from their right hands and from their left hands, and Thou wilt not find most of them beholden (unto Thee).” (Surah 2: 12-17)
An abbreviated version of this story is found in the 15th surah, verses 29-42, but in this version, God tells Iblis, “Lo! As for My slaves, thou hast no power over any of them save such of the froward as follow thee.” Again in the 17th surah, verses 63-64, God tells him, “Go, and whosoever of them followeth thee—lo! Hell will be your payment, ample payment. And excite any of them whom thou canst with thy voice, and urge thy horse and foot against them, and be partner in their wealth and children, and promise them. Satan promiseth them only to deceive.” Surah 18: 51 says of Iblis, “He was of the jinn.” The fact that Iblis is of the jinn and not the angels, when he was first an angel, explains his disobedience, since jinn, like men, can choose their paths of conduct. So he rebelled against his Lord’s command. “Will ye choose him and his seed for your protecting friends instead of Me, when they are an enemy unto you? Calamitous is the exchange of evil doers!” Three more surahs—20, 26 and 38—refer again to Iblis, his rebellion and his bargain with Allah.
Central to the Koran’s commentary, in keeping with the Judaic-Christian understanding, is the idea that our earthly home is temporary. Until the Day of Judgment, we will be tempted to do the will of Satan, the deceiver, rather than to submit to Allah. Satan is mentioned many times in the Bible. He first appeared as a Serpent to Adam and Eve, then to confuse Job; in the New Testament he appears to tempt Jesus, again in the story of Ananias in the book of Acts, and lastly in the book of Revelation. This corresponds to the Koranic version of Iblis. The creation stories in the Bible do not tell of Satan’s rebellion.
In the second chapter of Job, when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, Satan also comes. “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Whence have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down it.’”
In several surahs the fall of Adam and Eve is recalled. Genesis’s account of the Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is repeated in the second surah of the Koran. “And We said: O Adam! Dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye freely (of the fruits) thereof where ye will; but come not nigh this tree lest ye become wrongdoers. But Satan caused them to deflect there from and expelled them from the (happy) state in which they were; and We said: Fall down, one of you a foe unto the other! There shall be for you on earth a habitation and provision for a time.” (Surah 2: 35-36)
CAIN AND ABEL
“But recite to them with truth the tale of the two sons of Adam, how they offered each a sacrifice, and it was accepted from one of them, and it was not accepted from the other. (The one) said: I will surely kill thee. (The other) answered: Allah accepteth only from those who ward off (evil).
“Even if thou stretch out thy hand against me to kill me, I shall not stretch out my hand against thee to kill thee, lo! I fear Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
“Lo! I would rather thou shouldst bear the punishment of the sin against me and thine own sin and become one of the owners of the Fire. That is the reward of evildoers.
“But (the other’s) mind imposed on him the killing of his brother, so he slew him and became one of the losers.” (Surah 5: 27-30)
NOAH
The Koran considers Noah an important prophet. He was inspired in the same way as the prophets who followed him and Mohammed. Noah was a monotheist, sent as a “plain warner” to call the heathen folk back to their worship of Allah lest they be destroyed. The conversations between Noah and the people he was warning are recorded in several surahs. When they spate on him and denied his message, with such words as, “shall we put faith in thee, when the lowest (of people) follow thee?” (Surah 26: 111) and “If thou cease not, O Noah, thou wilt surely be among those stoned (to death)” (Surah 26: 116), Noah cried to Allah and asked Him to judge between them, “a (conclusive) judgment, and save me and those believers who are with me.” (Surah 26: 118) So, “We saved him and those with him in the laden ship. Then afterward We drowned the others.” (Surah 26: 119-120) Surah 54: 9 and those following say, “Then opened We the gates of heaven with pouring water And caused the earth to gush forth springs, so that the waters met for a predestined purpose. And We carried him upon a thing of planks and nails, That ran (upon the waters) in Our sight, as a reward for him who was rejected. And verily We left it as a token; but is there any that remembereth?”
The 71st surah of the Koran is named “Noah” and tells his story. Verse one says, “We sent Noah unto his people (saying): Warn thy people ere the painful doom come unto them.” Noah tries to tell his people that Allah is willing to forgive them and respite them for an appointed term. “What aileth you that ye hope not toward Allah for dignity, When He created you by (divers) stages?” he cries in verses 13-14. Noah tells them to forsake the idols of the pagan Arabs, but they refused to listen and, “Because of their sins they were drowned, then made to enter a Fire. And they found they had no helpers in place of Allah.” (Surah 71: 25-26)
The frequent reference to Noah is by way of analogy; just as the evildoers refused to listen to Noah and thus were drowned, so will those who refuse to listen to Mohammed receive a painful doom. The story of Noah is thus a portent for the people.
ABRAHAM AND ISHMAEL
Since Jews, Christians and Muslims all claim Abraham has their spiritual father and the father of their religion, the temptation might be for them to argue among themselves as to who has the greater claim—the Jews, because he was the father of Isaac the grandfather of Jacob, whose sons became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel; the Christians, because Jesus brought a new message and salvation to his descendants; or, the Muslims, because Abraham and Ishmael built the Ka’bah before the Hebrew religion was established and long before Solomon built the first permanent Temple in Jerusalem. The Koran, in anticipation of this, offers the following comment: “Abraham was not a Jew nor yet a Christian but he was an upright man who had surrendered to Allah, and he was not of the idolaters. Lo! those who have the best claim are those who follow him, and this Prophet and those who believe (with him); and Allah is the Protecting Friend of the believers.” (Surah 3: 67-68)
The Koran instructs believers that Abraham is a “goodly pattern” for believers. We might call him the first Muslim, the first to submit totally to the will of Allah. (Perhaps Noah should be thought of as the first Muslim, as he too was a monotheist and submitted himself absolutely to the will of Allah.) Abraham had a whole heart; he was an upright man, whose faith in Allah, the One God, was such that he was willing to go against the religion of his fathers.
Different versions of the stories are told in different surahs. Obtaining them requires jumping from one surah to another to gain a more complete story. The Koran disregards the sequences of their lives and will tell a story that happened late in their lives before one that happened earlier.
In Abraham’s case, perhaps the first story that should be told is the rather charming story of his conversion to the faith in Allah.
Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth that he might be of those possessing certainty.
When the night grew dark upon him he beheld a star. He said: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said: I love not things that set.
And when he saw the moon uprising, he exclaimed: This is my Lord. But when it set, he said: Unless my Lord guide me, I surely shall become one of the folk who are astray.
And when he saw the sun uprising, he cried: This is my Lord! This is greater! And when it set he exclaimed: O my people! Lo! I am free from all that ye associate (with Him).
Lo, I have turned my face toward Him Who created the heavens and the earth, as one by nature upright, and I am not of the idolaters. (Surah 6: 76-80)
After Abraham was certain that only Allah was worthy of worship, he began arguing with his father and his people, who were idolaters. He was moved to reduce their idols to fragments. The Koran tells several versions of his final confrontation with his own father. In Surah 43: 26, he says to his father and his folk, “Lo! I am innocent of what ye worship. Save Him who did create me, for He will surely guide me.” Surah 6: 75 says, “Remember when Abraham said unto his father Azar (In the Old Testament the father of Abraham is called Terah): ‘Takest thou idols for gods? Lo! I see thee and thy folks in error manifest,’” and Surah 19: 41 ff records the following story:
When he said unto his father: O my father! Why worshippest thou that which heareth not nor seeth, nor can in aught avail thee?
O my father! Lo! There hath come unto me of knowledge that which came not unto thee. So follow me, and I will lead thee on a right path.
O my father! Serve not the devil. Lo! The devil is a rebel unto the Beneficent.
O my father! Lo! I fear lest a punishment from the Beneficent overtake thee so that thou become a comrade of the devil.
He (Abraham’s father) said: Rejectest thou my gods, O Abraham? If thou cease not, I shall surely stone thee. Depart from me a long while!
He (Abraham) said: Peace unto thee! I shall ask forgiveness of my Lord for thee. Lo! He was ever gracious unto me.
I shall withdraw from you and that unto which ye pray beside Allah, and I shall pray unto my Lord. It may be that, in prayer unto my Lord, I shall not be unblest.
So, when he had withdrawn from them and that which they were worshipping beside Allah. We gave him Isaac and Jacob. Each of them We made a Prophet.
And We gave them of Our mercy, and assigned to them a high and true renown.
Abraham was so good hearted that despite this conflict with his father, he prayed that his father would be forgiven. Again and again, we have examples both in the Old Testament and the Koran of Abraham’s humanity, his tender heartedness—as when, greatly troubled because of Sarah’s insistence that he rid them of Hagar and Ishmael, he traveled with them many hundred miles from Canaan to Mecca to find the place where God intended him to settle them safely.
Genesis 18 tells the story of Abraham after he and his clan were settled in Canaan and three heavenly guests visited him. Even before he knew who they were or what their business with him could be, he hurried to kill and serve them a fatted cow. When he saw none of them reach for the food he had set before them, he grew afraid, but they told him, “Be not afraid! Lo! We bring thee good tidings of a boy possessing wisdom.” Readers are already familiar of both Abraham’s and Sarah’s protests that they were too old to have a child, yet God fulfilled his promise, and Sarah, despite her old age, bore Isaac.
Both the Koran and the Bible corroborate that the angels who have come to visit have another mission to fulfill. Abraham, perceiving this, asked, “And afterward what is your business, O ye messengers (of Allah)? (Surah 11: 57) They told him, “We have been sent unto a guilty folk.” Their mission was to warn the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to turn from their lewd practices or be destroyed. Now Lot, who was Abraham’s nephew, lived with his wife and family in Sodom. The messengers told him that Lot’s family would be delivered, except for his wife (readers will recall she was turned into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed and turned to gaze back at Sodom).
Genesis 18: 22-33 describes how Abraham interceded for Sodom:
So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near, and said. “Wilt thou indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city, wilt thou then destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from thee to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from thee! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Wilt thou destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Again he spoke to him, and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, “Behold, I have taken upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.
All that the Koran says about Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Ishmael is in Surah 2: 126, “Remember when his Lord tried Abraham with (His) commands and he fulfilled them.” The story itself is not told; however, one of the most important feast days for Muslims is Edi Adha, which celebrates Abraham’s willingness to do Allah’s will, even to the point of sacrificing his own son. Muslims, however, believe it was Ishmael rather than Isaac that Abraham would have sacrificed had not the angel stopped him and had God not provided a ram, caught in a thicket, in his stead.
The Old Testament mentions neither Abraham taking Hagar and Ishmael to Mecca nor the building of the Ka‘bah, but the Koran does. In the second surah, it says:
And (remember) when his Lord tried Abraham with (His) commands, and he fulfilled them, He said: Lo! I have appointed thee a leader for mankind. (Abraham) said: And of my offspring (will there be leaders)? He said: My covenant includeth not wrongdoers.
And when We made the House (at Mecca) a resort for mankind and a sanctuary, (saying): Take as your place of worship the place where Abraham stood (to pray). And We imposed a duty upon Abraham and Ishmael, (saying): Purify My house for those who go around and those who meditate therein and those who bow down and prostrate themselves (in worship).
And when Abraham prayed: My Lord! Make this a region of security and bestow upon its people fruits, such of them as believe in Allah and the Last Day, He answered: As for him who disbelieveth, I shall leave him in contentment for a while, then I shall compel him to the doom of fire—a hapless journey’s end!
And when Abraham and Ishmael were raising the foundations of the House, (Abraham prayed): Our Lord! Accept from us (this duty). Lo! Thou, only thou, art the Hearer, the Knower. (Surah 2: 124-127)
Surah 5: 97 says, “Allah hath appointed the Ka‘bah, the Sacred House, a standard for mankind, and the Sacred Month and the offerings and the garlands. That is so that ye may know that Allah knoweth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and that Allah is Knower of all things.”
In surah 14: 35-41 we have Abraham’s prayer to Allah at the end of his life:
And when Abraham said: My Lord! Make safe this territory and preserve me and my sons from serving idols.
My Lord! Lo! They have led many of mankind astray. But whoso followeth me, he verily is of me. And whoso disobeyeth me--Still Thou art Forgiving, Merciful.
Our Lord! Lo! I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near unto Thy holy House, our Lord! That they may establish proper worship; so incline some hearts of men that they may yearn toward them, and provide Thou them with fruits in order that they may be thankful.
Our Lord! Lo! Thou knowest that which we hide and that which we proclaim. Nothing in the earth or in the heaven is hidden from Allah.
Praise be to Allah Who hath given me, in my own age, Ishmael and Isaac! Lo! My Lord is indeed the Hearer of Prayer.
My Lord! Make me to establish proper worship, and some of my posterity (also); our Lord! and accept the prayer.
Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents and believers on the day when the account is cast.
The Koran has little to say about Ishmael and Isaac, though it asserts that “We” inspired and guided each of them and their prodigy. Of Ishmael, it says, “And make mention in the Scripture of Ishmael. Lo! he was a keeper of his promise, and he was a messenger (of Allah), a prophet. He enjoined upon his people worship and almsgiving, and was acceptable in the sight of his Lord.” (Surah 19: 54-55) Of Isaac and Jacob, it says, “We gave him Isaac and Jacob. Each of them We made a prophet.” (Surah 19: 49) Surah 6: 85 says, “And We bestowed upon him Isaac and Jacob; each of them We guided,” and Surah 21: 72 says, “And We bestowed upon him Isaac, and Jacob as a grandson. Each of them We made righteous.” Surah 37: 112 refers to Isaac as “a Prophet of righteousness,” and Surah 38: 46 refers to Isaac and Jacob as of the elect, “men of parts and vision.”
The Twelve Tribes of Israel are mentioned several times in the Koran. Verse 60 of the second surah says, “And when Moses asked for water for his people, We said: Smite with thy staff the rock. And there gushed out therefrom twelve springs (so that) each tribe knew their drinking-place.” Surah 5: 12 says, “Allah made a covenant of old with the Children of Israel, and We raised among them twelve chieftains, and Allah said: Lo! I am with you. . . .” and verse 13 says, “And because of their breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts. They change words from their context and forget a part of that whereof they were admonished. Thou (Mohammed) wilt not cease to discover treachery from all save a few of them. But bear with them and pardon them. Lo! Allah loveth the kindly.” Surah 7: 160 repeats that “We divided them into twelve tribes, nations; and We inspired Moses....”
JOSEPH
The twelfth surah is named “Joseph” (Yusuf) and tells his life-story. It differs from all other surahs in having only one subject. The differences from the Bible narrative are striking. Jacob here is a prophet who is not deceived by the story of his son’s death, but is distressed because, through suspension of his clairvoyance, he cannot see what has become of Joseph.
The surah gives additional information about Joseph, particularly about his seduction attempted by Potiphar’s wife:
And she, in whose house he was, asked of him an evil act. She bolted the doors and said: Come! He said: I seek refuge in Allah! Lo! He is my Lord, who hath treated me honorably. Wrongdoers never prosper. She verily desired him, and he would have desired her if it had not been that he saw the argument of his Lord. Thus, it was, that We might ward off from him evil and lewdness. Lo! He was of Our chosen slaves. And they raced with one another to the door, and she tore his shirt from behind, and they met her Lord and master at the door. She said: What shall be his reward, who wisheth evil to thy folk, save prison or a painful doom? (Joseph) said: She it was who asked of me an evil act. And a witness of her own folk testified: If his shirt is torn from before, then she speaketh truth and he is of the liars. And if his shirt is torn from behind, then she hath lied and he is of the truthful. So when he saw his shirt was torn from behind, he said: Lo! This is the guile of you women. Lo! The guile of you is very great. (Surah 12: 23-28) (More than in Jewish or Christian cultures, Muslims are distrustful of women and feel they must enjoin strict injunctions to prevent them from seducing men.)
The story, not contained in the Bible account, continues in Surah 12: 30-33:
And the women in the city said: The ruler’s wife is asking of her slave-boy an ill deed. Indeed he has smitten her to the heart with love. We behold her in plain aberration. And when she heard of their sly talk, she sent to them and prepared for them a cushioned couch (to lie on at the feast) and gave to every one of them a knife and said (to Joseph): Come out unto them! And when they saw him they exalted him and cut their hands, exclaiming: Allah Blameless! This is not a human being. This is no other than some gracious angel. She said: This is he on whose account ye blamed me. I asked of him an evil act, but proved continent, but if he do not my behest he verily shall be imprisoned, and verily shall be of those brought low. He said: O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me, and if Thou fend not off their wiles from me I shall incline unto them and become of the foolish.
