River

http://www.aramaic.org/PARAVLETE.html

I am curious why in the Aramaic scriptures the word "paraclete" is used when talking about the "comforter" and the "advocate". Can you enlighten me on this? I believe as you, that Jesus only spoke Aramaic, not Greek.
Thanks, Ken.

Dear Ken,

You have raised an important question. Why indeed are there any Greek words in the "Aramaic Scriptures?" The short answer is that you were working with the "Peshitto" which is otherwise known as the West Palestinian "Peshitta" that was made to conform to the pre-Christian Septuagint of the Greek church. We know that Jesus did not speak Greek because the Aramaic speaking people in the time of Jesus considered it sinful to speak any other language. This had to be true because the Aramaic Estrangelo Script was the lingua franca in Palestine at the time of Jesus. Aramaic in this script is similar to Arabic and this was the language of commerce and industry. A growing number of scholars now recognize that Jesus spoke this form of Aramaic, not Greek. The square letter Aramaic in Hebraic characters came much later. (See "Western Christian Scholars Awaken to Truth" in the Table of Contents on the Aramaic Bible Society Website). See Eusebius' "Ecclesiastical History", first published in 1928! Also, "The Age of Faith", Will and Ariel Durant's "The Story of Civilization", Vol. 4.

Follow me as we trace the Biblical history of this Greek word "Paraclete". Startling as it may seem, at one time the word read "Periklytos" and "Paraklytos", which is the name for "Muhammad" in Greek. Surprising? It should not be because both words mean "Praised" or "Celebrate," the meaning and character of the man "Muhammad." (1 Jesus in The Qur'an, One World Publications, (c) Geoffrey Parrinder 1965, 1995, ISBN 1-85168-094-2. Knowing this, there is a need for us to study the life of Prophet Muhammad in depth to see if it all stands up. Surprisingly it does.

Of special interest always is what the name for Muhammad was in his mother tongue, Palestinian Aramaic. For this we have to look to the Hebrew and Aramaic scriptures. According to the present day Aramaic scriptures, the word for Muhammad would read "Paraqleyta" or "Paraklytos" in Greek and "Menahem" in Hebrew! In the ancient Aramaic scriptures, before these changes, it read "Ahmad," then Munahammana" which is the Aramaic/Syriac rendering for the name "Muhammad." These are names, not simply words, and they mean "Comforter" or "Muhammad" in Arabic.

There is no Aramaic dictionary where you'll find the word "Paraqleyta" because there is no such word in that language. Therefore, two questions are asked:

Why was "Periklytos" changed to "Paraklytos"?
Why was Ahmad changed to "Munahammana" and then to "Paraqleyta?"
History tells us that Muhammad was the only prophet who came shortly after Jesus and did everything Jesus said he would. But, you ask, what is the meaning of all of this? The answer is given in Luke 6:40, "There is no disciple who is more important than his teacher; for every man who is well developed will be like his teacher" (Lamsa) or "The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master" (KJV). Christians are often told that no one can go to heaven except by Jesus. This tells us that the only way anyone can go to heaven is to be Christ-like. Muhammad was such a man. Muslims make a stronger case. They say that Jesus says the only way one can be with Jesus in Heaven is to be as Him, i.e., one who submits to Alaha's Will (Aramaic), Allah's Will (Arabic). To do this is to be a Muslim! But let us return to the study of the word "Comforter."


John 16:7-13

But I tell you the truth, It is better for you that I should go away; for if I do not away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I should go, I will send him to you. And when he is come, he will rebuke the world concerning sin, concerning righteousness, and concerning Judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; Concerning righteousness, because I go to my Father, and you will not see me again; Concerning judgment, because the leader of this world has been judged. Again, I have many other things to tell you, but you cannot grasp them now. But when the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all the truth: for he will not speak from himself, but what he hears, that he will speak: and he will make known to you things which are to come in the future. He will glorify me; because he will take of my own and show to you. Everything that my Father has is mine; this is the reason why I told you that he will take of my own and show to you. (Lamsa)

The difference between Muslims and Christians is that Muslims use the original words that Jesus and all the prophets used. In speaking of John 16:7-13, most Christians will tell you that the "Comforter" Jesus will send is the Holy Ghost. But keep in mind that the Holy Ghost was around before Jesus. In the Aramaic we see that the translation is "Spirit." Jesus, peace be upon him, was talking about the one who would ONLY appear when He joined His Father in Heaven*. In other words, this Spirit of Truth (a man) was never around before. The man Jesus sent was Muhammad.

