Prophecy in the Abrahamic faiths - Essay Example

? Prophecy in the Abrahamic Faiths By Table of Contents Introduction 2 The Abrahamic Faiths 2 The Concept of Prophecy 4 Meaning of Prophet-hood in Abrahamic Faiths 5 Prophet-Hood in Judaism 6 Prophet-Hood in Christianity 7 Prophet-Hood in Islam 8 The Job of a Prophet 9 Examples of Prophets 10 Similarities between Prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths 11 The prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths have many similarities as well as differences. Most often the narration given of a particular prophet in the Bible may be slightly different from the one given by the Quran or the Torah, and vice versa. However, the salient features are often the same. In Judaism, male prophets including Hosea, Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and female prophets like Huldah and Miriam are considered the “mouthpieces” of God, Moses being the greatest of these prophets (Swidler, Duran, and Firestone 2007, p. 39). In Christianity as well, Jesus and the other prophets, including Moses are considered as God’s “spokespersons” (Swidler, Duran, and Firestone 2007, p. 39). Some others such as those mentioned in early Christian writings are also considered prophets. Islam also believes in the authenticity of the Jewish and Christian prophets, apart from the belief in the prophethood of Muhammad. The similarities among the prophets of the Abrahamic faiths are mostly in terms of their teachings, i.e. they preached monotheism, the oneness of God. They denounced idol worship and belief in false gods. They brought in social order to their nation and worked towards delivering the people from oppression and misery. They served as guides, foretellers, and warners against sins. The prophets of the Abrahamic faiths also gave the holy scriptures to their people. All these holy books were a result of divine inspiration. All the prophets taught the concept of good and evil, life in the hereafter, heaven and hell, the Day of Judgment, angels, Satan, etc. All the prophets trace back their lineage to Prophet Abraham. 11 Differences between Prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths 11 Jews do not believe in the prophethood of Jesus and Muhammad (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). In Christianity, Moses is believed to be a prophet, yet Muhammad is not considered to be a prophet. In Islam, however, both Moses and Jesus are revered as prophets. However, one difference in the Muslim and the Christian belief is that while the Christians believe Jesus to be more than a prophet, the Muslims view him only as a prophet. They do not believe him to be the son of God, unlike the Christians. Moreover, while Christians associate divinity with Jesus, Muslims believe that he was able to perform miracles only by the will and permission of God. Furthermore, unlike the Christian belief, the Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). As Nasr explains, the Quran does not accept the crucifixion of Jesus, but rather mentions that Jesus was taken to heaven (4:157-58 cited in Phipps 1999). The Muslim belief about Prophet Adam is also different from the Christian and Jewish belief. According to Islam, although Adam was considered to have sinned upon eating the forbidden fruit, humankind is not responsible and the concept of original sin is denounced in Islam (Schirrmacher n.d.). However, according to the biblical version, Adam transgressed the commandment of God by eating the forbidden fruit, and so brought death and sin to the entire human race, the reconciliation of which is possible only through the death of Jesus (Schirrmacher n.d.). 12 The main difference between Jesus and Moses, as per Christian belief, is the divinity they associate with Jesus (Carmody and Carmody 1996). As per Christian faith, although Moses is a “great religious hero” and the “medium of God’s amazing grant of the covenant”, Jesus was more than that (Carmody and Carmody 1996, p. 187). According to them, Jesus sacrificed himself for humankind, “fashioned a new covenant” and brought in a new Law (Carmody and Carmody 1996, p. 187). 12 The Biblical and Quranic descriptions of Moses’ life vary. For instance, the Quran does not describe Moses as committing an act of murder by killing an Egyptian. The Quran states that it was an accident (Abdullah 2011). Another difference is that while the Bible states that the Torah was received by Moses as tablets that were written by God himself (Exodus 32:16 cited in Abdullah 2011), the Quran states that in the case of Moses, as in the case of all other prophets including Muhammad, the Torah was received in the form of a revelation. This is clear in the following verse, in which God says to Muhammad in the Quran, 13 We have revealed to thee as we sent revelation to Noah and the prophets after him, and we revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and we gave David a Scripture (4:163 cited in Abdullah 2011, p. 91). 