MOSES
There are more references to Moses in the Koran than any other of the patriarchs. In five surahs—2, 5, 7, 10, & 28—the story of Moses—his confrontation with the Egyptian Pharaoh, the Exodus, the forty years the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, their worship of the golden calf, the giving of the “Criterion of right and wrong” (the Ten Commandments), and their eventual entry into the promised land of Canaan—are told at length! Since the repetition of the story of Moses would have less value to the Bedouins, we must assume the retelling of his story is for the benefit of the Jews, an attempt to convince them that the Revelations to Mohammed have as their source the same God that chose them “above all creatures.” Indeed surahs 2 and 5 are addressed to the Children of Israel:
O Children of Israel! Remember My favour wherewith I favored you and how I preferred you to (all) creatures.
And guard yourselves against a day when no soul will in aught avail another, nor will intercession be accepted from it, nor will compensation be received from it, nor will they be helped.
And (remember) when We did deliver you from the Pharaoh’s folk, who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, slaying your sons and sparing your women: That was a tremendous trial from your Lord.
And when We brought you through the sea and rescued you, and drowned the folk of Pharaoh in your sight.
And when We did appoint for Moses forty nights (of solitude), and then ye chose the calf, when he had gone from you, and were wrongdoers.
And, even after that, we pardoned you in order that ye might give thanks.
And when We gave unto Moses the Scripture and the Criterion (of right and wrong), that ye might be led aright. (Surah 2: 47-53)
The surah goes on for another ten verses, mentioning the pillar of cloud sent to guide them, the quail and manna sent to feed them, and the twelve springs that gushed forth, one for each of the twelve tribes. It tells of how weary the Israelites grew of the manna and how they complained and longed for the herbs, cucumbers, corn, lentils and onions they grew in their gardens in Egypt. In verse 61, it says, “And humiliation and wretchedness were stamped upon them and they were visited with wrath from Allah. That was because they disbelieved in Allah’s revelations and slew the prophets wrongfully. That was for their disobedience and transgression.”
Surah 5: 19 says, “O people of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you to make things plain after an interval (of cessation) of the messengers, lest ye should say: There came not unto us a messenger of cheer nor any warner. Now hath a messenger of cheer and a warner come unto you. Allah is Able to do all things.” Verses 20 through 26 begins with, “And (remember) when Moses said unto his people: O my people! Remember Allah’s favor unto you, how He placed among you prophets, and He made you kinds, and gave you that (which) He gave not to any (other) of (His) creatures.” The sections tells how the Israelites were afraid to go into the holy land which Allah had ordained for them, because they feared the giant people who dwelled there. As a result of their fear, the land was forbidden to them for forty years, until the present generation had died.
Surah 32: 23 says, “We verily gave Moses the Scripture, so be not ye in doubt of his receiving it, and We appointed it a guidance for the Children of Israel.”
Surah 7: 102-171 contains a long passage on Moses, telling first of how “We sent Moses with our tokens unto Pharaoh and his chiefs, but they repelled them,” how Moses begged the Pharaoh to let his people go with him, the contest between Moses and the Pharaoh’s wizards, how the Pharaoh vowed to slay the sons of the Israelites and spare their women, how Moses sought Allah’s help, and how “We sent the flood, locust, vermin, frogs and blood as clear signs.”
It tells that after the Egyptians broke their covenant with the Israelites, “We took retribution from them; therefore We drowned them in the sea: because they denied Our revelations and were heedless of them.” (Surah 7: 136)
And when Moses came to Our appointed tryst and his Lord had spoken unto him, he said: My Lord! Show me (Thy self), that I may gaze upon Thee. He said: Thou wilt not see me, but gaze upon the mountain! If it stand still in its place, then thou wilt see Me. And when his Lord revealed (His) glory to the mountain He sent it crashing down. And Moses fell down senseless. And when he woke he said: Glory unto Thee! I turn unto Thee repentant, and I am the first of (true) believers.
He said: O Moses! I have preferred thee above mankind by My messages and by My speaking (unto thee). So hold that which I have given thee, and be among the thankful.
And We wrote for him, upon the tablets, the lesson to be drawn from all things and the explanation of all things, then (bade him): Hold it fast; and command thy people (saying): Take the better (course made clear) therein. I shall show thee the abode of evil-livers. (Surah 7: 143-145) (Recent evidence indicates that the mountain Moses ascended to receive the Ten Commandments is not Mount Sinai on the Sinai peninsula as previously thought, but Mount Jabal al Lawz in northwestern Arabia. Refer to Vanity Fair article by Howard Blum, February, 1998, pp. 74 -90.)
The surah goes on to say when Moses came down from the mountain, he found his people worshipping the gold calf they had made out their ornaments. (Gold ornaments have been discovered at the Mount Jabal al Lawz site.) And Moses was so grieved by their transgression that he cast down the tablets and seized his brother, Aaron. “Then, when his anger had abated, he took up the tablets, and in their inscription there was guidance and mercy for all those who fear their Lord.” (Surah 7: 154) Moses then chose seventy men, who came trembling before the Lord, and he prayed:
My Lord! If thou hadst willed Thou hadst destroyed them long before, and me with them. Wilt thou destroy us for that which the ignorant among us did? It is but Thy trial (of us). Thou sendest whom Thou wilt astray and guidest whom Thou wilt. Thou art our Protecting Friend, therefore forgive us and have mercy on us. Thou, the Best of all who show forgiveness.
And ordain for us in their world that which is good, and in the Hereafter (that which is good), Lo! We have turned unto Thee. He said: I smite with My punishment whom I will, and My mercy embraceth all things, therefore I shall ordain it for those who ward off (evil) and pay the poor-due, and those who believe Our revelations;
Those who follow the messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write [Mohammed], whom they will find described in the Torah and the Gospel (which are) with them. He will enjoin on them that which is right and forbid them that which is wrong. He will make lawful for them all good things and prohibit for them only the foul; and he will relieve them of their burden and the fetters that they used to wear then those who believe in him, and honor him, and help him, and follow the light which is sent down with him: they are the successful. (Surah 7: 155-157
The speakers of the Koran instruct Mohammed to say: “O mankind! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah to you all [italics mine]—(the messenger of) Him unto whom belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth. There is no God save Him. He quickeneth and He giveth death. So believe in Allah and His messenger, the Prophet who can neither read nor write, who believeth in Allah and in His Words, and follow him that haply ye may be led aright.” (Surah 7: 158)
Surah 27, The Cave, contains a strange story about Moses that is not found in the Bible. This story of Moses and the angel was revealed to the Prophet, along with the story of the youths who took refuge from persecution in a cave and were preserved there as if asleep for a long period. It also contains the story of Dhu’l Qarneyn (the “Two Horned One”), in which Mohammed was enabled to answer the questions that the Jewish doctors of Yathrib instructed the idolaters to ask him as a test of prophet hood. The questions were three: “Ask him,” said the rabbis, “of some youths who were old, what was their fate? For they have a strange story; and ask him of a much-traveled man who reached the sunrise regions of the earth, and the sunset regions thereof, what was his history? and ask him of the Spirit, what it is?”
The tormentors of the Prophet, who had been to Yathrib to get hints from the Jews, on their return to Mecca, put these questions to the Prophet, after having told the people that it was to be a crucial test. The Prophet said that he would surely answer them upon the morrow, without adding, “If God will,” as though he could command God’s Revelation. As reproof for that omission, the wished-for Revelation was withheld from him for some days, and when it came it included the rebuke, “And say not of anything: Lo! I shall do that tomorrow, except if Allah will. And remember thy Lord when thou forgettest, and say: It may be that my Lord guideth me unto a nearer way of truth than this.”(Surah 27: 24-25) Mohammed was then told that the youth tarried in their cave for 309 years!
This is the story of Moses and angel: Moses and his servant traveled to the point where the two rivers meet (probably the convergence of the Tigris and Euphrates), and when they reached that point, they forgot the fish they had brought for their breakfast and so they retraced their steps. Then they found “one of Our slaves” (an angel). Moses asked the angel if he might follow him, “to the end that thou mayst teach me right conduct of that which thou hast been taught,” (Surah 27: 67) and the angel replied, “Lo! Thou canst not bear with me. How canst thou bear with that whereof thou canst not compass any knowledge?” but Moses replied, “Allah willing, thou shalt find me patient and I shall not in aught gainsay thee.” So Moses traveled with the angel until, when they were in a ship, the angel made a hole in it. Moses said, “Hast thou made a hole therein to drown the folk thereof? Thou verily hast done a dreadful thing.” When they met a lad, the angel killed him, and Moses said, “What! Hast thou slain an innocent soul who hath slain not man? Verily thou hast done a horrid thing.” Then they came to some to people in a town, and asked them for food, but they refused them. When they found a wall that was falling into ruins, the angel repaired it, and Moses said, “If thou hadst wished, thou couldst have taken payment for it.” The angel announced, “This is the parting between thee and me! I will announce unto thee the interpretation of that thou couldst not bear with patience.”
So the angel told him that the ship belonged to poor people working on the river, and he wished to mar it because there was a king behind them who intended to take the ship by force. As for the lad, his parents were believers and “We feared lest he should oppress them by rebellion and disbelief. We intended that their Lord should change him for one better in purity and nearer to mercy.” As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city and beneath it was a treasure belonging to them. The Lord intended that when they were grown, they would have the treasure as a mercy from the Lord. Not exactly as in Touched by the Angels, but we can see here that even though the actions of angels are incomprehensible to men, they are nonetheless within God’s purposes.
The story of Dhu’l-Qrneyn (Moses as the two-horned one) is equally strange. (Depictions of Moses with two horns in the West comes from Exodus 35: 29, "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God." In art, horns symbolize power and in statuary, since his face could not be portrayed as shining, horns were added instead.) "He followed a road until he reached the rising place of the sun and found there a people living with no shelter from it. He continued on it until he came between two mountains where he found another people, who complained that Gog and Magog (Gog and Magog are identified with the Scythians. They refer to the swath of land in Eurasia that stretches between the Danube in the West to the borders of China in the East.) are spoiling the land. They offer to pay him tribute if he will set a barrier between themselves and Gog. He tell them that “wherein my Lord hath established me is better (than your tribute) (Surah 28: 96), but with their help builds a bank of iron and molten copper that Gog and Magog are unable to surmount.
The many accounts of the story of Moses in Koran would seem to indicate his vital importance as prophet, a messenger of God, to the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims. The Koran often offers information about the Hebrew patriarchs not contained in the Bible. This indicates that Mohammed could not have made up his recitations and could not have devised them from his imagination. Thus the Koran is authenticated and given its authority.
JONAH
Of Jonah, the Koran says, “Jonah verily was of those sent (to warn). When he fled unto the laden ship, And then drew lots and was of those rejected; And the fish swallowed him while he was blameworthy, And had he not been one of those who glorify (Allah) He would have tarried in its belly till the day when they are raised; Then We cast him on a desert shore while he was sick; And We caused a tree of gourd to grow above him; And We sent him to a hundred thousand (folk) or more And they believed, therefore We gave them comfort for a while.” (Surah 37: 139-148)
Martin Luther, in his The Bondage of the Will, asserts that God knows those who will believe in Him and come to Him. The Koran often confirms this idea, as it does in Surah 10, called Jonah, when it says, “If only there had been a community (of all those that were destroyed of old) that believed and profited by its belief as did the folk of Jonah! When they believed We drew off from them the torment of disgrace in the life of the world and gave them comfort for a while. And if thy Lord willed, all who are in the earth would have believed together. Wouldst thou (Mohammed) compel until they are believers? It is not for any soul to believe save by the permission of Allah.” (Surah 10: 99-101) [italics mine]
JOB
“And Job, when he cried unto his Lord, (saying): Lo! Adversity afflicteth me, and Thou are Most Merciful of all who show Mercy. Then We heard his prayer and removed that adversity from which he suffered. And We gave him his household (that he had lost) and the like thereof along with them, a mercy from Our store, and remembrance for the worshippers.” (Surah 23: 83-84)
“And make mention (O Mohammed) of Our bondsman Job, when he cried unto his Lord (saying): Lo! The devil doth afflict me with distress and torment. (And it was said to him): Strike the ground with thy foot. This (spring) is a cool bath and a refreshing drink. And We bestowed on him (again) his household and therewith the like thereof, a mercy from Us, and a memorial for men of understanding. And (it was said unto him): Take in thine hand a branch and smite therewith, and break not thine oath. Lo! He was ever turning in repentance (to his Lord.) (Surah 37: 42-45)
SAUL, DAVID AND SOLOMON
The accounts of King Saul, David and Solomon in the Old Testament cover several books, from I Samuel, chapter 8 through I Kings. They tell of the prophet Samuel appointing Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, as the king the Israelites had requested; of Saul’s downfall; of Samuel anointing David, the youngest son of Jesse, as the next king; of David, while still a young boy, slaying Goliath with his slingshot and stones; of Saul’s jealousy of David and his attempts to have him killed; of David’s flight into the desert; of David and Abigail—the wife of Nabal, whom he married after Nabal’s death; of the death of Saul and David being proclaimed king; of his dancing almost naked before the Ark of the Covenant—to the displeasure of his wife, Michal; of David’s desire for Bathsheba and his sending the faithful Uriah, her husband, into the front lines of battle where he was killed; of Nathan’s reprimand of David; of David’s son Absalom’s rebellion and death; of Solomon, the son of David and Bathsheba, becoming the next king of Israel; of Solomon’s request for wisdom (when God appears to him in dream and tells him, “Ask for what you most want, and I will give it to you,”); of the grand Temple in Jerusalem that Solomon builds, using materials and laborers from all parts of the Middle East; and of the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. These stories are all told in detail in the Old Testament, and they find repetition in the Koran.
From the Koran’s commentary on these Hebrew kings of the 10th Century bc we learn many things that are not contained in the Old Testament, again confirming the Koran’s authenticity as actual Revelation from God. “Say, Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble to produce the life of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof though they were helpers one of the another.” (Surah 17: 88)
The Koran is one of the strangest documents known to man. The “We” of it speak like a group of insiders, privy to information not commonly contained in our primary source, the Bible. They take credit for having inspired Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses, and for having imparted the psalms to David and wisdom to Solomon. This “We” addresses Mohammed in a manner somewhat different from the manner in which the Old Testament prophets were addressed. Whereas the Old Testament prophets often paraphrase what they have been told by God, in the Koran we have the record of “direct Revelation” because Mohammed was inspired to recall exactly what they have said to him. They speak collectively yet represent Allah, the sole Creator God of the Universe. They speak with the kind of shorthand that people who share a common heritage or a common work situation often use. At times they seem like a group of relatives, recalling family history and adding information to stories that is not contained in the generally accepted versions.
The Koran, for instance, tells us that when Allah raised up Saul to be the king the Israelites requested, they complained that he was not wealthy enough to be their king. “How can he have kingdom over us when we are more deserving of the kingdom than he is, since he hath not been given wealth enough?” (Surah 2: 247) The prophet Samuel replies, “Lo! Allah hath chosen him above you, and hath increased him abundantly in wisdom and stature. Allah bestoweth His sovereignty on whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing.” (Surah 2: 247) Verses 249 through 251 tell of the trial (test) of Saul’s army by the ordeal of a river: “Whosoever therefore drinketh thereof he is not of me, and whosoever tasteth it not he is of me, save him who taketh (thereof) in the hollow of his hand. But they drank thereof, all save a few of them.” They speak of David slaying Goliath: “And Allah gave him the kingdom and wisdom, and taught him of that which He willeth.”
In several surahs (Surahs 4: 63, 5: 78, and 17: 55) “We” say that They gave the Psalms to David. Surah 37: 19-20 says, “We subdued the hills to hymn the praises (of their Lord) with him at nightfall and rise, And the birds assembled; all were turning unto Him.” Then the surah recalls the story of litigants, “How they climbed the wall into the royal chamber; How they burst in upon David, and he was afraid of them. They said: Be not afraid! (We are) two litigants, one of whom hath wronged the other, therefore judge aright between us; be not unjust; and show us the fair way. Lo! This my brother hath ninety and nine ewes while I had one ewe: and he said: Entrust it to me, and he conquered me in speech. (David) said: He hath wronged thee in demanding thine ewe in addition to his ewes, and lo! many partners oppress one another, save such as believe and do good works, and they are few. And David guessed that We had tried him, and he sought forgiveness of his Lord, and he bowed himself and fell down prostrate and repented. So we forgive him that; and lo! He had access to Our presence and a happy journey’s end.” (Surah 37: 22-26)
Surah 21: 78 refers to the judgment concerning the field, “when people’s sheep had strayed and browsed therein by night; and We were witnesses to their judgment.” In the Bible story, told in II Samuel: 12, Nathan tells David the story of two men. One was rich, with many flocks and herds, the other poor, his only possession a little eve lamb that he loved as daughter and fed from his own plate. A traveler arrived at the rich man’s house asking to be fed. The rich man, not wishing to lose one of his own sheep, instead killed the poor man’s little lamb, roasted it and fed it to his guest. David is outraged by the story and declares that the rich man should be punished; then Nathan tells him that the rich man in the story is David himself and, for his sin, his first son by Bathsheba will die.
