Christ the Name

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T he S word of I ntelectB ook - 2

C hrist theN ame

By: Mohammed Fareeduddin Siddique

Book Number: 2

Document number: 2.05

Dated Updated: 21th March 2004.
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]


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CHRSTTHENAME[ ]Who is the Christ?

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Page 2 of 6___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________DISCLAIMER: This document in not intended to hurt any sects religious, emotional feelings. Any thing that is written by a human being is susceptible to errors (like the presentday Bible). If there is any truth in this paper, then it is from Allh s.w.t, the typo errors (if any) are from myself, Allh s.w.t forgive me for my human / typo errors. I can becontacted at mailto:[email protected]. I will be happy to clarify any doubts from my Christian friends in particular and all others in general.

It is a pity that most of the Muslims do recognize Jesus pbuh as Christ the Messaiah inessense. I happen to ask one of my muslim chat friend Is Jesus pbuh the Messaiah, whosaves you He murmured meekly, Jesus is Massaiah Isa Maseeh....!

We Muslims are well known to have names that have meaning, I know one of my friend whois named Mohammed Maseeh. Does that means he is the messaiah? Nope! t is only aname. The name Jesus Christ has a definative meaning in the Christendom, though thejuglery of name transitions is a jewish tradition, Christians adopted it too.

Quran clarifies this naming pendomonium in great details. One definative verse to beat theMessaiah saviour trap of the Christian missioneries is in Quran.

Quran 003 l-'Imrn, Verse 45. (Remember) when the angels said: "O Maryam (Mary)!Verily, Allh gives you the glad tidings of a Word ["Be!" - and he was! i.e. 'Iesa (Jesus) theson of Maryam (Mary)] from Him, his name will bethe Messiah 'Iesa (Jesus), the son ofMaryam (Mary), held in honour in this world and in the Hereafter, and will be one of thosewho are near to Allh." Bolded emphasis added.

Let us see how people name their children, the name Michael means the strong God doesit means Mr. Michael is a strong God, nope! Did anyone of us ever ponder what the meaningof the word Israel is? It means Prince of Godand I defeated God! Or I overpoweredGod! If Mr. Abdullah pronounces that word Israel he never means that he has defeatedGod! Nope! He never would mean that for sure.

Like wise, naming Jesus Christ as Messiahdoes not makes him a Messiah the saviour. Theword Christ orients from the Greek work Christos meaning Anointed, that is yetanother human title. But where did this word Jesus sprung up from. Let us explore thehistory and origin of that word Jesus then.

The name Jesus in these verses is the Latinized, Anglicized name of Joshua. The NewTestament was written in Greek in which case the name Jesuswould be Iesous. When theNew Testament was translated into Latin and then into English from the Greek, the namebecame Jesus. Other names were Anglicized as well.

"Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear ason, and shall call his name Immanuel (God is with us)." Isaiah 7:14

The famous claim of divinity of Jesus pbuh is the verse of 7:14 of Isaiah. However, it is veryinteresting to note that nobody ever in the life of Jesus called him by the name Immanuel.Once he was gone, people started calling him many other names, but that does not makesany difference because he was not with them to answer them. Name calling is a famoustrickstery of the followers of Paul.

Muslims are commanded in the Qur'an to believe in Jesus (pbuh) as a true and faithful

prophet of God. For this reason, Muslims have no trouble believing that prophets of the OldTestament prophesied the coming of Jesus (pbuh). However, as we have already seen inchapter two, over the ages mankind continued to feel the need to embroider and improve


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upon the word of God? This was not restricted to merely inserting, deleting, or changingwords as seen in previous chapters, rather, they even went so far as to try to "prove" theirinnovations through the citation of other ancient passages. There are many examples of this.One such example shall be studied here.

When members of the clergy read to their flock the verse of Isaiah 7:14, they then go on toexplain to them: "Do you see? Prophet Isaiah prophesied the coming of the God Himself.Immanuel means 'God is with us,' so this is not only a prophesy of the comingof God butalso a prophesy of the 'incarnation' of God Almighty in the form of Jesus".