13 Another difference is that the Bible describes that Moses broke the tablets in anger, while the Quran states that he put them down while angry and then picked them up when his anger cooled down (Abdullah 2011). 13 Conclusion 13 References 15 Prophecy in the Abrahamic Faiths Introduction The three religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have so much in common that they form an umbrella group of religions, referred to as the Abrahamic faiths. These three monotheistic faiths preach the oneness of god, follow religious scriptures and prophets, and believe in life after death. Both similarities and differences abound between the three religions, yet they all seem to be unified by a common thread, making the three inseparable from one another. While comparisons between the religions can be made based on faith in god, holy books & prophets followed, and the way of life of the followers, the present essay specifically focuses on prophecy in the three religions. It studies the similarities and differences between the prophetic traditions in the Abrahamic faiths. The essay first describes the three Abrahamic faiths, followed by an explanation of the concept of prophecy in general and then the meaning of prophecy in the Abrahamic faiths in particular. The differing perceptions of prophecy in the three religions are discussed. It then goes on to discuss the job or mission of a prophet, followed by an elaborate discussion on the similarities and differences between the prophets of the three faiths. It concludes with a summary of the salient features of the essay. In short, this essay provides a comparative overview of prophecy and prophets of the Abrahamic faiths. The Abrahamic Faiths Judaism, Christianity and Islam, three of the major religions of the world and collectively called the Abrahamic faiths, share a common origin dating back to Abraham. Abraham lived in Mesopotamia, in the city of Ur during the Iron Age, around 2000 BCE (Douglas 2007). Maimonides, a twelfth century scholar, describes the Mesopotamian culture at that time as a “society utterly lacking awareness of truth and worshipping an array of gods” (Binz 2011, p. 2). Abraham is considered the founding father of the three faiths. According to the beliefs and scriptures of the Abrahamic faiths, god ordered Abraham to migrate with his family to the land of Canaan (Binz 2011; Douglas 2007). The people of Israel or the followers of Judaism trace their lineage to Abraham, from their exodus from Egypt to their encounter with god at Mount Sinai, over a period of four hundred years from Abraham to Isaac, to Jacob, and finally down to Moses, their spiritual leader and prophet (Binz 2011). As for the Christians, the New Testament states that Jesus is Abraham’s son, and traces his lineage to Abraham through King David and Isaac. The Muslims trace back their lineage and that of Muhammed, their prophet, to Abraham through Ishmail (Binz 2011). Many peoples, especially the Semitic peoples including the Hebrews, Arabs and the Ethiopians, have Abrahamic ancestry (Douglas 2007). The land where Abraham migrated and settled came to be known as the Holy Land, and was located somewhere between Mesopotamia and Egypt. This land, where his descendants lived and preached, now includes Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Israel, Jordan, Palestine, and parts of Syria, Iraq and Egypt (Douglas 2007). The three Abrahamic religions have a “closely intertwined history” and “programmatic similarity”, and the most important aspects of their kinship include monotheistic exclusivity and mutual identification (Beyer 2006, p. 118). Describing the first aspect, Beyer states, “…as the expression of their principled monotheism, they share a stress on exclusivity, meaning that they all use the symbolic device of the human individual as a prime strategy for delimiting themselves [from other religions]” (2006, p. 118). He further goes on to describe the second aspect saying, “all three religions have a long history of mutual identification” (p. 118). According to the basic beliefs of the three religions, god made a covenant with Abraham to believe and worship only one god, and to teach this practice to his children and descendants, while God would “preserve, protect and multiply” Abraham’s descendants (Douglas 2007, p. 3). This covenant is the legacy of the three faiths. Abraham’s two sons, Ishmail, son of Hagar, and Isaac, son of Sarah, settled in the Arabian Peninsula. As per the scriptures of the three religions, as part of the covenant, Abraham’s offspring would be the fathers of great nations, the people of which are now the Jews, Christians and the Muslims. Another common belief of the three religions is that Abraham was ordered by god to sacrifice his son. The three religions also believe in divine revelation