Of the accounts in the Koran of David and Solomon, Surah 27, called “The Ant”, is surely the most curious, as it contains references to “We” teaching David and Solomon “the language of birds.” The story of the Valley of the Ants is not contained in the Old Testament:
And We verily gave knowledge unto David and Solomon, and they said: Praise be to Allah, Who hath preferred us above many of His believing slaves!
And Solomon was David’s heir. And he said: O mankind! Lo! we have been taught the language of birds, and have been given (abundance) of all things. This surely is evident favor.
And there gathered together unto Solomon his armies of the jinn and humankind, and of the birds, and they were set in battle order;
Till, when they reached the Valley of the Ants, an ant exclaimed; O ants! Enter your dwellings lest Solomon and his armies crush you, unperceiving.
And (Solomon) smiled, laughing at her speech, and said: My Lord, arouse me to be thankful for Thy favor wherewith Thou hast favored me and my parents, and to do good that shall be pleasing unto Thee, and include me in (the number of) Thy righteous slaves.
And he sought among the birds and said: how is it that I see not the hoopoe (Hudhud (the hoopoe) is thought to refer to a man’s name.), or is he among the absent?
I verily will punish him with hard punishment or I verily will slay him, or he verily shall bring me a plain excuse.
But he was not long in coming, and he said: I have found out (a thing) that thou apprehendest not, and I come unto thee from Sheba (A country in the south of the Arabian peninsula, where present day Yemen is) with sure tidings.
Lo! I found a woman ruling over them, and she hath been given (abundance) of all things, and hers is a mighty throne.
Even Muslim scholars are puzzled by what is meant by “the language of birds” and by the story of the ants. Some commentators think of the birds as cavalry and of the ants as an old Arab tribe.
Surah 27 continues with the story of Solomon and Queen of Sheba. The hoopoe tells that he found the Queen of Sheba worshipping the sun instead of Allah and that Satan makes their works seem fair to them and prevents them from under-standing the truth. To test whether he is telling the truth or not, Solomon sends a letter to the Queen of Sheba to see what she will answer. The Queen, when she receives Solomon’s “noble” letter, exclaims, “Lo! It is from Solomon, and lo! It is: In the name of Allah the Beneficent, the Merciful. The Queen of Sheba asks her chieftains what she should do, but they tell her it is for her to command, so she decides to send a present unto Solomon and his army so that she can see what answer the messenger returns with.
Solomon disdains her gift, saying, “What! Would ye help me with wealth? But that which Allah hath given me is better than that which He hath given you. Nay it is ye (and not I) who exult in your gift.” (Surah 27: 36) Solomon sends his messenger to bring him the throne of the queen, which they do. Then he says, “Disguise her throne for her that we may see whether she will go aright or be of those not rightly guided.” (Surah 27: 41) When she came, they asked her, “Is thy throne like this?” and she replied, “It is as though it were the very one.” Then she was asked to enter the hall, and when she saw it, she thought it was a pool, because the glass of its floor was so smooth, so she bared her legs, as if to step into it. According to the Koran, when the Queen Sheba realized her mistake, she surrendered unto Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.
Surah 37 is called “Saba” (Sheba). The country is mentioned as having been devastated by a flood because of the people’s love of luxury and their ingratitude for what they had. In exchange for a garden that bore good fruits, they were given a garden bearing bitter fruit, the tamarisk and lote-tree. The surah also speaks of having given Solomon “the wind” (Probably meaning rapid transport, as Solomon possessed light-footed horses.), causing the “fount of copper” to gush forth for him, and giving him certain of jinn who worked for him. This is a reference to all the craftsmen who Solomon enlisted from various parts of the Middle East when he built the Temple in Jerusalem. He sent word to Iram, king of Tyre, asking him for wood from the great cedars of Lebanon. The huge trees were felled, then roped to rafts and floated down the coast. At the same time thousands of laborers quarried and cut the stones for the foundations and outer walls of the temple. It took four years to lay the foundations, and three to build the temple upon them. Inside, the walls were of cedar wood, carved with flowers and trees and painted with gold. The altar, too, was covered with gold. The outside columns were made of bronze. The Koran comments in verse 13, “They made for him what he willed: synagogues and statues, basins like wells and boiler built into the ground.”
Other than the patriarchs of the Old Testament, the Koran does not have a lot to say about the latter prophets specifically. Elisha is mentioned in several surahs. In Surahs 6: 86 and 37: 123 ff it says of Elias: “And lo! Elias was of those sent (to Warn), when he said unto his folk: Will ye not ward off (evil)? Will ye cry unto Baal and forsake the best of Creators, Allah, your Lord and Lord of your forefathers? But they denied him, so they surely will be haled forth (to the doom) Save single-minded slaves of Allah. And We left for him among the later folk (the salutation): Peace be unto Elias!” Surah 2: 129 is thought to pertain to the vision of the dry bones of Ezekiel: “Or (bethink thee of) the like of him who, passing by a township which had fallen into utter ruin, exclaimed: how shall Allah give this township life after its death? And Allah made him die a hundred years then brought him back to life. He said: How long hast thou tarried? (The man) said: I have tarried a day or part of a day. (He) said: nay, but thou hast tarried for a hundred years. Just look at thy food and drink which have not rotted! Look at thine ass! And, We may make thee a token unto mankind, look at the bones, how We adjust them and then cover them with flesh! And when (the matter) became clear unto him, he said: I know now that Allah is Able to do all things.” Ezra is mentioned in surah 9: 30. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and the Minor Prophets are mentioned not at all.
In the next chapter we will take up what the Koran has to say about Jesus and his mother Mary; moreover, we will discuss what I have come to call “the Complaint” that pervades the entire Koran—as though God and the heavenly host have long been aggravated and in no uncertain terms want to voice their grievance. The tone of the Koran is often truculent, at least to the ears of those of us who have been raised in the West and are used to having writers politely equivocate and qualify their words, so as not to offend their readers. The Koran, in contrast to this, does not pull its punches. It delivers its message with full force. Its single, over-riding concern is that Allah is the Sole God and Creator of the universe, and thus no one and no thing should be considered on a par with Him. If there is one thing that God is aggrieved over, it is this.
Of course this raises the question of how the Christian church has interpreted Jesus, particularly as stated in the Nicene creed, established by the Nicene Council in 325 ad, where it states that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, “very God of very God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, through whom all things were made.” In the next chapter we will look at the all the references there are in the Koran to Jesus, the many injunctions there are against assigning partners to Allah, and the Koran’s conception of the Final Judgment, Heaven and Hell.
CHAPTER SEVEN:
THE KORAN, PART TWO
NEW TESTAMENT REFERENCES
The passages in the Koran that relate to biblical stories seem quaintly cryptic to our Western taste. Sometimes they offer details not found in the Old or New Testament versions– as though we are privy to insider information. Westerners sometimes accuse Mohammed of having made up the Koran by merely reissuing stories he had heard. If that were true, why would he add these curious details to them?
In the stories of Joseph the Koran reveals much more detail concerning his seduction by Potiphar’s wife than the biblical version. The Bible does not mention the story about the journey Moses takes in the company of an angel. In the second surah, Zachariah is appointed, through the casting of pens, as Mary’s guardian. Whenever he visits her in her sanctuary, he finds that she always has food. She tells him that Allah has provided it for her. This knowledge prompts him to pray anew for the son for whom he has longed but had despaired of ever having, as his wife Elizabeth is barren, just like Sarah and Rebecca, the wives of Abraham and Isaac. The Bible relates none of this.
JESUS IN THE KORAN
John the Baptist, Jesus, and his mother Mary are mentioned numerous times in the Koran, though less frequently and extensively than Abraham and Moses. Surah 19 is named “Mary” for the mother of Jesus and contains strange information concerning her and the baby Jesus not found in the New Testament. To be sure, those who speak to Mohammed are concerned with Jesus and how the Christians have interpreted him.
Though Jesus’ virgin birth and his status as the Messiah are confirmed by the Koran, he is nevertheless seen as a human being, a prophet, and of no greater or lesser importance than some of the other prophets. Thus, Christians may feel that Jesus has been given short shrift in the Koran and that his importance in the history of the world has been reduced. Here are the references to Jesus:
And verily We gave unto Moses the Scripture and We caused a train of messengers to follow after him, and We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (of Allah’s sovereignty), and We supported him with the holy Spirit. It is ever so, that, when there cometh unto you a messenger (from Allah) with that which ye yourselves desire not, ye grow arrogant, and some ye disbelieve and some ye slay? (Surah 2: 87)
Say (O Muslims): We believe in Allah and that which is revealed unto us and that which was revealed unto Abraham, and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which Moses and Jesus received, and that which the Prophets received from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them and unto Him we have surrendered. (Surah 2: 136)
Of those messengers, some of whom We have caused to excel others, and of whom there are some unto whom Allah spake, while some them He exalted (above others) in degree; and We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear proofs (of Allah’s sovereignty and We supported him with the Holy Spirit. And if Allah had so willed it, those who followed after them would not have fought one with another after the clear proofs had come unto them. But they differed, some of them believing and some disbelieving. And if Allah had so willed it, they would not have fought one with another; but Allah doeth what He will.” (Surah 2: 253)
The name of the third surah is “The Family of ‘Imran.’” In it the story is told that the wife of ‘Imran was pregnant. Believing that her child would be a boy, she consecrated him as an offering to the Lord. When she gave birth to a female, whom she named Mary, she asked the Lord for her protection from Satan. Some westerners think that Mohammed confused Mary, the mother of Jesus, with Miriam, the sister of Moses; however ‘Imran was a generic name for all the Hebrew prophets from Moses to John the Baptist and Jesus, and thus it was Mary’s mother who was the wife of ‘Imran. Zachariah, the father of John the Baptist, was appointed Mary’s guardian. In surah 2: 37, it says, “Whenever Zachariah went into the sanctuary where she was, he found that she had food. He said: “O Mary! When cometh unto thee this (food)?” She answered, “It is from Allah. Allah giveth without stint to whom He will.”
Then Zachariah, whose wife was barren, prayed, “My Lord! Bestow upon me of Thy bounty goodly offspring,” and the angels called to him, “Allah giveth thee glad tidings of (a son whose name) John, (who cometh) to confirm a word from Allah, lordly, chaste, a Prophet of the righteous.” When he answered, “My Lord! How can I have son when age hath overtaken me already and my wife is barren?” the angel answered: “So (it will be). Allah doeth what He will.”
Zachariah then did not speak for three days; in the biblical account of this story, Zachariah did not speak until John was born.
In surah 3: 42-43 we read: “And when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah hath chosen thee and made thee pure, and hath preferred thee above (all) the women of creation. O Mary! Be obedient to thy Lord, Prostrate thyself and bow with those who bow (in worship).”
The passage continues:
This is tidings of things hidden. We reveal it unto thee (Mohammed). Thou wast not present with them when they threw their pens (to know) which of them should be the guardian of Mary, nor wast thou present with them when they quarreled (thereupon.)
(And remember) when the angels said: O Mary! Lo! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, illustrious in the world and the Hereafter, and one those brought near (unto Allah).
He will speak unto mankind in his cradle and in his manhood, and he is of the righteous.
She said: My Lord! How can I have a child when no mortal hath touched me? He said: So (it will be). Allah created what He will. If He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! and it is.
And He will teach him the Scripture and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel,
And will make him a messenger unto the children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah’s leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah’s leave. And I announce unto you what ye eat and what ye store in your houses. Lo! Herein verily is a portent for you, if ye are to be believers.
And (I come) confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful some of that which was forbidden unto you. I come unto you with a sign from your Lord, so keep your duty to Allah and obey me.
Lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is the straight path.
But when Jesus became conscious of their disbelief, he cried: Who will be my helpers in the cause of Allah? The disciples said: We will be Allah’s helpers. We believe in Allah and bear thou witness that we have surrendered (unto Him).
Our Lord! We believe in that which Thou hast revealed and we follow him whom Thou hast sent. Enroll us among those who witness (to the truth).
And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers.
(And remember) when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve, and setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ. (Surah 3: 44-55)
In the above passage we can see the degree to which the Koran is consistent with the New Testament interpretation of Jesus and his mission. If he is able to breath upon a lump of clay, fashioned into a likeness of a bird, and it becomes a live bird, and if he is able to raise people from the dead, it is by Allah’s leave.
Verse 59 continues, “Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! And he is.”
SURAH IV
In Surah 4: 156-158, called “Women,” the reciters rage against the People of Scripture for breaking of their covenant with Allah:
And because of their disbelief and of speaking against Mary a tremendous calumny; And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger—They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them (All of the italics used within Koranic quotes are mine); and lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of conjecture; they slew him not for certain, but Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise.”
Here the Koran denies that Jesus was crucified, saying that it only appeared as though he was when, in fact, Allah took him up unto Himself. As in several other places, the Koran accuses Christians of conjecture.
Lo! We inspire thee as We inspired Noah and the prophets after him, as We inspired Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon and we imparted unto David, the Psalms. O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messengers, say not “Three”—Cease! (It is) better for you!—Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that he should have son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender. The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah, nor will the favored angels. Whoso scorneth His service and is proud, all such will He assemble unto Him. (Surah 4: 171-172)
The Koran strenuously objects to the doctrine of the Trinity. Here we have but one of its many exhortations against calling the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost all God. The Koran’s argument is that it is far removed from the transcendence of Allah that he should have a son, and those who elevate Jesus to being equal with God do so by conjecture. The Jews and the Muslims both consider this blasphemous.
SURAH 5
And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps [the Old Testament prophets], confirming that which was (revealed) before him, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah—a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed; such are evil-livers. (Surah 5: 46-47)
They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire. For evil-doers there will be no helpers.” (Surah 5: 72)
The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messengers (the like of whom) had passed away before him. And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthy) food. See how we make the revelations clear for them, and see how they are turned away. (Surah 5: 75)
Those of the children of Israel who went astray were cursed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus, son of Mary. That was because they rebelled and used to transgress.” (Surah 5: 78)
When Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Remember My favor unto thee and unto thy mother: how I strengthened thee with the holy Spirit, so that thou spakest unto mankind in the cradle as in maturity; and how I taught thee the Scripture and Wisdom and the Torah and the Gospel; and how thou didst shape of clay as it were the likeness of a bird by My permission, and didst blow upon it and it was a bird by My permission, and thou didst heal him who was born blind and the leper by My permission; and how thou didst raise the dead, by My permission; and how I restrained the Children of Israel from (harming) thee when thou camest unto them with clear proofs, and those of them who disbelieved exclaimed: This is naught else than mere magic; And when I inspired the disciples, (saying): Believe in Me and in My messenger, they said: We believe. Bear witness that we have surrendered (unto Thee). When the disciples said: O Jesus, son of Mary! Is thy Lord able to send down for a table spread with food from heaven? He said: observe your duty to Allah, if ye are true believers (Surah 5: 110-112)
Jesus, son of Mary, said: O Allah, Lord of us! Send down for us a table spread with food from heaven, that it may be feast for us, for the first of us and for the last of us, and sign from Thee. Give us sustenance, for Thou are the Best of Sustainers. Allah said. Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My) creatures.
And when Allah saith: O Jesus, son of Mary! Didst thou say unto mankind: Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah? he saith: Be glorified! If I used to say it, then Thou knewest it. Thou knowest what is in my mind, and I know not what is in Thy Mind. Lo! Thou, only Thou art the Knower of Things Hidden? (Surah 5: 114-116)
In verse 116 Allah asks Jesus if he told mankind to take himself and his mother for gods beside Allah. Jesus answers that if he had, God would know it, because he knows what is in his mind, though Jesus does not know what is in God’s mind. Though the third person of the Trinity is the Holy Ghost, Muslims sometimes assume that it is Mary, the mother of Jesus. To be sure, in the Catholic Church, Mary is revered to the point that she appears to outsiders to be taken as a god.
WISDOM CONFERRED ON JESUS
And He will teach him the Scripture and wisdom, and the Torah and the Gospel.
And will make him a messenger unto the children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah’s leave. I heal him who was born blind, and the leper, and I raise the dead, by Allah’s leave. And I announce unto you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Lo! Herein verily is a portent for you, if ye are to be believers.
And (I come) confirming that which was before me of the Torah, and to make lawful some of that which was forbidden unto you. I come unto you with a sign from your Lord, so keep your duty to Allah and obey me.
Lo! Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. That is a straight path.
JESUS IS GRANTED TWELVE HELPERS
But when Jesus became conscious of their disbelief, he cried: Who will be my helpers in the cause of Allah? The disciples said: We will be Allah’s helpers. We believe in Allah, and bear thou witness that we have surrendered (unto Him.)
Our Lord! We believe in that which Thou hast revealed and we follow him whom Thou hast sent. Enroll us among those among those who witness (to the truth.)
And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers.