It is true; Immanuel does mean "God is with us." However, this is a prime example of howthe evangelists manage to constantly base their arguments on catch words or phrases andthen quickly gloss over the details.

The phrase "a virgin"which we find in our English Bibles does not appear in the originalHebrew text. The word used is 'almah {al-maw'} meaning "a young woman of marriageableage". The Hebrew word for "virgin" is bthuwlah {beth-oo-law'}. When the Hebrew text istranslated into Greek in the NT, it uses the word parthenos{per-then'-os}, which has a dualmeaning; a young girl or a virgin. The translators have mistakenly chosen the latter. Morerecent and accurate versions of the Bible such as the Revised Standard Version present thisverse as follows:

"Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child andshall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel" Isaiah 7:14 (RSV)

Biblical scholars have suggested that this prophesy was concerning the second son orpossibly the third son of Isaiah by a Jewish maiden. It does not relate to Jesus or his virginbirth.

If Jesus (pbuh) was indeed intended by this prophesy, then why was he named "Jesus" andnot "Immanuel" as this prophesy requires? Notice that the prophesy states that "his NAMEshall be Immanuel."It does not say that "HE shall be Immanuel."There is a big differencebetween saying "His name shall be 'God is with us'"and between saying "He shall be Godwith us."

"Immanuel" is not the only name in the OT that contains the word "El" (God). There arehundreds of Hebrew names that consist of "El" and another noun. For example, "Ishmael"which means "God hears." Did God's sense of hearing come down to earth and live amongus in the form of a man? Was God's sense of hearing "incarnated" in the form of a man?.

There is also "Israel" (prince of God), and "Elijah" (my God is Jehovah), and so forth. As wecan see, it was a very common occurrence for Israelites to have such names. Neitherprophet Isaiah, nor King Ahaz, nor any Jew ever thought that this prophesy was for Godhimself to come down and live among them.

In Genesis 28:19 we read "And he called the name of that place Bethel (house of God)".Since the place was named "house of God," does this mean that God lived inside thishouse?


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In Genesis 32:30, we are told that Jacob (pbuh) called a piece of land "Peni-el"(Face ofGod). The actual text states: "And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel,"is this thesame as saying: "And Jacob said this place is Peniel"? Was the patch of land the actualfaceof God? Was the face of God "incarnated" in this piece of land?

Gabriel, the name of the angle of God, has been interpreted in Biblical references as havingthe general meaning of "Strength of God." So, does this mean that the angle Gabriel is the"incarnation" of the "strength of God"?

"The name Immanuel could mean'God be with us' in the sense 'God help us!'"Interpreter'sdictionary of the Bible, V2, p. 686.

Jesus (pbuh) was given his name by the angel Gabriel even before his birth (Matthew 1:21).Never was he named "Immanuel." King Ahaz was in danger. His enemies were closing in.

This is when a promise was made to show him a sign, a pregnant woman, not a virgin Mary(pbuh) who would not show up until many centuries after he had turned to dust. Can we seehow the Trinitarian doctrine of incarnation was forced upon the message of Jesus (pbuh)through "bending" of the prophesies and general glossing over of the "trivial details"?

It is also interesting that in Pauline and Gentile Christianity some of the expectationsconnected with the Messiah are retained but the term Messiah itself is emptied of itscontents so that Christ (latinized Greek equivalent of Messiah) became a mere name.Already in Pauls writings Christ is nothing more than a name.

As for Islamic sources, they do not mention a King-Messiah who restores the kingdom ofDavid or a Priest-Messiah who restores the temple rites. Not only the Quràn does notmention the King-Messiah or the Priest-Messiah, but it also does not give much importanceto the institutions of kingship and priesthood. The really important figures in the Quràn areprophets (ambiya`) and messengers (rusul) not kings or priests. Even when the Quràn talksabout the two greatest Jewish kings, David and Solomon, it does not stress their kingship.David is probably presented in 17:55 as a prophet who was given a book (zabur, or Psalms)and in case of both David and Solomon it is their wisdom and spirituality that is prominent inthe Quràn rather than their kingship.