If this information is surprising to you, let me take it a step further. Christians and Jews alike have forgotten the history of the Great Nation that was to come out of Ishmael, and the 12 princes that came out of him. Where is the conclusion of the story of Ishmael, and why was it unfinished? Was Ishmael really a bastard, or was there jealousy involved? If Ishmael was a bastard, Isaac was a greater bastard because he was born through incest; Abraham and Sarah were brother and sister (Genesis 20:12). This is in the Christian Bible and in the Torah! Muslims do not say this. Jealousy and hatred towards anyone will always make one degrade the one that is hated.

Having cited the historical shortcomings of the Christian Bibles in matters relevant to its own history and the great nation of Islam, it behooves us to give a brief account of the latter. When God brought Islam, the Muslims won remarkable victories, conquering the Byzantines as well as all other nations. As time went on and the Muslim dynasty flourished, the Muslims developed an urban culture for learning which surpassed that of all other nations. When the Christians forced the Spanish Muslims to accept Christianity, the Christians collected the works of the Muslim physicians and scholars and this work spread all over Europe and of course giving Christians the credit. But it was the Arab caliphs who had supported intercultural institutions like the university at Jundishahpur and the House of Wisdom in Baghdad. It was Arab medicine that had blossomed magnificently. It was the great physicians of the Islamic world who illuminated Europe in the Dark Ages with a well-elaborated science whose outlines are still familiar today.

The story of the rise of the Muslim empire is not unlike that of Nestorius. (See "The Lynching of Nestorius" in the ABS Table of Contents) When Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, 428-431, was forced into exile he and some of his people took the enlightenment of math and the sciences into Persia and even into China. Marco Polo discovered the ruins of the Church of the East erected in the eighth century A.D., long after the death of Nestorius.

In Service To God,
Ramazan M. M. Zuberi

(Christian Supplements by Robert E. Allen, Jr., President, The Aramaic Bible Society, Inc.)

* The real message of the life and teachings of Jesus, Muhammad and Nestorius can be likened to that of the Peshitta and the Qur'an. The Church of the East claims that every copy of the Peshitta ever made was certified by every Bishop to be a true and clean copy, the meaning of the word "Peshitta" itself. The Qur'an is likened unto it. The Peshitto or Peshitta of the West was changed, not so often as present day Christian Bibles but changed in ancient times. The Torah was destroyed with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and since has suffered a worse fate. There were only two such scrolls at the time. One was held by the priests, the other by the King. In those times families were charged with the memory of whole books and what was created has been re-written many times to suit the purpose of the writers as with the many versions of the Christian Bible.

* The Muslim view of the phrase, "He joined His Father in Heaven," is that Jesus never joined God, but is in the second heaven waiting until God sends him on his "second coming". Also, it should be pointed out that Muslim's do not praise even Muhammad's name although it means "the praised one".

River

Jesus Christ , a Jew for Allah

http://jews-for-allah.org/Prophet-Je...-for-Allah.htm



Jesus a Jew by race, was a Muslim by religion, A Muslim is some one who Submits Their Will to God. This Is What Jesus Did and Taught.

Regarding the Islamic teachings of Jesus:

Jesus called God "Alayho" in Aramaic.

Jesus taught to rinse before Praying as Muslims do {John 13:10}

Jesus bowed down in Submission on the Ground to God as Muslims do {Matthew 26:39}

Jesus said, all of You who Submit your will to God, are my true Brothers and Sisters (Mark 3:31-35) as Muslims do.

Jesus taught Salvation comes from Submitting our will to God and Faith as Muslims do.

