Parallels Between the Qur'an and Late Antique Judeo-Christian Literature: Difference between revisions

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 One is forced to wonder how a story invented by Rabbi Hiyya in the 2nd century CE managed to find its way into a source purported to be of divine origin. Rather than divine revelation, these parallels point to a very human origin of the Qur'an.
+==Abraham saved from the fire==
+===Qur'anic Account===
+At the end of the Quranic passage quoted in the previous section above, {{Quran-range|21|68|71}}, Allah saves Abraham from the fire. Similarly, see {{Quran|29|24}} and {{Quran-range|37|97|98}}.
+{{Quote||They said, "Burn him and support your gods - if you are to act." Allah said, "O fire, be coolness and safety upon Abraham." And they intended for him harm, but We made them the greatest losers. And We delivered him and Lot to the land which We had blessed for the worlds.}}
+===Midrash Account===
+This is believed by academic scholars to derive from a Rabbinic reinterpretation of the city named "Ur of the Chaldeans" in the biblical book of Genesis. In the centuries before Islam, Jewish Rabbis began to interpret "Ur of the Chaldeans" in [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#15:7 Genesis 15:7] as "fire" of the Chaldeans (for example, in Midrash Rabba Genesis 38:13 quoted in the previous section above). "Ur" has the same consonantal structure as the Hebrew word for fire. Various elaborate legends subsequently arose, building on this idea that Abraham was saved from a fire. The Book of Jubilees from the biblical apocrypha contains the earliest form of the legend, in which Haran is burned to death trying to save the idols set on fire by his brother Abraham (a Rabbinic interpretation of [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#11:28 Genesis 11:28]).<ref>Dr. Rabbi Yishai Kiel [https://www.thetorah.com/article/why-the-midrash-has-abraham-thrown-into-nimrods-furnace Why the Midrash Has Abraham Thrown into Nimrod's Furnace] - TheTorah.com</ref>
+However, "Ur of the Chaldeans" is mentioned four times in the Hebrew Bible, and in some of those verses it is unambiguously clear that the phrase refers to a place: [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#11:28 Genesis 11:28], [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#11:31 Genesis 11:31], [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#15:7 Genesis 15:7], and [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Nehemiah#9:7 Nehimiah 9:7]. Indeed, [[w:Ur|Ur]] was a real Sumerian city that has been excavated by archaeologists, although it was ruled by the Chaldeans only from the 7th century BCE. The biblical anachronism may be explained if the majority of Biblical scholars are correct to believe that the written books of [[w:Torah|the Torah]] were a product of the Babylonian captivity (c. 6th century BCE), based on earlier written sources and oral traditions, and that it was completed with final revisions during the post-Exilic period (c. 5th century BCE).
 ==The Wealth of Korah==
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 Apparently, Rabbi Levi; a third century Haggadist who lived in Palestine and who also made up the story of Korah’s keys, was actually none other than Allah in the flesh.
+==Mountain raised above the Children of Israel==
+===Qur'anic Account===
+In four passages, the Quran says that the mountain was raised over the Children of Israel when they were given the covenant.
+{{Quote|{{Quran|2|63}}|And [recall] when We took your covenant, [O Children of Israel, to abide by the Torah] and We raised over you the mount, [saying], "Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that perhaps you may become righteous."}}
+{{Quote|{{Quran|7|171}}|And [mention] when We raised the mountain above them as if it was a dark cloud and they were certain that it would fall upon them, [and Allah said], "Take what We have given you with determination and remember what is in it that you might fear Allah."}}
+See similarly {{Quran|2|93}} and {{Quran|4|154}}.
+===Midrash Account===
+Michael Graves has argued in a detailed article on the theology of these passages that the Quran deploys the motif that the mountain was literally raised over the Israelites for its own theological purposes, to destabilize Judeo-Christian concepts of divine election and to emphasise the need for all people to show reverant awareness of Allah. Moreover, he explains why academic scholars understand the idea to have come about from Rabbinic exegesis of a verse in the biblical book of Genesis.<ref>Graves, M. W. (2018). [https://www.eurasia.org.uk/docs/academic/quran-studies/The_Upraised_Mountain_and_Israels_Electi.pdf The Upraised Mountain and Israel’s Election in the Qur’an and Talmud] Comparative Islamic Studies, 11(2), 141–177. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.34780</ref>
+Graves explains that in [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Exodus#19:17 Exodus 19:17] Moses brings the people out of the camp to meet God, and the people take their place beṯaḥtîṯ hāhār, which is usually taken to mean, “at the foot of the mountain.”
