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Review-Essay JESUS, THE SON OF MARY Professor A. R. Momin |
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The Jesus Papers: Exposing the Greatest Cover-Up in History, by Michael Baigent. New York: HarperCollins, 2006, 321 pp.
The present era of globalization represents a curious mixture of paradoxes and contradictions. Thus, on the one hand the process of secularization is steadily on the increase, especially in large parts of Europe. On the other hand, there is an unmistakable resurgence of religious consciousness and fundamentalism—of different hues and kinds—across a large number of countries, including the United States. The religious market in the US, for example, is experiencing a huge, unprecedented boom. The market for religious books, or books dealing with religious or quasi-religious issues, in the US grew by 37% in 2003. The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren, an evangelical preacher in the US, is the best-selling hard cover book in American history, with more than 25 million copies sold.
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 For the greater part of its history, or at least since 325 A.D. when the Nicene Creed was adopted as the official dogma of the Church, Christianity has been Christocentric. Following the emergence of modern science, explorations and discoveries, and the beginnings of the scientific outlook in the Renaissance, some scholars began to focus on a critical study of the Bible in the light of scientific evidence. Some scholars, such as Wilhelm Bousset, Bruno Bauer and Kalthoff, went to the extent of asserting that there had never been a Jesus of Nazareth and that Christ of the New Testament was a mythical figure.
On the other hand, the eminent Lutheran theologian and New Testament scholar Rudolf Bultmann (d.1976) convincingly demonstrated, in the light of comparative religious history and a critical study of the New Testament texts, that the historicity of Jesus cannot be denied, although it appears that the figure of Christ became shrouded in myths and legends drawn from Greek and Roman sources. Bultmann emphasized the need for demythologizing Jesus. The eminent Orientalist and archaeologist W. F. Albright pointed out that innumerable elements of pagan mythology and folklore—such as the rite of baptism, descent to the underworld, disappearance for three days and eventual ascension to heaven—found their way into Christianity.
In recent years there has come about a renewed interest in the life of Jesus Christ as seen in the light of comparative religious history, archaeology, and a critical study of Old and New Testament texts. Michael Baigent’s book (coauthored with Richard Leigh and Henry Lincoln and published in 1982) Holy Blood, Holy Grail, which suggested that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had married and founded a holy bloodline, became a bestseller. Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code, which drew upon Baigent’s book, became an international publishing phenomenon. A film based on the novel became hugely popular—and also controversial--across large parts of the world. The book under review has already become a New York Times bestseller.
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Jesus and the New Testament
Unfortunately, there is no evidence of any texts or documents, historical records or inscriptions dating back to the time of Jesus which could directly throw some light on his life and mission. The only available sources of information on Jesus’s life and times are the New Testament texts, particularly the Gospels. Over seventy gospels are known to have existed in the past, but only four of them have been authenticated by the Church and the rest declared as apocryphal. The canonical Gospels—those of Matthew, John, Mark and Luke—are based on two manuscripts, namely, Codex Vaticanus (which is kept in the Vatican Library) and Codex Sinaiticus (preserved in the British Museum), which date from the fourth century A.D. Furthermore, these are Greek translations from the original Aramaic texts, which are lost.
Unfortunately, the Gospels appear to be fragmentary, anecdotal and abound in inconsistencies. Thus, according to Matthew’s Gospel (2:1), Jesus was born before 4 B.C., while Luke’s Gospel (2:1-7) mentions 6 A.D. as the year of his birth. Baigent says that one cannot say how much fantasy is incorporated into the New Testament. The texts, he says, are inconsistent, incomplete, garbled and biased (p. 123). He quotes Canon Alfred Leslie, a prominent figure in the Church of England, as saying that “there is nothing in the Gospels one could be certain about” (p.10). Baigent mentions that William Inge, Dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, was once asked to write a treatise on the life of Jesus. He declined, saying that there was no solid evidence on the basis of which any thing reliable could be written about Jesus’s life and works (p. 11).
Baigent argues that soon after Jesus disappeared from the scene there began the manipulation of his story that ultimately created a tradition centred upon Jesus rather than upon God (p. 64). In other words, Christianity became identical with Christology. He adds that “the Jewish origins of Jesus became subsumed within an increasingly influential pagan context introduced by converts to Christianity from among the Greeks and Romans. A number of pagan sites, rituals and festivals—such as the birth of Mithras on 25th December—were appropriated by the Church. These pagan influences drew Christianity and its view of Jesus away from the Jewish context in the succeeding centuries. “The original Jesus movement,” he says, “was taken over by a Jesus mythology” (p. 261). Baigent quotes several Old and New Testament scholars in support of his argument. St. Paul played a major role in disembedding Christianity from its Jewish moorings and in the development of a Jesus mythology. It is significant that Paul never knew Jesus nor did he ever meet him. And he did not get on with the messianic Jewish community in Jerusalem. In fact, Baigent says, the Jerusalem community did not trust Paul (p.240).
