This is a very long section. I will start with what Deedat starts with (but doesn’t comment on), the first miracle of the Quran versus the first miracle of the Bible. Actually the first miracle of Jesus is the creation of everything “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” John 1:3.

 

Deedat is obviously trying to say that the Bible has Jesus making this evil wine out of water while the Quran takes the moral high road of Jesus speaking up for his mother just after his birth before he can talk. I assume he is trying to claim the Quran is more moral but I think the creation of the world trumps that. I think the really important issue is which is the truth.

An interesting aside to this is that the story of Jesus speaking as a babe is found in the apocrypha writing known as the Syriac Infancy Gospel. This Gospel is dated to the 6^th century which is also about the time the Quran is supposed to have been revealed to Muhammad. As the Quran wasn’t written down until the 7^th century, I suspect the apocrypha gospel came first.

 

Part (a).

These are all incidents in the Bible where Jesus attacks the corrupt Jewish leaders. Jesus does not hold back in his choice of words. I actually don’t see what Deedat’s problem could be here. Jesus is Lord. Jesus hates people changing his word and deceiving other people. Jesus is going to be the judge on judgement day – why would Deedat have a problem with him speaking to the leader in this manner when it is Jesus they are supposed to serve?

 

Part (b). The word woman

A lot of presumption going on here. Why does Deedat think that the Greek word used for woman here is in any way derogative. Also it could be read that Jesus used the same word that he uses for his mother for a woman caught in adultery (doesn’t say she was a prostitute) which shows how much respect Jesus had for her (the woman in John 8 that is). Jesus knew when to speak plainly like he did with the Jewish leaders but also gently like he did here.

In actual fact the Greek work for woman which also can be used for a wife is a term of respect. The Greek word gunė (acute accent on the e) can be translated as madam or lady and was often done so by Homer and Sophocles and others in the ancient world. It is the same word He used when he spoke to his mother from the cross “Woman, behold your son” John 19:26 and Mary Magdalene after He arose from the tomb “He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” John 20:15. In neither case would Jesus have used a derogative word.

 

Part (b). The Prince of peace

Jesus is the Prince of peace but He is not a pacifist and He promised his followers that they would have to face persecution. For now Jesus is holding His peace but when he returns it says that He will return and rule with a rod of iron. Mankind will be made to do the right thing and it will stay this way for a thousand years. After the thousand year period ends, Satan will then deceive the nations again and draw then together against the Son and then the end will come and the final judgement. Check Revelation 19 to 21.

 

Now Deedat seems to go off at a tangent and goes on the attack against the deity of Jesus and then returns to section 19. Deedat quotes the verses Matthew 19:16-17

“Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”

 

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.””

 

Deedat makes the claim that Jesus would never let anyone call him good, never mind God. This is shown to be false when Jesus says “I am the good shepherd” in John 10:11-14.

Then there is the fact that Jesus is good and even Islam would agree with. So if only God is good and Jesus is good then Jesus is God.

 

The numbering gets a bit messy now. We seem to be still in section 19 but Deedat return to a part designated as (a).

 

Parts (a), (b) (c), and (d) are all on the same theme. Jesus is God so why can He do nothing in his own strength? This has to be explained to Muslims often. Jesus is fully God. He became fully man while remaining fully God and He was emptied of all his Godly powers and characteristics. I appreciate that this is difficult for us humans to understand, but that doesn’t make it untrue. There are many reasons why this was done but the main reason is that Jesus had to become man and empty himself of everything and rely solely on His Father so that he could live and then die as a human. Jesus was our substitute death – our sacrifice for our sins. God couldn’t die – can’t die, so He had to become man. Also Jesus had to live the perfect life without sin and keep the whole law, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.” Matthew 5:17. If Jesus had not been a perfect sacrifice then He could not have died for us. Even the Quran agrees with that last part in Surah 6:164

Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “Should I seek a lord other than Allah while He is the Lord of everything?” No one will reap except what they sow. No soul burdened with sin will bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return, and He will inform you of your differences.

I don’t think Muslims realise that this Surah backs up why Jesus had to be perfect (not that Christians use the Quran for evidence).

 

Part (e)

The first part on Peter’s testimony belongs to the previous (a) to (d) part.

 

Now Deedat goes on a ramble about brackets around the word “as was supposed” being a gloss by the Bible translators. The trouble is, he is wrong. It is an easy matter with the internet that we have today to see that the part “as was supposed” is in the original Greek. It is true that the King James Version does use brackets around these words but that is just the choice they made regarding the grammar and not the actual words from the original Greek. For the record, it is standard practice when words are added that are not in the original but are useful to explain something that is revealed in the fuller passage to use square brackets, as I see all the time in the English translations of the Quran – and I have no problem with that. Also for the record, in most cases, when a Bible translation is made it is usually made from the original text and not from the existing English translations.

 

For the last part of this section where Deedat accuses Jesus of being too self-considerate (which is a way of saying He is being selfish) a very strange thing to say. Firstly it is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If Jesus had taken the same approach as the disciples and rebuked the woman then Deedat might have said “look how harsh Jesus is. Here is this woman trying to do a good thing for Jesus with the only thing she has of value and all Jesus can do is rebuke her.” Instead we find Jesus ignoring the peer pressure from the disciples and standing up for this woman.

On the question of Jesus being selfish; Is this the same Jesus who said “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.” in Matthew 8:20? Or the same Jesus who “Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”” But then “But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd” Mark 6:31-34. So Jesus gave up his rest for these followers?