Nisa 4:156-159 refutes Jewish Arguments Against the Messiahship of Jesus

In the last blog, we worked out that in Nisa

4:157-159, Muhammad discusses Jesus' claim to be the Messiah with the Jews. The text shows that the Jews fundamentally questioned this claim in three areas: i) Jesus is not the Messiah because he was conceived out of wedlock and his father does not stem from king David's line. ii) Jesus is not the Messiah because the Jews killed and crucified him and were thus able to prove that Jesus, as a sorcerer, blasphemer and deceiver of the people, suffered the death of a man cursed by God. iii) Jesus is not the Messiah, because even after his death he was not justified by God, but must serve his just punishment in hell for eternity.

We are now interested in how the Qur'an responds to this vehement criticism: It is clear from the overall structure of Nisa 4:150-159 that the intention in the present passage is to win Jews to believe in Jesus as God's messenger. How this happens in detail is now to be discussed:

i) The first argument of the Jews against Jesus' messianicity is not refuted in the Qur'an with explicit logical arguments. In other places, the virgin birth of Jesus is defended in detail (Al-i İmran 3:45-49 and Meryem 19:16-21), but not here. In the present context, the Qur'an contents itself with an indirect affirmation of the validity of the virgin birth by disparagingly classifying the Jewish accusations against Mary as 'grave false charge' and condemning the state of the accusers as those that 'rejected faith' (see Nisa 4:156). Although no arguments are presented in defense, it is clear from the context that the Qur'an does not endorse this attack on Jesus' messianicity, and rather defends the virgin birth as presented in the Gospel and the Qur'an. Rejecting the Jewish grave false charges actually means: Mary did not commit adultery and Jesus is not a bastard! As the genealogies in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 show, the acceptance of a virgin birth is compatible with the Messiah condition of Jesus' descent from King David. The Jews' assertion that Jesus could not be the Messiah because of his illegitimate birth is therefore clearly rejected by the Qur'an.

ii) The second argument of the Jews against Jesus' messianicity is commented on in more detail in the Qur'an:

‘and their boast, "Behold, we have slain the Christ Jesus, son of Mary, [who claimed to be] an apostle of God!" However, they did not slay him, and neither did they crucify him, but it only seemed to them [as if it had been] so; and, verily, those who hold conflicting views thereon are indeed confused, having no [real] knowledge thereof, and following mere conjecture. For, of a certainty, they did not slay him:’ (Nisa 4:157; Muhammad Asad)

The Qur'an also contradicts the Jews very clearly on this point: no, they 'did not slay' Jesus and 'neither did they crucify him'! Because the main aim of the Jewish boast is a negative theological statement about Jesus' claim to be the Messiah - Jesus cannot be the Messiah because he was convicted by the law as an insurrectionist, back-stabber and blasphemer who deserved the death penalty - the clear rejection of this view is a further defence of Jesus' Messiahship. The expression 'for a certainty, they did not slay him' could also mean 'not refuted in a rational sense'1. The Jews could not refute the Messianity of Jesus in a rational sense with their Talmudic refutation of the Gospel. The Jews' criticism of Jesus' claim to Messiahship suffers from the following serious shortcomings: misperception of the facts, false assumptions, argument is not based on knowledge, and they are confused. All these fundamental weaknesses lead to the Jews' false criticism of Jesus. It will have to be clarified whether the substitution theory (someone else died in Jesus place) does justice to the Qur'anic answer as a valid correction to the Jewish criticism of Jesus' Messianity.

iii) Finally, the Qur'anic correction of the Jewish criticism culminates with: 'Nay [to the contrary!!! (own translation)], Allâh exalted him with all honour to His presence [and he is in the heavens (Muhammad Musin Khan)]. And Allâh is All-Mighty, All-Wise.' (Nisa 4:158; Abdul Mannan Omar). As a counter-argument ("no, on the contrary") to the Jews' attack on Jesus' Messianity, the Qur'an presents Jesus' exaltation to God: it remains to be analysed to what extent such exaltation is connected with Jesus' Messianity. Muslim interpreters are not in agreement as to whether the word 'exalt' (r-f-a) should be understood more as a geographical designation2 or as an 'honourable position'3 . From the meaning of the word, both the geographical and the honourable interpretation can be defended.4 Representatives of the substitution theory emphasise the geographical meaning: Jesus was rescued from the hands of the Jews to another geographical location. Exegetes who question the substitution theory tend to emphasise the 'poistion of honour' meaning of r-f-a - that is Jesus was 'raised to a place of honour". Various considerations suggest that in the present case the meaning of 'elevate' is more likely to express a place of honour - with possibly an additional, less significant, geographical component:

