SURAH 5:116 - MOTHER OF GOD AND ACCUSATION OF TRITHEISM

In my previous blog I mentioned two issues about the Quran. One, it incorporates bits and pieces from both the New and Old Testaments, from tales of ancient Hebrews and minor gospels not included in the Bible. This makes it anachronistic and difficult to interpret. Two, Muslims may feel they have version 2.0 since they hold the immutable exact copy of the Holy Book in heaven. They gloat about Christians not knowing the truth.

The famous surah 5:116 is an excellent example to illustrate. It is also a very interesting topic.

وَاِذۡ قَالَ اللّٰهُ يٰعِيۡسَى ابۡنَ مَرۡيَمَ ءَاَنۡتَ قُلۡتَ لِلنَّاسِ اتَّخِذُوۡنِىۡ وَاُمِّىَ اِلٰهَيۡنِ مِنۡ دُوۡنِ اللّٰهِ​ؕ قَالَ سُبۡحٰنَكَ مَا يَكُوۡنُ

لِىۡۤ اَنۡ اَقُوۡلَ مَا لَـيۡسَ لِىۡ بِحَقٍّ​ؕ اِنۡ كُنۡتُ قُلۡتُهٗ فَقَدۡ عَلِمۡتَهٗ​ؕ تَعۡلَمُ مَا فِىۡ نَفۡسِىۡ وَلَاۤ اَعۡلَمُ مَا فِىۡ نَفۡسِكَ​ؕ اِنَّكَ

اَنۡتَ عَلَّامُ الۡغُيُوۡبِ

'And imagine when thereafter Allah will say: 'Jesus, son of Mary, did you say to people: "Take me and my mother for gods beside Allah?" and he will answer: "Glory to You! It was not for me to say what I had no right to. Had I said so, You would surely have known it. You know all what is within my mind whereas I do not know what is within Yours. You, indeed You, know fully all that is beyond the reach of human perception.'

The Islamicstudies.info website explains thus :

QUOTE :

"The Christians were not content merely with deifying Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They even turned Mary, the mother of Jesus, into a full-fledged object of worship. The Bible does not contain even the remotest suggestion that Mary was in any way either divine or superhuman. During the first three centuries after the Messiah, such a concept was totally alien to Christian thinking. Towards the end of the third century of the Christian era, however, some theologians of Alexandria employed, for the first time, the expression 'Mother of God' in connection with Mary. Subsequently, belief in Mary's divinity and the practice of Mariolatry began to spread among Christians. Even then, however, the Church was not prepared to accord official approval to this belief and denounced the Mariolaters as heretics. It was not until the Council of Ephesus in 431 that the Church officially used the expression 'Mother of God' for Mary. The result was that Mariolatry began to spread fast within the Church itself, so much so that, by the time of the revelation of the Qur'an, Mary had become so important a deity that she obscured even the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost."

UNQUOTE

I always stress the need to understand things in context. Especially with religious texts. When understanding religious texts, you need to know two words..... "Eisegesis" and "Exegesis". Eisegesis is when reader 'i' imposes 'my' own interpretation of the text which is highly subjective. Exegesis is drawing out a text's meaning in accordance with the "x' external context and discoverable meaning. This is highly objective. 

Almost all Muslims come to the same conclusion on 5:116 as Islamiststudies.info. They mock Christians' stupidity to think Mary is divine when not a single Christian out of 2.6 billion believe Mary is god. This is a typical eisegesis explanation. We know not the speaker (it is not Allah), the audience, nor the purpose. The ayat (verse) is plonked here making no sense within the whole surah 5. 

Parse the line carefully, and it is apparent the speaker did not make the claim Mary is the Holy Spirit. He is forcing Jesus to claim or deny that he and 'my mother' are gods. i.e., affirm or deny tritheism. It is a polemic, or an attack, on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Answering three questions will clarify.

A. Who is the audience?

The Levant is the swath of land covering the eastern Mediterranean. The Hejaz is the stretch of land on the western part of Arabia.

Standard Islamic narrative is that Islam started in Mecca with Mohammad (AD 570 - 632). This is not supported by history nor archaeological records of any kind. Mecca has no records of existence before 7th century AD. The main reasons .. it has no water source, it is not on the ancient trade routes, and Arabs at the time in these regions were nomads. 

More recent western scholars point to the region of the Levant as where Islam most probably started. In the first few centuries after Christ's death, the Levant region was where civilisation, trade, theological discussions took place. That was the time of heavy influence from Judaism, Christianity, agnosticism, even Persian Zoroastrianism. 