and god’s direct communication with prophets, the existence of angels as god’s messengers to humans, Adam and Eve as the progenitors of humans, Day of Judgment, life after death, belief in prophets including Isaiah, Elijah, Jonah, Noah, Jacob, Solomon and David, etc. The Concept of Prophecy The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states, “Prophecy involves disclosing some important information that could not have been known to the prophet in any ordinary way” (2010). While its main purpose is to foretell the future, prophecy is not necessarily limited to the same. The Online Etymology Dictionary defines the word “prophecy”, derived from the Old French word, “profecie”, meaning “function of a prophet”, and from the Greek and Late Latin word – prophetia, as the “gift of interpreting the will of the gods”. Oyakhilome describes prophecy as God’s spoken word through man by which He guides the people (2005). In religion, prophecy is said to be inspired by divine revelation (Ettington 2008). Oyakhilome (2005) argues that while prophecy or foretelling can be done by any man bestowed with the gift of prophecy, the “office” of prophethood can only be bestowed to someone if he/she is called into that office by God as a prophet. By simple definition, prophecy implies the condition of being a prophet, of being able to predict the future. However, many argue that this definition of prophecy is limited and inadequate (Ibrahim 2011). If this definition were to be accurate, then there would not be much of a difference between a prophet and a soothsayer/diviner. Therefore, in an attempt to differentiate the two, the Britannica Encyclopedia states – While the diviner uses or manipulates objective techniques and signs to address what are primarily private matters, the prophet is impelled by a spiritual force to articulate a message of more general and fundamental imports providing principles and norms that are critical of the moment in a reforming sense (cited in Ibrahim 2011). In simple terms, it can be stated that while prophecy literally implies foretelling the future, in religious terms its definition extends to other roles of being a messenger of god, a reformer, and a blessing to the people. Therefore, theologically, prophets are people who experience “revelations, signs and wonders”, who “hear from God”, convey what they heard, and it comes to pass (Oyakhilome 2005). Meaning of Prophet-hood in Abrahamic Faiths The concept of prophecy is not alien to the three Abrahamic faiths. Prince (2011) describes the Abrahamic concept of prophecy as – … direct communication between God and the prophet or God communicating through the prophet. Within this definition existed different kinds of prophecy: an interpretation of the past, a message about the present, or a prediction of the future. Additionally, prophecy manifested in a variety of ways, including intelligible messages (“the word of the Lord”), revelations that included being transported to the heavens and shown something, and ecstatic experiences that sometimes could not be understood by anyone other than the prophet (p. 2). While the meaning of prophecy is largely the same in the three religions, they do have have varying perceptions of prophet-hood. These are discussed in the following sections: Prophet-Hood in Judaism In Judaism, the belief in prophecy has endured for many centuries. According to Jewish teachings, a prophet is an individual who is selected by God on his own behalf for conveying a message to the people (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). The various roles of the prophet would include leadership, governance, reform, foretelling, etc., and the prophet need not necessarily be a Jew (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). A prophecy is defined as the word of God that is divinely inspired and delivered by a prophet (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). From the 8th – 4th centuries BC during the suppression of Jewish independence, a prophet was considered to be a successor of saints who prophesied and preached in the Kingdoms of Palestine (Ibrahim 2011). Moses is regarded as the greatest prophet by the Jews. He led the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. According to the scriptures, at Mount Horeb, Moses had seen a burning bush that could not be consumed (Ettington 2008). God spoke to him from this bush and revealed His name to Moses, commanding him to travel to Egypt and deliver the Israelites from bondage. Moses could perform certain miracles by God’s will. These include transforming a rod into a serpent in front of the Egyptian Pharaoh, healing or inflicting leprosy, and even changing water to blood (Ettington 2008). One of his greatest miracles is parting the Red Sea to save his fellow Hebrews from the chasing Pharaoh and his men. Moses is the author of the Torah, his prophecy, which is the holy