(And remember) when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend to Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve, and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ. (Surah 2: 33-55)
Lo! The likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam. He created him of dust, then He said unto him: Be! And he is.” (Surah 2: 59) This confirms that Jesus was born a man, like Adam and all other men, from dust.
MARY
Surah 19 of the Koran is named “Mary.” From the16th verse onward about half of this surah is devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus.
And make mention of Mary in the Scripture, when she had withdrawn
from her people to a chamber looking East. And had chosen seclusion from them. Then We sent unto her Our spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man. She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art God-fearing.
He said: I am only a messenger to thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son.
She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I been unchaste?
He said: So (it will be). Thy Lord saith: It is easy for Me. And (it will be) that We may make of him a revelation for mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is thing ordained.
And she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place. (Surah 19: 16-32)
Here, as in several other surahs, the Koran confirms the virgin birth of Jesus. It does not, however, say that Gabriel came to her, but rather that “Our Spirit in the likeness of a perfect man” came to her. The Koran does not mention Luke’s story of Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem and Jesus being born in manger there. The above passage is the rather quaint story of Mary in the pangs of childbirth being driven to the trunk of a palm tree. As the Koran tells the story, Mary withdrew from her people and was alone until Jesus was born; then she returned to them with her newborn son:
And the pangs of childbirth drove her unto the trunk of the palm-tree. She said: Oh, would that I had died ere this and had become a thing of naught, forgotten! Then (one) cried unto her from below her, saying: Grieve not ! Thy Lord hath placed a rivulet beneath thee. And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee, thou wilt cause ripe dates to fall upon thee. So eat and drink and be consoled. And if thou meetest any mortal say: Lo! I have vowed a fast unto the Beneficent, and may not speak this day to any mortal.
Then she brought him to her own folk, carrying him. They said (assuming, since she had a child out of wedlock, that she had been impure): O Mary! Thou hast come with an amazing thing. O sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy mother a harlot. Then she pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to one who is in the cradle, a young boy? (Surah 19: 23-29)
The New Testament Gospels do not mention Jesus being able to speak from the cradle, but according the Koran, he did:
He spake: Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath appointed me a Prophet, And hath made me blessed wheresoever I may be, and hath enjoined upon me prayer and alms-giving so long as I remain alive. And (hath made me) dutiful toward her who bore me, and hath not made me arrogant, unblest.
Peace on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive! (Surah 19: 30-33)
The Koran makes no mention of Joseph, Mary’s husband and the man who raised Jesus as his own son. Surah 21, “The Prophets,” gives an abbreviated version of the story of Zachariah’s prayer for a son and the virgin birth:
And Zachariah, when he cried unto his Lord: My Lord! Leave me not childless, though Thou art the best of inheritors. Then We heard his prayer, and bestowed upon him John, and adjusted his wife (to bear a child) for him. Lo! they used to vie one with the other in good deeds, and they cried unto Us in longing and in fear, and were submissive unto Us.
And she who was chaste, therefore We breathed into her (something) of Our spirit and made her and her son a token for (all) peoples. (Surah 21: 90-91)
THE CRUCIFIXION
And because of their disbelief and of their speaking against Mary a tremendous calumny;
And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger—They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. But Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise. (Surah 4: 156-158)
JESUS AS A PERFECT MUSLIM
One can make an argument for Jesus being a perfect Muslim, but then so were Moses, Abraham and the other prophets. The definition of a Muslim is one who submits his will to that of his creator. Jesus probably submitted his will to that of Allah more than any other human being who has ever lived. Before his passion, while the Garden of Gethsemane, Matthew records that Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26: 39)
THE PEOPLE OF SCRIPTURE DISCOURSE
Numerous passages in the Koran address “the people of scripture,” the Jews and Christians:
Say: O People of the Scripture! Come to an agreement between us and you: that we shall worship none but Allah, and that we shall ascribe no partner unto Him, and that none of us shall take others for Lords beside Allah. And if they turn away, then say: Bear witness that we are they who have surrendered (unto Him).
O People of the Scripture! Why will ye argue about Abraham, when the Torah and Gospel were not revealed till after him? Have ye then no sense?
Abraham was not a Jew, not yet a Christian: but he was an upright man who had surrendered (to Allah), and he was not of the idolaters.
Lo! those of mankind who have the best claim to Abraham are those who followed him, and this Prophet and those who believe (with him); and Allah is the Protecting Friend of the believers.
A party of the people of the Scripture long to make you go astray; and they make none to go astray except themselves, but they perceive not.
O People of Scripture! Why disbelieve ye in the revelation of Allah, when ye (yourselves) bear witness (to their truth)?
O People of the Scripture! Why confound ye truth with falsehood and knowingly conceal the truth?
And a party of the People of the Scripture say: Believe in that which hath been revealed, unto those who believe at the opening of the day, and disbelieve at the end thereof, in order that they may return;
And believe not save in one who followeth your religion—Say (O Mohammed): Lo! the guidance is Allah’s guidance—that any one is given the like of that which was given upon you or that they may argue with you in the presence of their Lord. Say ( O Mohammed): Lo! the bounty is in Allah’s hand. He bestoweth it on whom He will. Allah is All-Embracing, All-Knowing. He selecteth for his mercy whom He will. Allah is of infinite bounty.
Among the People of the Scripture there is he who, if thou trust him with a weight of treasure, will return it to thee. And among them there is he who, if thou trust him with a piece of gold, will not return it to thee unless thou keep standing over him. That is because they say: We have no duty to the Gentiles. They speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.
Nay, but (the chosen of Allah is) he who fulfilleth his pledge and wardeth off (evil); for lo! Allah loveth those who ward off (evil). Lo! those who purchase a small gain at the cost of Allah’s covenant and their oaths, they have no portion in the Hereafter. Allah will neither speak to them nor look upon them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He make them grow. Theirs will be painful doom.
And lo! there is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly.
It is not (possible) for any human being unto whom Allah had given the Scripture and wisdom and the Prophethood that he should afterwards have said unto mankind: Be slaves of me instead of Allah; but (what he said was): Be ye faithful servants of the Lord by virtue of your constant teaching of the Scripture and of your constant study thereof.
And he commanded you not that ye should take the angels and the Prophets for Lords. Would he command you to disbelieve after ye had surrendered (to Allah)?
When Allah made (His) covenant with the Prophets, (He said): Behold that which I have given you of the Scripture and knowledge. And afterwards there will come unto you a messenger, (Some Muslims believe that Mohammed was the paraclete promised by Jesus in John 14: 25) confirming that which ye posses. Ye shall believe in him and ye shall help him. He said. Do ye agree, and will ye take up My burden (which I lay upon you) in this (matter)? They answered: We agree. He said: Then bear ye witness. I will be witness with you. (Surah 3: 64-81)
PEOPLE OF SCRIPTURE TOLD NOT TO “EXAGGERATE” IN THEIR RELIGION:
O People of the Scripture! Do not exaggerate in your religion nor utter aught concerning Allah save the truth. The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of Allah, and His word which He conveyed unto Mary, and a spirit from Him. So believe in Allah and His messenger and say not “Three!” — Cease! (It is) better for you! — Allah is only One God. Far is it removed from His transcendent majesty that he should have a son. His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. And Allah is sufficient as Defender. The Messiah will never scorn to be a slave unto Allah, nor will the favoured angels. (Surah 4: 171-172a)
CHRISTIANS FORGOT PART OF WHAT THEY WERE ADMONISHED:
And with those who say: “Lo! we are Christians,” We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefore We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork. (Surah 5: 14)
MOHAMMED BEEN SENT TO PEOPLE OF SCRIPTURE TO INFORM THEM
O People of Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you, expounding unto you much that which ye used to hide in the Scripture, and for giving much. Now hath come unto you light from Allah and a plain Scripture, Whereby Allah guideth him who seeketh His good pleasure unto paths of peace. He bringeth them out of darkness unto light by His decree, and guideth them unto a straight path.
They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say: Who then can do aught against Allah, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? Allah’s is the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He createth what He will. And Allah is Able to do all things.
The Jews and Christians say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones. Say: Why then doth He chastise you for your sins? Nay, ye are but mortals of His creating. He forgiveth whom He will, and chastiseth whom He will. Allah’s is the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, and unto Him is the journeying.
O people of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you to make things plain after an interval (of cessation) of the messengers, lest ye should say: There came not unto us a messenger of cheer nor any warner. Now hath a messenger of cheer and a warner come unto you. Allah is Able to do all things. (Surah 5: 15-19)
“WE” BESTOWED ON JESUS THE GOSPEL
In the fifth surah, called “The Table Spread,” the angels address Mohammed, saying that they revealed the Torah “wherein is guidance and a light, by which the Prophets who surrendered (unto Allah) judged the Jews, and the rabbis and the priests (judged) by such of Allah’s Scripture as they were bidden to observe, and thereunto were they witnesses.” (Surah 5: 44) They tell him that They prescribed the law of justice: “The life for the life, and the eye for the eye, and the nose for the nose, and the ear for the ear, and the tooth for the tooth, and for wounds retaliation. But whoso forgoeth it (in the way of charity) it shall be expiation for him. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed: such are wrong-doers.” (Surah 5: 45) This is as close as the Koran comes to commenting on Jesus’ edict that his followers should turn the other cheek.
And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah—a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil). (Surah 5: 46)
Here Mohammed is told that “They” caused Jesus to follow in the footsteps of the previous prophets and gave him the Gospel (By “Gospel” the Koran seems to imply the teachings of Jesus rather than the gospel accounts of his life.). This is an important verse because it attests to that Jesus’ teaching confirms what was first revealed in the Torah. The next verse then says, so “Let the People of the Gospel judge by that which Allah hath revealed therein. Whoso judgeth not by that which Allah hath revealed; such are evil-livers.” (Surah 5: 47)
“ALLAH WILL INFORM THEM ACCORDING TO HOW THEY DIFFER”
The Koran does not attempt to bring all people under the same law, rather it says, “For each We have appointed a divine law and a traced-out way. Had Allah willed He could have made you one community. But that He may try you by that which He hath given you (He hath made you as ye are). So vie one with another in good works. Unto Allah ye will all return, and He will then inform you of that wherein ye differ.” (The Koran says this in a number of surahs, that Allah will eventually inform us all according to how we differ—during the course of the research for this book, I sometimes wondered, if this is to be the case, whether I should continue.)
KORAN’S REFERENCES TO “NO PARTNERS”
If the Koran can be said to have a single theme that theme is the sovereignty of God. If those bringing the messages to Mohammed have one thing they are upset about, it is assigning partners to Allah. There is hardly a surah in the Koran that does not make some reference to this. At the risk of being redundant, I have listed the references below:
SURAH 1:
Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. (4)
SURAH 2:
And do not set up rivals to Allah when ye know (better). (22)
Knowest thou not that it is Allah unto Whom belongeth the sovereignty of the heavens and earth; and ye have not, beside Allah, any friend or helper? (107)
O People of the Scripture! Why confound ye truth with falsehood and knowingly conceal the truth! (71)
And lo! there is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly. (78)
SURAH 4:
And serve Allah. Ascribe no thing as partner unto Him. (36a)
Lo! Allah forgiveth not that a partner should be ascribed unto Him. He forgiveth (all) save that to whom He will. Whoso ascribeth partners to Allah, he hath indeed invented a tremendous sin. (48)
See, how they invent lies about Allah! That of itself is flagrant sin. (50)
Lo! Allah pardoneth not that partners should be ascribed unto him. He pardoneth all save that to whom He will. Whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah hath wandered far astray. (116)
SURAH 5:
They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say: Who then can do aught against Allah, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his mother and everyone on earth? Allah’s is the sovereignty of the heavens and earth and all that is between them. He createth what He will. And Allah is Able to do all things. (17)
O people of the Scripture! Now hath Our messenger come unto you to make things plain after an interval (of cessation) of the messenger, lest ye should say: There came not unto us a messenger of cheer nor any warner. Now hath a messenger of cheer and a warner come unto you. Allah is able to do all things. (19)
They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the Messiah, son of Mary. The Messiah (himself) said: O Children of Israel, worship Allah, my
Lord and your Lord. Lo! whoso ascribeth partners unto Allah, for him Allah hath forbidden Paradise. His abode is the Fire, For evil-doers where will be no helpers,
They surely disbelieve who say: Lo! Allah is the third of three; when there is no God save the One God. If they desist not from saying a painful doom will fall on those of them who disbelieve. (72-73)
The Messiah, son of Mary, was no other than a messenger, messenger (the like of whom) had passed away before him And his mother was a saintly woman. And they both used to eat (earthly) food. See how we make the revelations clear for them, and see how they are turned away! (75)
Say: O People of Scripture! Stress not in your religion other than the truth, and follow not the vain desires of folk who erred of old and led many astray, and erred from a plain road. (77)
SURAH 6:
Yet those disbelieve ascribe rivals unto their Lord. (1b)
Say (O Mohammed): What thing is of most weight in testimony? Say: Allah is witness between you and me. And this Qur’an hath been inspired in me, that I may warn therewith you and whomsoever it may reach. Do you in sooth bear witness that there are gods beside Allah? Say: I bear no such witness. Say: He is One God. Lo! I am innocent of that which ye associate (with Him). (19)
His (Abraham’s) people argued with him. He said: Dispute ye with me concerning Allah when He hath guided me? I fear not at all that which ye set up beside Him unless my Lord willeth. My Lord includeth all things in His knowledge. Will ye not then remember?
How should I fear that which ye set up beside Him, when ye fear not to set up beside Allah that for which He hath revealed unto you no warrant? Which of the two factions hath more right to safety? (Answer me that) if we have knowledge. (81-82)
Yet they ascribe as partners unto Him the jinn, although He did create them, and impute falsely, without knowledge, son and daughters unto Him. Glorified by He and high exalted above (all) that they ascribe (unto Him).
The Originator of the heavens and the earth! How can He have a child, when there is for Him no consort, when He created all things and is Aware of all things?
Such is Allah, your Lord. There is no God save Him, the Creator of all things, so worship Him. And He taketh care of all things. (101-103)
They assign unto Allah, of the crops and cattle which He created, a portion, and they say: “This is Allah’s”—in their make-believe—”And this is for (His) partners in regard to us.” Thus that which (they assign) unto His partners in them reacheth not Allah and that which (they assign) unto Allah goeth to their (so-called) partners. Evil is their ordinance.
Thus have their (so-called) partners (of Allah) made the killing of their children seem fair unto many of the idolaters, that they may ruin them and make their faith obscure for them Had Allah willed (it otherwise), they had not done so. So leave them alone with their devices. (137-138)
SURAH 7:
Who doeth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie concerning Allah or denieth Our tokens. (For such) their appointed portion of the Book (of destiny) reacheth them till, when Our messengers come to gather them, they say: Where (now) is that to which ye crieth beside Allah? They say: They have departed from us. And they testify against themselves that they were disbelievers. (37)
The messenger of our Lord did bring the Truth. (53)
Say: Call upon your (so-called) partners (of Allah), and then contrive against me, spare me not! (195b)
Say: I follow only that which is inspired in me from my Lord. This (Qur’an) is insight from your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy for a people that believe. (203)
SURAH 9:
Fight against such of those who have been given the Scripture as believe not in Allah nor the Last Day, and forbid not that which Allah hath forbidden by His messenger and follow not the religion of truth, until they pay the tribute readily, being brought low.
And the Jews say: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians say: The Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah (Himself) fighteth against them. How perverse are they!
They have taken as Lords besides Allah their rabbis and their monks and the Messiah son of Mary, when they were bidden to worship only One God. There is no god save Him. Be He glorified from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him)! (29-31)
O ye who believe! Lo! many of the (Jewish) rabbis and the (Christian) monks devour the wealth of mankind wantonly and debar (men) from the way of Allah. They who hoard up gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah, unto them give tidings (O Mohammed) of a painful doom. (34)
SURAH 10:
On the day when We gather them all together, then We say unto those who ascribeth partners (unto Us): Stand back, ye and your (pretended) partners (of Allah)! And We separate them, the one from the other,and their (pretended) partners say: It was not us ye worshipped. (29)
Say: Is there of your partners (whom ye ascribe unto Allah) one that produceth Creation and then reproduceth it? Say: Allah prodeceth Creation, then reproduceth it. How then are ye misled!
Say: Is there of your partners (whom ye ascribe unto Allah) one that leadeth to the Truth? Say: Allah leadeth to the Truth. Is He Who leadeth to the Truth more deserving that He should be followed, or he who findeth not the way unless he (himself) be guided. What aileth you? How judge ye?
Most of them follow naught but conjecture. Assuredly conjecture can by no means take the place of truth. Lo! Allah is Aware of what they do.
