Jesus in Qur'an and Bible

The person of Jesus is of great significance in both Christianities and Islam. However, there are differences in terms of beliefs about the nature and life occurrences of this noble Messenger. The viewpoints of which work or works represents the true, and most historically correct character of Jesus? Christians take their information about Jesus from the Bible, particularly from the New Testament and from other works of early Christianities not included in the Bible. Most of the Islamic information about Jesus can be found in the Quran. The New Testament contains four biblical narratives, orthodox, or “right-believing” accepted, that cover the life and death of Jesus (peace be upon him). They have been written years after the death of Jesus according to oral traditions, respectively by Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. They are placed at the beginning of the New Testament and comprise close to half of it. Among other works of early Christianity, that are “heterox”, or “other-believing”, are the Gospels of Thomas and Judas. They are not part of the New Testament, but are used as sources in some Christian practices. Unfortunately, none of the sources of Jesus’ life and teachings can be traced to Jesus himself; he did not leave a single written word as of today. Moreover, according to Bible scholars themselves, the complete versions of majority of Gospel scriptures are no longer extant either. What can be established about the historical Jesus depends almost without exception on Christian traditions, especially on the material used in the composition of the Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, as well as the Gospels of Thomas and Judas, which reflect on the outlook of the later church and its faith in Jesus. This raises the question of who Jesus really was and what was h is true message? The Quran, on the other hand, was revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), and completely memorized, as well as written down in his lifetime. Three copies of the original Quran are still in extant and preserved in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Today, anyone who calls him or herself a Muslim believes in the complete authenticity of the Quran as the original revealed guidance from God. Muslims join in with the Christians by believing in Jesus as the "Messiah" and "Miraculous Conception". Also, Muslims believe in the same Omnipotent, All-powerful, Unseen God that the Jews have believed in since Adam. Muslims also believe that God is merciful and just to His creatures. It is very important to understand the way that the Bible presents Jesus and the way the Quran presents Jesus through his miracles, teaching, punishment, and community. The Gospel of Mark ( ~ 85-100 AC ) is an apocalyptic narrative of a “suffering Messiah”, that contains Jesus’ life story and sayings. The idea of the “suffering Messiah” suggests that the salvation will be granted to people through suffering as well. Also, the baptism is viewed as a “re-birth” and is important. This Gospel tries to persuade a reader that Jesus was the “Son of God” (Mark 1:1) and describes several miracles to support that claim. Even though Mark is believed to be a disciple of Peter, who was the disciple of Jesus himself, the Gospel of Mark creates a concern of its sincerity, relevance to the true history and identity of Jesus. Gospel of Mark has several contrasting endings that suggest quite possible interpolations within the text. The Gospel of Matthew and Luke has a similar basic structure and content as the Gospel of Mark. In addition, the Gospel of Matthew contains a birth narrative and other saying of Jesus. Especially, this Gospel includes Jesus’ sermon on the mountain, which completes the teachings of the preceding prophet Moses. Unlike the Gospel of Mark, Gospel of Matthew emphasizes on living the righteous life in accordance to the laws. It “demonstrates that the followers of Jesus are included in Israel’s special relationship with God”, like the Jews who are observant of the law (MANUAL88). The Gospel of John (~ 100 AC) is somewhat an outlier from the Gospel of Mark, Matthew and Luke. It does not have a story of Jesus’ birth or temptations, but has a few signs, also known as miracles (MANUAL 95). In the chapter 21, that was added at the later times, Gospel of John focuses on having the sprit at the given time rather than waiting for the future return of Christ: “ no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit”. Such “high Christology” suggests a belief that Jesus is a Messiah. Interestingly, the Gospel of John attacks the Gospel of Thomas by interpreting it a non-spiritual writing not worth of following. This suggests that there have been some tensions in the religious community, which possibly contributed to the divergence of Christian communities. The Gospel of Thomas is different from the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark or Gospel of John. It was not accepted in the orthodox Christianity, the one that was accepted and adopted by Roman emperors. The Gospel of Thomas is considered Gnostic, from the Greek verb “gignosco”, that means to “come to know”. “Gnosis”, which is a final state of knowledge, suggests that having the special “knowledge” is the true faith (Streete 91). Gnostic believe in the “acquaintance with the God”, or a pure spirit, like the soul. Thus, one would have a salvation through knowing, or understanding the “secret” messages that are contained in the Gnostic Gospels. The secret message, and a goal of gnosis is to liberate the soul from the limits of the material world and become