Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature: Difference between revisions

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Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature (view source)

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Note how Aisha noticed Muhammad vigorously adopting the Jewish belief of ‘punishment in the grave’ only ''after'' she had told him the tale. Before she told him she never saw this belief in him.
Note how Aisha noticed Muhammad vigorously adopting the Jewish belief of ‘punishment in the grave’ only ''after'' she had told him the tale. Before she told him she never saw this belief in him.


=Sources of Individual Qur'anic Narratives=
==Possible channels for intertextuality==


There is strong evidence from the sahih hadiths that Muhammad learned at least some of them from Zaid bin 'Amr bin Nufail. These hadiths show that Zaid told the then still-pagan Muhammad about Allah and the religion of Abraham. Also of note is how Zaid claimed before the Ka'aba that he was the only one of the Quraysh who followed the religion of Abraham which he learned from a Jew and a Christian:  
There is strong evidence from the sahih hadiths that Muhammad learned at least some of them from Zaid bin 'Amr bin Nufail. These hadiths show that Zaid told the then still-pagan Muhammad about Allah and the religion of Abraham. Also of note is how Zaid claimed before the Ka'aba that he was the only one of the Quraysh who followed the religion of Abraham which he learned from a Jew and a Christian:  
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===Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew===
===Gospel of Pseudo-Mathew===


Quranic verse 19:22-26 is a clear parallel of the account found in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew.  
Quranic verse 19:22-26 is a clear parallel of the account found in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. In this account Jesus has already been born, but he is still a baby during the flight to Egypt. The family are hungry and thirsty, resting under a palm tree. As in the Quran, Jesus performs the miracles of making the palm tree drop fruit and a stream appear beneath it.


{{Quote|[http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/gospels/psudomat.htm The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: Chapter 20]|And it came to pass on the third day of their journey, while they were walking, that the blessed Mary was fatigued by the excessive heat of the sun in the desert; and seeing a palm tree, she said to Joseph: Let me rest a little under the shade of this tree. Joseph therefore made haste, and led her to the palm, and made her come down from her beast. And as the blessed Mary was sitting there, she looked up to the foliage of the palm, and saw it full of fruit, and said to Joseph: I wish it were possible to get some of the fruit of this palm. And Joseph said to her: I wonder that thou sayest this, when thou seest how high the palm tree is; and that thou thinkest of eating of its fruit. I am thinking more of the want of water, because the skins are now empty, and we have none wherewith to refresh ourselves and our cattle. Then the child Jesus, with a joyful countenance, reposing in the bosom of His mother, said to the palm: O tree, bend thy branches, and refresh my mother with thy fruit. And immediately at these words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed Mary; and they gathered from it fruit, with which they were all refreshed. And after they had gathered all its fruit, it remained bent down, waiting the order to rise from Him who bad commanded it to stoop. Then Jesus said to it: Raise thyself, O palm tree, and be strong, and be the companion of my trees, which are in the paradise of my Father; and open from thy roots a vein of water which has been hid in the earth, and let the waters flow, so that we may be satisfied from thee. And it rose up immediately, and at its root there began to come forth a spring of water exceedingly clear and cool and sparkling. And when they saw the spring of water, they rejoiced with great joy, and were satisfied, themselves and all their cattle and their beasts. Wherefore they gave thanks to God.”}}
{{Quote|[http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/gospels/psudomat.htm The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: Chapter 20]|And it came to pass on the third day of their journey, while they were walking, that the blessed Mary was fatigued by the excessive heat of the sun in the desert; and seeing a palm tree, she said to Joseph: Let me rest a little under the shade of this tree. Joseph therefore made haste, and led her to the palm, and made her come down from her beast. And as the blessed Mary was sitting there, she looked up to the foliage of the palm, and saw it full of fruit, and said to Joseph: I wish it were possible to get some of the fruit of this palm. And Joseph said to her: I wonder that thou sayest this, when thou seest how high the palm tree is; and that thou thinkest of eating of its fruit. I am thinking more of the want of water, because the skins are now empty, and we have none wherewith to refresh ourselves and our cattle. Then the child Jesus, with a joyful countenance, reposing in the bosom of His mother, said to the palm: O tree, bend thy branches, and refresh my mother with thy fruit. And immediately at these words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed Mary; and they gathered from it fruit, with which they were all refreshed. And after they had gathered all its fruit, it remained bent down, waiting the order to rise from Him who bad commanded it to stoop. Then Jesus said to it: Raise thyself, O palm tree, and be strong, and be the companion of my trees, which are in the paradise of my Father; and open from thy roots a vein of water which has been hid in the earth, and let the waters flow, so that we may be satisfied from thee. And it rose up immediately, and at its root there began to come forth a spring of water exceedingly clear and cool and sparkling. And when they saw the spring of water, they rejoiced with great joy, and were satisfied, themselves and all their cattle and their beasts. Wherefore they gave thanks to God.”}}
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===Dating issues===
===Dating issues===
   
