reynolds-the-quran-in-its-historical-context-2

382 Gerald Hawtingthan they. He rules over the angels and the beings created by God ... "This relatesto a slightly earlier passage where it is reported that the Ebionites denied thatChrist was a man on the basis of the passage in Mark's gospel where Jesus refuses .to respond to the pleas of his mother and brothers that he should come out to them: '"Who are my mother and my brothers? Anyone who does the will of God, thatperson is my brother and sister and mother." The view of Christ as an archangelmay also be documented in the Recognitions. 26This likening of Christ to an angel, as already noted, was not confined to Jewish­Christian groups. Philo had developed the idea of the Logos as a sort .of archangel,and we have already referred to the angelomorphic Christo logy of early Christians.One of the most striking expressions of the idea occurs in the anti-Gnostic apocryphalEpistle of the Apostles, which talks of Christ descending through the heavensin the form of an angel (in order to avoid recognition). In the Epistle, Christ himselftakes the form of the angel Gabriel in the scene of the Annunciation to Mary andenters her womb: "I, the Word, went into her and became flesh." The Qur'iinicreferences to God sending His spirit to Mary in the form of a man and breathing Hisspirit into her to cause her to conceive (Q 19:16-33, 21:91 and 66:12) may havesome relationship to this ideaP ·In the fourteenth chapter of his anti-Gnostic De Carne Christi, Tertullian(d. c. 220) refers to the Septuagint translation of Isaiah 9:5, "the angel of greatcounsel", and applies it, as is common in Christian exegesis, to Jesus. 28 Tertullian,however, is opposed to the teaching of anonymous opponents who apparentlyused that translation to support their view that Christ had put on the nature of anangel (angelum gestavit Christus), 29 and he insists that "angel" in the Greekversion of Isaiah refers not to an angelic being but simply has its basic meaning(common to Greek aggelos and Hebrew ma!'iik) of messenger. Jesus, arguesTertullian, could be called an angel in the sense that he was the messenger ofGod's salvation to mankind, but not an angel in form like Gabriel or Michael.He then comments, "This view of the matter could have suited Ebion (poterithaec opinio Hebioni convenire)," 30 who determines that Jesus is a bare man26 Epiphanius, Panarion, 30:14, 16, cited by J.K. Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament, Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 1993, 15, and by Klijn and Reinink, Patristic Evidence, 180-83. The passage fromMark is 3:31-35. For the Recognitions, see B. Rehm (ed.), Die Pseudolclementinen II: Recognitionenin Rzifins Ubersetzzmg, Berlin: Akademie, 1953, 5:42.5 (if"zmi vera qui in archangelis era/maximus" refers to Christ).27 For Philo's description ofthe Logos as "he who holds the eldership among the angels (ton aggelonpresbytaton), their ruler (arlchaggelon) as it were", see Philo, De Confosione Linguan1m, Loeb4:88-89. For the Epistle of the Apostles, see J.K. Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament,§ 14, 564-65.The translation here is from column b (the Ethiopic version), but it mirrors closely that in columna (the Coptic version).28 Tertullian: De Carne Christi, ed. and trans. E. Evans, London: SPCK, 1956,49-53.29 Note that Islamic theology has the expression taqml~ (lit. "to dress, to wear") as an alternative totanosulch ("metempsychosis").30 Tertullian seems to be the first to use the name Ebion for a person- previous sources talk only ofEbionites (Ebionaioi). It looks. as if this is an example of the generation of an individual from thename of a sect, uthe poor ones."Messengers and angels in the Qur'iin 383(nudum hominem), merely of the seed of David, and therefore not also the Son ofGod- though clearly more glorious than the prophets - so as to state that an angelwas in him in the same way as in Zechariah, for example." Tertullian seems 'toimply here thatEbion supported his view that Christ was a man who had beenpossessed by, or vested as, an angel, by referring to the words of another prophet,·Zechariah. In the Latin translation of the book of Zechariah used by Tertullian,that prophet talks of the "angel that spoke within me" (dixit ad me angelus quiIoquebatur in me). 31 Tertullian objects that those words were never used by Christ,nor was the more traditional prophetic formula, "Thus says the Lord." InsteadChrist used the expression, "But I say unto you." 32The view of Christ that Epiphanius attributed to the third group among theEbionites is that Jesus was an ordinary man who was possessed by the spirit ofChrist. This idea appears in various ways in different texts. It is associated withthe baptism of Jesus when, accOrding to the canonical Gospel of Matthew, the.spirit of God was seen descending like a dove upon Jesus. 33 In some Gnostic andJewish-Christian understandings this was the equivalent of the possession of Jesusby the spirit Christ. Irenaeus (d. 202) had already reported that Cerinthus (c. 1 00)regarded Jesus as an ordinary man, although more righteous, upon whom Christdescended in the form of a dove after his baptism. Only then did Jesus proclaimthe "unknown Father" and perform miracles. But finally Christ ''flew· away again"from Jesus, who suffered and rose from the dead, while Christ did not suffer sincehe is a spiritual entity. 34According to Epiphanius, the report of the baptism of Jesus in the so-calledGospel of the Ebionites conveys the same. idea. He quotes that text to the effectthat when Jesus was baptized by John, the Holy Spirit descended in the form of adove and entered into Jesus. A voice from heaven was then heard to say, "Youare my beloved son, and in you I am well pleased," and "This day have Ibegotten you. " 353 I Zechariah 1:9, 14 (Tertullian and the Vulgate). The Hebrew wa-yo 'mer elay ·ha-mal'alch ha-doberbiis generally translated "the angel who talked with me said to me," but the Septuagint has eipenpros me ho aggelos ho lalon en emoi. Cf. the expression quoted from the Ascension of Isaiah innote 20 above.32 Tertullian, De Carne, 49-53. Cf. the excerpt in Klijn and Reinink, Patristic Evidence, 108-09. Klijnand Reinink dispute that this passage means that Tertullian thought that Ebion considered Jesus to bean angel and think it merely indicates that; according to him, Ebion wanted to prove that Jesus was aprophet The text is admittedly rather convoluted, but it seems to me that the understanding ofK.Iijnand Reinink does not do justice to the full context For us, though, the important point is not to decideexactly what Tertullian knew about the Ebionites but that he thought that some groups at least had theidea of Jesus as an ordinary man whose nature became changed when he was vested by an angel.33 See, e.g., Matthew 3:16.34 Irenaeus, Contra omnes haereses libri quinque, text and translation in Klijn and Reinink, PatristicEvidence, 102-05. The attribution oflrenaeus to Cerinthus is repeated b~ Hippolytus and Epiphanius,who in several places attributes the same idea to the Ebionites.35 Elliott, Apocryphal New Testament, 15, citing Epiphanius, Panarion, 30.13. (See also K.Iijn andReinink, Patristic Evidence, 181.); , I:i:I