March 3, 2021 - Adar 19, 5781
The Questions
- Did God Take Prophecy Away From The Jews For Their Pride?
- Does Deuteronomy Foreshadow Muhammad?
- Does Psalms Foreshadow Muhammad?
- Does The Torah Say That Ishmael's Descendants Will Be Great?
- Does The Q'uran Restore the Corrupted Parts of the Torah?
- Does The Torah Say That God Regrets Things?
- Does Judaism Monopolize God by Limiting Prophecy to Itself?
1. Did God Take Prophecy Away From The Jews For Their Pride?
In short, Jesus was the last prophet sent to Israel, since the Jews had reached a point where they, after having numerous prophets sent to them over the centuries, purely saw this blessing in a prideful and ethnically arrogant way and thus had forsaken their duty to spread the message of Pure Monotheism to all of humanity. Thus it was time to move the blessing of prophethood, which was in essence a duty, to a people who would honor and fulfill it.
The idea that prophecy had to be transferred from the Jews due to their apparent pride and ethnic arrogance makes sense, but it is not Biblically (Tanakh) or logically supported.
It isn't logically supported for a few reasons.
The first is that for much of Jewish history the polytheistic nations absolutely rejected Jewish attempts to introduce them to "their God," and often times oppressed them greatly for it. So it isn't necessarily that the Jews kept God to themselves, it's that the polytheistic nations would have nothing to do with Him. In other words, they had not necessarily forsaken their duty to spread the message of monotheism, but that they were in many cases barred from doing so, and were unable to persuade the "stiff-necked Gentiles" from abandoning their gods. In any case, being barred was not always an effective deterrent for the more stubborn individuals among the Jews, many of whom persisted at great cost to their personal well-being, and in some cases their lives.
Secondly, how the Jews understood their gift of prophecy has nothing to do with the fact that God provided it to them: there are no conditions attached to receiving prophecy that one must humbly accept it (although that would be ideal). First of all, we are speaking about individuals within the nation that received prophecy, not the entire nation. Therefore the general attitude of the nation would not be a valid impetus for God to withhold prophecy from individuals that were worthy of receiving it. Secondly, one purpose of prophecy was to provide needed guidance in the face of deviance; withholding or abolishing prophecy at those pivotal junctures would defeat the purpose of prophecy in the first place. It would also be reckless, which we cannot attribute to a perfectly knowing, wise, and compassionate God.
Thirdly, there seems to be a misunderstanding in Islam as to the function and/or scope of prophecy, at least in the way Jews understand it. A nation's access to prophecy does not define its role as a representative of monotheism; if you think about it you may see that these elements don't really have anything to do with each other. Instead, this role is defined by their ability to teach and impart divinely revealed principles to other people; once an initial prophecy has been received (i.e., through Moses), monotheism can be disseminated with or without prophecy and is not reliant upon it. Using prophecy to teach people about God is like using a flamethrower to light a candle.
The continued prophecy that God gave to the Jews was not designed to continuously confirm the truth of monotheism; it was sent to correct people who had deviated in one or more ways. Having said that, other nations don't need to receive prophecy of their own in order to understand that monotheism is the way to go; they can be exposed to its truth by gaining access to the Torah and/or being taught about it by Jews, who themselves have access to the Torah. This is part of what it means that the Jews are "a light to the nations." It is not something to boast about or be prideful, it is our prime directive and the reason that we were created. Any Jew who contemplates it seriously would be forced to come to that conclusion, and if not, then he is in error.
Fourthly, even if we were to assume that the purpose of prophecy was to represent monotheism, there are no verses in the Torah in which God says that He would transfer this role to another nation in response to a surpassed threshold of either arrogance and/or sin. In fact, there are several verses in the Tanakh supporting the unconditional eternality of the covenant between God and the Jews, which I will currently spare for the sake of brevity; even though we may break it, He does not reciprocate by breaking it Himself because He is faithful.