(1) the verse does not speak of a geographical place where Jesus was exalted to - for example, to heaven. Rather, it speaks of his exaltation to Allah. Allah cannot be localised in a specific geographical place, rather He is present in all places at all times. 'Ascending to Allah is one thing, ascending to heaven is another. To ascend to Allah is to attain a high rank in His eyes. It is also said about Idrîs (as): "We have raised him to an exalted place"[Meryem 19:56-57].”5

(2) As we already know from the discussion of Al-i Imran 3:55-59, 'Jesus' exaltation to God' is about a place of honour with God as the first person to enter into the second creation and there taking on a position that can be compared to Adam's kahlifa of God position.

(3) In the context of a defence of Jesus' Messiahship - and that is what the context is about - the position of honour interpretation makes much more sense. While the Jews declare Jesus to be cursed by God with the slogan 'we have slain the Christ', the Qur'an counters this derogatory insult with God's honouring him as the firstborn of the second creation. No, Jesus was not cursed by God, but Allah honoured him with a special place. A purely geographical meaning of "elevate" in the sense of the theory of substitution fails to relate to the question of Jesus' Messiahship. How does a physical rescue from the hands of the Jews prove Jesus' claim to Messiahship?

(4) In his first sermon6 after Jesus was recalled from earth, Peter explains how being 'exalted to God' confirms Jesus' Messiahship:

‘… Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him ... This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross .… God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.”’ “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.' (Acts 2:23-24; 32-36).

In his argument in favour of the Messiahship of Jesus, Peter refers to Psalm 110:1, where David says: 'The Lord [better: LORD, says to my lord:

“Sit at my right hand" ...'. In Jewish interpretation, this psalm was associated with the Messiah.7 In the verse quoted, the LORD, that is God, invites a human called 'Lord' of David - i.e. the Messiah - to sit at God's right hand, a place of extreme honour. Jesus already makes use of this Messianic interpretation of Psalm 110 and asks the following question:

‘Why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the son of David? David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared: “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.”’ David himself calls him ‘Lord.’ How then can he be his son?” The large crowd listened to him with delight.’ (Mark 12: 35-37).

Jesus her highlights the tension between the two descriptions of the Messiah as 'son of David' and the more honorouble 'lord of David'. According to one Jewish understanding, God invites the lord of David, i.e. the Messiah: 'sit at my right hand ...', or in other words, David prophesies that God will exalt the Messiah to His right hand - certainly an extraordinary position of honour; perhaps also with a subordinate geographical component: to heaven. Peter now argues that since Jesus has been elevated by God to this position of honour - Peter is a witness to this (Acts 1:9-14) - David's prophecy about the Messiah has been fulfilled with Jesus. Whereas Jesus' crucifixion branded him in Jewish opinion as someone cursed by God, thus certainly not the Messiah, the son of David; with his exaltation, Allah has distinguished and confirmed Jesus as the 'Lord of David', i.e. as the Messiah. Whereas the Jews planned to question Jesus' claim to Messiahship by having him killed, God overruled their plans by exalting Jesus subsequently to his death to the position of the Messiah at God's right hand. Peter thus confidently concludes: 'Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord [the Lord of David is also the Lord of the Jewish people] and Christ [i.e. Messiah]' (according to Peter in Acts 2:36).