a spiritual entity like God. Gnostic Christians also believe that the Savior, or “the Spirit” appeared in a visible and tangible body of Jesus ( Streete 92). So, because of a believe in a free spirit, many Gnostics rejected the rules and laws from the orthodox standards. To Gnostic Christians, Jesus’ spirit never died, and those who really understand his sayings “will not experience death” and thus gain the salvation through immortality (GThom1; 8:51). The Gospel of Judas is also a Gnostic Gospel. It contains many secret spiritual messages about the true spirit, creation and existence. It blames orthodoxy for suppressing the true knowledge that would lead to salvation. While orthodoxy encourages people to die as Jesus died, Gnostics believe in the freeing the spirit from the captivity of the body. Moreover, the Gospel of Judas is a new, quite rare provocative text. While all orthodox Gospels view Judas as an evil traitor of Jesus, this Gospel creates a new image of this disciple. It explains that the Jesus’ crucifixion was predestined by God, and Judas only betrayed the body but not the spirit of Jesus. So, this Gospel concludes that in fact Judas was the most loyal disciple. It teaches the wisdom of knowledge, and insight that will assist people to discover who they really are and help to achieve immortality. Finally, Islam views Jesus differently than any of the Christian writings. Jesus in the Quran holds one of the highest statures amongst the Prophets. Unlike other Prophets who performed miracles, Jesus himself was a miracle, as he was born of a virgin mother. However, he was never viewed as the “Son of God” or the “Savior”. In the Quran, Jesus is viewed as a great prophet, a messenger of God and nothing else. For example, Quaran says 4:171 “O People of the Book! Commit no excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah anything but the truth. Christ Jesus, the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah, and His Word, which He bestowed on Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him: so believe in Allah and His Messengers. Say not “Trinity”: desist: It will be better for you: For Allah is One God: Glory be to Him: (Far exalted is He) above having a son. To Him belong all things in the heavens and on earth. And enough is Allah as a Disposer of affairs.”(Quran 4:171) Now this is conflict with the Bible where it says that Jesus is the son of God. The end of the life of Jesus on Earth is as much involved in mystery as his birth, and indeed the greater part of his private life, except the three main years of his ministry. It is not profitable to discuss the many doubts and conjectures among the early Christians sects and among Muslims theologians. The Orthodox-Christian Churches make it a cardinal point of their doctrine that his life was taken on the Cross, that he died and was buried, that on the third day he rose in the body with his wounds intact, and walked about and conversed, and ate with his disciples, and was afterwards taken up bodily to heaven. This is necessary for the theological doctrine of blood sacrifice and vicarious atonement for sins, which is rejected by Islam. But some of the early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was killed on the cross. The Quran teaches that Christ was not crucified nor killed by the Jews, not with standing certain apparent circumstances which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies; that disputations, doubts, and conjectures on such matters are vain; and that he was taken up to God Almighty. Islam says about this incident that “(the unbelievers) plotted and planned, and God too planned, and the best of planners is God : “ Behold! God said: “O Jesus! I will take thee and raise thee to Myself and clear thee (of the falsehoods) of those who blaspheme; I will make those who follow thee superior to those who reject faith, to the Day of Resurrection: Then shall ye all return unto me, and I will judge between you of the matters wherein ye dispute”” (Quran 4:54-55). Then, “they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Apostle of God";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) know ledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-Nay, God raised him up unto Himself; and God is Exalted in Power, Wise” (Quran 4: 157-158). In conclusion, every written work presents a different view of the true Jesus and the true religion. The Synoptic Gospels all agree that Jesus died on the cross and rose back to life after three days. Therefore, those Christians will gain the salvation through baptism, following Jesus’ teachings, and suffering. The Gospel of John contains high Christology and suggests that the faith in Jesus will help to gain immortality. The Gnostic Gospels of Thomas and Judas offer a salvation through higher knowledge, particularly through freeing the spirit from the body, like in their interpretation of Jesus death. All Biblical writings provide Jesus with divine attributes and hint on his spirit’s equivalence with God. Muslims, on the other hand, see Jesus as the son of a woman, Mary, and therefore a man. In Quran, Jesus is a messenger, a man with a mission from God, and therefore entitled to be honored. His life and his mission were more limited than in the case of some other Messengers, through we must pay equal honor to him as a prophet from God. So, there is no unifying true Christianity, as well as there in no universal representation of Jesus’ character and his purpose. The claims for the “true” Christianity and the true identity of Jesus remain arguments based on faith and on scholarly facts of the written document record.