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Isa al-Masih (Jesus Christ): Difference between revisions
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→Masīḥ in the Qurʾan: Small edit on Jesus not being a particularly prominent character across the Qur'an, citing Angelika Neuwirth.
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(→The Conception of Isa: Have added a section on the loss of theological meaning of 'the messiah' from the bible to the Quran, citing the academic works of Mark Durie and Nicolai Sinai - highlighting it's difference to the Christian Jesus.) |
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Despite its potential semantic analysability, however, the expression al-masīḥ appears to be little more than a fossilised title in the Qur’an that does not convey any properly messianic expectations of the sort that imbue the New Testament title christos (Robinson 2003b, 12–13; Durie 2018, 157–164; see also QP 310–311). The fact that al-masīḥ can be followed by the matronymic “son of Mary” without an intervening “Jesus” (see Q 5:17.72.75) further heightens the impression that it behaves largely like an alternative proper name for Jesus; although al-masīḥ may formally be described as a laqab or “descriptive epithet,” which “would normally have a recognizable meaning” (Durie 2018, 161), there is no clear Qur’anic evidence to confirm that the Qur’an’s addressees did in fact connect the title al-masīḥ with the verb masaḥa, “to wipe,” which is only employed in the context of regulating the ablutions to be performed before prayer (Q 4:43, 5:6). Translationally, this state of affairs is best conveyed by rendering al-masīḥ as “Christ” rather than as “the Messiah” or “the anointed one,” seeing that in ordinary English usage “Christ” has come to function as a semantically opaque quasi-surname of Jesus (thus also Stewart 2021, 54–56). | Despite its potential semantic analysability, however, the expression al-masīḥ appears to be little more than a fossilised title in the Qur’an that does not convey any properly messianic expectations of the sort that imbue the New Testament title christos (Robinson 2003b, 12–13; Durie 2018, 157–164; see also QP 310–311). The fact that al-masīḥ can be followed by the matronymic “son of Mary” without an intervening “Jesus” (see Q 5:17.72.75) further heightens the impression that it behaves largely like an alternative proper name for Jesus; although al-masīḥ may formally be described as a laqab or “descriptive epithet,” which “would normally have a recognizable meaning” (Durie 2018, 161), there is no clear Qur’anic evidence to confirm that the Qur’an’s addressees did in fact connect the title al-masīḥ with the verb masaḥa, “to wipe,” which is only employed in the context of regulating the ablutions to be performed before prayer (Q 4:43, 5:6). Translationally, this state of affairs is best conveyed by rendering al-masīḥ as “Christ” rather than as “the Messiah” or “the anointed one,” seeing that in ordinary English usage “Christ” has come to function as a semantically opaque quasi-surname of Jesus (thus also Stewart 2021, 54–56). | ||
The epithet al-masīḥ entered Arabic prior to the Qur’an: it is reported that ʿabd al-masīḥ, “servant of Christ,” was a pre-Islamic proper name (KU 130). This is confirmed by a Nabataeo-Arabic inscription from the region around Najrān (Robin et al. 2014, 1125). Moreover, the title ms1ḥ, “Messiah,” features in Epigraphic South Arabian inscriptions by the Christian king Abraha (Sima 2004, 25; Robin 2015a, 153–154, 164, 169).}} | The epithet al-masīḥ entered Arabic prior to the Qur’an: it is reported that ʿabd al-masīḥ, “servant of Christ,” was a pre-Islamic proper name (KU 130). This is confirmed by a Nabataeo-Arabic inscription from the region around Najrān (Robin et al. 2014, 1125). Moreover, the title ms1ḥ, “Messiah,” features in Epigraphic South Arabian inscriptions by the Christian king Abraha (Sima 2004, 25; Robin 2015a, 153–154, 164, 169).}}This also may be why despite being called the Messiah, he does not feature particularly prominently in the Qur'an. | ||
{{Quote|Neuwirth, Angelika. The Qur'an and Late Antiquity: A Shared Heritage (Oxford Studies in Late Antiquity) (p. 290). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.|It is initially striking that, notwithstanding the numerous Christian traditions reflected in the Qur’an,<sup>56</sup> the figure of Jesus himself is not very prominent in the Qur’an. At his first appearance, he does not figure independently but rather as an accompanying figure in a story about his mother, and remains closely bound up to her. The Qur’anic Jesus, ʿĪsā, bears the matronymic Ibn Maryam, “son of Mary,” obviously a polemically motivated “overwriting” of his Christian title “Son of God,” and this already signals his exclusively inner-worldly role in the Qur’an. The story of his life is not told coherently, but individual reports are scattered throughout the entire Qur’an,<sup>57</sup> without crystalizing into a coherent vita, as for example in the case of Moses.}} | |||
==No More Than a Messenger== | ==No More Than a Messenger== | ||