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The Quran and Judeo-Christian Pseudepigrapha (Part 4): Quran 3:35-44 and the Protevangelium of James

May 27, 2024 1 Comment

John the Baptist was a weird but essential figure in the ministry of Jesus. The Gospels suggest that the men are cousins through their mothers. John’s parents were Zechariah and Elizabeth. Jesus’ parents need no introduction. The Gospels, especially Matthew and Luke, only go as far back in their stories as when Joseph and Mary were already betrothed. Hence, we have no biblical records of the birth of Mary or Joseph.

The Quran, on the other hand, has quite a bit to say about the birth of Mary, her childhood, and, as I will explain, how Joseph was chosen for her as a husband. We find this story in Quran 3:35-44,

Surah Aal-e-Imran, Verse 35:
إِذْ قَالَتِ امْرَأَتُ عِمْرَانَ رَبِّ إِنِّي نَذَرْتُ لَكَ مَا فِي بَطْنِي مُحَرَّرًا فَتَقَبَّلْ مِنِّي إِنَّكَ أَنتَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ

When a woman of Imran said: My Lord! Surely I vow to Thee what is in my womb, to be devoted (to Thy service); accept therefore from me, surely Thou art the Hearing, the Knowing.

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The Quran and Judeo-Christian Pseudepigrapha (Part 3): Quran 2, Genesis Rabbah, and the Apocalypse of Moses

May 26, 2024 1 Comment

Page 2 of the Bible recounts the story of Adam’s creation. Of all the details given, nothing is said about how angels felt about the creation of humans. In fact, if one does not have other later biblical information to go by, one wouldn’t even know that angels existed. The Quran, on the other hand, has much to say about how angels felt about God’s intent to create humans. All of them, at first, were opposed to the creation of humans. But after Adam demonstrated his superior knowledge, many angels changed their minds. Satan, however, never accepted the idea. In fact, the Quran teaches that Satan was cast away from heaven because he would not accept God’s sovereign choice to create humans.

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The Quran and Judeo-Christian Pseudepigrapha (Part 2): Quran 6:74 – 79 and the Apocalypse of Abraham

May 26, 2024 1 Comment

In the Judeo-Christian worldview, Abraham is a big deal. Narratively, he is a type of Adam, the human who carries forward the tasks of Adam and initiates the process of undoing his errors. When humanity at Babel went south, God called Abraham out from his family to reboot the Humanity Project. Abraham was to be how God would achieve the goal of having all humans worldwide loyal to Him. However, the Bible does not say much about his prior life. We know he originated from the Ur of the Chaldeans, and we have his genealogy. That’s about it.

The Quran, on the other hand, has more to say about Abraham’s prior life. For instance, the Quran tells about Abraham turning away from paganism to embrace Allah in Quran 6, after contemplating some heavenly bodies:

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The Quran and Judeo-Christian Pseudepigrapha (Part 1): Quran 3, 19, the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, and Childhood of the Saviour

May 25, 2024 1 Comment

It is an article of faith in Islam that the Quran is a perfect revelation of God delivered through the prophet Muhammad to humanity. It became necessary for God to send the Quran because of the corruptions of the Scriptures of Judaism and Christianity that came before it. (Strictly and properly speaking, Christianity is a sect of Judaism. It was one of many sects of Judaism in the first century AD.) In a restorative move, God provided Muhammed with fresh revelations. In some cases, the revelations are altogether missing from the Bible – which, in a typical Muslim’s mind, further confirms the corruption charges – or are present in the Bible in a different form.

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Jesus Goes to Hell: The Gates of Hell in Matthew’s Gospel

May 11, 2024 4 Comments

Matthew 16:13-16 ESV
[13] Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” [14] And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” [15] He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” [16] Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

Background: The Confession of Peter

The Confession of Peter is a famous passage in which Peter confesses Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of the living God. The Synoptic Gospels all record the event, but Matthew provides more details. In this piece, we shall mainly use Matthew’s account to explore the meaning of the event and Matthew’s literary use of the story in his Gospel.

Matthew’s Gospel is often described as the most Jewish of the canonical gospels. It is not without warrant. Matthew’s first step in his Gospel is to provide a genealogy that connects Jesus to both Abraham and David. That move is not trivial. The link to Abraham establishes Jesus as the legitimate, promised “seed” (Genesis 3:15, 22:18). Simultaneously, the connection to David evokes messianic themes familiar to people in the Jewish worldview. Matthew also portrays Jesus in ways reminiscent of Moses, the chief Apostle and Prophet of Judaism. Both Moses and Jesus escaped being killed as infants by the rulers of their times; Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount contrasts with Moses’ giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Also, both men serve as deliverers of their people and perform miracles in the liberation process. Even in our day, the Jewishness of Matthew continues to be appreciated. I have watched several stories of Messianic Israeli Jews who embraced Jesus after reading Matthew.

In popular understanding, the Confession of Peter is important because it conveys divine revelation of Jesus’ true identity as the promised Messiah. That much is undoubtedly true, but Matthew does more in his telling, given the extra details he provides. Besides, we should notice that Matthew has already dropped numerous hints about Jesus’ true identity before Peter’s confession in Chapter 16. Let us consider a few of these hints.

