What Do Muslims Believe about Jesus?
Muslims respect and revere Jesus (peace be upon him). They consider him one of the greatest of Gods messengers to mankind. The Quran confirms his virgin birth, and a chapter of the Quran is entitled Maryam (Mary). The Quran describes the birth of Jesus as follows:
(Remember) when the angels said, O Mary, God gives you good news of a word from Him (God), whose name is the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, revered in this world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (to God). He will speak to the people from his cradle and as a man, and he is of the righteous. She said, My Lord, how can I have a child when no mortal has touched me? He said, So (it will be). God creates what He wills. If He decrees a thing, He says to it only, Be! and it is. (Quran, 3:45-47)
Jesus was born miraculously by the command of God, the same command that had brought Adam into being with neither a father nor a mother. God has said:
The case of Jesus with God is like the case of Adam. He created him from dust, and then He said to him, Be! and he came into being. (Quran, 3:59)
During his prophetic mission, Jesus performed many miracles. God tells us that Jesus said:
I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I make for you the shape of a bird out of clay, I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Gods permission. I heal the blind from birth and the leper. And I bring the dead to life by Gods permission. And I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses.... (Quran, 3:49)
Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified. It was the plan of Jesus enemies to crucify him, but God saved him and raised him up to Him. And the likeness of Jesus was put over another man. Jesus enemies took this man and crucified him, thinking that he was Jesus. God has said:
...They said, We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)... (Quran, 4:157)
Neither Muhammad nor Jesus came to change the basic doctrine of the belief in one God, brought by earlier prophets, but rather to confirm and renew it.
Changes in the Bible
It is easy to find many passages in the Bible where Jesus is called Son of God. One is also able to find a few passages where Jesus calls himself the Son of God, or where he calls God his father. However, a careful study of the Bible reveals that this is the result of changes in the Bible. Jesus never claimed that he is the Son of God.
Each time an older manuscript of the Bible is discovered, many changes are required in the Bible to bring it in line with the ancient manuscripts. Mark 1:1 reads as follows:
The beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.b (Mark 1:1, New International Version).
At the end of that verse, there is a small letter directing us to look at the footnote at the bottom of the page. There we find that some manuscripts do not have the Son of God. And those were ancient, reliable manuscripts. The evidence was so compelling that the editors of one Bible just simply removed the title Son of God from the verse altogether. Thus in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures the verse reads:
The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1).
The title Son of God is no longer in that verse.
Another such change had to be made in the Acts of the Apostles 8:37 in every honest translation of the Bible prepared in this century. Evidence from old manuscripts demanded that the verse be removed from all present Bibles. If you go to your New International Version Bible and look for Acts 8:37 you will not find it in the text. You will find verse number 36, and then verse 38, but not 37. If you wish to know what verse 37 used to say, you need to check the footnote at the bottom of the page. This verse used to contain a confession that Jesus is the Son of God. It had to be removed because its absence from the most ancient manuscripts meant that someone added it to the later manuscripts.
Some changes become evident just by comparing one Gospel with another in the present Bibles. You can do this investigation yourself. One example of this is the centurions confession that Jesus is the Son of God as reported in Marks Gospel as follows:
Truly this man was the Son of God (Mark 15:39).
The same confession of the same centurion at the same scene, at the very moment, is reported in Luke also. But in Luke the Centurion is reported as saying:
Certainly this man was innocent (Luke 23:47).
In Luke the title Son of God is missing. Mark and Luke cannot both be right here. The confession is reported incorrectly in at least one Gospel
Muslims respect and revere Jesus (peace be upon him). They consider him one of the greatest of Gods messengers to mankind. The Quran confirms his virgin birth, and a chapter of the Quran is entitled Maryam (Mary). The Quran describes the birth of Jesus as follows:
(Remember) when the angels said, O Mary, God gives you good news of a word from Him (God), whose name is the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, revered in this world and the Hereafter, and one of those brought near (to God). He will speak to the people from his cradle and as a man, and he is of the righteous. She said, My Lord, how can I have a child when no mortal has touched me? He said, So (it will be). God creates what He wills. If He decrees a thing, He says to it only, Be! and it is. (Quran, 3:45-47)
Jesus was born miraculously by the command of God, the same command that had brought Adam into being with neither a father nor a mother. God has said:
The case of Jesus with God is like the case of Adam. He created him from dust, and then He said to him, Be! and he came into being. (Quran, 3:59)
During his prophetic mission, Jesus performed many miracles. God tells us that Jesus said:
I have come to you with a sign from your Lord. I make for you the shape of a bird out of clay, I breathe into it, and it becomes a bird by Gods permission. I heal the blind from birth and the leper. And I bring the dead to life by Gods permission. And I tell you what you eat and what you store in your houses.... (Quran, 3:49)
Muslims believe that Jesus was not crucified. It was the plan of Jesus enemies to crucify him, but God saved him and raised him up to Him. And the likeness of Jesus was put over another man. Jesus enemies took this man and crucified him, thinking that he was Jesus. God has said:
...They said, We killed the Messiah Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God. They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but the likeness of him was put on another man (and they killed that man)... (Quran, 4:157)
Neither Muhammad nor Jesus came to change the basic doctrine of the belief in one God, brought by earlier prophets, but rather to confirm and renew it.
Changes in the Bible
It is easy to find many passages in the Bible where Jesus is called Son of God. One is also able to find a few passages where Jesus calls himself the Son of God, or where he calls God his father. However, a careful study of the Bible reveals that this is the result of changes in the Bible. Jesus never claimed that he is the Son of God.
Each time an older manuscript of the Bible is discovered, many changes are required in the Bible to bring it in line with the ancient manuscripts. Mark 1:1 reads as follows:
The beginning of the Gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.b (Mark 1:1, New International Version).
At the end of that verse, there is a small letter directing us to look at the footnote at the bottom of the page. There we find that some manuscripts do not have the Son of God. And those were ancient, reliable manuscripts. The evidence was so compelling that the editors of one Bible just simply removed the title Son of God from the verse altogether. Thus in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures the verse reads:
The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ (Mark 1:1).
The title Son of God is no longer in that verse.
Another such change had to be made in the Acts of the Apostles 8:37 in every honest translation of the Bible prepared in this century. Evidence from old manuscripts demanded that the verse be removed from all present Bibles. If you go to your New International Version Bible and look for Acts 8:37 you will not find it in the text. You will find verse number 36, and then verse 38, but not 37. If you wish to know what verse 37 used to say, you need to check the footnote at the bottom of the page. This verse used to contain a confession that Jesus is the Son of God. It had to be removed because its absence from the most ancient manuscripts meant that someone added it to the later manuscripts.
Some changes become evident just by comparing one Gospel with another in the present Bibles. You can do this investigation yourself. One example of this is the centurions confession that Jesus is the Son of God as reported in Marks Gospel as follows:
Truly this man was the Son of God (Mark 15:39).
The same confession of the same centurion at the same scene, at the very moment, is reported in Luke also. But in Luke the Centurion is reported as saying:
Certainly this man was innocent (Luke 23:47).
In Luke the title Son of God is missing. Mark and Luke cannot both be right here. The confession is reported incorrectly in at least one Gospel