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'" (Matthew 7:21-23)

Jesus taught that only God is All Knowing as Muslims do.
"But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels in
heaven, nor the Son [Prophet], but only the Father [Creator]." (Mark 13:32)

Jesus taught he is just a servant of God as Muslims are:
"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but
the will of Him who sent Me." [John 6:38]

Jesus said the word "Muslim" in Luke 6:40, and told others to be a Muslim:
Aramaic translated into Hebrew: "Ein talmeed na'leh 'al rabbo; shekken kal adam she'MUSHLAM yihyeh k'rabbo."



Taken from the Aramaic Bible society.

Translation in English: "No student can be above his teacher, but everyone that is a MUSLIM, can be as his teacher."

In addition to the Bible confirming Jesus was a Jew for Allah, the Holy Qur'an also clarifies that Jesus followed Allah:

"And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, worship me and my mother as gods in derogation of Allah'?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, Thou I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden." {Holy Quran 5:116}


In conclusion, Jesus Christ is a Jew for Allah.

Peace


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smugg

Everybody knows Jesus was a Hindu...

"That which we call the Hindu religion is really the eternal religion because it embraces all others."

-Sri Aurobindo

River

Well, Hinduism in its original form is islam or " Submission to the Will of G-d". islam varied across time and space, so the islam of Adam's time is very different than the Islam of Muhammad's time. However since, Jesus Christ ( arabic Isa Masih) lived only 500 years before Muhammad, the islam that Christ taught is a very close approximation of the Islam of Muhammad's time.

Many of the gods of various religions are Prophets or Messengers of Islam...i.e Brahma and Saraswita of Hinduism is the Mythological counterpart to Abraham and Sara. Noah's flood i.e Noah in arabic is Nu. Similarly you have Manu and the flood in Hinduism Islam formerly recognizes 125,000 Prophets and 315 Messengers...and many of the gods of other religions are Prophets of Islam. Christ is the son of god in Christianity but a Great Prophet / Messiah in Islam. Buddha is believed by some to be the character known as Dhul-kifl of the Quran. The mythological character Osiris and Hermes are based on the actual Quranic Prophet Idrees ( or Prophet Enoch of the Bible)

Nice...try... but all genuine Prophets preceding Muhammad were true Muslims respective to their time period.

smugg

What is so hard about differentiating between ideas that appeal to you and reality?

River

Reality appeals to me.

smugg

Sure, but that doesn't mean that what appeals to you is real. Don't you think everyone who believes their favorite religion is the only true one looks for ways to support that belief? Just because someone has applied a little creative interpretation to the Bible doesn't actually mean they're right.

For example, while I can appreciate your creativity equivocating Egyptian gods with Hebrew prophets, the fact is that the evidence is much stronger that it was the Egyptian mythology that predates the Hebrew.

I know, I know: you're heady with self-righteousness and everything, but maybe this isn't the correct forum to preach -- at least not by pasting other sites.

River

no, offense but the evolutionary approach to Religion, the fact that One religion branched of to very different religions is pretty much embedded in Islamic Theory. Its not that I am making things fit into an Islamic context...its actually the other way around. For example most adherents of religions look at religions as discrete religions...but the Quran espouses the fact that all religions preceding Islam were revealed in continuiity. I think this makes perfect sense. I mean different languages branched of from different language familes..and thus...i.e Indo-Aryan...and in terms of Darwin...you have the finches ....I think you understand my point.. That is why the Quran says Prophets ( 125,000 Prophet/315 Messengers) were sent to every nation in the world...thats why you see certain beliefs in smaller tribes around the world...like Pandora's box is based on Adam and Eve....Eskimos call Vital life force Ela.......Not that I have anything against Hinduism...but I cant see Hinduism as unifiying all the Peoples of the world ...due to the fact that your working with so many different texts from so many different time periods.....Islam is not really too far out...All the "suppressed" religious texts give more support to Islam i.e Dead Sea Scrolls, Gospel of Q, Gospel of Timothy, Aramaic Matthew.......and Islam doesnt teach anything that requires a huge stretch of the imagination.