Matthew’s Many Portrayal of Jesus as Yahweh

First, Matthew introduces John the Baptist as one preparing the way for Jesus in this way (3:3): “This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: ‘A voice of one calling in the wilderness, “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.” ’ In the original Isaiah passage, “the Lord” was Yahweh. So, Matthew’s use of the passage ascribes the divine name to Jesus. In Matthew’s story, John the Baptist did not know at this point that Jesus was Yahweh. Still, a careful reader of Matthew’s work would have noticed this literary move.

Christianity Decolonized, Featured Works

The Suffering Saviour: Did Jesus Suffer Sexual Abuse?

March 27, 2024 1 Comment

Warning: This article may be triggering as it touches on the subjects of torture and sexual abuse.

Background

Often, the prevailing imagery surrounding a distant event has since been distorted, sanitized, or cleaned up, so that current beliefs about the event may be inaccurate or incomplete. We can find examples in several spheres of life, including church history. For example, what many churchgoers today believe about angels, or what Jesus or even Satan looked like, has been shaped more by other factors along the way, so that the beliefs, measured against what first-century Palestinians held, are dissimilar. The idea that angels, a term popularly used to refer to essentially all heavenly beings except God, are winged creatures derived from European literature, not the Bible. To be sure, the Bible does speak of heavenly beings like cherubs with wings, but biblical angels are not winged beings. On this platform, we have already addressed the origins of the ahistorical White Jesus in previous blog posts. We also considered the complexities surrounding the identity of Satan, especially among Yoruba-speaking believers. The present article is another instance of correcting a distorted historical event.

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Jesus is the Faithful and Incorruptible Israel

March 10, 2024 No Comments

The first statement in the Gospel according to Matthew connects Jesus to both Abraham and David. Matthew will later flesh out what these connections mean. The connection to Abraham legitimizes Jesus as a true Israelite, while the link to David prepares the audience for imminent Messianic claims. In fleshing out the connections, Matthew gives a likely curated genealogy in three groups of fourteen. The first of these lists is what I want to focus on here:

‭‭Matthew 1:4-6 NIVUK‬

“[4] Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, [5] Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, [6] and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.”

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Revelation 4 and 5: The Divine Council and Christ’s Reign (Series Part 3)

January 12, 2024 5 Comments

Background

As mentioned earlier, John arranged his writing into two major parts based on the judgment motif. The first part deals with the judgment (or warning/encouragement) of the Church. Some of the seven churches of Revelation received rather stern warnings and threats of judgment. For instance, certain members of the Pergamum church have embraced false teaching, leading them to sin similarly as ancient Israelites did when Balaam enticed them towards “food sacrificed to idols” and they “committed sexual immorality” (2:14). In response, Jesus says, in John’s vision, that these members of the Pergamum church should repent, or he will visit them soon and “fight against them with the sword of his mouth” (2:16). That sword kills (Rev 19:21). Similarly, Jesus warns the Philadelphian church about the possibility of losing their crowns (3:11), if they do not continue to hold fast to sound doctrine.

Chapters 6 to 20 contain the second division of the book, which details the judgment of the world, following that of the churches. But this arrangement leaves Chapters 4 and 5 hanging. Why might John do that? Among other things, he does so to make a subtle theological point of presenting Jesus as Yahweh.

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Who Are the Angels of the Seven Churches in Revelation? (Series Part 2)

December 31, 2023 1 Comment

In Part 1, I wrote on some general points to be aware of in reading the book of Revelation and provided an example from the book’s first Chapter. I want to say a few things about Chapters 2 and 3, which contain the seven letters addressed to the seven churches in Asia Minor in the first century. Let’s briefly say something about how John structures the book around the theme of judgment. 1 Peter 4:17 expresses an idea about judgment beginning with God’s household, the church. John takes the idea very seriously in the way Revelation is structured. Chapters 2 and 3 focus on “judgment” or warning/encouragement of the churches, while the rest of the book is about judgments/warnings of the world.

Perhaps the most interesting question in these chapters is the identity of the seven angels of the churches in today’s western Turkey. The literature has two interpretations: the angels are either humans or divine beings. The text identifies each of these beings as an “angelos,” meaning “messenger.” In the Bible, this term can refer to both humans and divine beings.

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Reading Revelation Right (Series Part 1)

December 31, 2023 1 Comment

The Book of Revelation has been on my mind for a few months now. I have read and re-read the book and consulted with some of the best specialists in modern scholarship. Some things I knew, but there have been so much more I was ignorant of. I am just gonna say a few things here. (I may also walk through the whole book, picking out specific nuggets I found interesting.)

1. If John wrote Revelation as graduate schoolwork today, he would undoubtedly get an “F.” No, it would not be so much because his work would be difficult to understand – Immanuel Kant probably surpassed John on that point and is still praised for it. John would score an “F” because of plagiarism and failing to cite his sources properly. (Of course, John did not do any wrong per the literary standards of his day.)

2. Let us get the simple hermeneutics point out of the way. John wrote to encourage young churches near the first century. So whatever John wrote about was something that, in principle, his audience could/would have understood. Hence, there are no cryptic references to helicopters, missiles, China, Russia, Putin, Trump or any of the other recent lazy readings.

3. Indeed, there is cryptic messaging in the book – it was John’s way of critiquing the empire without its knowledge. The cryptic messaging is of a very different sort from what people now tend to imagine. For example, John primarily referred to Rome as Babylon, and that move is itself pregnant with a whole worldview and dense theology.