Excellent article Professor Cole. Please keep writing about similarities between Judaism, Christianity and Islam and how many of these have been simply lost in translation between Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, English etc. Would be interesting to know your views e.g. about:
1- the term "Ahl-al-Kitaab" (people of the Book) in the Koran. Can this not also be translated as the "people of the Bible" (bible means book in Latin if I'm not mistaken).
2- Also, what is the meaning of the word "Nasaara" used for followers of Jesus in the Koran? Is it Nazarenes? Does it simply mean those from Nazareth? Does it mean that Christians used to call themselves "Nazarenes" before, or was it simply a name for a particular sect? Does Christian not correspond to Maseehi (follower of Messiah) which is a term not used to describe Christians in the Arabic Koran?
3- What about Jews/ Yahudi - why did the followers of Moses become known as Jews/Yahudi? Does it simply imply those from Judea?
My view is that Jews, Christians and Muslims obviously worship/serve the same God. The Koran says that Abraham believed in the one and only God and called himself "Muslim" i.e. one who submits (to God), and his religion was "Islam" (Both words come from the root S-L-M which is the same root in hebrew for peace/submission). But for different reasons, some believers from the Children of Israel started calling themselves or became known as Jews/Yahud. And then later the followers of Jesus Christ started calling themselves or became known as Christians. The followers of Muhammad (including converts from Jews and Christians) were told in the Koran to stick with the name that Abraham had chosen initially and not divide into sects - thus they did not call themselves e.g. Muhammadans and remained "Muslims". Although now even they have also unfortunately divided into sects of Muslims like sunni, shia, etc etc.
Excellent article Professor Cole. Please keep writing about similarities between Judaism, Christianity and Islam and how many of these have been simply lost in translation between Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Greek, Latin, English etc. Would be interesting to know your views e.g. about:
1- the term "Ahl-al-Kitaab" (people of the Book) in the Koran. Can this not also be translated as the "people of the Bible" (bible means book in Latin if I'm not mistaken).
2- Also, what is the meaning of the word "Nasaara" used for followers of Jesus in the Koran? Is it Nazarenes? Does it simply mean those from Nazareth? Does it mean that Christians used to call themselves "Nazarenes" before, or was it simply a name for a particular sect? Does Christian not correspond to Maseehi (follower of Messiah) which is a term not used to describe Christians in the Arabic Koran?
3- What about Jews/ Yahudi - why did the followers of Moses become known as Jews/Yahudi? Does it simply imply those from Judea?
My view is that Jews, Christians and Muslims obviously worship/serve the same God. The Koran says that Abraham believed in the one and only God and called himself "Muslim" i.e. one who submits (to God), and his religion was "Islam" (Both words come from the root S-L-M which is the same root in hebrew for peace/submission). But for different reasons, some believers from the Children of Israel started calling themselves or became known as Jews/Yahud. And then later the followers of Jesus Christ started calling themselves or became known as Christians. The followers of Muhammad (including converts from Jews and Christians) were told in the Koran to stick with the name that Abraham had chosen initially and not divide into sects - thus they did not call themselves e.g. Muhammadans and remained "Muslims". Although now even they have also unfortunately divided into sects of Muslims like sunni, shia, etc etc.