Based on the above considerations, it makes a lot of sense to assume that Muhammad needs the same argument from Psalm 110:1, as Peter, to refute the Jews' attack on Jesus' Messiahship: 'Nay [you could not prove that Jesus is one accursed by God, but not the Messiah], [to the contrary,], Allâh exalted him with all honour to His presence [to the highest possible place of honour reserved for the lord of David, that is the Messiah as described in Psalm 110]]. And Allâh is All-Mighty, All-Wise.' (Nisa 4:158; Abdul Mannan Omar). Even if Muhammad had not been familiar with this background - but I can hardly imagine it - his Jewish interlocutors would still have automatically made the connection to Psalm 110 and understood Muhammad's words in the sense of Peter's interpretation. (5) In context, Nisa 4:158 makes a lot of sense within the logic used by Peter: Because the Messiahship of Jesus has been so clearly proven by his exaltation to Allah, even the Jewish deniers of his claim to Messiahship must now accept him as Messiah: 'Yet there is not one of the followers of earlier revelation who does not, at the moment of his death, grasp the truth about Jesus; and on the Day of Resurrection he [himself] shall bear witness to the truth against them (Nisa 4:159, Muhammad Asad).

With the help of this interpretation, we can now also grasp how the Qur'an refutes the third Jewish objection to Jesus' messianic claim: Jesus has not been branded as cursed by God for all eternity. He will not suffer in hell for good, to the contrary Allah elevated him to the highest honours and thus confirmed him as the Messiah beyond all doubts.

We note that the main issue in the dispute between the Jews and Muhammad in Nisa 4:157-159 is the Messiahship of Jesus. The Jews question this in three areas known from the Talmud: Jesus' extraordinary birth, Jesus' departure from earth and Jesus' condition after his departure. The Qur'an clearly rejects all three objections and decisively argues in favour of Jesus' claim to Messiahship on the basis of his exaltation to God. The Jewish view of Jesus' birth and their idea that Jesus languished eternally in hell are simply factually incorrect. Jesus' death is also misinterpreted by the Jews: instead of reading it as the certain proof of Jesus' accursedness from God, one should look at it in the light of God's later exaltation of Jesus to the highest possible position reserved for the Messiah only. God irreversibly overruled the Jewish attempt to discredit Jesus as the Messiah by exalting him into His presence. Nisa 4:157-159 is a committed defence of Jesus as the Messiah expected by the Jews and a clear rejection of the Talmudic interpretation of Jesus' departure from the earth.

---

قَتَلْتُ كَذَا عِلْمًا (for a certainty, they did not slay something): 1

Falan şeyi ilim açısından öldürdüm/onu kesin bildim (Râgıb el-İsfehânî‘nin el-Müfredât fî Garîbi‘l Kur‘ân eserinde; K-t-l - ق ت ل  in https://www.kuranmeali.com/Aciklama.php?id=1157&islem=mufredat (visited: 10/12/2022)).

2 ‘… “ref” kelimesinin lügat mânâsı, madden ve manen yükseltmek, yüceltmek yukarı çıkarmak ve koymaktır. Kur’ân’da da aynı mânâlarda kullanılmıştır. Kullanımlar incelendiğinde bu kelimenin müştaklarının yirmi dokuz yerde, Âl-i İmrân 55. ve Nisâ 157. âyetleri ile beraber on altı yerde maddi mânâda (İlgili âyetler için bk. Bakara, 2/63,93,127; Âl-i İmrân, 3/55; Nisâ, 4/154,158; Yûsuf, 12/100; Ra’d, 13/2; Naziât, 79/28; Rahman, 55/7; Hucurât, 49/2; Ğaşiye, 88/13,18; Nûr, 24/36; Tûr, 52/5; Vâkıa, 56/34); sekiz yerde manevi mânâda (İlgili âyetler için bk. Bakara 2/253; A‘râf, 7/176; Meryem, 19/57; En’âm, 6/83; Yûsuf, 12/76; Mücâdele, 58/11; Fâtır, 35/10; Abese, 80/14), beş yerde de her iki mânâda kullanılmak üzere geçtiği görülür (İlgili âyetler için bk. En’âm, 6/165; Ğafir, 40/15; Zuhruf, 43/32; Vâkıa, 56/3; İnşirâh, 94/4). Âl-i İmrân 55. âyette geçen ref‘ terimi fiziki anlamda (beden ve ruh ile) asıl, manevî (derece ve kadrini yükseltme) anlamında ise mecaz olarak kullanılmıştır.’ Süleyman Aydın, 'Kur’ân Lügatı İlmi Açısından Hz. Îsâ’nın (a.s.) Ref’i ve Nüzûlü', pp. 73-74. in YALOVA SOSYAL BİLİMLER DERGİSİ, Yıl 5, Sayı 9, pp. 53-112, https://dergipark.org.tr/en/download/article-file/801176 (visited, 12/08/2022).