In addition, transferring this role to another nation is the most radical way of ensuring that monotheism be properly disseminated; there are other, less radical and equally effective, ways of achieving this. For example, it can be appended to the Ishmaelites so that they too play a role in spreading monotheism; it is not necessary to assume that the Jews must lose their position in order for somebody else to acquire it. Consider fire, for example, which spreads from place to place without drawing away from the original flame. It smacks of human thinking to assume that God "moves prophecy around" from nation to nation due to any imperfections, alleged or real, found in the original representative.
2. Does Deuteronomy Foreshadow Muhammad?
Although the Jews clearly expected this prophet, they were seemingly closed to the idea that he could or would be a non-Jew even though it is stated that he will be raised "from your brothers"—meaning the brothers of the Jews, thus the Ishmaelites, as stated in Deuteronomy 18:15-19. So even though the implications of this verse are now clear in the aftermath of the advent of Islam, up until the time of Jesus the Jews were still interpreting it in a very narrow and self-serving way—and they still are.
Regarding Deuteronomy 18:15-19, as long as we are taking the "family" route, a "brother" is more closely related than a more distant relative or next of kin. If the descendants of Isaac have the same father (Abraham) and same mother (Sarah), then they are more closely related to each other than to Ishmaelites, who have the same father (Abraham), but not the same mother (Hagar). It therefore stands to reason that "from your brothers" more likely refers to another Israelite than to an Ishmaelite. Our understanding is that this is contextually referring to Joshua (from the tribe of Ephraim) right before the death and succession of Moses (from the tribe of Levi), and not to a future prophet (from Ishmael from the tribe of Quraysh).
The verse in Deuteronomy also says, "A prophet from among you, from your brothers...," The words "from among you" pretty clearly refer to someone who is among the Jews, i.e., with them, which cannot then mean somebody from the Ishmaelite line, who were certainly not living among the Jews and occupied their own region of land quite a distance away. In other words, and I say this respectfully, nothing in this verse indicates that this prophet would be an Ishmaelite. This doesn't mean that Muhammad wasn't great, it just means that this verse is not about him.
3. Does Psalms Foreshadow Muhammad?
Indeed, at the time of Jesus, these Ishmaelite prophecies were still begging to be fulfilled—since all of Abraham's descendants were yet to be truly blessed by God. And what does "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone" (Matthew 21:42 / Luke 20:17) mean if not this?
This verse is found originally in Psalms 118:22. One of our understandings is that it is a reference to the Jews themselves, who were rejected by virtually everybody, but then accepted. This speaks of what their status would be in the Messianic kingdom, when people will say, "This was from the Lord; it is wondrous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord made; we shall exult and rejoice thereon." (118:23-24) It is a projection of what people will say in the future: "This," this unexpected turn of events, "was from the Lord."
Interestingly, Christians believe that this verse was a reference to Jesus. I would like to see a discussion between a Christian and Muslim as to the identity of this individual.
4. Does The Torah Say That Ishmael's Descendants Will Be Great?
"Being that our Ummah went from being a relatively small, uncivilized, and unremarkable group of largely nomadic tribes to being a "Great Nation" (Genesis 17:20) that adheres to and spreads the Pure Monotheism of Abraham throughout the globe..."
The term "great nation," in context, seems to refer to quantity and not necessarily spiritual stature (which Ishmael's descendants may rightfully deserve to be called). You don't even need to look at the original Hebrew to see this; you can look at a standard translation:
"And regarding Ishmael, I have heard you; behold I have blessed him, and I will make him fruitful, and I will multiply him exceedingly; he will beget twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation."
Interestingly enough, these same words are used in Genesis 1:28 with the Divine command to populate the earth: "And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the sky and over all the beasts that tread upon the earth."