+{{Quote|Exodus 19:17-18 (KJV)|17 And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.<BR />
+And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the LORD descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.}}
+He notes that beṯaḥtîṯ is an unusual way to say "at the foot of", the root word typically meaning "under", and this particular form of the word is unique in the Hebrew Bible. Graves observes that:
+{{Quote||If one were to press the language of the text in a literalistic fashion, one could construe this verse as saying that the people took their place “below” or “underneath” the mountain. It is precisely this kind of unusual expression in the biblical text that regularly served as a jumping off point for midrashic exegesis (see Zetterholm 2012, 70–71; Wylen 2005, 97–98; Stern 1987, 613–620; Sarason 1998, 133–154). In fact, the picture of Israel situated literally underneath the uplifted mountain supports a theological reflection on Israel’s meeting with God at Sinai in the earliest rabbinic midrash on Exodus, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael. That God raised up Mt. Sinai over Israel became a standard interpretation of Exodus 19:17 in rabbinic sources. It is notable, although not unusual, that an exegetical motif such as this should find its way into the Qurʾan.}}
+Graves notes that the Talmud ascribes the interpretation to R. Abdimi b. Hama, a fourth century Rabbi. He quotes the tradition as reported in the Babylonian Talmud, Tracates Shabbat 88a and Abodah Zarah 2b:
+{{Quote|Tracates Shabbat 88a and Abodah Zarah 2b|And they stood under the mountain”: R. Abdimi b. Ḥama said: This teaches
+that the Holy Blessed One overturned the mountain upon them like a cask, and said to them, “If you accept the Torah, well and good; but if not, there shall be your burial.}}
+==Flood waters boiled from an oven==
+===Qur'anic Account===
+The Qur'anic version of the Noah's flood story describes the flood waters as boiling from an oven. This element is not found even in more ancient versions of the story (Epic of Gilgamesh, Atra hasis, and Ziusudra).
+Note that in his translation, Yusuf Ali mistranslates the Aramaic loan word for the oven (alttannooru ٱلتَّنُّورُ)<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume1/00000355.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 318 تَّنُّورُ]</ref> as "fountains". The Arabic verb translated "gushed forth" (fara فَارَ) means "boiled" in the context of water in a cooking pot<ref>[http://www.studyquran.org/LaneLexicon/Volume6/00000241.pdf Lane's Lexicon p. 2457 فور]</ref>, as well as in the other verse where it is used, {{Quran|67|7}}. Here is Pickthall's more accurate translation:
+{{Quote|{{Quran|11|40}}|
+(Thus it was) till, when Our commandment came to pass '''and the oven gushed forth water''', We said: Load therein two of every kind, a pair (the male and female), and thy household, save him against whom the word hath gone forth already, and those who believe. And but a few were they who believed with him.}}
+{{Quote|{{Quran|23|27}}|
+Then We inspired in him, saying: Make the ship under Our eyes and Our inspiration. Then, when Our command cometh '''and the oven gusheth water''', introduce therein of every (kind) two spouses, and thy household save him thereof against whom the Word hath already gone forth. And plead not with Me on behalf of those who have done wrong. Lo! they will be drowned.}}
+===Midrash Account===
+The ultimate origin of this story element appears to be a highly tenuous rabbinical exegesis of [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bible_(King_James)/Genesis#8:1 Genesis 8:1] in the Babylonian Talmud, based on a word in an unrelated verse that means heat or wrath ([https://biblehub.com/lexicon/esther/7-10.htm Esther 7-10]).