scripture of the Jews. As per Jewish tradition, Prophet Moses received the Torah and the Ten Commandments of God on Mt. Sinai where he had spent forty days and forty nights without eating or drinking (Scharfstein 2008). Moses, according to Judaism, is the “father of all prophets”, and is the only one to have met God face to face (Deut. 34:10 cited in Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Prophet-Hood in Christianity According to the Christian view of prophecy, a prophet speaks for God, warns people against sins and conveys God’s message to the people (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Christians do not believe in the divinity of the prophets. According to them, prophecy is the declaration of God’s message brought to the prophet by the Holy Spirit, Gabriel (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Prophets are considered the churches’ patriarchs. The lives of biblical prophets can be studied in several stages – the call, the commission, the message, and the wonders (Ettington 2008). The divine call by God marks the beginning of prophethood, and is accompanied by miracles and visions. This is accompanied by the prophet’s commission to carrying out God’s mission. God’s message conveyed by prophets to the people often had a predictive element. Prophets were also able to carry out miracles. Jesus Christ is considered to be the greatest prophet by the Christians. However, he is considered as being more than a prophet (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). He is exceptionally considered as the son of God, and part of the Holy Trinity, thus giving him a divine status. The Christians believe in salvation, that whoever believes in Jesus shall be saved from punishment. Jesus made many predictions that came true. Some Christians believe that prophecy either ended with John the Baptist, Old Testament’s canonical prophet, with Jesus, considered the last apostle, or with Muhammad, the prophet of Islam (Hvidt 2007). Others believe in modern day prophets as well (Ibrahim 2011). Prophet-Hood in Islam Islam has a very different view of prophet-hood and prophecy as compared to the other two Abrahamic religions. Compared to Judaism and Christianity, the definition of prophecy or prophets is much more ambiguous in Islam (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). A prophet is a person sent to a specific group of people by God to convey a message. They are sent to proclaim the message of God, to guide the people, to warn against sins and to give glad tidings. In Islam, all prophets are considered equal (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Prophet Muhammad is the founder of Islam. The Islamic definition of prophet, as described by Haneef is as follows: In Islam, the word 'Prophet' (Nabi in Arabic) does not in any way signify one who prophesies future events; rather it denotes one who is very near to God through the total surrender of his entire being to him and who receives revelations from him which constitute sources of guidance for men (cited in Ibrahim 2011). According to Islam, every nation or tribe has been sent a prophet and Muhammad is the last of all prophets sent until date. Belief in the messengers or prophets of God is one of the five important criteria or pillars of Islam. Islam prohibits any form of deification of a prophet. It also prohibits from considering the prophets as divine. God communicated with Prophet Muhammad through the angel Jibrael (Gabriel). The prophet received divine revelations from God via angel Gibrael that were written down in the form of Quran, the holy book of Muslims. Prophet Muhammed never claimed to be more than a mortal and also refused to perform supernatural acts to prove his claim of being a prophet (Peters 2005). He is however accredited with performing certain miraculous acts and foretelling predictions that came true. One of the differences between the Islamic and Jewish-Christian views of prophecy is that all the prophets of God, including Moses and Jesus should be revered and believed in in Islam, unlike the other two religions that only believe in their respective prophets. The Job of a Prophet The job or role of a prophet was multifaceted. The main role of a prophet was to foretell and convey God’s message to the people (Corley, Lovejoy and Lemke 2002). Proclamation or being a “spokesperson” for God was thus their main role, as is confirmed by their most commonly used term of reference as “nabi” in the Old Testament as well as in the Quran. The word “nabi” means “to be called” or “to speak” (Corley, Lovejoy and Lemke 2002, p. 302). Two other words used to describe prophets are hozeh and ro’eh, meaning “to perceive” and “to see” (Corley, Lovejoy and Lemke 2002, p. 302). This brings forth their other role as someone having supernatural insights. The prophets served as guides and moral leaders of the people. In some