The verse above clearly indicates greatness in numbers and conquest (fill the earth and subdue it...). It is my observation only that perhaps the use of identical verbs in both verses indicates an association between them. Having said that, the Hebrew word for "great" in Genesis 17:20 is gadol, which refers to "large." The word adir is a more accurate word to connote spiritual greatness, nobility, or might. All of the adjectives above in bold connote population or quantity, not necessarily spiritual greatness. As with Muhammad, this is not to say that greatness was not imparted on Ishmael's descendants, but just that this verse doesn't mean that.
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5. Does The Q'uran Restore the Corrupted Parts of the Torah?
"The Jews corrupted parts of the Torah, and God revealed the Qur'an to restore them."
If somebody claims that the Qur'an restores the portions of the Torah that had been corrupted, I would say that the Torah warns against people in the future who will tell you to change any part of the Torah. So really when a person says that part of the Torah has been corrupted, what he really wants you to do is adopt a version of the Torah that he believes is correct. In other words, he is changing the Torah to fit his needs.
The following verse warns us against doing this, and against believing someone who attempts to:
Everything I command you that you shall be careful to do it. You shall neither add to it, nor subtract from it. (Deuteronomy 13:1)
In other words, Deuteronomy 13:1 is a built-in firewall against false claims, even when the person making it claims to have received it through prophecy. This is one of the ways that God has preserved the Torah through the ages, even though most Muslims claim that God only preserved the Qur'an and not the previous revelations.
6. Does the Torah Say That God Regrets Things?
"The Torah says that God regretted things that He did, which is an incorrect understanding of God that the Qur'an has been sent to correct. God can only regret His actions if He is not perfect, and so Judaism has reduced God to the level of human beings, as in Genesis 6:5-7:"
And the Lord saw that the evil of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of his heart was only evil all the time. And the Lord regretted that He had made man upon the earth, and He became grieved in His heart. And the Lord said, "I will blot out man, whom I created, from upon the face of the earth, from man to cattle to creeping thing, to the fowl of the heavens, for I regret that I made them."
"Regret" is only a loose translation. The Hebrew root of the verb וַיִּנָּ֣חֶם connotes reconsidering a course of action, which is the way it is used in other parts of the Torah. God was reconsidering what to do now that Man had become completely corrupted on the face of the earth.
To preempt, the question that will inevitably arise from this is predestination. While this is admittedly outside of the scope of human knowledge, let us consider this question in terms of prayer; when a human prays to God, He acts in accordance with the content of that prayer. If so, does this mean that the person's prayer has changed God's mind, and so that He can be changed? The answer is of course "no," but more accurately that God is "responsive" to changes in Man's behavior and determines the future based upon those actions. That is what the word "regretted" (a translation) means.
In this same way, God would have not destroyed the earth had Man not become completely corrupt, i.e., He would have continued with the initial program.
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7. Does Judaism Monopolize God by Limiting Prophecy to Itself?
"According to IslamicAwareness.org, 'It is an Islamic viewpoint that every nation was sent a Messenger for their guidance. The important matter was the concept of Tawheed i.e., in oneness of Allah. The secondary matter was Shariah which kept changing from tribe to tribe and nation to nation. Allah, the most high, alone knows what is good for His creation.'
This is based on several verses in the Qur'an, the first of which says, 'And for every Ummah (a community or a nation), there is a Messenger; when their Messenger comes, the matter will be judged between them with justice, and they will not be wronged. (Qur'ân 10:47)'
The Torah gives us a rather different picture of prophecy, one that crosses national lines. In the Torah, prophets were often sent to other nations with an important message of monotheism and/or repentance."
The Prophet Jonah Sent to Assyria
A good example of this is the prophet Jonah (referred to in the Book of Jonah as a Hebrew), who was sent to the Assyrian capital Nineveh with the message that its residents must repent or be destroyed. In other words, he was sent to a nation not his own with a message of repentance:
And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a walk of three days. And Jonah commenced to come into the city, one day's walk, and he proclaimed and said, "In another forty days Nineveh shall be overturned!" And the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they proclaimed a fast and donned sackcloth, from their greatest to their smallest. And the word reached the king of Nineveh, whereupon he rose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat on the ashes. (Jonah 3:3-6)
Abraham in Ur Chasdim (Babylon) and Canaan
This also occurs with Abraham throughout Genesis; he has interactions with, and can be said to have been sent as a messenger to, people from a range of other nations, such as the Philistines. The same can be said of Lot with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, although Jews do not consider him a prophet.
