THE
QURAN MISQUOTES THE NEW TESTAMENT
The
Story ofZacharias
The
Quran
(Remember)
when the wife of 'Imran said: My Lord! I have vowed unto Thee that which is in
my belly as a consecrated (offering). Accept it from me, Lo! Thou, only Thou,
art the Hearer, the Knower!
And
when she was delivered she said: My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female—Allah
knew best of what she was delivered—the male is not as the female; and lo! I
have named her Mary, and lo! I crave Thy protection for her and for her
offspring from Satan the outcast.
And
her Lord accepted her with full acceptance and vouchsafed to her a goodly
growth: and made Zachariah her guardian. Whenever Zachariah went into the
sanctuary where she was, he found that she had food. He said: O Mary! Whence
cometh unto thee this (food)? She answered: It is from Allah. Allah giveth
without stint to whom He will.
Then
Zachariah prayed unto his Lord and said: My Lord! Bestow upon me of Thy bounty
goodly offspring. Lo! Thou art the Hearer of Prayer.
And
the angels called to him as he stood praying in the sanctuary: Allah giveth thee
glad tidings of (a son whose name is) John, (who cometh) to confirm a word from
Allah, lordly, chaste, a Prophet of the righteous.
He
said: My Lord! How can I have a son when age hath overtaken me already and my
wife is barren? (The angel) answered: So (it will be). Allah doth what He will.
He
said: My Lord! Appoint a token for me. (The angel) said: The token unto thee
(shall be) that thou shalt not speak unto mankind three days except by signs.
Remember thy Lord much, and praise (Him) in the early hours of night and
morning.20
The
Quranic story of Zacharias has its origins in Protevangelion's James the
Lesser, a second-century a.d. apocryphal
Christian fable, and from Luke 1:5-20. Here is the reconstruction of the Protevangelion
story with the direct quotations found in the Quran italicized for emphasis.
And
Anna (wife of Joachim) answered, "As the Lord my
God liveth, whatever I bring forth, whether it be male or female, I will
devote it to the Lord my God, and it shall minister to him in holy things,
during its whole life . . . and called her name Mary . . . And the
high-priest received her, and blessed her, and said, " Mary, the Lord
God hath magnified thy name to all generations, and to the very end of time by
thee will the Lord shew his redemption to the children of Israel."
But
Mary continued in the temple as a dove educated her there, and
received her food from the hand of an angel. Then the high-priest (Zacharias)
entered into the Holy of Holies, and taking away with him the breastplate of
judgment made prayers concerning her.21
Muhammad's
eighth wife. Maryam, was a Christian
slave girl from Ethiopia. Al-Moqawqas, the Governor of Egypt, sent her along
with her sister and a white mule as gifts
to Muhammad. It is
very likely that Maryam either brought copies of the above documents with her,
or simply related the stories of
Jesus, the son of
Mary, to Muhammad. Uponcloser scrutiny of the chronological order of the Surats,
you will have to agree with me that the popular name for Jesus, "Son of
Mary," began in the Quranic text after' Maryam entered Muhammad's
Luke's
Gospel gives the accurate record in chapter one, verses 5-20:
There
was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias,
of the division of Abijah. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name
was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the
commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child,
because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in years.
So
it was, that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his
division, according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn
incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the
people was praying outside at the hour of incense.
Then
an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of
incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is
heard; your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name
John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth.
For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor
strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his
mother's womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their
God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, 'to turn the
hearts of the fathers to the children,' and the disobedient to the wisdom of the
just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord."
And
Zacharias said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man,
and my wife is well advanced in years."
And
the angel answered and said to him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the
presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings.
But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things
take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in
their own time."
One of the obvious mistakes in the Quranic story is its claim that Zacharias was
speechless for three days, whereas the Gospel states (verse 20) that it was
actually nine months. There are other incompatible statements which become
apparent upon reading the three above-mentioned records.
Mary,
the Mother of Jesus
One of the most
absurd mistakes in the Quran is the reference to Mary as the sister of Aaron.
Her identity seems to be quite mixed up. Let us look at Surat Maryam (Mary)
19:28 first:
Oh
sister of Aaron! Thy father was not a wicked man nor was thy mother a harlot.
The
Mary of the Quran depicted as the mother of Jesus is 1 ,570 years removed from
the real Mary, as indicated from Numbers 26:59: "The name of Amram's wife
was Jochebed the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt; and to Amram
she bore Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam."