And this Qur’an is not such as could ever be invented in despite of Allah; but it is a confirmation of that which was before it and an exposition of that which is decreed for mankind—Therein is no doubt—from the Lord of the Worlds. (36-38)
And for every nation there is a messenger. And when their messenger cometh (on the Day of Judgment) it will be judged between them fairly, and they will not be wronged. (48)
Lo! is it not unto Allah that belongeth whosoever is in the heavens and whosever is in the earth? Those who follow aught instead of Allah follow not (His) partner. They follow only a conjecture, and they do but guess. (67)
They say: Allah hath taken (unto Him) a son—Glorified be He! He hath no needs! His is all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Ye have no warrant for this. Tell ye concerning Allah that which ye know not?
Say: Verily those who invent a lie concerning Allah will not succeed. (69-70)
SURAH 12:
(Joseph speaking) And I have followed the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. It never was for us to attribute aught as partners to Allah. (38)
Those whom ye worship beside Him are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers. Allah hath revealed no sanction for them. The decision rests with Allah only, Who hath commanded you that ye worship none save Him. This is the right religion, but most men know not. (40)
And most of them believe not in Allah except that they attribute partners (unto Him). (106)
In their history verily there is a lesson for men of understanding. It is no invented story, but a confirmation of the existing (Scripture) and a detailed explanation of everything, and a guidance and mercy for folk who believe. (111)
SURAH 13:
Say (O Mohammed): Who is Lord of the heavens and the earth? Say: Allah! Say: Take ye then (others) beside Him for protectors, which, even for themselves, have neither benefit nor hurt? Say: Is the blind man equal to the seer, or is darkness equal to light? Or assign they unto Allah partners who created the like of His creation so that the creation (which they made and His creation) seemed alike to them? Say: Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Almighty. (16)
Is He Who is aware of the deserts of every soul (as he who is aware of nothing)? Yet they ascribe unto Allah partners. Say: Name them. Is it that ye would inform Him of something which He knoweth not in the earth? Or is it but a way of speaking? Nay, but their contrivance is made seeming far for those who disbelieve and they are kept from the right road. He whom Allah sendeth astray, for him there is no guide. (33)
SURAH 14:
Their messenger said unto them: We are but mortals like you, but Allah giveth grace unto whom he will of His slaves. It is not ours to bring you a warrant unless by the permission of Allah. In Allah let believers put their trust! (11)
SURAH 16:
Your God is One God. (22a)
Allah hath said: Choose not two gods. There is only One God. So of Me, Me only, be in awe. (51)
And when those who ascribed partners to Allah behold those partners of theirs, they will say: Our Lord! These are our partners unto whom we used to cry instead of Thee. But they will fling to them the saying: Lo! ye verily are liars! (86)
His power (Satan’s) is only over those who make a friend of him, and those who ascribe partners unto Him (Allah). (100)
SURAH 17:
They Lord had decreed, that ye worship none save Him . . .(23a)
Say: Verily, though mankind and the jinn should assemble to produce the like of this Qur’an, they could not produce the like thereof though they were helpers one of another. (88)
And say: Praise be to Allah, Who hath not taken unto Himself a son, and Who hath no partner in the Sovereignty, nor hath He any protecting through dependence. And magnify Him with all magnificence. (111)
SURAH 18:
And to warn those who say: Allah hath chosen a son,
(A thing) whereof they have no knowledge, nor (had) their fathers. Dreadful is the word that cometh out of their mouths. They speak naught but a lie. (4-5)
These, our people, have chosen (other) gods beside Him though they bring no clear warrant (vouchsafed) to them. And who doth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie concerning Allah? (15)
And (be mindful of) the Day when He will say: Call those partners of Mine whom ye pretended. Then they will cry unto them, but they will not hear their prayer, and We shall set a gulf of doom between them. (53)
SURAH 19:
It befitteth not (the Majesty of) Allah that he should take unto Himself a son. Glory be to Him! When He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only: Be! And it is. (35)
On the Day when We shall gather the righteous unto the Beneficent, a goodly company.
And drive the guilty unto Hell, a weary herd,
They will have no power of intercession, save him who hath made a covenant with his Lord.
And they say: The Beneficent hath taken unto Himself a son.
Assuredly ye utter a disastrous thing.
Whereby almost the heavens are torn, and the earth is split asunder and the mountains fall in ruins,
That ye ascribe unto the Beneficent a son,
When it is not meet for (the Majesty of ) the Beneficent that He should choose a son. (85-92)
SURAH 21:
And We sent no messenger before thee but We inspired him, (saying): There is no God save Me (Allah), so worship Me.
And they say: The Beneficent hath taken unto Himself a son. Be He glorified! Nay, but (those whom they call sons) are honored slaves;
They speak not until He hath spoken, and they act by His command.
He knoweth what is before them and what is behind them, and they cannot intercede except for him whom He accepteth, and they quake for awe of Him.
And one of them who should say: Lo! I am a God beside Him, that one We should repay with hell. Thus We repay wrongdoers. (25-29)
SURAH 22:
Lo! those who believe (this Revelation), and those who are Jews, and the Sabaeans and the Christians and the Magians and the idolaters—Lo! Allah will decide between them on the Day of Resurrection. Lo! Allah is Witness over all things. (17)
And that those who have been given knowledge may know that it is the truth from thy Lord, so that they may believe therein and their hearts may submit humbly unto Him. Lo! Allah verily is guiding those who believe unto a right path. (54)
SURAH 23:
Allah hath not chosen any son, nor is there any God along with Him; else would each God have assuredly championed that which he created, and some of them would assuredly have overcome others. Glorified be Allah above all that they allege. (91)
SURAH 24:
They serve Me, They ascribe no thing as partner unto Me. (55)
SURAH 25:
He unto Whom belongeth the sovereignty of the heavens and the earth, He hath chosen no son nor hath He any partner in the sovereignty. He hath created everything and hath meted out for it a measure. (2)
SURAH 26:
Therefore invoke not with Allah another god, lest thou be one of the doomed. (213)
Allah; there is no God save Him, the Lord of the tremendous Throne. (26)
Say (O Mohammed): Praise be to Allah, and peace be on His slaves whom He hath chosen! Is Allah best, or (all) that ye ascribe as partners (unto Him)? (59)
Is there any God beside Allah? Nay, but they are folk who ascribe equals (unto Him)! (60b)
Lo! this Qur’an narrateth unto the Children of Israel most of that concerning which they differ. (76)
SURAH 28:
And it will be said: Cry unto your (so-called) partners (of Allah). And they will cry unto them, and they will give no answer unto them, and they will see the Doom, Ah; if they had but been guided! (64)
And cry not unto any other god along with Allah. There is no God save Him. Everything will perish save His countenance. His is the command, and unto Him ye will be brought back. (88)
SURAH 29:
Ye serve instead of Allah only idols, and ye only invent a lie. Lo! Those whom ye serve instead of Allah own no provision for you. So seek your provision from Allah, and serve Him, and give thanks unto Him, (for) unto Him ye will be brought back.
But if ye deny, then nations have denied before you. The messenger is only to convey (the Message) plainly. (17-18)
The likeness of those who choose other patrons than Allah is as the likeness of the spider when she taketh unto herself a house, and lo! The frailest of all houses is the spider’s house, if they but knew. (41)
And argue not with the People of Scripture unless it be in (a way) that is better, save with such of them as do wrong; and say: We believe in that which hath been revealed unto us and revealed unto you; our God and your God is One, and unto Him we surrender. (46)
Who doeth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie concerning Allah, or denieth the truth when it cometh unto him? Is not there a home in hell for disbelievers? (68)
SURAH 30:
There will be none to intercede for them of those whom they made
equal with Allah. And they will reject their partners (whom they ascribed unto Him). (13)
So set thy purpose (O Mohammed) for religion as a man by nature upright—the nature (framed) of Allah in which He hath created man. There is no altering (the laws of) Allah’s creation. That is the right religion, but most men know not—
Turning unto Him (only); and be careful of your duty unto him and establish worship, and be not of those who ascribe partners (unto Him);
Of those who split their religion and became schismatics, each sect exulting in its tenets.
And when harm toucheth men they cry unto their Lord, turning to Him in repentance; then, when they have tasted of His mercy, behold! Some of them attribute partners to their Lord. (30-33)
SURAH 31:
And (remember) when Luqman said unto his son, when he was exhorting him: O my dear son! Ascribe not partners unto Allah. Lo! To ascribe partners (unto Him) is a tremendous wrong— (13)
But if they strive with thee to make thee ascribe unto Me as partner that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. (15a)
SURAH 34:
Say: Show me those whom ye have joined unto Him as partners. Nay (ye dare not)! For He is Allah, the Mighty, the Wise. (27)
SURAH 35:
Say: Have ye seen your partners—gods to whom ye pray besides Allah? Show me what they created of the earth! Or have they any portion in the heavens? Or have We given them a Scripture so that they act on clear proof therefrom? Nay, the evildoers promise one another only to deceive. (40)
SURAH 37:
It is a falsehood—gods beside Allah—that ye desire? (86)
Allah hath begotten. And lo! Verily they tell a lie.
(And again of their falsehood): He hath preferred daughters to sons. (152-153)
SURAH 39:
Lo! We have revealed the Scripture unto thee (Mohammed) with truth; so worship Allah, making religion pure for Him (only).
Surely pure religion is for Allah only. And those who choose protecting friends beside Him (say): We worship them only that they may bring us near unto Allah. Lo! Allah will judge between them concerning that wherein they differ. Lo! Allah guideth not him who is a liar, an ingrate.
If Allah had willed to choose a son, he could have chosen what he would of that which He hath created. Be He glorified! He is Allah, the One, the Absolute. (2-4)
And who doth greater wrong than he who telleth a lie against Allah, and denieth the truth when it reacheth him? Will not the home of disbelievers be in hell? (32)
SURAH 40:
(It is said unto them): This is (your plight) because, when Allah was invoked, ye disbelieved, but when some partner was ascribed to Him ye were believing. But the command belongeth only to Allah, the Sublime, the Majestic. (12)
Ye call me to disbelieve in Allah and ascribe unto Him as partners that whereof I have no knowledge, while I call you unto the Mighty, the Forgiver. (42)
Then it is said unto them: Where are (all) that ye used to make partners (in the Sovereignty)
Beside Allah? They say: They have failed us; but we used not to pray to anything before. Thus doth Allah send astray the disbelievers (in His guidance.) (73-74)
Then, when they saw Our doom, they said: We believe in Allah only and reject (all) that we used to associate (with Him). (84)
SURAH 41:
Say (unto them O Mohammed): I am only a mortal like you. It is inspired in me that your God is One God, therefore take the straight path unto Him and seek forgiveness of Him. And woe unto the idolaters,
Who give not the poor-due, and who are disbelievers in the Hereafter. (6-7)
Say (O Mohammed, unto the idolaters): Disbelieve ye verily in Him Who created the earth in two Days, and ascribe ye unto Him rivals? He (and none else) is the Lord of the Worlds. (9)
SURAH 42:
And as for those who choose protecting friends beside Him, Allah is Warden over them, and thou art in no-wise a guardian over them.
And thus We have inspired in thee a Lecture in Arabic, that thou mayest warn the mother-town and those around it, and mayest warn of a day of assembling whereof there is no doubt. A host will be in the Garden, and a host of them in the Flame. (6-7)
Or have they chosen protecting friends beside Him? But Allah, He (alone) is the Protecting Friend. He quickeneth the dead, and He is Able to do all things.
And in whatsoever ye differ, the verdict therein belongeth to Allah. Such is my Lord, in Whom I put my trust, and unto Whom I turn. (9-10)
He hath ordained for you that religion which He commended unto Noah and that which We inspire in thee (Mohammed), and that which We commended unto Abraham and Moses and Jesus saying: Establish the religion, and be not divided therein. Dreadful for the idolaters is that unto which thou callest them Allah chooseth for Himself whom He will, and guideth unto Himself him who turneth (toward Him). (13)
Or have they partners (of Allah) who have made lawful for them in religion that which Allah allowed not? And but for a decisive word (gone forth already), it would have been judged between them. Lo! For the wrongdoers is a painful doom. (21)
Say (O Mohammed): The Beneficent One hath no son. I am first among the worshippers.
Glorified be the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Throne, from that which they ascribe (unto Him)! (81-82)
SURAH 43:
Say (O Mohammed): The Beneficent One hath no son. I am first among the worshippers.
Glorified be the Lord of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of the Throne, from that which they ascribe (unto Him)! (81-82)
SURAH 45:
And they say: There is naught but our life of the world; we die and we live, and naught destroyeth us save time; when they have no knowledge whatsoever of (all) that; they do but guess. (24)
SURAH 46:
Then why did those whom they (the people of Hud) had chosen for gods as a way of approach (unto Allah) not help them? Nay, but they did fail them utterly. And (all) that was their lie, and what they used to invent. (28)
SURAH 47:
That is because Allah is patron of those who believe, and because the disbelievers have no patrons. (11)
So know (O Mohammed) that there is no God save Allah, and ask forgiveness for thy sin and for believing men and believing women. Allah knoweth (both) your place turmoil and your place of rest. (19)
SURAH 48:
Lo! Those who swear allegiance unto thee (Mohammed), swear allegiance only unto Allah. The Hand of Allah is above their hands. So whosoever breaketh his oath, breaketh it only to his soul’s hurt; while whosoever keepeth his covenant with Allah, on him will He bestow immense reward. (10)
He it is Who hath His messenger with the guidance and the religion of truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religion. And Allah sufficeth as a witness.
Mohammed is the messenger of Allah. And those with him are hard against the believers and merciful among themselves. Thou (O Mohammed) seest them bowing and falling prostrate (in worship), seeking bounty from Allah and (His) acceptance. The mark of them is on their foreheads from the traces of prostration. Such is their likeness in the Torah and their likeness in the Gospel—like as sown corn that sendeth forth its shoot and strengtheneth it and riseth firm upon its stalk, delighting the sowers—that He may enrage the disbelievers with (the sight of ) them. Allah hath promised, unto such of them as believe and do good works, forgiveness and immense reward. (28-29)
SURAH 51:
Accursed be the conjecturers. (10)
And set not any other god along with Allah; lo! I am a plain warner unto you from Him. (51)
SURAH 52:
Or have they any god beside Allah? Glorified be Allah from all that they
ascribe as partner (unto Him)! (41)
SURAH 53:
Have ye thought upon Al-lat and Al-‘Uzza
And Manat (The pagan Arabs pretended that their idols were daughters of Allah.), the third, the other?
Are yours the males and His the females?
That indeed were an unfair division!
They are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers, for which Allah hath revealed no warrant. They follow but a guess and that which (they) themselves desire. And now the guidance from their Lord hath come unto them. (19-23)
And they have no knowledge thereof. They follow but a guess, and lo! A guess can never take the place of the truth. (28)
SURAH 57:
Then We cause Our messengers to follow in their footsteps; and We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow, and gave him the Gospel, and placed compassion and mercy in the hearts of those who followed him. But monasticism they invented—We ordained it not for them—only seeking Allah’s pleasure, and they observed it not with right observance. So We give those of them who believe their reward, but many of them are evil-livers. (27)
That the People of Scripture may know that they control naught of the bounty of Allah, but that the bounty is in Allah’s hand to give to whom He will. And Allah is of infinite bounty. (29)
SURAH 59:
He is Allah, than whom there is no other God, the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One, Peace, the Keeper of Faith, the Guardian, the Majestic, the Compeller, the Superb. Glorified by Allah, from all that they ascribe as partner (unto Him). (23)
SURAH 60:
O Prophet! If believing women (here the Qu’ran refers to women who have come to the Muslims as fugitives from the idolaters) come unto thee, taking oath of allegiance unto thee that they will ascribe no thing as partner unto Allah, and will neither steal nor commit adultery nor kill their children, nor produce any lie that they have devised between their hands and feet, nor disobey thee in what is right, then accept their allegiance and ask Allah to forgive them. Lo! Allah is Forgiving, Merciful. (12)
JUDGMENT DAY, HEAVEN & HELL
Islam places as much, perhaps even more, emphasis than Christianity does on the idea that all of history is been steadily moving towards the appointed Day when all of mankind, those who are alive and the dead, will be called forth to face a Final Judgment.
Like in other matters, the Koran’s concept of the Day of Resurrection is more straight forward and less detailed than are those either than Jesus’ descriptions of the closing of the age in the 24th and 25th chapters of Matthew or certainly that in the book of Revelation. Neither a period of tribulation, with all the horrific events described in Revelation, nor the rapture are mentioned. Surah 56, “The Event,” says “the earth is shaken with a shock And the hills are ground to powder So that they become a scattered dust,” (4-6) and Surah 75, “The Rising of the Dead” says “the moon is eclipsed and sun and moon are united.” (8-9)
There is no mention in the Koran of a second coming of Jesus, though Mukhtar ibn-abi-Uyayd, a Shiite follower of the martyred Husayn, spoke of the coming the mahdi, the divine deliverer and restorer, who would bring peace and justice to earth. Islam has had several self-proclaimed mahdi’s, particularly al-Hallaj, the “wool carder,” a Persian mystic from the 9th Century, and the 19th Century “Mahdi” in the Sudan who attacked Khartoum and killed General Gordon. As the Jews continue to wait for the coming of the Messiah, some Muslims continue to believe in the coming of a Muslim mahdi.