In our understanding Hagar, who was Egyptian, was one of Abraham's and Sarah's first converts to monotheism, alluded to in Genesis 12:5:
And Abram took Sarai his wife and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had acquired, and the souls they had acquired in Haran, and they went to go to the land of Canaan...
One of our main commentators, Rashi explains that "the souls they had acquired," in addition to the plain reading meaning servants, means the converts that they "brought under the Divine presence," i.e., converted. One of these righteous people was Hagar, who although Egyptian, did not convert to monotheism through a prophet sent to her nation, but through her interaction with, and being persuaded by, Abraham and Sarah.
Moses in Egypt
We can also take the example of the Jews in Egypt. While God's primary goal was to take the Jews out of Egypt, Moses sent many warnings and signs to the Pharaoh, his servants, and the people in general, to repent. According to our tradition, the non-Jews who left Egypt along with the Jews were converts to Judaism.
The Prophet Amos to Non-Jewish Nations
The prophet Amos also addresses six non-Jewish nations in Amos 1:3-2:3 (Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moav):
So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Damascus, yea for four, I will not return them; Because they threshed the Gileadites with sledges of iron. And I will send fire into the house of Hazael, and it shall consume the palaces of Ben-Hadad. And I will break the bolt of Damascus, and I will cut off an inhabitant from Bikath- Aven, and one who holds the scepter from Beth-eden, and the people of Aram shall be exiled to Kir, says the Lord.
So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Gaza, yea for four, I will not return them; Because they carried away captive a whole captivity, to deliver to Edom. And I will send fire into the wall of Gaza, and it shall consume its palaces. And I will cut off an inhabitant from Ashdod and one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon, and I will return My hand upon Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall be lost, says the Lord God.
So said the Lord: For three sins of Tyre, yea for four, I will not return them; Because they delivered a whole captivity to Edom and did not remember the brotherly covenant. And I will send fire into the wall of Tyre, and it shall consume its palaces.
So said the Lord: For three sins of Edom, yea for four, I will not return them: For pursuing their brother with a sword, and they destroyed their mercy and grasped forever their anger and kept their fury forever. And I will send fire into Teman, and it shall consume the palaces of Bozrah.
So said the Lord: For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yea for four, I will not return them: Because they ripped up the pregnant women of Gilead, in order to enlarge their border. And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it shall consume its palaces, with a shout on the day of battle, with a tempest on the day of the whirlwind. And their king shall go into exile, he and his princes together, said the Lord.
So said the Lord: For three transgressions of Moab, yea for four, I will not return them; for he burnt the bones of the king of Edom to lime. And I will send fire into Moab, and it shall consume the palaces of Kerioth, and Moab shall die amidst the tumult, with shouting, with the sound of the shophar. And I will cut off a judge from within it, and all its princes I will slay with him, says the Lord.
King Solomon and Non-Jews in the Temple
In Kings I 8:41-43 King Solomon prayed on behalf of non-Jews that came to the Temple to pray and offer sacrifices when he inaugurated the Temple to God:
And also to the stranger, who (is) not of Your people Israel, but will come from a far country for the sake of Your Name. For they shall hear of Your great Name, and of Your mighty hand, and of Your outstretched arm, and he will come and pray toward this house. You shall hear in heaven Your dwelling place, and do according to all that the stranger calls You for, that all peoples of the earth may know Your Name, to fear You, as (do) Your people Israel, and that they may know that Your Name is called upon this house that I have built.
The above indicates that non-Jews were coming to the Temple to pray and offer sacrifices. This gives us a glimpse into the reality at the time, that non-Jews had a relationship with Jews and Judaism without converting to it. We refer to those people as Noachides.
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