You might say Egyptian mythology predate Hebrew Prophets...but this would be hard to prove...i.e how do you know that those characters were respected as gods by one religious group and as Prophets by another...for example not too long ago when Christ ascended to Heaven,, some religous people like the Gnostics believed Christ to be a Prophet, and so did the Unitarians/ Essene Nazarenes.....but another group led by Paul considered him a god......They both originated from the same time period. And then you have the whole debate Arius/ Athanasius and the whole nicene council. You can look into this if you want...but I believe Islam has a very sound theory on dynamics embedded in the Core.

smugg

As have other texts and men who claimed to be holy. The fact that Islam is the youngest religion (or at least has the youngest 'holy' text) of the religions you've mentioned so far makes it the most likely to have borrowed from the others.

Then I advise you look into a little thing called reason.

That's right, and it makes it incredibly unlikely that English (for example) is older than the languages it borrowed from. Is this concept starting to make sense yet?

I've understood it from the start. Your point is that since Islam is your favorite religion and therefore true, all other religions with similar messages are pale reflections of Islam.

Darwin, on the other hand, stated that the different species of finches in the Galapagos Islands were descended from a common (and much changed by now) ancestor. Your analogy might work if Darwin had claimed that the vegetarian tree finch was the only true finch and that all other species of finch, even those that have been around longer, were just almost-finches that are only approaching truth of the vegetarian tree finch.

But he didn't.

And he wouldn't have, because it is a silly thing to say.

Actually, the Quran says this because the author was writing about a universalist god of great benevolence. In his piety, he couldn't very well have a benevolent god that never approached other peoples, could he? He may have made this up or it may have been a common belief of the day.

People all over the world have similar beliefs because they are just that -- people. They have all developed a myth about the origin of the world, the origin of sex, etc. It's because they have all experienced these things and have all wondered about them.

So the mildest religion with the least spectacular miracles wins the day? The religious texts you mention only "support" Islam because a) they come from Islam's parent religions, and b) because you expect them to. I recommend reading The Messianic Legacy by Michael Baigent to see an argument that Islam is descended from a "southern" branch of Christianity. He has some interesting evidence to support the claim...

See, there's this entire branch of scientific inquiry called "archeology." This is the pursuit of historical knowledge through piecing together hard evidence -- first hand evidence when available. What archeologists have found (consistently and compellingly) is that Egyptian civilization (and Egyptian gods) were around long before the Hebrews distinguished themselves from their Sumerian parent-culture and moved into modern-day Palestine.

But what's inquiry and logic in the face of faith?

Oh yeah, it's science.

River

-smugg

I do not want to take too much of your time but theres a really good scholarly website that gives good reasons to why the Quran could not have been borrowed from earlier texts.

http://www.islamic-awareness.org/

This site is excellent and addresses almost every issue you can think of. Also, the only reason Islam is my favorite religion is becaused I've studied other religions and all the questions that other religions leave hanging are answered well by Islam in its immense literature.

I have good reason to believe that the Quran was not copied

1) The Quran "cleverly" bypassed all the other errors found in the Bible. 6 "eras" rather than 7 days. Noah's flood as regional not "Universal". Life originating from water...the gender of ants...space travel...interesting tidbits of info that are accurate.

2) Mathematical structure is unique i.e based on #19. The arabic word for month found 12 times. arabic word for day 365 times. the number of time the word "adam" in quran 25 times. The number of times "jesus" is in the quran 25 times. the word Jesus is derived from the aramaic "Yehesa". "Yehesa" translates to "the Last Adam"...or "Son of Adam".

3) written in Classical Arabic and is believed unanimously by all scholars to be better in quality than the whole of the arabic language.

4) Islam never claimed to be a new religion. It is a restoration of the original truth. All lost scriptures that have been "found" in recent decades all confirm Quranic themes. History and Science are both on the side of Islam, apparently.

.....I am not saying that Muslims are better than nonmuslims. Dont get me wrong....but I believe Islam is the most sensible religion.