The audience cannot be Arabs in the Mecca area because the city simply did not exist at the time. Even if there were Arabs, they cannot be Christian Arabs because Christianity never reached Hejaz. And if they were not Christians they would not understand what the mockery meant since they were unaware of the concept of the trinity. 

So the audience must be in the Levant. This adds support to the nouveau theory the Quran was written in this region and not Mecca. This makes sense because there were Christian Arabs and theological discussions were rife in the Levant.   

B. What is tritheism vs Holy Trinity all about?

The central doctrine of Christianity is the Holy Trinity, which is the belief that the nature of God is three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine personalities. God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, three distinct hypostases in one essence, substance or nature. Tritheism is the belief that the three hypostases are three separate and distinct gods.

Those who believe in the Trinity are called trinitarians and those who don't' are antitrinitarians. The anti's are a diverse lot believing in various combinations of God's nature, such as Adoptionism, Monarchianism, and Arianism. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was resolved by the Nicene Creed in 325 AD.

In the early centuries after Christ died, there were arguments about God's nature which continued even after the Nicene Creed. More prominent among antitrinitarians were the Cathars, the Agnostics, and the Neo Judeo-Nazarenes. Examples of antitrinitarian churches today are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,  Iglesia ni Cristo, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. A few were considered heretics and persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church.

In light of this contextual clarification, 5:116 becomes clear. The speaker was an antitrinitarian attacking trinitarians. Speaking to an audience in the Levant when all this passionate trinity discussion was going on, makes sense. This lends support to a school of thought that Islam grew out of an antitrinitarian Christian base with a strong suggestion of the neo Judeo-Nazarene group that wanted to capture the temple mount. Again it then makes sense why Abdl Malik built the Dome of the Rock over the temple mount. It also makes sense why there is so much polemic against trinitarianism inscribed on the walls in the inner perambulatory of the Dome. The Dome was built to commemorate the Miraj of prophet Mohammad (his ascension to heaven to meet Allah) yet has no inscription about the event. It also makes complete sense why the Shahada (declaration there is only one God) takes centre stage in Islam.

C. Who is 'my mother' in the ayat? 

It certainly is not Mary. Nowhere in the Bible are claims of Mary's divinity. 'My mother' refers to the Holy Spirit. Is there any evidence that the Holy Spirit is referred to as 'mother'?

Surprise. The answer is, actually, many people did refer to the Holy Spirit as 'mother of Jesus'.

In French, all objects have gender. A table, for example, is masculine. It was similar to the Syriac-speaking world of the northern and eastern areas of the Levant at the time. Due to the fact that God is the Father, they attributed the feminine gender to the Holy Spirit, which is why the term 'mother of Jesus' was used. There is no mystery, error, or complexity. It is simply context. 

Example. Take the agnostic Acts of Thomas : Verse 9 ".... we glorify and praise thee and thine invisible Father and thine holy spirit, the mother of all creation." This gospel is part of the Dead Sea scrolls found between 1947 to 1956 in Qumrum.

Another example. Origen of Alexandria ( AD 185 –  253) wrote about the Gospel according to the Hebrews : ' the Savior said "A moment ago my Mother, who is the Holy Spirit, took me away by one of my hair and carried me to the great mountain of Tabor" ' (On the bishopric of  John, Hom, 2, 12). 

Muslims who are in doubt should check out famous Islamic commentators of the past such as al-Abari,  al-Baydawi,  al-Zamashari etc., who all said 5:116 is about the Holy Spirit and not the Virgin Mary.

Worship vs veneration: 

Merriam-Webster dictionary:

Worship : to honor or show reverence for a divine being or supernatural power.

Veneration : respect or awe inspired by a person's dignity, wisdom, dedication, or talent.

There is a world of difference between worshiping and venerating. Sadly, other Christian denominations don't understand Roman Catholics who venerate Mary and the saints more. People venerate or revere someone in different ways. That is why at Taoist funeral services for Chinese families in Singapore, Catholics are more at ease with the traditional rites such as burning joss sticks. The bereaved family is obviously not worshiping the departed as a deity, but simply paying their respects. Catholics have no qualms about burning joss sticks for the departed like Chinese do. Just do not bow as forbidden in Exodus 20.5. At a HDB void deck Chinese funeral service not long ago, I saw a Malay gentleman in his fifties who came in the evenings. He offered joss sticks, spoke briefly with a family member, and then went his way. A family member told me that the Malay chap was a friend and neighbour of the departed. He paid his respects each night of the service when he returned home from work. I thought that was touching, as well as pleasing to see someone with such an open mind. As a Muslim, certainly he knew he was merely paying his respects, not worshiping a friend.

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