The primacy of the Prophet/Messenger means the primacy of knowledge and revelation. It isa recognition that human beings need a message from God for their spiritual and moraldevelopment. Institutions such as kingship and priesthood are of secondary importance, if atall. Jesus is called al-masih(Messiah) both in the Quràn and the Hadith but the term is usedas a name, the Quràn explicitly makes al-masiha part of the name of Jesus: Mary is givenglad tidings of a son whose name is al-masih,Jesus son of Mary. This corresponds exactlyto the usage of Christ in much of the Christian tradition.

Beyond the use of the name al-masihthe Quràn and the Hadith do not link Jesus with earlymessianic expectations. He is not given any of the functions of the kingly or priestly Messiah.Some ahadith present him as a just ruler bringing extraordinary prosperity during his second

coming, but there is no indication that this is meant in any traditional messianic sense.


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He is never called a king or son of David or otherwise associated with the establishment orrestoration of the Israeli kingdom. Nor is he presented as a priest of the end-time, as in someNew Testament books. Moreover, while the Gospels go to great lengths to show that Jesusfulfilled Old Testament prophecies, the Quràn and the Hadith do not even state in anythinglike a clear way that the coming of Jesus was in fulfillment of earlier prophecies. Such astatement would have provided a strong basis to view Jesus as a messianic figure in sometraditional sense.

Earlier Biblical prophecies are recognized in the Quràn but mostly as predictions of thecoming of a prophet and the victory of truth and righteousness. This is somewhat similar tothe fact that the Torah does not talk about the coming of the Messiah but it does talk aboutthe coming of a prophet like Moses (Deut 18:15-19).

Interestingly, it is the Prophet Muhammad who is said by the Quràn and the Hadith, in the

clearest terms, to be prophesied in the Torah and the Gospels (Quràn 7:157, 17:107-108,61:6; Mishkat al-Masabih, 26/18/1, 26/18/2, and 26/20/3 in James Robsons translation).Therefore, in the light of the Quràn and the Hadith, the figure that comes closest to fulfillingearlier messianic or eschatological prophecies and thus being a messianic figure is theProphet Muhammad. The belief in Muhammad as the last prophet also gives him aneschatological or messianiccharacter.

Thus if Islamic sources provide any positive basis for affirming any type of Messiah, it is theProphet-Messiah, and he should be identified with the Prophet Muhammad. But in theQuràn and Hadith there is no insistence that the Prophet Muhammad is the only messianic

figure and so it is possible to accept more than one Prophet-Messiah. Therefore in view ofthe use of al-masihas a name of Jesus in the Quràn and the Hadith, absence in them ofany kingly or priestly role for him, and their presentation of him as a prophet and amessenger of God we can regard him as a second Prophet-Messiah if we are so inclined forsome reason. Indeed, it will be at least consistent with the Quràn to talk of three Prophet-Messiahs, the third being Yahya or John the Baptist.

O my Christian reader!Respond to your Lord before a Day comes from Allah [S.W.T],which cannot be turned back. On that Day you will have no hiding-place and no means ofdenial. (Noble Quran, Surat ash-Shura: 47)

Except for those who are steadfast and do right actions. They will receive forgiveness and alarge reward. (Surah Hud, 11)

I invite you now, O my Christian reader, to use your intellect and be a true believer, atruthful submitter to your and my God Allah ] ]. May Allah [] bestow uponyou his mercy and help you understand the fallacies of the Christian Pauline religion of Saulof Tarus...Ameen, ya Rabbal Izzah.

Color codes:

Red italicsare the words of the present day bible.


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Blue italics are the Holy verses of Quran Al-Kareem, Translations by Yousuf Ali / M.Pickthal.

Normal blacks are my words.

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Christ the Name