It was of great interest to read the Tribune`s recent article ”Scrolls link Judaism, Christianity.”
The most interesting part was the conclusions of prominent Jewish and Christian scholars who studied the celebrated Dead Sea Scrolls. Similar conclusions were reached by those who studied early Christian documents.
These conclusions as well as a multitude of books and articles written by noted Christian and Jewish scholars who studied the history of early Christianity point to three specific areas.
Christianity was never intended to be an independent religion. The earliest followers of Jesus viewed themselves not as separate but as a continuation of the same Abrahamic ethical and monotheistic religion practiced by the Jews.
Jesus himself never carried his message beyond the boundaries of Palestine. Christianity as we know it today was introduced in Rome and the Greek Isles by St. Paul. Paul, who was not one of the 12 disciples, never met nor learned from Jesus in person. He was actually a Turkish Jew originally named Saul of Tarsus and later claimed to have encountered the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus.
The essence in the message of Jesus, who viewed himself as a prophet and a messiah to the Jews, was based on pure monotheism: Worship God, my Father and your Father, my God and your God.
To me, as a Muslim, I find these conclusions as well as the results of the last 200 years of scholarly research about the historical Jesus not only interesting but actually incredible. The very same information has been common knowledge in the Quran for the past 1,400 years.
The Quran speaks of Jesus as a prophet and a messiah to the children of Israel. He was sent by God not to establish a new religion but to reform the Jewish nation and bring it back to the correct path.
The Quran brings to attention that later additions to the message of Jesus were done by others who seemed, in some instances, to contradict the teachings of Jesus.
In the Quran, Jesus never offered himself, his mother, the saints, the church or any others as objects of worship with, instead of or alongside God. Jesus, being a faithful servant of God, referred all manners of prayer, worship or devotion to the One and Only True God.
The Quran offers a wealth of information about Jesus, his birth, his message, his miracles as well as his nature and relationship to God. However, this source of reliable information has hardly been studied by Christian and Jewish scholars who are interested in learning more about early Christianity and its relationship with Judaism.