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The Dead Sea Scrolls
 The most interesting and absorbing part of The Jesus Papers is the section which deals with the Dead Sea Scrolls. Between 1947 and 1956 hundreds of documents (estimated between 825 and 870) written in the Aramaic language on papyrus were discovered in eleven caves near Khirbet Qumran on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan. In the course of time most of these scrolls were purchased by the Israeli government and are now on display at the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem. In the course of excavations at the ruins in Qumran, coins and pottery were found, which are dated from the beginning of the Christian period to the end of the Jewish War in 70 A.D.
Baigent has previously published (with Richard Leigh) a book The Dead Sea Scrolls Deception in 1991. He reveals in the present book that a great deal of mystery, intrigue and manipulation has surrounded the acquisition and publication of the Dead Sea Scrolls, in which a group of scholars and the Church were involved. While some of the texts were published relatively quickly, others took more than forty years. Baigent points out that “there was a growing suspicion that Catholic scholars who were entrusted with the responsibility of preparing the texts for publication were holding back material detrimental to the tenets of the Catholic Church” (p. 256). The existence of some scrolls was kept a secret. One of them was somehow leaked to a popular journal and published after more than thirty years. In 1991 the complete set of the Dead Sea Scrolls at the Huntington Library in California was released. How is it that so much of intrigue, manipulation and politics surrounded the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The reasons given by Baigent are startling. He points out that the Dead Sea Scrolls pose a formidable challenge to Pauline or Trinitarian Christianity in that they cast grave doubts on the uniqueness and divinity of Jesus, which has been a cardinal tenet of the Church for the past 1600 years. The scrolls, he says, “prove that you cannot disentangle Christianity from messianic Judaism, which had no concept of a divine messiah”
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Baigent points out that the Dead Sea Scrolls pose a formidable challenge to Pauline or Trinitarian Christianity in that they cast grave doubts on the uniqueness and divinity of Jesus, which has been a cardinal tenet of the Church for the past 1600 years. The scrolls, he says, “prove that you cannot disentangle Christianity from messianic Judaism, which had no concept of a divine messiah”
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(p. 260). Baigent reveals that it is for this reason that the Vatican had hidden some of the scrolls for many years, adding that the Vatican has a history of acquiring and destroying writings that run counter to its teachings (p. 89). Furthermore, writes Bagent, the scrolls expose the deep theological clash between the Jerusalem messianic community and Paul, who never knew Jesus (p. 259-60).
Another plausible reason, which Baigent does not mention but which has been suspected by Muslim scholars for quite some time, is that some of the scrolls foretell the prophecy of Muhammad (may peace and blessings of God be upon him), which is alluded to in the Gospels as well (John 16:7-14). It is significant to note that some of the scrolls, especially the Book of Enoch, mention the raising up of a prophet like Moses, as well as a royal Messiah and a priestly Messiah.
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Jesus, the Son of God?
 The belief that Jesus was the Son of God, which was ratified by the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., has been an inseparable part of Christianity for centuries. However, some Christian sects, such as the Unitarians and the Basilidians, did not subscribe to the Trinitarian doctrine. The words ‘son of God’ and ‘sons of God’ are metaphorically mentioned in several places in the Old and New Testament texts (Creation 6:1-5; Psalms 89:19; Isaiah 63:16 Jeremiah 31:9; Matthew 5:44-45). In Exodus (4:22), God says that Israel is my son, my first-born. Chapter 3 in the Gospel of Luke, which describes the genealogy of Jesus, says that Jesus is the son of Joseph and of Adam, who was the Son of God. The Book of Enoch (71:1) speaks of the “holy sons of God.” Baigent argues that even the Gospels fail to support the Nicene Creed, and quotes an eminent New Testament scholar Joseph Fitzmyer as saying that “the Gospels have not so presented that claim” (p. 260).
