JESUS – SON OF WHOM? The first major hurdle we will address is the parentage or alleged parentage of Jesus. The fundamental belief in present day Christianity is that Jesus is the literal begotten son of God and is second in the Divine Trinity of God’s being. If this is somehow disturbed, then as this is the foundation of the Christian belief, Christianity itself collapses. If the foundation is solid and the ‘testimony’ is consistent, the Christian religion has in fact proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt. Before I begin quoting from the Bible I would like to point out that these verses from the Bible are written in English. The Gospels themselves were first written down in Greek and not in Jesus’ tongue of Aramaic. This is generally known amongst Bible scholars. There are no original Aramaic or Hebrew texts that exist to cross-reference the Greek and English translations with. As anyone who studies languages will tell you, a language can either lose or gain many meanings in a translation. This is critical when it comes to scripture. The word ‘son’ may have a totally different connotative meaning when translated from Aramaic to Greek to English. It is quite difficult to convey the meanings of Eastern languages to English without losing something or gaining something that is not intended. The same goes for the word ‘lord’. The verse most quoted amongst Christians to support the notion of Jesus being the literal divine son of God is of course John 3:16 in which it is written… “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”(John 3:16) KJV. Now this is a straight forward verse that is clear in its meaning and what in what it is trying to convey. The first thing that should be noted, however, is that this verse is not attributed to Jesus nor is it a quote from Jesus. This is a verse written by someone else. The verse is attributed to a man named John. John was the last of the Gospels to be written and no one is sure of exactly which John this is supposed to be. The Gospel of John was written around 100 C.E. at Ephesus. That is approximately seventy years after the time of Jesus. As Adolf Harnack points out in his book, What is Christianity?: “the fourth Gospel does not emanate or profess to emanate from the apostle John, who cannot be taken as an historical authority…the author of the fourth Gospel acted with sovereign freedom, trans-posed events and put them in a strange light. “ The Gospel of John is considered to be the most beautifully written of the Gospels. According to Acts 4:13, however, Peter and John were both ignorant and unlearned men. The Gospel of John is written as a drama of sorts, unfolding layers of measured resolution and emotion. Not something unlearned men are known to produce. ‘He was divinely inspired by God…’ can be heard as an argument. ‘Look at your Qur’an and its masterly prose. Muslims claim Muhammad was unlearned yet look at the Qur’an…’. The problem with that argument is that Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is a fully realized and documented historical figure. History recognizes Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) as a man who definitely lived, taught, and revolutionized his society. His sayings have been documented to the letter. The Qur’an was memorized by not only by the Prophet himself but also by his followers. Even the most secular historians must admit this. The personality and person of John, however, cannot be substantiated with historical documented evidence. Bible historians debate over whether or not John the Apostle was the same John who is credited with writing this Gospel. According to Blacks Bible Dictionary, John was beheaded before 70 C.E., and a connection to the first manuscript of ‘the Gospel of John’ at Ephesus around 100 C.E. would be difficult to establish. So let us revisit the passage. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”(John 3:16) KJV. The real test of the verse is in its consistency with the rest of the Bible whom the Christians claim to accept as a whole. As you can see, it reads “…only begotten son…” but when we look at Psalms 2:7 David says, “…the Lord said unto me, Thou art my son; this day have I begotten thee.” This is a serious discrepancy for the sincere Bible reader. Who is telling the truth, David or the mystery John? Can we rely on the Psalms for the truth or ‘The Gospel of John’? Is the Gospel the literal and the Psalms the figurative or vice versa? Jesus is given many ‘fathers’ in the N.T. The first line in the New Testament reads, “ The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham (Matt. 1:1). Are we to accept the literal meaning of this or the figurative? And if we are to assume that the verse only means that he was a spiritual son of David, then why can’t we assume the same thing is meant when Jesus refers to God the “Father”? For according to the N.T. statements attributed to Jesus he says, “…Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matt. 5:48). As well as, “After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father…”(Matt 6:9). And to confirm the spiritual connection of the righteous, “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother (Matt 12:50). This verse uses the word ‘Father’ but Mark 3:35 reads, “ For whosoever does the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.” How many times in the N.T. is the word ‘Father’ used to describe God? If ‘Father’ has substituted the word ‘God’ in this verse, how many other verses have been tweaked? That this is not a literal relationship is plain to see and comprehend. Another verse is describing David as being Jesus’ father, “…And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David (Luke 1:32). Now if God was Jesus’ literal physical father, wouldn’t it have made sense to distinguish the difference in this verse which presents Jesus along with David as his father? Let’s assume that Jesus is understood to be God’s son in this verse and rewrite the verse stating that idea. It would read, “…And his father, the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David…”. This makes absolutely no sense at all and the authors knew this. The author of this verse knew that in order for it to make any sense, only one could be connected to Jesus as a ‘Father’. And since the legitimacy of Jesus’ mission must come through David, according to the Bible, it was more prudent to connect Jesus as an heir to David than to infuse the verse with ‘son of God’ dogma. The curious thing is that in Matthew and Luke, the genealogy of Jesus is traced through Joseph as if Joseph had some blood relation to Jesus. Jesus is supposed to have been divinely conceived within Mary without the husbandly help of Joseph. How then can Jesus’ genealogy be logically traced back to David through Joseph? In Luke 2:41 it reads, “Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.” His parents being Mary and Joseph? The only person that anyone can be sure of about Jesus’ parentage is Mary yet no where is Jesus explicitly called son of Mary in the Bible. The Qur’an is consistent and clear on this matter. Jesus is referred to as Al-Maseeh ‘Isa ibn Maryam or The Messiah (Christ) Jesus, son of Mary. (Remember) when the angels said: O Maryam (Mary)! Verily, Allah gives you the glad tidings of a Wo rd [Be! - and he was! i.e. Isa (Jesus) the son of Maryam (Mary)] from Him, his name will be the Messiah Isa (Jesus), the son of Maryam (Mary), held in honor in this world and in the Hereafter, and will be one of those who are near to Allah. (3:45) According to the Bible God had even more sons. The Book of Job 2:1 reads, “Again there was a day when sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord…”. This is yet another contradiction of the “…only begotten son…” notion of John 3:16. But wait, there is more. In Luke, after tracing the so-called genealogy of Jesus all the way back to Adam it reads, “…Which was the son of Enos, Which was the son of Seth, Which was the son of Adam, Which was the son of God”(Luke 3:38). So will real the real father of Jesus and the real sons of God please stand up! This is confusing as well it should be for the average Bible reader. The problem lies in the interpretation of lost manuscripts that have been roughly translated or mistranslated through the ages. There is an allegorical message in these books that has been interpreted and taught as literal. There have also been concessions made by the Early Pauline Church to make the simple teachings of Jesus palatable to the pagans of Europe and western Asia. Throughout ancient forms of worship there have been religions of divine offspring of a great god. These areas of Syria, Greece, and Rome were practicing pagans who worshipped human beings whom they thought were god incarnates. The ancient rites of Mithraism, Attis, Adonis, Diana, Dionysus and many more all were practiced in the so called gentile lands that the Pauline church longed to bring into their fold. These pagan religions all contained elements of what now compose Christianity. That, however, is another topic. We must acknowledge God as all of the previous Prophets acknowledged him and knew him. That is to acknowledge… 1. Oneness in his Lordship – That God is the absolute maker, owner, and Lord of everything and that his dominion extends over all his creation. 2. Oneness in his Worship – All acts of worship, sacrifice, and supplication should be directed to God with no intermediaries in between Him and his creatures. 3. Oneness in His Names and Descriptions – Nothing in his creation is like him and He is only known as He has described himself through his revelation to the Messengers. This is the beginning of the correct approach to the true worship of God and he is deserving of nothing less. Let us conclude with two narrations from God’s Last Messenger to Humanity, Muhammad ibn ‘Abdillah (Peace be upon him) concerning Jesus and those who claim to be upon the religion of Jesus. Narrated Abu Hurairah: Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon said),”By Him (Allah) in whose Hands my soul is, surely ‘Isa (Jesus), the Son Of Mary (upon him be Peace) will shortly descend amongst you (Muslims) and will judge mankind justly by the law of the Qur’an. He will break the cross and kill the pig and there will be no Jizya (non-Muslim taxation)” (collected by Bukhari) Narrated Abu Hurairah: Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon said),” How will you be when the son of Maryam (Jesus) descends among you, and he will judge people by the law of the Qur’an and not the gospel.”(collected by Bukhari) May The Creator Guide us to truth and remove us from falsehood. Ameen
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 17:03:04 +0000
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