According to the Koran, from the time when Iblis refused to prostrate himself before mankind, he has been reprieved to lurk in ambush and entice people from the Right Path “till the day when they are raised (from the dead.) (Surah 7: 14) Most Christians believe in a Final Judgment Day when the “sheep will be separated from the goats” when those who believe in Jesus and have followed his commandments will be welcomed into heaven, while those who disbelieved and have done evil will go to hell. Since Old Testament prophecy does not put a lot of emphasis on this final day of reckoning, it follows that the Jews tend to believe less in a specific final judgment though Judaism does emphasize that they will be judged according to their earthly conduct in this life.
The Koran is unequivocal and vehement in its assertions concerning the Last Day. The descriptions in the Koran of the Paradise to which believers and the doers of good will go may seem quaint to our Western sensibility, but we should bear in mind that they are intended to be understood in a symbolic sense, “a semblance” of paradise, as a place that we can only imagine as being an idealized place of peace, comfort and happiness.
The Koran variously calls Judgment Day, the Day of Resurrection, the Day of Decision and the Day of Separation; it warns of that Day there is no doubt. When “the hour riseth,” a trumpet will sound and from their graves the dead will rise. When the trumpet sounds a second time, the angels will assemble all souls, along with the prophets and witnesses, and the Book (of records of the good and bad each soul has earned) will be opened and read. Each soul then will be paid for what it did during its earthly life. The Koran, like the New Testament, asserts that belief is a prerequisite for salvation, but does not assert, as Paul does in his letters, that salvation is by faith alone.
Even if those who disbelieve own all there is on the earth, it will not be enough to ransom them from doom on this day. The love that exists between disbelievers in the life of the world will cease, and they will deny each other and curse each other. Excuses will not profit those who did injustice nor will they be allowed to make amends—the evil they did will appear to them. No one will be allowed to speak then except by Allah’s permission. Those who scoffed and denied that the dead would rise again from dust, those who were adverse to the truth, will find all they scoffed at upon them.
All souls will be separated into two groups (Surah 56 indicates there will be three groups, those of the right hand, those on the right hand, and “the foremost in the race—a multitude of those of old and a few of those of later time” who “will be brought nigh In the garden of delight.”), those who, with faces despondent, are driven into hell, “a hapless journey’s end,” and those, who, with faces resplendent, are welcomed into paradise, “the supreme triumph.” When those entering hell protest and asked to be reprieved, they will be asked whether they were not sent messengers who warned them “with clear proofs” of what was to befall them unless they repented, and they will answer “verily.”
Hell is described as place of extreme heat “Fire” and paralyzing cold. When thirsty, they will be given boiling water to drink that will scorch their insides, and they will “wrangle in the Fire” amongst themselves. Those welcomed into paradise, on the other hand, will recline on couches in the shade and be served from trays of gold goblets of every kind of fruit. They will given all their souls desire, they will have no headaches nor know any madness, but will be wed to fair ones with wide, modest eyes. Some of the passages concerning the Final Judgment are reminiscent of the parables told by Jesus concerning “the kingdom of heaven,” like the parable of the wise and foolish maidens in Matthew 25: 1-13.
Surah 7 describes the following conversation between the dwellers of the Garden and the dwellers of the Fire:
But (as for) those who believe and do good works—We tax not any soul beyond its scope—Such are rightful owners of the Garden. They abide therein.
And We remove whatever rancor may be in their hearts. Rivers flow beneath them. And they say: The praise to Allah, Who hath guided us to this. We could not truly had been led aright if Allah had not guided us. Verily the messengers of our Lord did bring the Truth. And it is cried unto them: This is the Garden. Ye inherit it for what ye used to do.
And the dwellers of the Garden cry unto the dwellers of the Fire: We have found that which our Lord promised us (to be) the Truth. Have ye (too) found that which your Lord promised the Truth? They say: Yea, verily. And a crier in between them crieth: The curse of Allah is on evildoers. Who debar (men) from the path of Allah and would have it crooked, and who are disbelievers in the Last Day. Between them is a veil. And on the Heights are men who know them all by their marks. And they call unto the dwellers of the Garden: Peace be unto you! They enter it not although they hope (to enter).
And when their eyes are turned toward the dwellers of the Fire, they say: Our Lord! Place us not with the wrongdoing folk. And the dweller on the Heights call unto men whom they know by the marks, (saying): What did your multitude and that in which ye took your pride avail you? Are these they of whom ye swore that Allah would not show them mercy? (Unto them it hath been said): Enter the Garden. No fear shall come upon you nor is it ye who will grieve.
And the dwellers of the Fire cry out unto the dwellers of the Garden: Pour on us some water or some of that wherewith Allah hath provided you. They say: Lo! Allah hath forbidden both to disbelievers (in His guidance), Who took their religion for a sport and pastime, and whom the life of the world beguiled. So this day We have forgotten them even as they forgot the meeting of this Day and as they used to deny Our tokens.
Verily We have brought them a Scripture which We expounded with knowledge, a guidance and a mercy for a people who believe. Await they aught save the fulfillment thereof? On the day when the fulfillment thereof cometh, those who were before forgetful thereof will say: The messengers of our Lord did bring the Truth! Have we any intercessors, that they may intercede for us? Or can we be returned (to life on earth), that we may act otherwise then we used to act? They have lost their souls, and that which they devised hath failed them. (Surah 7: 42-53)
IMPORTANCE OF BELIEF
As in Christianity appropriate belief is key to salvation in Islam: “Say ( O Mohammed) unto those who disbelieve: Ye shall be overcome and gathered unto Hell, an evil resting place.” (Surah 3: 12) Belief is a prerequisite to being rightly guided.
Surah 2: 25 says, “And give tidings (O Mohammed) unto those who believe and do good works; that theirs are Gardens underneath which rivers flow; as often as they are regaled with food of the fruit thereof, they say: This is what was given us aforetime; and it is given to them is resemblance. There for them are pure companions; there for ever they abide.”
“Whoso slayeth a believer of set purpose, his reward is Hell for ever. Allah is wroth against him and He hath cursed him and prepared for him an awful doom.” (Surah 4: 93)
“As for those who disbelieve, lo! If all that is in the earth were theirs; and as much again therewith, to ransom them from the doom on the Day of Resurrection, it would not be accepted from them. Theirs will be a painful doom.” (Surah 5: 36)
Lo! Those who disbelieve the revelations of Allah, and slay the Prophets wrongfully, and slay those of mankind who enjoin equity: promise them a painful doom. Those are they whose works have failed in the world and Hereafter; and they have no helpers. Hast thou not seen how those who have received the Scripture invoke the Scripture of Allah (in their disputes) that it may judge between them; then a faction of them turn away, being opposed (to it)? That is because they say: The Fire will not touch us save for a certain number of days. That which they used to invent hath deceived them regarding their religion. How (will it be with them) when We have brought them all together to a Day of which there is no doubt, when every soul will be paid in full what it hath earned, and they will not be wronged. (Surah 3: 21-25)
THE DAY OF JUDGMENT (RESURRECTION)
It is not for any Prophet to deceive (mankind). Whoso deceiveth will bring his deceit with him on the Day of Resurrection. Then every soul will be paid in full what it hath earned; and they will not be wronged.
In the day when He will gather them together (He will say): O ye assembly of the jinn! Many of humankind did ye seduce. And their adherents among humankind will say: Our Lord! We enjoyed one another, but now we have arrived at the appointed term which Thou appointedst for us. He will say: Fire is your home. Abide therein for ever, save him whom Allah willeth (to deliver). Lo thy Lord is Wise, Aware. (Surah 6: 129)
On the Day when He will call unto them and say: Where are My partners whom ye imagined? (Surah 27: 62ff)
He said: Ye have chosen idols instead of Allah. The love between you in only in the life of the world. Then on the Day of Resurrection ye will deny each other and curse each other, and your abode will be the Fire, and ye will have no helpers. (Surah 29: 25)
And on the day when the Hour riseth the guilty will vow that they did tarry but an hour—thus were they were deceived.
But those to whom knowledge and faith are given will say: The truth is, ye have tarried, by Allah’s decree, until the Day of Resurrection. This is the Day of Resurrection, but ye used not to know.
In the day their excuses will not profit those who did injustice, nor will they be allowed to make amends. (Surah 30: 55-57)
And the trumpet is blown and lo! From the graves they hie unto their Lord, Crying: Woe upon us! Who hath raised us from our place of sleep? This is that which the Beneficent did promise, and the messengers spoke truth.
It is but one Shout, and behold them brought together before Us! This day no soul is wronged in aught; nor are ye requited aught save what ye used to do. Lo! those who merit paradise this day are happily employed, They and their wives, in pleasant shade on thrones reclining; Theirs the fruit (of their good deeds) and theirs (all) that they ask; The word from a Merciful Lord (for them) is: Peace!
But avaunt ye, O ye guilty, this day! Did I not charge you, O ye sons of Adam, that ye worship not the devil—Lo! He is your open foe! — But that ye worship Me? That was the right path. Yet he hath led astray of you a great multitude. Had ye then no sense? This is hell which ye were promised (if ye followed him). Burn therein this day for that ye disbelieved. This day We seal up mouths, and hands speak out and feet bear witness as to what they used to earn. (Surah 36: 50-64)
There is but one Shout, and lo! they behold, And say: Ah, woe for us! This is the Day of Judgment. This is the Day of Separation, which ye used to deny. (And it is aid unto the angels): Assemble those who did wrong, together with their wives and what they used to worship Instead of Allah, and lead them to the path to hell; And stop them, for they must be questioned.
What aileth you that ye help not one another?
Nay, but this day they make full submission. And some of them draw near unto other, mutually questioning. They say: Lo! Ye used to come unto us, imposing, (swearing that ye spoke the truth). They answer: Nay, and ye (yourselves) were not believers. We had no power over you, but ye were wayward folk. Now the Word of our Lord hath been fulfilled concerning us. Lo! We are about to taste (the doom). Thus we misled you. Lo! We were (ourselves) astray. Then lo! This day they (both) are sharers in the doom. Lo! Thus dead We with the guilty. For when it was said unto them, There is no god save Allah, they were scornful And said: Shall we forsake our gods for a mad poet? Nay, but he brought the Truth, and he confirmed those sent (before him). Lo! (Now) verily ye taste the painful doom—
Ye are requited naught save what ye did—Save single-minded slaves of Allah; For them there is known provision, Fruit. And they will be honored In the Garden of delight, On Couches facing one another; A cup from a gushing spring is brought round for them, White, delicious to the drinkers, Wherein there is no headache nor are they made mad thereby. And with them are those of modest gaze, with lovely eyes, (Pure) as they were hidden eggs (of the ostrich).
And some of them draw near unto others, mutually questioning. A speaker of them saith: Lo! I had a comrade Who used say: Art thou in truth of those who put faith (in his words)? Can we, when we are dead and have become mere dust and bones—can we (then) verily be brought to book? Then looketh he and seeth him in the depth of hell. He saith: By Allah thou verily didst all but cause my ruin, And had it not been for the favor of my Lord, I too had been of those haled forth (to doom).
Are we then not to die Saving our former death, and are we not to be punished? Lo! This is the supreme triumph. For the like of this, then, let the workers work. Is this better as a welcome, or the tree of Zaqqum? Lo! We have appointed it a torment for wrongdoers. Lo! It is a tree that springeth in the heart of hell. Its crop is as it were the heads of devils And lo! They verily must eat thereof, and fill (their) bellies therewith. And afterward, lo! Thereupon they have a drink of boiling water And afterward, lo! their return is surely unto hell. They indeed found their fathers astray, But they make haste (to follow) in their footsteps.
And verily We sent among them warners. Then see the nature of the consequence for those warned, Save single-minded slaves of Allah. (Surah 37: 19-74)
Is he then, who will strike his face against the awful doom upon the Day of Resurrection (as he who doeth right)? And it will be said unto the wrongdoers: Taste what ye used to earn. (Surah 39: 24)
And though those who do wrong possess all that is in the earth, therewith as much again, they verily will seek to ransom themselves therewith on the Day of Resurrection from the awful doom; and there will appear unto them, from their Lord, that wherewith they never reckoned. And the evils that they earned will appear unto them, and that whereat they used to scoff will surround them. (Surah 39: 47-48)
And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and earth swoon away, save him whom Allah willeth. Then it blown a second time, and behold them standing waiting! And the earth shineth with the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the Prophets and the witnesses are brought, and it is judged between them with truth, and they are not wronged. And each soul is paid in full for what it did. And He is best aware of what they do.
And those who disbelieve are driven unto hell in troops till, when they reach it and gates thereof are opened, and the warders thereof say unto them: Came there not unto you messengers of your own, reciting unto you the revelations of your Lord and warning you of the meeting of this your Day? they say: Yea, verily. But the word of doom for disbelievers is fulfilled. It is said (unto them): Enter ye the gates of hell to dwell therein. Thus hapless is the journey’s end of the scorners.
And those who keep their duty to their Lord are driven unto the Garden in troops till, when they reach it, and the gates thereof are opened, and the warders thereof say unto them: Peace be unto you! Ye are good, so enter ye (the Garden of delight), to dwell therein; They say: Praise be to Allah, Who hath fulfilled His promise unto us and hath made us inherit the land, sojourning in the Garden where we will! So bounteous is the wage of workers.
And thou (O Mohammed) seest the angels thronging round the Throne, hymning the praises of their Lord. And they are judged aright. And it is said: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds! (Surah 39: 68-75)
The Fire; they are exposed to it morning and evening; and on the day when the Hour upriseth (it is said): Cause Pharaoh’s folk to enter the most awful doom. And when they wrangle in the fire, the weak say unto those who were proud: Lo! We were a following unto you: will ye therefore rid us of a portion of the Fire? Those who were proud say: Lo! We are all (together) herein. Lo! Allah hath judged between (His) slaves. And those in the Fire say unto the guards of hell: Entreat your Lord that He relieve us of a day of the torment. They say: Came not your messengers unto you with clear proofs? They say: Yea, verily. They say: Then do ye pray, although the prayer of disbelievers is in vain. (Surah 40: 46-50)
JESUS CAME WITH CLEAR PROOFS OF ALLAH’S SOVEREIGNTY
When Jesus came with clear proofs (of Allah’s sovereignty), he said: I have come unto you with wisdom, and to make plain some of that concerning which ye differ. So keep your duty to Allah, and obey me. Lo! Allah, He is my Lord and your Lord. So worship Him. This is a right path.
But the factions among them differed. Then woe unto those who do wrong from the doom of a painful day. Await they aught save the Hour, that is shall come upon them suddenly, when they know not?
Friends on that day will be foes one to another, save those who kept their duty (to Allah). O My slaves! For you there is no fear this day, nor is it ye who grieve; (Ye) who believed Our revelations and were self-surrendered, Enter the Garden, ye and your wives, to be made glad. Therein are brought round for them trays of gold and goblets, and therein is all that souls desire and eyes find sweet. And ye are immortal therein. This is the Garden which ye are made to inherit because of what ye used to do. Therein for you is fruit in plenty whence to eat.
Lo! the guilty are immortal in hell’s torment. It is not relaxed for them, and they despair therein. We wronged them not, but they it was who did the wrong. And they cry: O master! Let thy Lord make an end of us. He saith: Lo! Here ye must remain. We verily brought the Truth unto you, but ye were, most of you, averse to the Truth. (Surah 43: 63-78)
Lo! Those who kept their duty will be in a place secured Amid gardens and water-springs, Attired in silk and silk embroidery, facing one another. Even so (it will be). And We shall wed them unto fair ones with wide, lovely eyes. They call therein for every fruit in safety. They taste not death therein, save the first death. And He hath saved them from the doom of hell, A bounty from thy Lord. That is the supreme triumph. (Surah 44: 51-58)
Say (unto them, O Mohammed): Allah giveth life to you, then causeth you to die, then gathereth you unto the Day of Resurrection whereof there is no doubt. But most of mankind know not. And unto Allah belongeth the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth; and on the day when the Hour riseth, on that day those who follow falsehood will be lost.
And thou wilt see each nation crouching, each nation summoned to its record. (And it will be said unto them): This day ye are requited what ye used to do. This Our Book pronounceth against you with truth. Lo! We have caused (all) that ye did to be recorded. Then, as for those who believed and did good works, their Lord will bring them in unto His mercy. That is the evident triumph.