cases, they also served as political leaders of the people, such as in the case of Prophet Muhammad. The role of prophets extended from being mere messengers of God to being reformers who often liberated the needy or the suppressed from shackles of unjust oppressive power and misery. They also brought in a message of peace, social justice and ethical living to the nations they led. It is seen that revelations are often manifested on prophets when a “new social reality” becomes vital (Scolnic 2008, p. 19). For instance, Moses was commanded by God to free the Israelites from their misery and bondage under Pharaoh. Moses condemned the exploitation and oppression of people. Prophets often questioned the social order whenever the political, economic or the moral structure of a nation was not based on ethical, righteous or religious standards. They served to unite and harmonize the people and to eliminate discrimination based on material wealth and possession. The role of a prophet in most instances was not just to fulfill the spiritual needs of the people but also to guide them in matters of their daily lives. Examples of Prophets The important prophets in Judaism include Abraham, considered as the first prophet, Ezra, canonically considered the last prophet, and Malachi, historically considered the last prophet (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). The Jews believe in as many as 1,200,000 prophets, both male and female; however only 55 are identified in their scriptures (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Apart from Abraham and Moses, other important prophets in Judaism include Joshua, Solomon, Samuel, David and Jeremiah. Prophets Deborah and Samuel, who existed during the Judges, and prophets Shemayah, Elisha, Elijah, and Nathan, who were prominent prophets at the time of the Early kings are other revered prophets. The Jews do not believe in any other prophets except their own, while Christians believe in the Jewish Prophets as well as in Jesus but not in Muhammad. Muslims however believe in the Jewish as well as Christian prophets, as well as in Muhammad, who is considered the last prophet. The Quran mentions 25 prophets all of whom are also described in the Bible. Noteworthy prophets believed by Christians include James, Paul, and John the Baptist. Some of the female prophets of Christianity include Prisca, Magdalene, and Perpetua (Prince 2011). Islam considers all prophets as equal. However, the prophets that are most mentioned in the Quran include Abraham, Moses, Noah, Jesus, and Muhammad (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). Prophet Noah is one of the most prominent prophets of the three Abrahamic faiths. He was Methusaleh’s grandson, and is considered as the “connecting link between the old and the new world” (Ettington 2008). Noah was commanded by God to build an Ark to save him and the righteous from a deluge that God intended to unleash on earth to wipe it of its corrupt and non-righteous people. Similarities between Prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths The prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths have many similarities as well as differences. Most often the narration given of a particular prophet in the Bible may be slightly different from the one given by the Quran or the Torah, and vice versa. However, the salient features are often the same. In Judaism, male prophets including Hosea, Amos, Jeremiah, Isaiah, and female prophets like Huldah and Miriam are considered the “mouthpieces” of God, Moses being the greatest of these prophets (Swidler, Duran, and Firestone 2007, p. 39). In Christianity as well, Jesus and the other prophets, including Moses are considered as God’s “spokespersons” (Swidler, Duran, and Firestone 2007, p. 39). Some others such as those mentioned in early Christian writings are also considered prophets. Islam also believes in the authenticity of the Jewish and Christian prophets, apart from the belief in the prophethood of Muhammad. The similarities among the prophets of the Abrahamic faiths are mostly in terms of their teachings, i.e. they preached monotheism, the oneness of God. They denounced idol worship and belief in false gods. They brought in social order to their nation and worked towards delivering the people from oppression and misery. They served as guides, foretellers, and warners against sins. The prophets of the Abrahamic faiths also gave the holy scriptures to their people. All these holy books were a result of divine inspiration. All the prophets taught the concept of good and evil, life in the hereafter, heaven and hell, the Day of Judgment, angels, Satan, etc. All the prophets trace back their lineage to Prophet Abraham. Differences between Prophets of the Abrahamic Faiths Jews do not believe in the prophethood of Jesus and Muhammad (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). In