The most conclusive and sensational evidence against the assumed divinity of Jesus presented by Baigent, which constitutes the piece de resistance of the book, relates to the existence of two papyrus documents bearing an inscription in Aramaic, which he saw with an Israeli businessman in the 1990s. The documents, consisting of two letters, together with some artifacts were discovered by the Israeli businessman in the old quarter of Jerusalem in 1961. Some archaeologists and Old Testament scholars, who were consulted by the businessman, dated the letters at about 34 A.D. The letters were addressed to the Jewish court, the Sanhedrin, by someone who called himself bani mashiha—translated by Baigent as the Messiah of the Children of Israel. The writer of the letters was accused of calling himself “Son of God” and had been asked to defend himself against this heresy before the Jewish court. In the first letter, the messiah explains that what he meant was not that he was “God” but that the “Spirit of God” was in him—not that he was physically the Son of God. He added that everyone who felt similarly filled with this divine “spirit” was also a “son of God.” In other words, the writer explicitly states that he is not divine. Baigent believes that the messiah of the letter is none other than Jesus. He writes that while listening to this story, he was struck by the similarity with an incident described in the Gospel of John (10:33-35) where Jesus is accused by the Jews of blasphemy, of claiming to be God.
There seems to be some problem with the translation of the words bani mashiha. According to the grammatical structure of Semitic languages, bani mashiha would mean “Children of the Messiah,” which implies that the letter could not have been written by Jesus (the Messiah) himself. This raises the possibility, if the documents are genuine and date back to the time of Jesus, that they could have been written by Jesus’s disciples on his behalf or on his suggestion. This, however, does not diminish or dilute the revolutionary import of the documents.
The news of the existence of these letters reached Pope John XXIII, who sent word to the Israeli experts asking for these documents to be destroyed. The Israeli businessman refused to comply with this but made a promise that he would not publish the letters for the next 25 years. At the time Baigent met him twenty-five years had long expired but he still refused to release the documents because he felt that releasing them would cause problems between the Vatican and Israel (pp. 269-70)
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Crucifixion
Another central dogma of the Church is the crucifixion of Jesus. However, since early times some Christian sects did not believe that Jesus died on the cross. Baigent points out that there are evident contradictions in the Gospels in respect of the alleged crucifixion of Jesus. He refers to a statement by Irenaeus in the late second century A.D., in which he complaints about the beliefs of an Egyptian Gnostic, Basilides, who taught that Jesus had been substituted during his journey to Golgotha, and that this substitute, Simon of Cyrene, had died in Jesus’s stead (p. 127).
Baigent mentions an interesting incident related to Canon Alfred Leslie Lilley (d. 1948), Chancellor of Hereford Cathedral. Lilley was a highly regarded expert on medieval French and was often consulted on difficult translation work. In the early 1890s he was requested by a former student of his to travel to the Seminary of Saint Sulpice on the outskirts of Paris to advise on the translation of a mysterious document. These documents were in medieval French and had once been in the possession of the Cathars in the south of France in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, although they were much older. The Cathars were one of the ascetic Christian sects in the Middle Ages which professed faith in an angelic Christ who did not die on the cross.These documents were translated from an earlier document from Jerusalem dating from the first century A.D. According to these documents, which were deciphered by Lilley who thought that they were authentic and extraordinary, Jesus survived the crucifixion and he was alive in 45 A.D. Subsequently the documents changed hands for a large sum of money and eventually landed up, under mysterious circumstances, in Rome where they were destroyed (pp. 9-10). Baigent quotes Hugh Schonfield, the author of The Passover Plot (which was first published in 1965 and since then has sold over six million copies in 18 languages), who suggests that Jesus was drugged—sedated on the cross such that he appeared dead but could be revived later, after he had been taken down and therefore could have survived (p. 127). Baigent reckons that “Jesus was taken down from the cross, apparently lifeless but in reality unconscious, and taken to a private tomb where medicines could be used to revive him. He would then be whisked away from the scene” (p. 129).
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Baigent quotes Hugh Schonfield, the author of The Passover Plot (which was first published in 1965 and since then has sold over six million copies in 18 languages), who suggests that Jesus was drugged—sedated on the cross such that he appeared dead but could be revived later, after he had been taken down and therefore could have survived (p. 127). Baigent reckons that “Jesus was taken down from the cross, apparently lifeless but in reality unconscious, and taken to a private tomb where medicines could be used to revive him. He would then be whisked away from the scene” (p. 129).
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Surviving the crucifixion was difficult, but not impossible, says Baigent. The celebrated historian Josephus reports that he came upon three of his former colleagues among a large group of crucified captives. One of them survived (p. 127). According to the Gospels, Jesus was crucified between two other men, described as thieves in the English translation. In the light of circumstantial evidence, there could be two possibilities in this situation: either someone else was crucified in Jesus’s place (as the Basilidians believed), or he was crucified but survived the ordeal. In a television programme called ‘Did Jesus Die?’ broadcast by the BBC in 2004, the eminent New Testament scholar and commentator Elaine Pagels referred to Schonfield’s book The Passover Plot (which suggests that Jesus was sedated on the cross and that he was removed quite early and therefore could well have survived) and concluded, “That’s certainly a possibility” (p. 128). Baigent is of the view that after the aborted crucifixion Jesus went to Egypt with his wife Mary Magdalene.
