Ali Ataie – Ramadan & Revelation The Message of the Gospel
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AI: Transcript ©
My name is Ali Atay, associate professor and
dean of undergraduate studies here at Zaytuna College
in beautiful Berkeley, California.
For this 3rd session of this series called
the Ramadan and Revelation, I want to explore
the 3rd of the major Qutub or scriptures
according to Islamic tradition. The gospel of Jesus,
peace be upon him. Just as we did
previously with the Torah and Psalms, I want
to examine the gospel from 3 distinct perspectives.
The perspective of traditional Christianity
rather than Judaism,
the perspective of modern historical scholarship,
and finally, from a Muslim perspective.
There is much to say here, but in
this segment, I will have to keep it
short.
The 4 gospels in the New Testament are
attributed to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, according
to
Mark was a student of Peter, Luke was
a companion of Paul, and both Matthew and
John were disciples of Jesus, peace be upon
him. According to most historians and textual critics
of the New Testament, however, these apostolic attributions
were later developments.
And in fact, these gospels are anonymous.
It was Irenaeus, the Bishop of Gaul, who
first referred to these 4 books as Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John around the year 180
of the common era.
These gospels were likely originally composed between 40
70 years after the historical Jesus of Nazareth,
peace be upon him, by writers who did
not know Jesus.
Let's look at each of them briefly.
The gospel of Mark was written around 70
CE, probably in Rome. It was written in
Koine Greek or Alexandrian Greek, the lingua franca
of the Roman occupied ancient Near East at
that time.
The gospel of Mark is a wartime gospel.
That is to say, it was composed during
the Jewish war against the Romans.
This war was well documented by the Jewish
historian Flavius Josephus.
Christologically,
the mark in Jesus is depicted as a
hidden messiah and suffering prophet.
The passion is a major theme of Mark's
gospel. In fact, almost 40% of Mark's narrative
is the final week of Jesus' life. Historians
have described Mark's gospel as Christologically
anemic, at least when compared to the other
gospels.
Jesus has only called the son of God
twice. Once in the very first verse of
the gospel
and one more time by a Roman centurion
who witnessed the crucifixion toward the very end
of the gospel. Mark was a Pauline Christian,
and so his Christology was significantly influenced by
Paul's gospel and signature Pauline motifs.
All of Paul's letters were written and widely
disseminated prior to Mark's composition.
According to some scholars, Mark may have also
been influenced by the Homeric epics, a phenomenon
known as literary mimesis.
Next, we have the gospel of Matthew. This
was the most popular gospel in antiquity.
Scholars date Matthew's gospel to around 80 to
85 of the common era.
The Methian Jesus is the true Davidic messiah
and supreme open teacher and interpreter of the
law of Moses.
He is the new Moses. He is the
preeminent rabbi in contrast to Mark's hidden messiah.
Matthew's aim was to convince his readers that
Jesus is the long awaited anointed one of
Israel.
Therefore, the Matthean Jesus fulfills numerous old testament
prophecies.
At times, Matthew edited or redacted certain Mark
and pericopes.
For example, Matthew somewhat downplayed the immediate parousia
or second coming of Jesus. The immediate parousia
was a theme prevalent in both Paul and
Mark. Instead, Matthew focuses on the assembly or
ekklesia,
the church that he will build upon this
rock that is Petros
or Peter.
The 3rd gospel is a gospel of Luke
written around 85 to 90 of the common
era. Luke sees Christ as really an extension
of Israel's blessings to the whole world. Luke's
aim is to universalize Jesus by appealing to
his Greco Roman audience.
John the Baptist successor, Jesus, is the pivot
on which history turns. Luke also depicts Jerusalem
as the sacred world stage.
The famous Luke and travel narrative, chapters 9
through 19,
were spoken by the Luke and Jesus while
walking to Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the
world.
All post resurrection appearances and the Luke and
Jesus' ascension to heaven took place in Jerusalem.
In Matthew, he only appeared in Galilee.
In terms of soteriology, the Luke and Jesus,
according to many scholars of the New Testament,
does not appear to die for the world's
sins. This is in contrast to Paul, Mark,
and Matthew.
Rather, the Luke and Jesus is an example
of service for his followers to emulate.
He is the martyr prophet. He dies to
set a virtuous example of selfless service and
sacrifice to be imitated.
This is not a vicarious atonement, but rather
redemptive suffering.
Luke does refer to Jesus as soter or
savior,
but he likely meant that Jesus teaches us
how to deal with sin and its consequences.