3 ‘Şurası açıktır ki, ölümden sonra olan ‘ref’ (yükseltme), cesedin yükseltilmesi değil, derece bakımından yükseltilmedir. Özellikle bu hükmün hemen arkasından, Allah'ın "inkar edenlerden seni tertemiz ayıracağını" (Al-i İmran, 56) ayeti gelmektedir. Bu da, meselenin manevi bir şeref ve yüceltme işi olduğunu gösterir.’ (Mahmut Şeltut, 'İsa’nın Refi', p. 516, aus er-Risale Cilt: 10. Nu.: 462, pp. 515-517 translated by Doç. Dr. E. Ruhi FIGLALI). Süleyman Ateş agrees with this exposition: ‘O halde âyetin anlamı, İbn Cureyc’in dediği gibi, Allah’ın, Îsâ’nın ruhunu yüceltmesi, şânını yükseltmesi, katında O’na değer vermesi demektir. … Yükseltilen onun ma‘nevî derecesi, Allah’ın katına çıkan ruhudur.’ (Süleyman Ateş, HZ. ÎSÂ’NIN YÜKSELTİLMESİ VE GÖKTEN İNECEĞİ SORUNU, https://www.suleyman-ates.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=36 (visited, 11/08/2022)

اللّهُ إِلَيْهِ رَفَعَهُبَلْ : 4

Hayır, Allah onu (Îsâ’yı) kendisine yükseltti (4/Nisâ 159). Bu âyet, Hz. İsa’nın

[bedenen] göğe yükseldiği anlamına gelebildiği gibi, şeref bakımından yükseldiği anlamına da gelebilir. (Râgıb el-İsfehânî'nin el-Müfredât fî Garîbi'l Kur'ân eserinde; R-f-a - ر ف ع in https://www.kuranmeali.com/Aciklama.php?id=570&islem=mufredat&kok=%D8%B1%20%D9%81%20%D8%B9 (visited: 05/01/2024)).

5 See Süleyman Ateş, 'HZ. ÎSÂ’NIN YÜKSELTİLMESİ VE GÖKTEN İNECEĞİ SORUNU', https://www.suleyman-ates.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=36 (visited, 11/08/2022).

6 The first disciples repeat this argument many times in their interactions with Jews (see Acts 2:22-36; 3:13-15; 4:8-12; 5:30-31; 7:52+56).

7 Today, some Jewish representatives claim that Psalm 110 is not messianic at all (e.g. Rabbi T. Singer (see https://outreachjudaism.org/psalm110/ (visited 09/03/2023). Armstrong in his response to Rabbi Singer's article quotes various Jewish sources that prove the messianicity of Psalm 110. E.g. the following Midrash on Psalm 110: ‘R. Yudan said in the name of R. Hama: In the time-to-come, when the Holy One, blessed be He, seats the lord Messiah at His right hand, as is said The Lord saith unto my lord: “Sit thou at My right hand” (Ps. 110:1), and seats Abraham at His left, Abraham’s face will pale, and he will say to the Lord: “My son’s son sits at the right, and I at the left!” Thereupon the Holy One, blessed be He, will comfort Abraham, saying: “Thy son’s son is at My right,but I, in a manner of speaking, am at thy right”: The Lord [is] at thy right hand (Ps. 110:5). (Midrash on Psalms, translated by William G. Braude, Yale University Press Edition cited by Dave Armstrong, in Psalm 110: Jewish Commentators Who Regard it as Messianic, Patheos April 18, 2017, in https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2017/04/psalm-110-jewish-commentators-who-regard-it-as-messianic.html (visited 09/03/2023). For more examples, see Armstrong's article cited above.