Baigent refers, in passing, to a legend which says that after surviving the crucifixion, Jesus traveled to Kashmir in India, where he breathed his last. The shrine of Yus Asaph in Kashmir, according to the legend, is in reality the grave of Jesus.
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Jesus in the Islamic Tradition
Jesus Christ (may peace and blessings of God be upon him) is mentioned in the Quran 25 times, and as Masih (messiah) 11 times. He is also referred to as the Word of God (4:171). Islam is the only religion in the world which affirms the prophecy of Jesus and makes a belief in his prophecy (as well as in that of all other prophets) an essential part of its creed. Unfortunately, the Gospels tell us little about the early life of Jesus or about Mary. The Quran provides certain important data about Mary (Maryam in Arabic) and her family and about Jesus’s birth, which are not available in the Gospels. According to the Quran, Imran was the father of Mary and the grandfather of Jesus, who belonged to a highly respectable family. The third chapter of the Quran is named after Imran’s family.
One of the distinguished commentators of the Quran, Ibn Kathir, traces Mary’s descent to the prophet Solomon. Mary’s mother, Hannah, who was childless, made a vow that if she conceived and delivered a child she would dedicate it to the Temple. After a while Mary was born. She was the only child of her parents. After a few years Mary was entrusted to the care of Zakariya, who was her mother’s sister’s husband. When Mary came of age she began devoting herself to the worship of God in a corner of the Temple. She is mentioned 34 times in the Quran and described as an extremely virtuous and pious woman (3: 37-42). In fact, one of the chapters of the Quran is named after her. The Quran says: “Every time that he (Zakariya) entered (Mary’s) enclosure to see her, he found her supplied with sustenance (such as fruits). He said (in amazement): O Mary! Wherefrom (comes) this to you? She said: “From God, for God provides sustenance to whom He pleases, without measure” (3:37). The Quran says that angels used to visit Mary. “Behold! The angels said: “O Mary, God has chosen you and purified you—chosen you above the women of all nations” (Quran 3:42).
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The Birth of Jesus
The Quran affirms immaculate conception and provides a moving account of Mary’s agony. “Behold! The angels said: “O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him; his name will be Jesus, the Son of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to God. He shall speak to the people in infancy and in maturity. And he shall be (of the company) of the righteous. She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: “Even so, God creates what He wills…..And God will teach him the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel” (Quran 3: 45-48).
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“Behold! The angels said: “O Mary, God gives you glad tidings of a Word from Him; his name will be Jesus, the Son of Mary, held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to God. He shall speak to the people in infancy and in maturity. And he shall be (of the company) of the righteous. She said: “O my Lord! How shall I have a son when no man has touched me? He said: “Even so, God creates what He wills…..And God will teach him the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Gospel” (Quran 3: 45-48).
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When the time to deliver the baby drew nearer, Mary retired to a remote place. The Quran says: “And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree. She cried (in anguish): “Ah, would that I had died before this; would that I had been a thing forgotten.” But (a voice) called out to her from beneath the palm-tree: “Grieve not, for your Lord has provided a rivulet beneath you. And shake towards yourself the trunk of the palm-tree; it will let fall fresh ripe dates upon you. So eat and drink and cool (your) eye. And if you do see any man, say, ‘I have vowed a fast to (God) Most Gracious, and this day will I enter into no talk with any human being.’ At length she brought the (babe) to her people, carrying him (in her arms). They said: “O Mary, truly an amazing thing has you brought. O sister of Aaron, your father was not a man of evil, nor your mother a woman unchaste.” But she pointed to the babe. They said: “How can we talk to one who is a baby in the cradle?” He said: “I am indeed a servant of God. He has given me revelation and made me a Prophet. And He has made me blessed wherever I be, and has enjoined on me prayer and charity as long as I live (19:23-31). Ibn Kathir, one of the commentators of the Quran, mentions that soon after Jesus’s birth Mary traveled to Egypt and stayed there for about twelve years.
The Quran describes many of the miracles performed by Jesus. The Quran emphasizes that, like all other prophets, Jesus preached pure monotheism (5:116; 3:51; 5:72). The Quran explicitly repudiates the belief that Jesus was the son of God (19:34-35, 88-92). Jesus is described as following the Jewish ethos and traditions (3:48, 50; 61:6). The Quran unequivocally maintains that Jesus was not crucified, but he was raised up to the heavens. “That they say (in boast), “We killed Jesus Christ, 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) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for certainly they killed him not. No, God raised him unto Himself, and God is Exalted in power, Wise” (4:157-158). Ibn Kathir mentions that someone else was crucified in Jesus’s place.
