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Jesus and Muhammad Jesus and Muhammad This page intentionally left blank JESUS AND MUHAMMAD Parallel Tracks, Parallel Lives F. E. PETERS 2 0 1 1 Oxford University Press, Inc., publishes works that further Oxford University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education. Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offi ces in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Th ailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Copyright © 2011 by Oxford University Press, Inc. Published by Oxford University Press, Inc. 198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016 www.oup.com Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Oxford University Press. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peters, F. E. (Francis E.) Jesus and Muhammad : parallel tracks, parallel lives / F. E. Peters. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-19-974746-7 1. Jesus Christ—Biography. 2. Muhammad, Prophet, d. 632—Biography. 3. Christianity and other religions—Islam. 4. Islam—Relations—Christianity. I. Title. BT301.3.P43 2010 200.92´2—dc22 [B] 2010006017 1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper F o r Christine Goettsche Peters a pluperfect 11, truly This page intentionally left blank Contents Introduction: Clearing the Ground xiii Th e Art of Portraiture xiv Th e Long Quests xv History and Revelation xv Saints and Th eir Lives xvi In the Eyes of the Believers xviii Polemic and History xix Two Foreign Countries xx Parallel Tracks, Parallel Lives xxii 1 . Th e Settings 1 Jesus and First-Century Palestine 2 What Was on Jewish Minds in the First Century? 4 Sectarian Signals 5 Th e Context for Muhammad 7 The Silence of the Sources 7 Reconstructions 8 Extraction 8 A ft erthoughts: Th e Prophets in Place 10 Palestine and the Hijaz 10 Galilee and Mecca 11 2. Opening the Files 14 Th e Dossier on Jesus 14 The Pagan Sources 14 The Jewish Sources 15 The Christian Sources 17 viii contents Th e Dossier on Muhammad 24 God Knows Best: The Quran 25 The Biographical Tradition 29 Bukhari and the “Prophetic Reports” 33 Western Historicism and Its Discontents 33 Tales of Wahb 34 Toward a Life 35 Muslim Patristics 36 A ft erthoughts: Th e New Testament and the Quran 36 3 . Th e Critic at Work: Coming of Age 38 Jesus’ Infancy Narratives 38 Editorial Fingerprints on the Gospels 39 Jesus of Bethlehem 40 Recognitions 41 A Virginal Conception 42 The Nativity 43 In the Temple 43 Bar Mitzvah 44 One Man’s Family 45 The Women in Jesus’ Life 45 Afterthoughts: Editorial Opportunities 46 Th e “Infancy Gospel of Islam” 47 The Birth of Muhammad Ibn Abdullah 47 “The Men Who Have the Elephant” 48 An Uncertain Chronology 50 Presentiments and Prodigies 51 The Opening of the Breast, the Cleansing of the Heart 52 An Arab Prophet 53 Coming of Age in Mecca 54 Bahira 55 The Sinful Wars 56 Marriage to Khadija 57 Muhammad the Trader 59 A ft erthoughts: Where Do We Stand? 60 Contents ix 4 . Th e Living Voice 62 Jesus Speaks 62 Jesus’ Words 62 The Discovery of Q 63 The Making of Q 64 Q and Mark 64 T h e Q T e x t 6 5 Looking under the Hood 67 Q and Jesus 69 Q and the Death of Jesus 69 Q as a Literary Work 69 The Themes of Q, and of Jesus 71 W h e n , W h e r e , W h o ? 7 1 The People of Q 71 Muhammad Speaks, or Sings 72 Q and Quran 72 Muhammad, Prophet and Poet 73 Revelation as Oral Composition 74 The Objective 75 The Poet and the Performer 76 The Revelations Memorized 77 A Singer of Tales 78 Story and Storytelling 79 Muhammad’s Religious Repertoire 79 T h e M a n t i c S e e r 8 0 The Miraculous Quran 82 A ft erthoughts: Q and the Hadith 82 5 . Th e Message: Jesus in Galilee 84 Th e Shape of the Gospels 85 John the Baptist and Jesus 86 Th e Twelve 87 Spreading the Good News 88 An Itinerant Preacher 89 What Was the Good News? 90 Th e Kingdom 91 x contents When Does the Kingdom Come? 92 A Dual Kingdom? 