And as for those who disbelieved (it will be said unto them): Were not Our revelations recited unto you? But ye were scornful and became a guilty folk. And when it was said: Lo! Allah’s promise is the truth, and there is no doubt of the Hour’s coming, ye said: We know not what the Hour is. We deem it naught but a conjecture, and we are by no means convinced. And the evils of what they did will appear unto them, and that which they used to deride will befall them.
And it will be said: This day We forget you, even as ye forgot the meeting of this your day; and your habitation is the Fire, and there is none to help you. Therefore this day they come not forth from thence, nor can they make amends. (Surah 45: 26-35)
A similitude of the Garden which those who keep their duty (to Allah) are promised: Therein are rivers of water unpolluted, and rivers of milk whereof the flavor changeth not, and rivers of wine delicious to the drinkers, and rivers of clear-run honey; therein for them is every kind of fruit, with pardon from their Lord. (Are those who enjoy all this) like those who are immortal in the Fire and are given boiling water to drink so that it teareth their bowels? (Surah 47: 15)
Lo! Those who kept their duty dwell in gardens and delight, Happy because of what their Lord hath given them, and (because) their Lord hath warded off from them the torment of hell-fire. (And it is said unto them): Eat and drink in health (as a reward) for what ye used to do, Reclining on ranged couches. And We wed them unto fair ones, with wide, lovely eyes.
And they who believe and whose seed follow them in faith, We cause their seed to join them (there), and We deprive them of naught of their (life’s) work. Every man is a pledge for that which he hath earned. And We provide them with fruit and meat such as they desire. There they pass from hand to hand a cup wherein is neither vanity nor cause of sin. And there go round, waiting on them menservants of theirs, as they were hidden pearls.
And some of them draw near unto others, questioning, Saying: lo! Of old, when we were with our families, we were ever anxious; But Allah hath been gracious unto us and hath preserved us from the torment of the breath of Fire. Lo! we used to pray unto Him of old. Lo! He is the Benign, the Merciful. (Surah 52: 17-28)
This is Hell which the guilty deny. They go circling round between it and fierce, boiling water.
Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?
But for him who feareth the standing before his Lord there are two gardens. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny?
Of spreading branches. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Wherein are two fountains flowing Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Wherein is every kind of fruit in pairs. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Reclining upon couches lined with silk brocade, the fruit of both the gardens near to hand. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Therein are those of modest gaze, whom neither man nor jinni will have touched before them. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? (In beauty)like the jacynth and the coral-stone. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Is the reward of goodness aught save goodness? Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? And beside them are two other gardens; Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Dark green with foliage. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Wherein are two abundant springs. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Wherein is fruit, the date palm and pomegranate. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Wherein (are found) the good and beautiful—Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Fair ones, close-guarded in pavilions— Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Whom neither man nor jinni will have touched before them— Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Reclining on green cushions and fair carpets. Which is it, of the favors of your Lord, that ye deny? Blessed be the name of thy Lord, Mighty and Glorious! (Surah 55: 43-78)
SURAH 56: THE EVENT
When the event befalleth—
There is no denying that it will befall—
Abasing (some), exalting (others);
When the earth is shaken with a shock
And the hills are ground to powder
So that they become a scattered dust,
And ye will be three kinds:
(First) those on the right hand; what of those on the right hand?
And (then) those on the left hand; what of those on the left hand?
And the foremost in the race, the foremost in the race:
Those are they who will brought nigh
In gardens of delight;
A multitude of those of old
And a few of those of later time,
On lined couches,
Reclining therein face to face.
There wait on them immortal youths
With bowls and ewers and a cup from a pure spring
Wherefrom they get no aching of the head nor any madness,
And fruit that they prefer
And flesh of fowls that they desire.
And (there are ) fair ones with wide, lovely eyes,
Like unto hidden pearls,
Reward for what they used to do.
There hear they no vain speaking nor recrimination
(Naught) but the saying: Peace, (and again) Peace.
And those on the right hand; what of those on the right hand?
Among thornless lote-trees
And clustered plantains, And spreading shade,
And water gushing, and Fruit in plenty
Neither out of reach nor yet forbidden,
And raised couches;
Lo! We have created them a (new) creation
And made them virgins. Lovers, friends, For those on the right hand;
A multitude of those of old
And a multitude of those of later time. (Surah 56: 1-40)
And those on the left hand: What of those on the left hand?
In scorching wind and scalding water
And shadow of black smoke, Neither cool nor refreshing.
Lo! heretofore they were effete with luxury
And used to persist in the awful sin.
And they used to say: When we are dead and have become dust and bones, shall we then forsooth, be raised again,
And also our forefathers?
Say (unto them, O Mohammed): Lo! Those of old and those of the later time will all be brought together to the tryst of an appointed day. Then lo! Ye, the erring, the deniers, Ye verily will eat of a tree called Zaqqum And will fill your bellies therewith; and thereon ye will drink of boiling water, Drinking even as the camel drinketh. This will be their welcome on the Day of Judgment. (Surah 56: 41-56)
SURAH 75: THE RISING OF THE DEAD
Nay, I swear by the Day of Resurrection;
Nay, I swear by the accusing soul (that this Scripture is true).
Thinketh man that We shall not assemble his bones?
Yea, verily, Yea, We are able to restore his very fingers!
But man would fain deny what is before him.
He asketh: When will be this Day of Resurrection?
But when sight is confounded
And the moon is eclipsed
And sun and moon are united.
On that day man will cry: Whither to flee!
Alas! No refuge!
Unto thy Lord is the recourse that day.
On that day man is told the tale of that which he hath sent before and left behind.
Oh, but man is a telling witness against himself, Although he tender his excuses.
Stir not thy tongue herewith to hasten it.
Lo! Upon Us (resteth) the putting together thereof and the reading thereof.
And when We read it, follow thou the reading;
Then lo! upon Us (resteth) the explanation thereof.
Nay, but ye do love the fleeting Now and neglect the Hereafter.
That day will faces be resplendent, Looking toward their Lord;
And that day will other faces be despondent,
Thou wilt know that some great disaster is about to fall on them.
Nay, but when the left cometh up to the throat
And men say: Where is the wizard (who can save him now)?
And he knoweth that it is the parting;
And agony is heaped on agony;
Unto thy Lord that day will be the driving.
For he neither trusted, not prayed. But he denied and flouted.
Then went he to his folk with glee.
Nearer unto thee and nearer, Again nearer unto thee and nearer (is the doom).
Thinketh man that he is to be left aimless?
Was he not a drop of fluid which gushed forth?
Then he became a clot;
Then (Allah) shaped and fashioned And made of him a pair, the male and female.
Is not He (who doeth so) able to bring the dead to life? (Surah 75: 1-40)
Lo! The Day of Decision is a fixed time, a day when the trumpet is blown, and ye come in multitudes, And the heaven is opened and becometh as gates, And the hills are set in motion and become as a mirage. Lo! Hell lurketh in ambush, a home for the rebellious. They will abide therein for ages. Therein taste they neither coolness nor (any) drink Saving boiling water and a paralysing cold: Reward proportioned (to their evil deeds). For lo! They look not for a reckoning; They called Our revelation false with strong denial. Everything have We recorded in a Book. So taste (of that which ye have earned). No increase do We give you save torment. (Surah 78: 17-30)
Lo! For the duteous is achievement—Gardens enclosed and vineyards, and maidens for companions, and a full cup. There hear they never vain discourse, nor lying—Requital from thy Lord—a gift in payment— Lord of heavens and the earth, and (all) that is between them, the Beneficent; with Whom none can converse. On the day when the angels and the Spirit stand arrayed, they speak not, saving him whom the Beneficent alloweth and who speaketh right. That is the True Day. So whoso will should seek recourse unto his Lord. Lo! We warn you of a doom at hand, a day whereon a man will look on that which his own hands have sent before, and the disbeliever will cry: “Would that I were dust!” (Surah 78: 31-40)
ALLAH WILL DECIDE BETWEEN THEM ON THE DAY OF RESURRECTION:
Lo! Those who believe (this Revelation), and those who are Jews, and the Sabaeans and the Christians and the Magians and the idolaters— Lo! Allah will decide between them on the Day of Resurrection. Lo! Allah is Witness over all things. (Surah 22: 17)
Allah will judge between you on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein ye used to differ. (Surah 22: 69)
Lo! thy Lord will judge between them on the Day of Resurrection concerning that wherein they used to differ. (Surah 32: 25)
THOSE WHO DENY OUR REVELATION AND SCORN THEM . . .
But they who deny Our revelation and scorn them—such are rightful owners of the Fire; they will abide therein. (Surah 7: 36)
Lo! They who deny Our revelations and scorn them, for them the gates of Heaven will not be opened nor will they enter the Garden until the camel goeth through the needle’s eye. Thus do We requite the guilty. (Surah 7: 40)
MUSLIM PRAYER
Our Lord! Thou createdst not this in vain. Glory be to Thee! Preserve us from the doom of Fire. Our Lord! Whom Thou causest to enter the Fire: him indeed Thou hast confounded. For evildoers there will be no helpers. Our Lord! Lo! we have heard a crier calling unto Faith: “Believe ye in your Lord!” So we believed. Our Lord! Therefore forgive us our sins, and remit from us our evil deeds, and make us die the death of the righteous. Our Lord! And give us that which Thou hast promised to us by Thy messengers. Confound us not upon the Day of Resurrection. Lo! Thou breakest not the tryst. (Surah 3: 191-194)
These twain (the believers and the disbelievers) are two opponents who contend concerning their Lord. But as for those who disbelieve, garments of fire will be cut out for them; boiling fluid will be poured down on their heads. Whereby that which is in their bellies, and their skins too, will be melted; and for them are hooked rods of irons. Whenever, in their anguish they would go forth from thence they are driven back therein and (it is said to them): Taste the doom of burning.
Lo! Allah will cause those who believe and do good works to enter Gardens underneath which river flow, wherein they will be allowed armlets of gold, and pearls, and their raiment therein will be silk. They are guided unto gentle speech; they are guided unto the path of the Glorious One. (Surah 22: 19-24)
THE BELIEVERS
Successful indeed are the believers
Who are humble in their prayers,
And who shun vain conversation,
And who are payers of the poor due;
And who guard their modesty—Save from their wives or the (slaves) that their hands possess, for then they are not blameworthy, But whoso craveth beyond that, such are transgressors—And who are shepherds of their pledge and their covenant, And who pay heed to their prayers.
These are the heirs Who will inherit Paradise. There they will abide.
(Surah 23: 1-11)
THE DISBELIEVERS
Nay, but they deny (the coming of ) the Hour, and for those who deny (the coming of) the Hour We have prepared a flame. When it seeth them from afar, they hear the crackling and the roar thereof. And when they are flung into a narrow place thereof, chained together, they pray for destruction there. Pray not that day for one destruction, but pray for many destructions!
Say: Is that (doom) better or the Garden of Immortality which is promised unto those who ward off (evil)? It will be their reward and journey’s end. Therein abiding, they have all that they desire. It is for thy Lord a promise that must be fulfilled. (Surah 25: 11-16)
PARADISE
This is a reminder. And lo! for those who ward off (evil) is a happy journey’s end, Gardens of Eden, whereof the gates are opening for them, Wherein, reclining, they call for plenteous fruit and cool drink (that Is) therein. And with them are those of modest gaze, companion. This is that ye are promised for the Day of Reckoning. Lo! This in truth is Our provision, which will never waste away. This (is for the righteous).
And lo! for the transgressors there will be an evil journey’s end, Hell, where they will burn, an evil resting place. Here is boiling and an ice-cold draught, so let them taste it, And other (torment) of the kind in pairs (the two extremes)! Here is an army rushing blindly with you! (Those who are already in the fire say): No word of welcome for them. Lo! They will roast at the Fire. They say: Nay, but you (misleaders), for you there is no word of welcome. Ye prepared this for us (by your misleading). Now hapless is the plight. They say: Our Lord! Whoever did prepare this for us, oh, give him double portion of the Fire! And they say: What aileth us that we behold not men whom we were wont to count among the wicked? Did we take them (wrongly) for a laughing-stock, or have our eyes missed them? Lo! That is very truth: the wrangling of the dwellers in the Fire. (Surah 38: 50-65)
CONCLUSIONS:
We can affirm that the Revelations given to Abraham and his descendants – the Jews, Christians and Muslims – are in substantial agreement. It is important that we recognize this. Certainly there are serious disagreements, perhaps unbridgeable differences, in what the Jews, Christians and Muslims hold to be true; however, the processes by which prophets from all three religions received Revelation are remarkably similar, and much of the content of those Revelations is consistent, one with the others. All three affirm that the universe and all that is in it were created by a single God who has sustained it and sustains it still and that God gave life to all creatures that have lived and are alive now. They agree that good versus evil is not an ambiguous proposition, but a very real battle continually waged in the hearts of men. All basically affirm the same code of ethics as stated in the Ten Commandments. They affirm that men are not meant to lie or steal or kill needlessly, nor should they commit adultery, nor should they covet that which does not belong to them, and, furthermore, that they are obliged to care for those among them who are unable to care for themselves. All Revelation concerns itself with the moral existence of mankind.
POINTS OF AGREEMENT:
THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD
Judaism, Christianity and Islam all affirm the sovereignty of God. There is only one God who created the heavens and the earth, and the God who did this is a living God who brought all things into being and sustains all life.
GOD’S ATTRIBUTES
The God of all creation is a compassionate and loving God, abounding in mercy for the created order and mankind. Muslims have 100 names by which God is called– The Merciful, The Compassionate, and so forth. God loves righteousness, justice, honesty and compassion.
GOD REQUIRES MEN AND WOMEN TO LIVE MORAL LIVES IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
So that people should know right from wrong, Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The Koran calls them “the Criterion”. These commandments, taken together with the Law that expanded them, constitute the guidelines God expects people to follow.
THE EQUATION
In all Revelation the equation is the same: God is merciful and just to those who keep his commandments, but when people become corrupted, when they turn away from Him and set their sites on the riches of the world, exploit others, and indulge in fornication and lewd behavior, it kindles his wrath. Unless they repent and undertake reformation, destruction will surely be visited upon them.
THE PENDULAR MOVEMENT
Throughout the history of the Jews, the Christians and the Muslims, there have been times when people have seen the efficacy of following God’s commandments and have prospered when they have done so. The 14th Century Arab philosopher, Ibn Khaldun studied the manner in which civilizations become corrupt and observed that luxury and wealth inevitably lead to a self-indulgent way of life and lax morality. When this happens a civilization begins to deteriorate and decline. Once the disease sets in, only divine Revelation has the power to reverse it.
There seems to be a pendular movement in human morality wherein it swings between adherence and dissolution. It takes serious deprivations—drought, famine, wars and disease—before people see the error of their ways and undertake reformation and return to living according to God’s commandments. When they do they eventually tend once again to become too comfortable and put too much stock in their wealth, and their civilization becomes corrupt, and the cycle is repeated.
JUDGMENT DAY
Since Old Testament prophets did not prophesy to a great extent concerning a final day of judgment, it follows that the Jewish people put less emphasis on this concept. In contrast the New Testament and the Koran lay heavy emphasis on a final judgment when each soul will be called to stand before God and be judged. Admonitions abound in the New Testament, the Koran and the Book of Mormon, exhorting believers to be mindful that they will be called into account.
God has given us free will to choose the course of our conduct. We are free to choose between good and evil, but he pays close attention to our choices and our behavior. Our actions are recorded in a heavenly book of records that will be opened on Judgment Day, and each person will then be confronted with his record and be judged according to the good and evil he has done in his earthly existence.
The proposition is straightforward in the Koran. Each person will be repaid according to the good and evil he has done. Islam is without the Christian concept that Jesus Christ has atoned for the sins of the world and the idea that we are saved by grace alone.
HEAVEN AND HELL
Those who have led righteous lives will go to heaven and those who have done evil and have not repented will go to hell. It is a simple, direct, unequivocating pronouncement.
POINTS OF DISAGREEMENT:
TRINITARIAN DISPUTE: THE PLACE OF JESUS IN THE COSMOS
As we have seen, the biggest source of dispute between Christians and Muslims is over the nature of Jesus. The Christians say he is God; the Muslims say he is not, that only God is God. The Jews do not even recognize Jesus as the Messiah, but calling a human being God is as unacceptable to them as it is to the Muslims. To both groups such an idea is blasphemous.
PROPHECY AFTER MOHAMMED
Muslims believe that Mohammed was the last prophet to receive direct Revelation from God in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets and call him the “Seal of Prophets.” It is appropriate, therefore, that we end this part of our study with the Revelation he received as compiled in the Koran. Perhaps the record of Revelation as we have been speaking of it ends with Mohammed, but that is not to say that people have not continued to have revelations since then.
To be sure since 7th Century ad, various people in all three religions claimed to have received divine revelation—notably, Shabbetai Zevi (1626-1676) among the Jews, Joseph Smith (1805-1844) among the Christians, and Al-Hallaj and the Mahdi of the Sudan among the Muslims. Many Christians believe that Virgin Mary has appeared to various people, with messages for mankind in an increasing number of visitations in the last two centuries.