When Prophet Muhammad received his first revelation in the cave of Hira in Makka he returned home in a statement of bewilderment and told his wife Khadija about the incident. The next day she took him to her uncle Waraqa ibn Naufal who had embraced Christianity and was well-versed in Jewish and Christian scriptures. Waraqa had translated the Gospels from Syriac into Arabic. After the Prophet narrated his experience Waraqa told them that this was a sure sign of prophecy. Your experience, he said, is similar to the namus of Moses. If I were to be alive, he added, when your people would drive you out of your city, I would support you. A renowned Islamic scholar, Professor Muhammad Hamidullah, is of the opinion that the word namus is an Arabicized form of a Greek word nomos, which seems to have found its way into Syriac. The word nomos in Greek refers to the Torah. Therefore, what Waraqa meant was that the Prophet’s experience of receiving the first revelation was similar to that of Moses on the Mount Sinai.
During his nocturnal ascension to heaven (mi’raj) Prophet Muhammad is reported to have met the earlier prophets, including Jesus Christ. He described Jesus as very fair and handsome, of medium stature, and with a broad chest and long, curly hair. According to the Islamic tradition, Jesus will come down to earth before the end of time. Faced with hostility and persecution, some Companions of the Prophet decided to migrate, on his advice, to Abyssinia, which was under the rule of a Christian called Negus. When they were ushered in the court of the Negus, the crucial question about Jesus came up. The Muslims declared that, according to the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet, Jesus was a servant of God and His apostle and His Word who was born from the blessed virgin. Thereupon the Negus picked up a stick from the ground and said: “By God, Jesus, son of Mary does not exceed what you have said by the length of this stick.”
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Faced with hostility and persecution, some Companions of the Prophet decided to migrate, on his advice, to Abyssinia, which was under the rule of a Christian called Negus. When they were ushered in the court of the Negus, the crucial question about Jesus came up. The Muslims declared that, according to the Quran and the teachings of the Prophet, Jesus was a servant of God and His apostle and His Word who was born from the blessed virgin. Thereupon the Negus picked up a stick from the ground and said: “By God, Jesus, son of Mary does not exceed what you have said by the length of this stick.”
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Jesus and Christianity in Islamic Literature
From early times Muslim scholars evinced a keen interest in knowing and writing about the religious beliefs, traditions and rituals of peoples from different regions and cultures. There is a substantial literature in Arabic on the beliefs, rituals, feasts and customs of pre-Islamic Arabia as well as of Jews, Christians, Sabaean, Magians, Hindus, Zoroastrians and others. The most important and wide-ranging contributions to this genre were made by Ibn Qutayba (d. 883), Ibn al-Habib (d. 859), Al-Masudi (d. 956), Al-Biruni (d. 1048), Ibn Hazm (d. 1064), Abdul Qahir al-Baghdadi (d. 1037), Al-Shahrastani (d. 1153), Qadi Sa’id (d. 1070), Shihabuddin al-Qarafi (d. 1285), Al-Maqrizi, Ibn Taymiah (d. 1325), Al-Ya’qubi (14th century), Haji Khalifa (d. 1658), and Rahmatullah Kairanvi (19th century).
Al-Masudi has dwelt on the history of Christianity and on Christian doctrines in his book Muruj al-dhahab. Interestingly, he also mentions that the apostle Thomas traveled to India where he lies buried. Baigent also refers to this legend (p.135). Al-Biruni, in his book Al-Athar al-baqiya fil qurun al-khaliya, discussed the inconsistencies in the Gospels. He also writes about the gospels which were declared as apocryphal by the Council of Nicaea. Al-Yaqubi has given a summary of the four canonical Gospels in his historical works. Ibn Hazm, in his book Al-fisal fil milal wal-ahwa wal-nihal, has offered a detailed and critical discussion on the beliefs and doctrines of Jews, Christians and the followers of other religions. He also dwells on some of the major sects within Christianity. Ibn Hazm had made a careful study of the Old and New Testaments. In fact, he may be regarded as a pioneer in the critical study of the Old and New Testament texts. To quote him:
The Torah is claimed by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God conveyed by Him to Moses and written by his own hand. That is why I had to write the foregoing long and assiduous analysis of its text to establish the contrary. Fortunately, no Christian makes this kind of claim regarding the New Testament. All Christians agree that the New Testament is a composite of works by the four apostles—Matthew, Mark, John and Luke—and a number of other writings by humans.
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