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

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{{main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance}}
{{main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance}}
The Quranic story of Dhu'l Qarnayn is narrated in {{Quran-range|18|83|101}}, and is perhaps the most famous example of an intertextual relationship between the Quran and a non-biblical legend. Academic scholars consider the Quranic pericope to be closely connected to the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', which has Alexander the Great voyaging to the ends of the earth to see where the sun sets and also describes its rising place, before he secures the Huns (including Gog and Magog) behind an iron wall. The academic consensus today is that the story was composed in the sixth century CE, with a small interpolation around 629-30 CE to make it relevant to a later context (previously, a prominent view had been that the whole legend was composed at that later date, but this is now rejected). The legend of Alexander enclosing Gog and Magog behind a iron barrier is first found several centuries earlier in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. For a detailed discussion, see the main article.
The Quranic story of Dhu'l Qarnayn is narrated in {{Quran-range|18|83|101}}, and is perhaps the most famous example of an intertextual relationship between the Quran and a non-biblical legend. Academic scholars consider the Quranic pericope to be closely connected to the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', which has Alexander the Great voyaging to the ends of the earth to see where the sun sets and also describes its rising place, before he secures the Huns (including Gog and Magog) behind an iron wall. The academic consensus today is that the story was composed in the sixth century CE, with a small interpolation around 629-30 CE to make it relevant to a later context (previously, a prominent view had been that the whole legend was composed at that later date, but this is now rejected). The legend of Alexander enclosing Gog and Magog behind a iron barrier is first found several centuries earlier in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. For a detailed discussion, see the main article.
==Jesus speaking from the cradle==
The story of the baby Jesus speaking is found in Q 19:29-31 and Q 3:46 (similarly Q 5:110).
{{Quote|{{Quran-range|19|29|31}}|So she pointed to him. They said, "How can we speak to one who is in the cradle a child?"? [Jesus] said, "Indeed, I am the servant of Allah. He has given me the Scripture and made me a prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I am and has enjoined upon me prayer and zakah as long as I remain alive}}
{{Quote|{{Quran|3|46}}|He will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity and will be of the righteous."}}
Reynolds remarks, "The reference in verse 46 to Jesus' speaking 'to the people in the cradle' (cf. 5:110, 19:29) refers to a tradition found in the Latin ''Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew'' (likely written in the early seventh century".<ref>Reynolds, Gabriel Said Reynolds, ''The Quran and Bible'', p. 120</ref> 
{{Quote|[http://wesley.nnu.edu/biblical_studies/noncanon/gospels/psudomat.htm The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew: Chapter 20]|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.}}
For a discussion of the dating for Pseudo-Matthew, and an earlier 5th century CE source with much the same story, see the section on Jesus, Mary and the Palm Tree above. That 5th century source (at the latest) is the Dormition of Mary, which relates that Jesus miraculously spoke to his father at the age of 5 months when the family were thirsty:
{{Quote|Dormition of Mary<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) pp. 19-21</ref>|And the child stopped [nursing from] your breast, this one who is greater than all things, and he said to Joseph, ‘My father, why don’t you climb this date-palm and bring it to her, so that my mother might eat from it, as was said about it. And I will feed you: not only you, but also the fruit that comes forth from it. I will not be hungry even for one day.’ And the child turned and said to the date-palm, ‘Incline your head with your fruit, and satisfy my mother and father.’ And it inclined immediately.}}
A different story found in the ''Arabic Infancy Gospel'' (also known as the Syriac Infancy Gospel), is sometimes cited as a possible antecedent of the Quranic tale that Jesus spoke in infancy. However, academic scholars tend to doubt that it is pre-Islamic. The ''Arabic Infancy Gospel'' combines elements from the ''Childhood of the Saviour'', ''Protoevangelium of James'', and ''Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew''.
See also the sirah passage quoted in the section below about Jesus and the Clay Birds, in which three Christians are narrated as having informed Muhammad that Jesus spoke in the cradle as well as other miracles.


==Jesus and the Clay Birds==
==Jesus and the Clay Birds==
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