Qur'anic Christology: Difference between revisions

Qur'anic Christology (view source)

Revision as of 03:43, 6 December 2025

937 bytes removed , 03:43

→‎The Virgin Birth: cleaning up language

[checked revision]

Asmith

Editors, recentchangescleanup, Reviewers

5,287

edits

@@ Line 29: / Line 29: @@
 {{Quote|{{Quran|4|171}}|Christ Jesus the son of Mary ... |}}
-This fact is of great importance since the term "Messiah" is just the Hebrew translation of "Christ" (the anointed one). Thus, we can begin to talk about a Qur'anic Christology. However, it does not necessarily mean that Jesus is the son of God, like most Christians believe.
+This fact is of great importance since the term "Messiah" is just the Hebrew translation of "Christ" (the anointed one). Thus, we can speak of a Qur'anic Christology. However, it does not necessarily mean that Jesus is the son of God, like most Christians believe.
 The reason is that the term Messiah has many different meanings in Judaism and Christianity. Jewish people usually refer to a Messiah as the promised king, prophet or religious leader of Israel, the one who leads the Jewish people out of oppression. In Christianity - on the other hand - the word has become almost a synonym for the son of God in whom all promises are fulfilled.
-But what kind of messiah is the Qur'an talking about? A Jewish king? A Jewish prophet? The Christian redeemer? To be honest, the fact that the Qur'an calls Jesus a Messiah does not necessarily imply that he is or has ever been the son of God; however, it can easily lead to confusion and misunderstandings. One might ask in what way the term Messiah serves the Islamic idea that Jesus was only a human being. In other words: Is it useful in any manner for the authors of the Qur'an to accept that Jesus was the Christ? It further seems that someone labeled "Christ" could be a mere prophet, as the Messiah is commonly understood to play a dominant role in [[w:apocalyptic|apocalyptic]] speculations.
+But what kind of messiah is the Qur'an talking about? A Jewish king? A Jewish prophet? The Christian redeemer? To be honest, the fact that the Qur'an calls Jesus a Messiah does not necessarily imply that he is or has ever been the son of God; however, it can easily lead to confusion and misunderstandings. This begs the question of  in what way the term Messiah serves the Islamic idea that Jesus was only a human being. In other words: Is it useful in any manner for the author(s) of the Qur'an to accept that Jesus was the Christ? It further seems that someone labeled "Christ" could be a mere prophet, as the Messiah is commonly understood to play a dominant role in [[w:apocalyptic|apocalyptic]] speculations.
-We also know from all the three synoptic gospels, that the apostle Peter, who later became the first leader of the Christian church, was also the first to confess that Jesus was the Christ. Without any doubt, this was an important milestone for Christianity:
+According to all of the three synoptic gospels, the apostle Peter, who later became the first leader of the Christian church, was also the first to confess that Jesus was the Christ. This is an important historical point in early church (pseudo)history:
 {{Quote|1=[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%208:%2029&version=NIV Mark 8:29] See also: [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2016:%2016&version=NIV Matthew 16:16] and [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%209:%2020&version=NIV Luke 9:20]|2=He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered, "You are the Christ."}}
-This appears to be the first inconsistency in the Qur'anic argumentation. If somebody does not agree that Jesus was more than a prophet then it cannot be useful to recognize him also as Christ because it leads to confusions and misunderstandings. But why does the Qur'an use this term then? One answer is that perhaps the author does not understand that there are many meanings and sophisticated concepts behind the word Messiah.
+This appears to be the first inconsistency in the Qur'anic argumentation. If Jesus being the Christ has meaning in the context of Christian theology, but its meaning in the Qur'an as a title is not clear. Why does the Qur'an use this term then? One answer is that perhaps the author(s) does not understand that there are many meanings and sophisticated concepts behind the word Messiah.
-Let us now have a look to the birth of Jesus, which is extensively referred to in Surah 19 (Maria). According to this record, the Qur'an accepts the [[Virgin Conception of Jesus in the Qur'an|Virginity of Mary]], which is also being described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It should be noted that this story cannot be found in the gospels of Mark and John and that there are many scholars who do not believe that this story can be considered as a historical fact. There are also assertions that a translation error - the word "young woman" was mistranslated to virgin, which is very likely in Greek - let many early Christians imagine that Jesus was born by a virgin.