He's a means of salvation,
a deliverer like Moses. His death makes people
realize their guilt before God so that they
can turn to God in repentance so that
God may forgive their sins. The Luke in
Jesus is also imperturbable
on the order of a stoic philosopher.
He is highly disciplined and embodies the stoic
virtue of apatheia. Luke eliminated mark and descriptions
of Jesus that make him too humanly vulnerable
or highly emotional. The Luke in Jesus makes
no cry of dereliction from the cross. Rather,
he says calmly, father, into your hands, I
commend my spirit. He also has a lucid
conversation with weeping women on route to the
crucifixion.
Why? Reason, discipline, apatheia.
These were virtues that were highly valued by
the Greeks that Luke is trying to appeal
to. This type of even keelness was an
attribute that the Greeks highly praised. While Matthew
turns Jesus into a new Moses, the Luke
in Jesus depicted as a walking teacher becomes
the new Aristotle. There is celebrated material in
the gospel of Luke that is not found
in any other gospel.
Scholars refer to this material as special l
or Lucan material.
Famous passages from the special Lucan material include
Luke chapter 10, the good Samaritan,
which teaches the universality of man and mercy
to the stranger.
Luke 15, the prodigal son, which teaches repentance.
Luke 16, Lazarus and the rich man, the
reversal of roles in the afterlife. And Luke
18, the Pharisee and the tax collector, a
lesson about humility versus ostentation.
Finally, we have the gospel of John written
around 90 to 100 of the common era,
possibly in Ephesus or somewhere in Egypt. John
is a radically different gospel in its chronology
and content when compared to the synoptics that
is Mark, Matthew, and Luke. In fact, 90%
of John is exclusive to his account with
no parallel to the Synoptics.
However, the gospel of John became the most
influential book of the New Testament for proto
orthodox theologians.
It formed the backbone of their theology and
Christology.
Clement of Alexandria said that while the Synoptics
speak of the ta somatica,
the bodily things of Christ, John speaks of
the ta penumatica,
the spiritual things of Christ. The gospel of
John is a profound meditation on Christ's theological
significance.
Instead of parables, the preferred pedagogical method of
the synoptic Jesus,
the Johannine Jesus recites these very long monologues
about his relationship and unity with the father.
At the very heart of these monologues are
the famous ego emmi or I am statements.
These statements reveal Christ's exalted status as God,
capital G for Trinitarians,
as the Messiah for Unitarians,
or as a God, according to many historians.
For example, John 10:30, the father and I
are 1. John 858, before Abraham was, I
am. John 146,
I am the way, the truth, and the
life. No man comes to the father except
through me. Interestingly, this gospel was used extensively
by the Gnostics due to its Platonist undertones,
its duality, light darkness,
good evil, spirit flesh. Also the preexistence of
the logos mentioned in John chapter 1, John's
famous prologue.
In fact, the first ever commentary written on
John was by Heracleion, a gnostic teacher in
the 2nd century.
Some scholars believe that Corinthus wrote this gospel,
another gnostic teacher. However, many of these themes
are also found in the writings of middle
platonic Jewish philosopher,
Philo, as well as in the Dead Sea
Scrolls. This means that 1st century Middle Eastern
Jews were, to some significant degree, Hellenized.
A character who is unique to John's gospel
is the Paraclete. The Paraclete is a spirit
of truth who will come after the departure
of Christ to remind the believers about Christ
and to guide the community.
The paraclete is referred to by Christians as
the spirit of Christ. It is explicitly called
the Holy Spirit in John's gospel. But according
to trinitarians, it is essentially equal with the
son. In 1st John chapter 2, Jesus is
called the 1st paraclete.
Thus, the Johannan authors have mitigated the major
crisis in the early Pauli Christian communities,
the no show immediate second coming of Jesus.
John does not teach a future parousia.
Christ came back as the paraclete. This is
called Johannan realized eschatology.
By implication, the Paraclete also empowered the author
to create a gospel that fully portrays Jesus's
status. So the author of John seems to
imply that his gospel a divine revelation.
From a Muslim standpoint, Allah
revealed the injil or gospel to his prophet,
Messiah, Isa alaihis salam. According to the sacred
Muslim text tradition,
we can gather that the Injil brought a
more liberal, that is to say, relaxed or
updated form of the Torah of Moses. That
the Injil contained deep spiritual verities,
that it taught people how to engage the
spiritual path to attain the love of god.