   
The dating of this apocrypha is contentious. Most scholars date it to the fourth or fifth century, although some date it later to the eighth or ninth century. However, the balance of probability suggests that it pre-dates Islam. This is due to its reference in the ‘Decretum Gelasianum De Libris Recipiendis Et Non Recipiendis’ as ‘the book of the nativity of the saviour and of Mary or the midwife’.<ref>[http://www.tertullian.org/decretum_eng.htm THE 'DECRETUM GELASIANUM DE LIBRIS RECIPIENDIS ET NON RECIPIENDIS'] tertullian.org</ref>
The dating of this Latin apocrypha is of uncertain date, with the oldest surving manuscript dating to around 820 CE. In 2011, Michael Berthold identified that one of its sources is the Pseudo-Ambrosian ''Life of Saint Agnes'', which is used by another work around 690 CE so this source is earlier than that. St. Agnes is thought to have lived some time from the 5th to 7th century. Other more speculative arguments suggest an earliest date of the mid sixth century for Pseudo Matthew. Considering all these insights from other scholars, Brandon Hawk gives it a date range of 550 - 800 CE.<ref>Brandon Hawk, 2020 [https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Gospel_of_Pseudo_Matthew_and_the_Nat/V-nyDwAAQBAJ The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Nativity of Mary] Cambridge, UK: James Clark & Co, pp.25-26</ref>


(Note: Apocrypha are known by various names, particularly in translations.)
Fortunately, Stephen Shoemaker has identified a precursor of the Mary palm tree story in a set of early 5th century CE texts (at the latest) known as the Dormition of the Virgin, for which we have later fifth century Syriac manuscript fragments as the earliest textual witnesses<ref>Ibid. p. 16</ref> In this version, the infant Jesus commands the palm tree to bow down and provide fruit, as in Pseudo-Matthew, but it is already located by a stream rather than the stream being a second miracle as in Pseudo-Matthew and the Quran.<ref>Stephen Shoemaker, [https://www.academia.edu/1057321/Christmas_in_the_Qur%C3%A4n_the_Qur%C3%A4nic_account_of_Jesuss_nativity_and_Palestinian_local_tradition Christmas in the Qur’an: the Qur’anic Account of Jesus’ Nativity and Palestinian Local Tradition] Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam 28, 11-39 (2003)</ref> Nevertheless, this is proof enough that the story was developing in the region well before the 7th century CE.
 