+The birth of Jesusis extensively referred to in Surah 19 (Maria). According to this record, the Qur'an accepts the [[Virgin Conception of Jesus in the Qur'an|Virginity of Mary]], which is also being described in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. It should be noted that this story cannot be found in the gospels of Mark and John and that the scholarly consensus is that the virgin birth narrative was a later creation of the nascent Christian movement. This narrative may have been based on a mistranslation of the Hebrew bible into the Greek Septuagint, which was the version used by all of the authors of the gospels.
 {{Quote|{{cite quran|19|21|end=22|style=ref}}|He said: "So (it will be): Thy Lord saith, 'that is easy for Me: and (We wish) to appoint him as a Sign unto men and a Mercy from Us':It is a matter (so) decreed."<br/>
 So she conceived him, and she retired with him to a remote place. |}}
-This legend seeks to point out that Jesus was the son of the Holy Spirit. So why must the Qur'an reproduce this old Christian legend in an only slightly altered version? If Jesus is no more than a prophet then it would have been much more comfortable for the author to ignore this subject or to write a quite different version which should express that there was nothing special about the birth of Jesus.
+This legend seem to indicate out that Jesus was the son of the Holy Spirit. In taking part in the mythical virgin birth narrative, the Qur'an is contributing to the late antique religious culture of the Middle East which was extremely familiar with Christian mythology.
-Instead, the author of the Qur'an seems to conflate the legend with their own understanding of historical reality. This would not be surprising for a commoner from the middle ages, but it is perhaps surprising coming from Muhammad, the final messenger.
 ==Jesus as the Word of God==
-And there is more. In Surah 4:171 Jesus is also clearly referred to as Word of God.
+In Surah 4:171 Jesus is also clearly referred to as Word of God.
 {{Quote|{{Quran|4|171}}|was (no more than) a messenger of Allah, and His Word, ...|}}
@@ Line 63: / Line 61: @@
 This Christian concept derives from the Hellenistic philosophy which asserts that the origin behind all things can be found in the logos.
-The author of the Qur'an, it would seem, is not aware of this more sophistical meaning of "word", otherwise he may have avoided this expression which would seem to challenge the idea that Jesus was mere man. Furthermore, if Jesus is the "word" of God, then what is the status of the Qur'an, which also alleges to be the "word" of the God? The basic idea that Jesus is the "word" of appears rather problematic to Islamic theology.
+The author of the Qur'an, it would seem, is not aware of this more sophistical meaning of "word" or "logos" in the New Testament, or this particular passage represents a Christology which is otherwise at adds with most of the Quranic corpus.
 ==Jesus Creating Living Creatures==
@@ Line 85: / Line 83: @@
 This ancient text was probably written in Syria in the late second century or somewhat later, long before the Qur'an. There can also be no doubt about the intention of the text; the Genesis-like creation of birds by the young Jesus has to underline the identity of Jesus and God. Therefore, it serves the Christian idea of Jesus as the Son of God and not the Islamic idea that he was just a prophet.
-Interestingly, the infancy-gospel, which was never recognized by the official Christian churches, circulated in Syria for many centuries. Thus, it is not unlikely that the Christian monk [[w:Bahira|Bahira]], who is regarded as a teacher of the young [[Muhammad]] in eastern Syria, told him also this story about Jesus.
+Interestingly, the infancy-gospel, which was never recognized by the official Christian churches, circulated in Syria for many centuries. Thus, it is possible that the Christian monk [[w:Bahira|Bahira]], who is regarded as a teacher of the young [[Muhammad]] in eastern Syria, told him also this story about Jesus.
-It is not unlikely as well that Muhammad knew the story from childhood from Bahira. Later, when the Qur'an was written, he may have remembered the story, but failed to notice that this apocryphal record contradicts the Qur'anic Christology.
-And it is even more astonishing, that the Qur'an renders this record in a very close neighborhood to the account of the creation of Adam. Drawing this parallel between god's creation of Adam and Jesus's creation of birds, both from lifeless clay, would once more seem to be ill-suited to Islamic theology.
+Even more astonishingly, the Qur'an renders this record in a very close neighborhood to the account of the creation of Adam. Drawing this parallel between god's creation of Adam and Jesus's creation of birds, both from lifeless clay, would once more seem to be ill-suited to Islamic theology.
 ==Possible Gnostic Influence==
-In Surah 4:157 the Qur'an claims that not Jesus, but somebody else was [[Crucifixion|crucified]].
+In Surah 4:157 the Qur'an claims that not Jesus, but somebody else was [[Crucifixion|crucified]] in his place.
 {{Quote|{{Quran|4|157}}| That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- '''but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them''', and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-|}}