The focus of the Injil was on tasquito
nafs and ihsan. It reminded people of death,
emphasize the afterlife as a priority, and warned
against the snares of the dunya. The Injeel
also predicted the coming of a messenger to
come after Jesus, peace be upon him. A
messenger called Ahmed, the most praised. The Quran
also categorically denies that Jesus was crucified.
Therefore, the cross
would not have figured into the teachings of
the Injil at any level.
The Quran also intimates that when Jesus appeared
on the scene, the Israelites divided into 2
camps. Interestingly, Imam Al Razi says that these
were 2 camps of Jewish Christians.
In other words, Jews who believed in Jesus'
messiahship in some way.
But one group, 1 believed and another
disbelieved.
And then we vindicated those who believed and
they became the victorious.
Now we know that the early Jewish Christians
or Nazarenes,
Nasara,
were sharply divided into 2 camps, the Pauline
and the Jamesonian. The former was led by
Paul of Tarsus who introduced many Hellenistic ideas.
The latter was led by James the Just,
Yaqub ut Fetzadik,
the brother of Jesus who was head of
the Jerusalem based Nazarenes for over 30 years.
Interestingly, while the principal author of the new
testament was Paul, not a single authentic writing
of the historical James the just is extent.
According to doctor James Taber, James is the
key for understanding the historical Jesus. Doctor Robert
Eisenman sees a direct trajectory of teaching from
James to the prophet Muhammad, peace be upon
him. Therefore, when the Quran was finally revealed,
James and his Ta'ifa
were finally vindicated.
For decades, historians have grappled with something called
the synoptic problem. The question is, why are
Mark, Matthew, and Luke so similar at times?
Most historians have concluded that there existed a
significant degree of interdependency
between the three gospels. The most prevalent solution
to the synoptic problem is called the 2
source theory.
According to this, Matthew and Luke had Mark
on their desks as it were, but they
also had another source that scholars referred to
as q or the saying his gospel. Doctor
Dennis McDonald calls it the first gospel.
Q explains why Matthew and Luke had material
in common verbatim
that was missing from Mark.
It appeared that Mark did not have access
to q or he disregarded it for some
reason. Perhaps because it contained the teachings of
James' Taifa and Mark who was highly Pauline
was simply not interested.
When scholars
reconstructed q by isolating material found in Matthew
and Luke but missing from Mark,
something interesting happened.
Q contained various teaching parables, the ministry of
John the Baptist, the Sermon on the Mount
including the beatitudes and the Lord's Prayer,
but no passion material,
not even a passion prediction.
In fact, you would be hard pressed to
find any material in q that is offensive
to Islamic theological sensibilities.
Q was absolutely key for understanding what non
Pauline Christians believed about Jesus. How so? Well,
q was most likely written in the fifties,
independent of Paul.
Now q probably had different strata of authorship
over several years. But even despite this, let
me quote what eminent historian of Christianity, John
Dominic Crossan, said about q, quote, there is
nothing, nothing, nothing in the gospel according to
q about the crucifixion of Jesus or the
resurrection of Jesus, end quote. In other words,
the passion narratives of Matthew and Luke either
come from Mark, really a redaction of Mark,
or are unique to their own gospel accounts,
what textual critics call special m and l
material.
And, of course, Mark was written after q.
So let me make this clear. According to
historians,
the earliest known source of the gospels, the
earliest known source of the gospels says nothing
nothing nothing about the crucifixion and resurrection of
Jesus.
In addition to this, the traditions found in
q are plausibly representative
of Jamesonian Christianity that is pre Pauline Nazarene
messianism.
When doctor Dennis McDonald reconstructed
the contents of q, he said that q
was not written by a Christian, but by
a Jew. He means a messianic Jew, a
Jew who believed in Jesus, but not in
the Pauline sense. He says in q, quote,
there is no salvation by Jesus because of
his crucifixion,
end quote. And in fact, there was no
crucifixion. According to McDonald's, Jesus is making the
Jewish law more compatible and more compassionate for
people who are on the margins of society.
And this is why Jesus had these arguments
with the Pharisees. He says that when you
extract the Jesus of q, you get a
Jewish reformer, You get a prophet and teacher
of a more relaxed form of the law
of Moses. This is very close to what
the Quran says. Jesus is quoted in the
Quran, I have come to you to confirm
the Torah before me and to make lawful
for you some of what was unlawful. So
fear God and obey me. God is my
lord and your lord. Worship him. This is
the straight path.
In the next session, we will look at
the final revelation of God, the Quran.
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