The Decretum is said to have been issued by ''Pope Gelasius I'' (492-496 AD) in 494 AD, although some scholars claim it was wrongly attributed to ''Gelasius I'' and believe it to have actually been written in the sixth century.<ref>Catholic Encyclopedia - [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03281a.htm Collections of Ancient Canons] newadvent.org</ref>
 
 
'''Here are some evidence for the dating of the apocrypha:'''
 
{{Quote||''Pseudo-Matthew, Gospel of'', a late Latin infancy gospel of 8th or 9th century. Our earliest MSS are of the 11th century. When certain infancy gospels had been condemned by Popes Damasus, Innocent I, and the Gelasian Decree popular interest seems to have motivated the writing of Pseudo-Matthew. It is substantially a rewrite, with additions, omissions, changes of the Protoevangelium of James and the Gospel of Thomas. It seems also to have aimed at the veneration of Mary as Queen of Virgins. It had great influence on medieval literature and art.<ref>[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/most/getwork.cfm?worknum=224 The MOST Theological Collection: Apocrypha NT] catholicculture.org</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||When asking about sources or origins of the Nativity, we are well advised to look with one eye to the Bible (the Infancy Narrations in Luke and Matthew), and with the other eye, to the so-called apocryphal writings. Among them are four I would like to mention: the Pseudo-Gospel of James (150-2--), where the midwife and her friend are mentioned; the Arabic Infancy Gospel (500); the Book about the Infancy of the Savior (500-800); and the Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew (550-700).<ref>The Mary Page - [http://www.udayton.edu/mary/questions/yq2/yq335.htm mary: question 1] campus.udayton.edu</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||''Gospel of St. Matthew'': This is a Latin composition of the fourth or fifth century. It pretends to have been written by St. Matthew and translated by St. Jerome. Pseudo-Matthew is in large part parallel to the "Protoevangelium Jacobi", being based on the latter or its sources. It differs in some particulars always in the direction of the more marvellous. Some of its data have replaced in popular belief parallel ones of the older pseudograph. Such is the age of fourteen in which Mary was betrothed to Joseph. A narrative of the flight into Egypt is adorned with poetic wonders. The dragons, lions, and other wild beasts of the desert adore the infant Jesus. At His word the palm-trees bow their heads that the Holy Family may pluck their fruit. The idols of Egypt are shattered when the Divine Child enters the land. The "Gospel of the Nativity of Mary" is a recast of the Pseudo-Matthew, but reaches only to the birth of Jesus. It is extant in a Latin manuscript of the tenth century.<ref>Catholic Encyclopedia - [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01601a.htm#III1 Apocrypha: Apocryphal gospels] newadvent.org</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||Tisdall: The Pseudo-Matthew (otherwise called Hist. Nativ. Mariae) "may belong to the fifth century." (Cowper, p. 27; cf. Introd., p. liv.)<ref>[http://muhammadanism.org/Crescent/p166.htm The Religion of the Crescent p166] muhammadanism.org</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||Jacques Hervieux writes in "The New Testament Apocrypha", published by Hawthorn Books, page 18: "About the sixth century there appeared in Latin a certain book on the birth of the Blessed Mary and of the Savior's infancy. An introductory letter presented this new work as a "supplement" to the Gospel of St. Matthew, translated personally by St. Jerome the great fourth century exegete." "The New Testament Apocrypha", Hawthorn Books. <ref>[http://answering-islam.org/Responses/Saifullah/borrow.htm Responses to Islamic Awareness: On The Bible Borrowing Theories Of The Qur'ân: An Authoritative Refutation] answering-islam.org</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew. The "Protoevangelium Jacobi" has its Latin counterpart in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, entitled Liber de Ortu Beatae Mariae et Infantia Salvatoris,[15] the contents of which are much the same as that of the "Protoevangelium," plus the subject matter of the "Gospel of Thomas." It is a compilation of the fifth century.<ref>The Rev. J. Tixeront, D.D.[http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/tixeront/section1-3.html A Handbook of Patrology: The Heretical and Apocryphal Literature of the Second Century] English Edition, 1920. earlychristianwritings.com</ref>}}
 
{{Quote||The greater number of the authorities on the subject, however, seem to agree in assigning to the first four centuries of the Christian era, the following five books: 1. The Protevangelium of James; 2. The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew; 4. The History of Joseph the Carpenter; 5. The Gospel of Thomas; 9. The Gospel of Nicodemus.<ref>[http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/ANF-08/anf08-66.htm The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First] ccel.org</ref>}}


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