Some modern leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X, had prophetic voices that have helped guide the modern world towards a sense of the universal brotherhood of all men and peace; nevertheless, these “prophets” remain outside the realm of our definition for prophets as those receiving Revelation coming directly from God.
If Mohammed was the last prophet, then for 1,300 years mankind has been without any new Revelation from God. If this is so, it may be because, with the Revelation to Mohammed, God had imparted all the information He intended to impart. In other words, we have all we need to know. 1,300 years is a very long time, especially when we consider all that has transpired in that time and how greatly the world has changed since the 7th Century. There were other relatively long times when the voice of Revelation was silent, but they occurred within the period of prophecy. For four hundred years the Hebrew children labored in Egypt before God recalled his promise to them and appointed Moses to lead from their bondage and gave him the Ten Commandments (the Koran’s Criterion for Right and Wrong). About three hundred years passed between the time of the last of the Old Testament prophets and the appearance of Jesus, and six hundred years passed from the time of Jesus until the time of Mohammed. The Koran speaks of a period of cessation in prophecy between the times of Jesus and of Mohammed, and it speaks as well of the time that elapsed between Mohammed’s first and second Revelations. Since Mohammed the Jews are still waiting for the Messiah, the Christians for the second coming of Jesus, and Muslims for the Mahdi, and no new prophets have been produced.
The rise of science during the last three hundred years and the meteoritic rise in technology have caused many people to doubt the authenticity of the Revelation that was received so long ago. In the Western world faith in science has replaced faith in religion, and the two sometimes seem incompatible.
THE REVELATION GIVEN TO JOSEPH SMITH
Joseph Smith and his family were farmers in upstate New York in the early part of the 19th Century. They considered themselves Christians, but they objected to the practices of the Protestant churches in their area, and they did not aligned themselves with them. Joseph Smith read the Bible and prayed for understanding.
He affirmed that during the night of September 21, 1823, while he was praying, “a light appeared in my room, which continued to increase until the room was lighter than a noonday,” and the Angel Moroni appeared before him.
Not only was his robe exceedingly white, but his whole person was glorious beyond description, and his countenance truly like lightning. When I first looked at him, I was afraid, but the fear soon left me. He called me by name and said unto me that he was a messenger sent from the presence of God to me, and that his name was Moroni; that God had a work for me to do; and that my name should be known for good and evil among all nations, kindreds, and tongues, or that it should be both good and evil spoken of among all people.
He said there was a book deposited, written upon gold plates, giving an account of the former inhabitants of this continent, and the source from whence they sprang. He said that the fullness of the everlasting Gospel was contained in it, as delivered by the Savior to the ancient inhabitants;
Also, that there were two stones in silver bows—and these stones, fastened to a breastplate, constituted what is called the Urim and Thummin—deposited with the plates; and the possession and use of these stones were what constituted Seers in ancient or former times; and God had prepared them for the purpose of translating the book.” (The Book of Mormon, an Account Written by the Hand of Mormon Upon Plates, Take from the Plates of Nephi, translated by Joseph Smith, Jr. Salt Lake City, UT: The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints. 1976. From the Origin of the Book of Mormon Section, page 1.)
Moroni told Smith that the time for the plates to be obtained was not yet fulfilled, and he was to show them only to the people to whom he was commanded. Though his family was impoverished, he was warned that he could not take possession of them for monetary gain. “While he was conversing with me about the plates, a vision was opened in the mind that I could see the place where the plates were deposited, and that so clearly and distinctly that I knew the place again when I visited it.” After delivering his message “a conduit” opened to heaven and Moroni ascended, but he returned three more times during the night to repeat his words to Smith.
Near the village of Manchester, Ontario County, New York, stands a hill called Cumorah. According to Smith, the plates were in a stone box buried on the west side of this hill. Smith was not allowed to remove the plates for four years, until September 22, 1827.
He had no sooner removed them than various people who had heard of them made strenuous efforts to take them from Smith and his family. Each gold plate was of the thickness of a coin and about 6 by 8½ inches in size. They were engraved in a language called New Egyptian. Smith went to New York City to find someone who could translate them, but when he failed, he translated them himself with the assistance of a few trusted colleagues. Joseph Smith himself and several of the witnesses who saw him translate make reference to a divine tool called the Urim and Thummim that he had received from the angel to assist in the work. They were first published in 1830.
REVELATION AS CONTAINED IN THE BOOK OF MORMON
Numerous ancient authors had engraved the plates. Their chronicle runs for a thousand years, from 600 bc to 421 ad. The first author was a man named Nephi. According to him, in 600 bc, (after the time of the prophet Isaiah and shortly before the fall of the Southern kingdom to the Babylonians and the exile in 586 bc) there was a prophet named Lehi from the house of Joseph who lived in Jerusalem with his family. Because Lehi testified against the wickedness of the people and foretold the Babylonian captivity and the coming of the Lamb of God, he was mocked and his life was threatened. In a dream he was commanded to take his family and to depart into the wilderness, taking nothing with them.
Lehi sent several of his sons, one of whom was Nephi, back to Jerusalem to obtain some brass plates containing the record of the Jews and the genealogy of their forefathers which were in the possession of their older brother Laban who had remained behind. After Nephi was commanded to slay Laban, they brought the plates to their father. Nephi was then commanded to build a ship, and the family of Lehi sailed over the Irreantum, or many waters, reaching the continent of America in 590 bc. There Nephi’s brothers, Laman and Lemuel, rebelled against his leadership as he was the younger brother, and the Nephites, the family of Nephi, separated from the Lamanites, the families of the rebellious brothers. For the next 1000 years, the Book of Mormon describes the wars that were fought between the Nephites and the Lamanites. Because of their wickedness, it says that the skin of the Lamanites turned dark.
One of the astonishing things that can be concluded from reading the Book of Mormon is that some American Indians might be the descendants of Jews who came to America 600 years before the birth of Jesus. Another is that, though the Nephites were Jews, they believed in Jesus Christ and established Christian churches hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus. The Book of Mormon asserts that the diaspora was caused when the Jews in Palestine rejected Jesus as the Messiah. In the last days before the Second Coming, Mormons believe that the Jews will acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and will be restored to their special designation as the Chosen people of God.
The Book of Mormon, furthermore, affirms that Jesus is God, indivisible from God, and it affirms his pre-existence from the foundation of the world. Just as the New Testament, the Book of Mormon therefore stands in opposition to the Revelation in the Koran with its frequent exhortations against assigning partners to God.
IF’S!
If Mohammed were to be accepted by Jews and Christians as an authentic prophet of God in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets and Jesus, and if the Koran were recognized as authentic Revelation, then we can draw some rather amazing conclusions from what the Koran has to tell us. Some may find these conclusions shocking; however, they are the natural outcome of this study.
Since the Jews and Arabs both trace their ancestors to Abraham, the Jews through Isaac and the Arabs through Ishmael, both Jews and Arabs should acknowledge their common heritage: they are one another’s long lost cousins, so to speak. Were they to do this, the hostility between them would surely lessen.
If the Jews accepted the Koran as authentic Revelation from God within the tradition of the Old Testament prophets, then they would also have to accept Jesus as the Messiah because the Koran affirms that he is.
If Christians accepted the Koran as authentic Revelation from God they would know that the virgin birth of Jesus was confirmed. The Koran does not, however, confirm that Jesus died on the cross. The Koran says: “ And because of their [the Jews] saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah’s messenger—They slew him not nor crucified, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! Those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain. But Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise.” (Surah 4: 156-158)
The ramifications of this are great. Christian theology stresses that Jesus died for the sins of mankind. If, as the Koran says, it only appeared that Jesus had died, (the Koran calls it a “semblance” when in fact Allah took him up unto Himself), then much of Christian theology would be at stake.
If Christians accept the Koran as authentic Revelation from God, they would have to admit that the early church fathers and the bishops who attended the Nicene Council in 325 ad exaggerated the nature of Jesus, as expressed in the Nicene Creed, when they devised the Trinitarian formula that made him part of the Godhead along with the Holy Ghost. That would mean that they must stop worshipping Jesus as the Son of God and worship God alone. It would not, however, alter the essence of Christianity, based on the teachings of Jesus.
Since the Koran affirms that Jesus was the Messiah, it is surprising that Muslims do not lay more emphasis on his teachings, particularly his teaching with regard to forgiveness. Recent worldwide conflicts reflect the ancient hatreds that various ethnic groups bear their neighbors and their willingness to wreak vengeance upon one another. Only forgiveness can relieve the world of the suffering that is the outcome of this hatred and desire for revenge.
MOHAMMED AS THE “PARACLETE”
During the course of writing this book a Muslim friend gave me a book by Ahmed Deedat, a Muslim who was born in India in 1918 but who made his home in South Africa. A scholar, Mr. Deedat has studied the Bible and written and lectured extensively on his findings. The book my friend gave me is called The Choice–Islam and Christianity, volume one.
In the third chapter Mr. Deedat writes, “To the sincere seekers of Truth it is obvious that Mohammed (pbuh (Peace Be Upon Him)) is the promised Paraclete or Comforter, alternatively called Helper, Advocate, Counselor, etc., that Jesus (pbuh) prophesied in the Gospel of John. The passages Mr. Deedat refers to are:
If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you.” (John 14: 15-17)
These things I have spoken to you, while I am still with you. But the Counselor, and the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14: 25-26)
When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has in mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (John 16: 13-17)
As a Christian I had accepted the Holy Ghost or Spirit as an anonymous spirit whose work was made most visible during Pentecost, so I laughed when I first thought of Mohammed being that Holy Spirit or the paraclete, but as I thought about it more, I could see why Dr. Deedat and other Muslims think he was. If one studies Revelation, as I have done that I might write this book, one sees that usually the promises of God are answered in a concrete fashion. The earth was not visited, for example, by an amorphous spirit, but by a flesh-and-blood messiah, Jesus Christ. John the Baptist, too, was not an amorphous spirit, visiting the world to announcement the coming of the messiah, but a flesh-and-blood prophet, proclaiming the Word of the Lord.
Jesus must have known that after God assumed him some exaggerations and misconceptions concerning him would arise. Therefore, it stands to reason that Jesus was predicting another prophet who would come after him, whose duty it would be was to teach the truth concerning him and his ministry when he said, “for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” The description perfectly fits the Prophet Mohammed.
ALLAH WILL INFORM US ACCORDING TO HOW WE DIFFER
From this study we can conclude that the biggest obstacle preventing Christians and Muslims from coming to an understanding between them is the ancient controversy over the nature of Jesus. Christians all over the world recite and have recited the Nicene creed since it was adopted at the Nicene Council in 325 ad, claiming that Jesus is “the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father. Through him all things were made, of one being with the Father, . . .” words that are an abomination to Muslims who believe that God has no partners and that it is beneath his Sovereignty to beget human children. In Volume Two of this study, we will recall how so many Christians lost their lives throughout the centuries for denying the “truth” of the Nicene Creed.
Resolving this difference is no easy task for it would require that Christians make a concession that most would be unwilling to make. Even if common sense dictates the Muslims are correct—even if Jesus were a companion of God’s, like the angels, long before his incarnation by the Holy Spirit, it makes little sense to call him God in the same manner that the Creator of the entire Universe is God. The godly powers he possessed, the power to heal the sick, to forgive sins, and to raise people from the dead, were, as the Koran points out, by Allah’s leave, not because he was God himself or in any way equal to God. To open this matter to debate would be to resurrect the Arian heresy of old. The Koran does not say that Jesus was not the Messiah; it does not deny the truth of his teachings; it says only that Christians have “exaggerated” their religion.
Such a concession drives at the heart of Christianity. If Christians thought they had been deceived in this matter, their very faith might be at stake. If the Christians did concede, an unlikely possibility, we might wonder what concession the Muslims would be asked to make. We have seen from our study the importance of Jesus in the Koran. If the Koran calls Jesus the Messiah, as it does in numerous surahs, then he is also the Messiah for Muslims, their expectation for the mahdi not withstanding.
Westerners most often criticize Muslims for the absolutism of their religion, for their subjugation of women, and for their perceived fanaticism. If Muslims were to more whole-heartedly embrace the teachings of Jesus, especially those in regard to forgiveness, world peace would have a better chance. We will never have peace, I believe, in any abiding fashion until all peoples possess a readiness to forgive their brothers and their enemies, no matter the offenses that have been committed.
When I started this study I had some hope that it would be a step towards reconciliation among Jews, Christians and Muslims. I thought that there could be no contradiction in Revelation. I now see that Christianity and Islam cannot be reconciled because there is for Christians too much Revelation that substantiates Jesus as the Son of God and affirms his pre-existence from the beginning of time for them to set aside this belief in deference to the Koran’s edict to “Cease Three!” I think it more likely for the Jews to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah than for Christians to set aside their faith in Jesus as God to comply with Revelation of the Koran. This is not the conclusion that I thought I would reach when I began.
I do not know why those who recited the Revelation to Mohammed made such a fuss about not assigning partners to God or why the Revelation in the New Testament and Book of Mormon affirm that Jesus is God and that he existed from the beginning of time. The only unequivocal conclusion I can make comes from the Koran itself when it says that on Judgment Day Allah will inform us according to how we differ.
WHAT’S NEXT?
In the next volume of this study we will trace the interaction among Jews, Christians and Muslims for the past 1,300 years. That there has not been a great deal of dialogue among them and that they have viewed one another more often as enemies than friends indicate how deeply ingrained our prejudices are.
It is sadly ironic that during the Crusades that both the Christians and the Muslims called each another “infidels.” In the 15th Century, Greek and Latin scholarship were fashionable in Rome; but the suggestion of an affinity between Jewish thought and the Gospels was unwelcome. Pico drew up nine hundred theological, ethical, mathematical, and philosophical theses that Christianity had drawn from Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Latin sources. In 1486, proposing to defend his position against any opponent, he invited humanists from all over the continent to Rome to debate them. No one came.
If as late as the 15th Century, Christians were still rejecting the degree to which Jewish thought had influenced the Gospel, it is not surprising that in our time they are unwilling to accept the Koran as a commentary on it. Apparently it takes a long time for us to recognize our common roots and establish tolerance for one another.
Since the sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, were half-brothers, we can say that the Arabs and the Jews are one another’s long lost cousins. Both claim Abraham as their father. (Christians also claim him as the spiritual father of Christianity.) It is significant that the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was replaced by the Muslim Dome of the Rock in the end of the 7th Century, and the Great Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople became a mosque in 1453.
In the next volume we will recount the dramatic rise of Islam after the time of Mohammed. In 78 years it spread like wildfire from Arabia to Morocco and Spain in the west and to India in the east. By 710 ad, Islam had issued the biggest challenge to the newly formed Christians nations of Europe that they had yet encountered. The great Byzantine Empire was soon defending its borders from Muslim encroachment. The walls of Constantinople withstood invasion for a thousand years until 1453. The Ottoman Empire already controlled the Balkans by that time.
In the middle of the 15th Century, Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, which changed the face of world by making printed materials widely available and making literacy the standard of education.
The year 1492 is a watershed in the history of world: not only was it the year Columbus sailed for the East Indies and discovered the New World, but it was also the year when the Jews and Muslims were expelled from Spain. The 16th Century saw both a rise in scientific inquiry due to the spirit of Renaissance and Martin Luther’s challenge against the excesses and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. As soon as Protestantism got a foothold, Europe was torn asunder by the forces of the Reformation and the Counter Reformation.
Meanwhile, the horrific practices of the Spanish and Roman Inquisitions ravaged Europe and the New World from the 15th Century through the mid-19th Century, when they were formally outlawed. During this time Islam suffered a decline, but the Islamic nations were awaken from their slumber by the colonialism of the 19th Century which thrust them into the modern world they both admired and detested. All these things we will examine in detail in the next volume.
These things have much to do with our conflicts today. Modern people bemoan the atrocities committed in the name of religion. Man’s cleverness exceeds his ability to understand and tolerate people of other racial backgrounds and religious persuasions. Technology changes so rapidly and has so speeded communications and our sense of the passage of time that when we reach fifty many of us feel that the world has passed us by.
No matter how fast technology develops, we are emotional creatures, and we cannot hasten the time it takes to process our emotions. If this is true for us individually, it is all the more true for us collectively. Only now, over fifty years since the end of World War II, are we able to comprehend the enormity of the Holocaust. It has taken five hundred years for Catholics and Protestants to engage in talks to lay aside their differences and heal the schism created by Protestantism. Only now, after 1,300 years of conflict between them, does the Pope recognize the need for Christian dialogue with Muslims.
I have written this volume in the hope that increased knowledge will lead to greater understanding and tolerance among Jews, Christians and Muslims–the descendants of Abraham, the people to whom Revelation has been given. With the help of the One God of all of them, it might.