+{{Quote|1=[https://www.sefaria.org/Rosh_Hashanah.12a.4?lang=bi Tracate Rosh Hashanah]|2=The Gemara answers: Even according to Rabbi Eliezer a change was made, in accordance with the statement of Rav Ḥisda, as Rav Ḥisda said: They sinned with boiling heat, and they were punished with boiling heat; they sinned with the boiling heat of the sin of forbidden sexual relations, and they were punished with the boiling heat of scalding waters. This is derived from a verbal analogy. It is written here, with regard to the flood: “And the waters abated” (Genesis 8:1), and it is written elsewhere, with regard to King Ahasuerus: “And the heated anger of the king abated” (Esther 7:10), which implies that the word “abated” means cooled. This indicates that at first the waters of the flood had been scalding hot.}}
+==The four stories in Surah al-Kahf==
+The Quran contains four short stories from the Christian lore of late antiquity, some of which seem to have been popular in the Syriac speaking region. The traditional account about the revelation of Surah al-Kahf in the sira literature is somewhat at odds with this context. According to Ibn Ishaq's biography of Muhammad, he was challenged by Jews from Medina to answer three questions about the young men who disappeared in ancient days, the mighty traveller who reached the eastern and western ends of the world, and the spirit (a question about the spirit is actually answered in {{Quran-range|17|85|87}}, not Surah al-Kahf).<ref>Ibn Ishaq; Guillaume, Alfred (2002) [?–767 AD]. The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah. Oxford University Press. pp. 136–139. ISBN 978-0-19-636033-1<BR />{{Quote||The rabbis said, ‘Ask him about three things of which we will instruct you; if he gives you the right answer then he is an authentic prophet, but if he does not, then the man is a rogue, so form your own opinion about him. Ask him what happened to the young men who disappeared in ancient days, for they have a marvellous story. Ask him about the mighty traveller who reached the confines of both East and West. Ask him what the spirit is.</ref>
+===The seven sleepers of Ephesus===
+{{main|Seven Sleepers of Ephesus in the Quran}}
+Academic scholars consider the story of the sleepers of the cave in {{Quran-range|18|9|26}} to be derived from a famous Christian legend, known as The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus. For a detailed discussion, see the main article.
+===Moses, his servant and the fish===
+{{main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance}}
+The story of Moses and his journey to the end of the world, with his servant and a miraculously escaped fish in {{Quran-range|18|60|64}} is almost unanimously considered by academic scholars to be derived from a legend about Alexander the Great in the Alexander Romance tradition (Pseudo-Callisthenes), an episode known as the search for the water / fountain of life. This tale is also found in the Jewish Talmud and the early 7th century CE Syriac metrical homily (memre) about Alexander (also known as the Song of Alexander, or Alexander Poem).
+The Syriac homily also features the episode of Alexander enclosing Gog and Magog behind a wall, derived from the slightly earlier Syriac Alexander Legend, and which occurs in the Dhu'l Qarnayn pericope, discussed below. It cannot be a coincidence that, like surah al-Kahf, the Syriac homily has both stories, perhaps providing a clue to the content of their ultimate common source. See the Water of Life section in the main article for a more detailed discussion, including relevant quotes from the Syriac homily.
+===Moses and al Khidr===
+{{main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance}}
+The story of Moses and al-Khidr occurs in {{Quran-range|18|65|82}}. A J Weinsink (d. 1939) proposed that it was derived from the story of Rabbi Joshua ben Levi, though more recent scholarship has shown that the latter is late and heavily influenced by the Islamic tradition. More recently and successfully, Roger Paret has identified a significant Christian parallel that predates the Quran. It is an example of a genre of literature known as "theodicy" (dealing with the theological problem of evil). Paret identified this parallel in a sixth century CE tale, the Leimon (or Pratum Spirituale, Spiritual Meadow) of John Moschus (d. 619 CE). The basic structure of the story is identical to the Quranic passage, and has many similarities of detail though also differences.
+A wandering ascetic is upset by notions of divine justice demonstrated to him by an angel before the events are explained to him. Like the Quran, the story involves three perplexing acts by the divine servant followed by an explanation to his exasperated companion, the second and third of which have obvious similarities to the Quranic pericope: In order to spare his father's salvation, a boy is killed who would have grown up commiting evil; and the repair of a wall containing hidden treasure on the verge of collapsing, without asking for payment. For more discussion, with a link to a screenshot of an English translation of the Spiritual Meadow passage, see the end of the Water of Life section in the main article.
+===Dhu'l Qarnayn===
+{{main|Dhul-Qarnayn and the Alexander Romance}}
+The Quranic story of Dhu'l Qarnayn is narrated in {{Quran-range|18|83|101}}, and is perhaps the most famous example of an intertextual relationship between the Quran and a non-biblical legend. Academic scholars consider the Quranic pericope to be closely connected to the ''Syriac Alexander Legend'', which has Alexander the Great voyaging to the ends of the earth to see where the sun goes, before securing the Huns (including Gog and Magog) behind an iron wall. The story seems to have received a final redaction between 629-636 CE, though there are reasons to believe an original version was composed in the sixth century CE. The legend of Alexander enclosing Gog and Magog behind a iron barrier is first found several centuries earlier in the works of the Jewish historian Josephus. For a detailed discussion, see the main article.
 ==See Also==