Of Jesus - the Origin of the "Sonship" of Jesus 65

The eros s & The Crescent An Interfaith Dialogue between Christianity and Islam The ·C r 0 S S & The Crescent An Interfaith Dialogue between . Christianity and Islam Jerald Dirks M.Div., Psy.D. amana publications Contents Preface vii Chapter 1: Parallels between Christianity and Islam 1 Chapter 2: Judaism, Christianity and Islam - Origins and Relationships 17 Chapter 3: The Books of Revelation and Scripture - A Comparison of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam 41 Chapter 4: The Baptism of Jesus - The Origin of the "Sonship" of Jesus 65 Chapter 5: The Crucifixion - A Question of Identity 77 Chapter 6: The Mission and Ministry of Jesus 113 Chapter 7: One Size Fits All - The Matthean Use of Prophecy 131 Chapter 8: The Prophet Job (Ayyoub) 163 Chapter 9: A Concise Introduction to Islam - Articles of Faith and Pillars of Practice 177 Nores 223 Bibliography 251 All quotations of the English translation of the meaning of the Qur'an are taken from The Meaning ofthe Holy Qur'an, translated by 'Abdallah Yusuf 'Ali, copyright 1989, Amana Publications, Beltsville, Maryland 20705, U.S.A. All Biblical quotations appearing in the text, unless specifically identified as being from another source, the following statement is noted in .conformity with the request of the copyright holder. "The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the.U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved." Preface In the name of God ' s recently as last century, it was not uncommon to find 'J Christian men and women prefacing a book by invoking A. the name of God. Today, that isa rare occurrence, and often the cause of a raised eyebrow in what is becoming an increasingly secular world. Within Christianity, such a formal invocation of the name of God has become anachronistic and out of fashion. In contrast, most publications by Muslim writers commence with the invocation "Bismillah al-Rahman ai-Rahim", which reads "in the name of God, most Gracious, most Merciful". As such, one still finds within the Muslim world the continuation of a practice that was formerly quite common within the Christian world. Similarly, in days gone by, Christians frequently interspersed a state ment of their intentions or of their predictions by saying "God willing". This served as an acknowledgment by Christian men and women that, in the final analysis, their intentions and predictions would be fulfilled only with the grace of God. Such Christian verbiage is now considered a relic of the past. However, Muslim men and women still constantly pepper their statements with the phrase "insha 'Allah", meaning "God willing". This manner of invoking the name of God, and of acknowledging the sovereignty of the Almighty God in all that we do and plan, serves to highlight the central tenet of this collection of essays, which draws close parallels between Islam and Christianity. Further, as one investigates historical Christianity, and gets closer to the roots of Christianity, that shared commonality and the interrelationship between Islam and Christianity becomes ever stronger and more pronounced. Unfortunately, this close interrelationship between these two religions is often overlooked. For many Occidental Christians, Islam is seen as being viii The Cross & The Crescent decidedly foreign, as being the religion of another place and of a foreign people, i.e., Arabia and the Arabs. In reality, this perception is far from being accurate. Islam, no less than Christianity, claims to be a universal religion, which cannot be appropriated by any national or ethnic group nor by any geographic area. Arabs represent only a minority of the world's Muslims, and Islam has spread far beyond the borders of the Middle East. Moreover, at present, Islam is the fastest growing religion in the United States, having approximately seven million adherents. Clearly, the need for mutual understanding and appreciation between Christians and Muslims becomes ever more imperative. Unfortunately, for most Western Christians, differences in language and in certain literary conventions add to the perceived foreign nature of Islam. As one example, Western Christians are used to the word "God", and typically find the word "Allah" somewhat mysterious and troubling. They do not understand that "Allah" is nothing more than the contraction of two Arabic words, which mean "the God", or by implication "the One God". As such, it is not surprising that Arab Christians commonly use the word "Allah" when speaking of the deity. As a second example, Western Christians are often uneasy about the Islamic convention of conferring the phrase "peace be upon him" to the names of the prophets of Allah. Yet, a third example finds Muslims typically objecting to the use of such dating conventions as BC (before Christ) and AD (annos domini, i.e., in the year of our Lord), since they maintain that none other than Allah is Lord. Obviously, such linguistic sensitivities need to be overcome, in order for Christians and Muslims to develop a proper appreciation of the commonality between their religions. Given the nature and central theme of this book, such linguistic sensitivities raise special challenges for one who is writing for both Christian and Muslim readers. With regard to the use of "God" rather than "Allah", one is tempted to use the word "God", this being the common English vernacular. However, it is felt that Occidental Christian readers need to begin to feel as comfortable with the word "Allah" as are their Arab Christians brothers, in order for them to begin to overcome their misperception that Islam is somehow completely foreign to their own religious beliefs. However, one does not become comfortable with a word by avoiding it, but only by repeatedly using it. As such, beginning now, unless there is some specific, doctrinal reason for not using the word "Allah", the general linguistic rule Preface ix employed in this book is to refer to the deity as Allah. As far as the phrase "peace be upon him" is concerned, a compromise has been adopted between Christian and Muslim sensitivities and so within each chapter of this book, the phrase "peace be upon him" is used followirig the first mention of the name of a prophet of Allah and this usage is discontinued thereafter. Readers may kindly note that the in regard to dating conven tions, this book uses the more neutral conventions of BCE (before the common era) and CE (common era). Having said the above, I find it useful to introduce myself to the reader, so that he may have some understanding of my qualifications to discuss the issues at hand. I hold a Master of Divinity degree from Harvard Divinity School, and was formerly an ordained minister (deacon) in the United Methodist Church. My personal experience of the interrela tionships between Christianity and Islam and their common roots covers a journey of many years, that has evolved in depth and breadth with time. It began almost thirty years ago in a course at Harvard on comparative religion. It developed further during the last two decades as I studied the history of the Arabian horse, and grew to fruition as I started moving within the Muslim communities in America and in the Middle East. In writing this book, I would like to touch the lives of those Christians who have not been given the knowledge that I have gained, both about Islam from my direct contact with Muslims and about Christianity from my seminary education. I want to share with those Christians who are willing to listen what is so often known by their clergy and church leaders, but seldom finds its way into their knowledge of their own religion. Likewise, I would like to reach out to the Muslims, in order to help them understand the religious commonality that they share with Christians. While a good deal of the information presented within these essays is somewhat obscure, such information highlights much of what was once common between Christianity and Islam, but which has subse quently been altered and misrepresented to affect a gulf between these two religions. Given these somewhat challenging goals, the readers may at times, feel that the author is addressing in a particular essays, two different audiences, each with its own language and with its own conceptual frame of reference. To a certain extent, this has been intentional on my part, for I find it the optimal way of reaching the goals set in this book. x The Cross & The Crescent The first essay in the book is a simple recounting of my own personal experience of the commonality to be found between Christianity and Islam, and is entitled "Parallels between Christianity and Islam". Its targeted readership includes both Muslims and Christians, but for each group a separate message has been intended. The second essay, "Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: Origins and Relationships", seeks to resolve certain barriers to communication existing among members of these three religious groups. In that regard, Muslims may better understand the conceptual and communication barriers which separate Christians and Jews from them, while Christians and Jews may appreciate those conceptual and communication barriers separating Muslims from them. The third essay presents a comparison and analysis of the structure and provenance of the Qur'an, the received Torah, the Psalms, and the canonical gospels of the New Testament. This essay presents some fairly technical information, which sheds signiftcant light on the formation of these sets of scripture, and thus illuminates some aspects of the origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam not covered in the prior essay. The next five essays focus on speciftc topics in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

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