The
valiant effort of Muslim theologians to explain that the Quran is simply stating
her de-scendency from the priestly family of Aaron and Imran is totally
unsatisfactory. This mistaken Quranic identity is obvious. Compare the much
older historical record of the New Testament's Luke 1:26-35:
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee
named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the
house of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
And
having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the
Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
But
when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner
of greeting this was.
Then
the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor
with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and
shall call His name jesus. He will
be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give
Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob
forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Then
Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon
you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that
Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God."
Now,
to solve the problem for our Muslim theologians, I direct their attention to a
simple solution. First, Elizabeth was called the daughter of Aaron, which refers
to the fact that she was from the lineage of Aaron. Mary, the mother of Jesus,
came to visit her while Elizabeth was six months pregnant with John the Baptist.
In Luke's Gospel the story is told in one and the same chapter, as indicated
above. Apparently, because Muhammad heard numerous stories, he could not
accurately remember the details from either the Apocrypha or the Gospels. The
end result was the gross mistake of making Mary the daughter of Amram and the
sister of Aaron.
The Birth of Jesus
We are told in the
Quran that the miraculous birth of Jesus took place under a palm tree (Surat
Maryam [Mary] 19:21-26). This story first appeared in an apocryphal fable of the
second century a.d. The relevant
portions of the story are italicized:
Now
on the third day after Mary was wearied in the desert by the heat, she
asked Joseph to rest for a little under the shade of a Palm Tree. Then
Mary looking up and seeing its branches laden with fruit (dates) said, "I
desire if it were possible to have some fruit." Just then the child
Jesus looked up (from below) with a cheerful smile, and said to the
Palm Tree, "Send down some fruit. Immediately the tree bent itself
(toward her) and so they ate. Then Jesus said, "O Palm Tree,
arise; be one of my Father's trees in Paradise, but with thy roots open the
fountain (rivulet) beneath thee and bring water flowing from that fount.
After
presenting the Quranic and the apocryphal references, let us now consider the
accurate record of Matthew 1:25-2:6:
[Joseph]
did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His
name
Now
after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king,
behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He who
has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have
come to worship
When
Herod the king heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people
together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. So they said to
him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:
'But
you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, Are not the least among the rulers of
Judah; For out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.'
"
Two
of the most far-fetched and fantasy-filled fables ever attributed to Jesus are
recorded in the Quran.
Then
she pointed to him. They said: How can we talk to one who is in the cradle, a
young boy?
He
spoke: Lo! I am the slave of Allah. He hath given me the Scripture and hath
appointed me a Prophet ....
23
The
First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, which is a second-century
Arabic apocryphal fable from Egypt, is the source for this Quranic fable:
.
. . Jesus spake even when he was in the cradle, and said to his mother:
"Mary, I am Jesus the Son of God. That word which thou didst bring forth
according to the declaration of the angel. . . ."
Next, we look
into the tale that Jesus breathed life into birds of clay. According to Surat
al-Imran (The Family of 'Imran) 3:49:
And
will make him a messenger unto the children of Israel, (saying): Lo! I come unto
you with a sign from your Lord. Lo! I fashion for you out of clay the likeness
of a bird, and I breathe into it and it is a bird, by Allah's leave.
The
source for this Quranic fiction is found in the earlier Thomas' Gospel of the
Infancy of Jesus Christ, an apocryphal fable from the second century.
Then
he took from the bank of the stream some soft clay, and formed out of it twelve
sparrows . . . Then Jesus clapping together the palms of his hands, called to
the sparrows, and said to them: "Go, fly
away.
"24
Neither
of the above quotations from either source are recognized by biblical scholars,
historians, or theologians as authentic events in the life of Christ.
Feeding
the Disciples
The New Testament
records several instances when Jesus supernaturally obtained or multiplied food
for the needy. However, there is no biblical or historical evidence for the
following Quranic story
Jesus,
son of Mary, said: O Allah, Lord of us! Send down for us a table spread with
food from heaven, that it may be a feast for us, for the first of us and for the
last of us, and a sign from Thee. Give us sustenance, for Thou art the Best of
Sustainers.
Allah
said: Lo! I send it down for you. And whoso disbelieveth of you afterward, him
surely will I punish with a punishment wherewith I have not punished any of (My)
creatures.
Perhaps
Muhammad was confusing his Bible stories again. Maybe he was misapplying and
confusing the events of Acts 10:10-16:
Then [Peter] became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he
fell into a trance and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound
at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. In it were all
kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and
birds of the air.
And a voice came to
him, "Rise, Peter; kill and eat."
But
Peter said, "Not so, Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or
unclean."
And a voice spoke to
him again the second time, "What God has cleansed you must not call
common."
This
was done three times. And the object was taken up into heaven again.