93 Messiahs and Th e Messiah 94 The Messianic Evidence 95 Reading the Scriptures 95 The Jesus Key 96 A Reluctant Messiah 96 Signs and Wonders 97 “ . and more than a prophet” 98 Skepticism, Ancient and Modern 98 A Jewish Teacher 100 Jesus and the Torah 100 A Teacher with a Difference 101 A ft erthoughts: Th e Man and the Message 102 6 . Th e Message: Muhammad at Mecca 104 A Preliminary Exercise 104 Th e Man Muhammad 105 Th e Call to Prophecy 105 An Experience of the Unseen World 108 A Heavenly Journey 108 Identifi cation, Validation 109 Muhammad’s Public Preaching 110 G o d 1 1 0 I s l a m 1 1 1 Th e Muslims Pray 111 Growing Pressures 113 Th e Satanic Verses 113 Th reats of the Judgment 115 Th e Seal of the Prophets 115 Identifying the Prophet 116 What Was Muhammad Thinking? 117 A Jewish Christian Template for Muhammad? 117 Two Prophetic Reformers 119 Th e Plot against Muhammad 119 A Resort to Violence 121 Th e Migration 121 A ft erthoughts: Two Versions of the Good News 122 Contents xi 7. A c t Tw o : Tr a g e d y a n d Tr i u m p h 1 2 4 Jesus in Jerusalem 124 A Two-Part Gospel 124 A Common Account? 125 A Triumphal Entry 126 The Temple Incident 127 A Priestly Plot 127 C h a l l e n g e s 1 2 8 T h e L a s t D a y s 1 2 9 The Last Supper 129 The Arrest in the Garden 130 The Sanhedrin Trial 130 The Trial before Pilate 130 The Crucifixion 130 The Burial 132 Muhammad at Medina 132 The Medina Accords 133 The Medina Quran 133 Writing Down the Quran? 135 Muhammad and the Jews of Medina 136 Badr Wells 137 A Failed Response 138 The Wives of the Prophet 138 The Establishment of Islam 140 Submission 141 Imperium Islamicum 1 4 1 D e a t h 1 4 1 A ft erthoughts: Politics and Piety 142 8 . A N e w D a w n : Th e Aft ermath, the Legacy 143 Jesus, the Aft ermath 143 The Empty Tomb 144 The Resurrection Accounts 145 Pa u l 1 4 6 Uncertainties 147 The Witnesses 148 Appended Thoughts 148 Authenticating 149 xii contents Empowerment and Commission 149 The End 151 Muhammad, the Legacy 152 A Prophet without Miracles 152 The Miracle of Badr Wells 153 The Death of the Prophet 154 A Man without Sin 154 “A Beautiful Pattern” 155 The Prophetic Reports 155 T h e Adab of the Prophet 156 Muhammad the Man 157 A ft erthoughts: Portraits fr om Life 158 9 . E p i l o g u e : S p r e a d i n g t h e Wo r d 1 6 2 Without the Lord 163 How the Message Spread 164 Making Christians 165 Without the Prophet 167 Th e Missionary Impulse 167 Conversion and Assimilation 168 Making Muslims 169 Notes 1 7 1 A Guide to Further Reading 1 8 3 Index 2 0 8 Introduction: Clearing the Ground “Christianity” and “Islam” are notions of enormous complexity, complex enough to give considerable pause to anyone tempted to defi ne, or even merely to describe, either of them. And yet they are apparently embraced in their totality by the millions of believers who solemnly assert, “I am a Christian” or “I am a Muslim.” Th e average Christian or Muslim probably does not much advert to all the details of those constructs, and, indeed, when presented with this or that particular feature of Christianity or Islam, might well say, “No, that’s not what I believe. I do not believe that hell will last for eternity” or “No, I do not believe that our every act is determined by God.” Th is rejection of parts of what has been held to be an integral tradition is not new nor has it been confi ned to the ill-instructed or casual believer. Chris- tianity and Islam have been evolving from their very inception, and not merely in incidentals but in their core components. What are called “heresy” by Christians and “innovation” by Muslims are in eff ect divergent opinions on this or another content of the faith. If they fail to attract support, they are consigned to the believers’ popular catalogs of failed ideas and their adherents may even linger on at the margins of the community. But when and if these novel points of view eventually prevail, the earlier off ensive labeling is removed and Christianity itself, or Islam, is quietly altered—the notion of immuta- bility must be preserved—as when Christians began to hold that Mary was conceived without sin or Muslims that Muhammad was incapable of sin.
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