Christianity, Moses is believed to be a prophet, yet Muhammad is not considered to be a prophet. In Islam, however, both Moses and Jesus are revered as prophets. However, one difference in the Muslim and the Christian belief is that while the Christians believe Jesus to be more than a prophet, the Muslims view him only as a prophet. They do not believe him to be the son of God, unlike the Christians. Moreover, while Christians associate divinity with Jesus, Muslims believe that he was able to perform miracles only by the will and permission of God. Furthermore, unlike the Christian belief, the Muslims do not believe that Jesus was crucified (Honda, Alderman and Korneliussen n.d). As Nasr explains, the Quran does not accept the crucifixion of Jesus, but rather mentions that Jesus was taken to heaven (4:157-58 cited in Phipps 1999). The Muslim belief about Prophet Adam is also different from the Christian and Jewish belief. According to Islam, although Adam was considered to have sinned upon eating the forbidden fruit, humankind is not responsible and the concept of original sin is denounced in Islam (Schirrmacher n.d.). However, according to the biblical version, Adam transgressed the commandment of God by eating the forbidden fruit, and so brought death and sin to the entire human race, the reconciliation of which is possible only through the death of Jesus (Schirrmacher n.d.). The main difference between Jesus and Moses, as per Christian belief, is the divinity they associate with Jesus (Carmody and Carmody 1996). As per Christian faith, although Moses is a “great religious hero” and the “medium of God’s amazing grant of the covenant”, Jesus was more than that (Carmody and Carmody 1996, p. 187). According to them, Jesus sacrificed himself for humankind, “fashioned a new covenant” and brought in a new Law (Carmody and Carmody 1996, p. 187). The Biblical and Quranic descriptions of Moses’ life vary. For instance, the Quran does not describe Moses as committing an act of murder by killing an Egyptian. The Quran states that it was an accident (Abdullah 2011). Another difference is that while the Bible states that the Torah was received by Moses as tablets that were written by God himself (Exodus 32:16 cited in Abdullah 2011), the Quran states that in the case of Moses, as in the case of all other prophets including Muhammad, the Torah was received in the form of a revelation. This is clear in the following verse, in which God says to Muhammad in the Quran, We have revealed to thee as we sent revelation to Noah and the prophets after him, and we revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the tribes, and Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and we gave David a Scripture (4:163 cited in Abdullah 2011, p. 91). Another difference is that the Bible describes that Moses broke the tablets in anger, while the Quran states that he put them down while angry and then picked them up when his anger cooled down (Abdullah 2011). Conclusion This essay discussed the concept of prophecy in the three Abrahamic faiths, namely – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Both the similarities and differences in the meanings of prophecy and among the different prophets of the three faiths have been discussed. The essay provides a comparative overview of prophecy and prophethood in the three religions, apart from a general discussion of prophecy and the job of a prophet. The three religions have a lot of similarities, the most important ones of which include their belief in monotheism, their common origins from Abraham, their belief in prophets, holy scriptures, angels, Satan, resurrection, the Day of Judgment, life in the hereafter etc. Abraham, who is believed to be the founding father of the three faiths, lived around 2000 BCE during the Iron Age in Mesopotamia. He was commanded by God to migrate to the land of Canaan. He came into a covenant with God in which he promised to preach the oneness of God to his children and descendants while God would ensure that Abraham’s offspring would be the fathers of great nations. According to the believers of the three faiths, the coming of prophets Moses, Jesus and Muhammad was a fulfillment of that covenant. The history of the three religions is closely intertwined and shares a sort of kinship based on monotheistic exclusivity and mutual identification. While the concept of prophecy in the three religions is largely similar, there are minor differences in their perception of prophethood. Similarly, there are also certain similarities and differences in how the holy scriptures of the three faiths describe the various prophets of the three religions. However, a common thread runs through their religious teachings and their roles as prophets to their respective nations. References Abdullah, N 2011, Concepts of Islam, Xlibris Corporation, USA. 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