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[1][1]  See also, John 4:34, 5:30, 7:16 & 28, 11:42, 13:16, 14:24

[2][2] Jesus here rejects being called ‘perfectly good’, because perfection belongs only to God.  He was ‘good’, but, being the “Son of man”(Mat. 19:29)—as he liked to call himself—he was capable of error.

[3][3] It should be noted that, in spite of the Qur’aanic warnings and other statements of Prophet Muhammad himself, some Muslims have elevated him to semi-divine status by directing their prayers to or through him.

[4][4] The Biblical story of Jesus turning water into wine (John 2:1-10) is conspicuously absent from the Qur’aan.

[5][5] See also, Hosea 1:10, of the King James Version.

[6][6] In the Revised Standard Version, it states: “And I will make him the first-born, the highest of the kings of the earth.” See also Jeremiah 31:9, “...for I am a father to Israel and Ephraim is my first-born.”

[7][7] See also, Job 2:1 and 38:4-7.  Other references to sons of God can also be found in Genesis 6:2, Deuteronomy 14:1 and Hosea 1:10.

[8][8]  Luke 3:38.

[9][9] The term “begotten” in Old English meant ‘to be fathered by’ and it was used to distinguish between Jesus, who was supposed to be the literal son of God, from the figurative use of the term ‘son’ for God’s “created sons”.

[10][10] In the New Testament Book of Acts, there are several outlines of speeches of the early disciples of Jesus, speeches which date from the year 33 CE, almost forty years before the Four Gospels were written.  In one of these discourses, Jesus is referred to specifically as andra apo tou theou: “a man from God.” (Acts 2:22).  Not once do these early confessions of faith use the expression wios tou theou: “Son of God”, but they do speak several times of Jesus as God’s servant and prophet (Acts 3:13, 22, 23, 26).  The significance of these speeches is that they accurately reflect the original belief and terminology of the disciples, before the belief and terminology were evolved under the influence of Roman religion and Greek philosophy.  They reflect a tradition which is older than that used by the Four Gospels, in which Jesus is not invested with godship or divine sonship. (Bible Studies From a Muslim Perspective, p. 12).

[11][11] See Acts 14:11-13. In the city of Lystra (Turkey), Paul and Barnabas preached, and the pagan peoples claimed that they were gods incarnate.  They called Barnabas the Roman god Zeus, and Paul the Roman god Hermes.

[12][12]  Bible Studies from a Muslim Perspective, p. 15.

[13][13]  Matthew 5:9.

[14][14]  Journal of Theological Studies, vol. 39 and Theology, vol. 91, no. 741.

[15][15] Jesus is quoting Psalms 82:6 “I have said, ‘Ye are gods: and all of you are the children of the Most High.’ ”

[16][16]  John 10:34.

[17][17]  See also John 17:11.

[18][18] See also, Matthew 2:8.

[19][19] See also Matthew 28:9, “And behold, Jesus met them and said, ‘Hail!’ And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him.”

[20][20] See, for example, I Samuel 25:23, “When Abigail saw David, she made haste, and alighted from the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed to the ground.”

[21][21]  Gospel Light, (1936 ed.), p. 353, quoted in Jesus, p. 21.

[22][22] The Gospel of John differs so radically from the other three Gospels (the Synoptic Gospels) that its authenticity is in doubt.  For example:

[23][23]  The Five Gospels, p. 10.

[24][24]  Its plural is logoi and it also means “reason” or “plan”.

[25][25] The concept defined by the term logos is also found in Indian, Egyptian, and Persian philosophical and theological systems.  (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 7, p. 440).

[26][26] Stoics were philosophers who followed the teacings of the thinker Zeno of Citicum (4th-3rd century BC).

[27][27] They called the logos providence, nature, god, and the soul of the universe.

[28][28] According to Philo and the Middle Platonists, philosophers who interpreted in religious terms the teachings of the 4th-century-BC Greek master philosopher Plato, the logos was both immanent in the world and at the same time the transcendent divine mind. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 7, p. 440).

[29][29] The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 386.

[30][30] Ibid., vol. 7, p. 440.

[31][31]  Christ in Islam, pp.40-1.

[32][32] This is according to the King James Version and the Authorized Version.  In the Revised Standard Version, the translation of this verse is rendered, “And the Lord said to Moses, ‘See, I make you as God to Pharaoh; and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.”

[33][33] The Myth-maker, p. 172.

[34][34] Seventy years later a Christian Church was reconstituted in Jerusalem, after the city had been devastated by the Romans for a second time and rebuilt as a Gentile city called Aelia Capitolina.  This new Christian Church had no continuity with the early ‘Jerusalem Church’ led by James.  Its members were Gentiles, as Eusebius testifies, and its doctrines were those of Pauline Christianity. (Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History, III. v. 2-3, quoted in The Myth-maker, p. 174).

[35][35]  The Myth-maker, p. 175.

[36][36]  The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 4, p. 344.

[37][37]  Ibid., vol. 4, p. 344.

[38][38]  Also known as Dynamic or Adoptionist Monarchianism.

[39][39]  The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 8, p. 244.

[40][40]  The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 9, p. 208.

[41][41]  Ibid., vol. 1, pp. 556-7.

[42][42]  The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 1, pp. 549-50.

[43][43]  The Myth of God Incarnate, p. ix.

[44][44]  The Metaphor of God Incarnate, pp. 27-8.

[45][45]  Jesus and the Living Past, p. 39.

[46][46]  The Origin of  Christology, p. 136.

[47][47]  Christology in the Making, p. 60.

[48][48]  The Incarnation, p. 74.

[49][49]  The Economist, April 1, 1989, vol. 311, no. 7596, p. 19.

[50][50]  King James Version and The Authorized Version.

[51][51]  The Purpose of Creation, pp. 42-3.

[52][52] Literally “we”, known as the “royal we” or the “majestic we”, refers to Allaah.

[53][53] Called Saint Mary, she became an object of veneration in the Christian Church since the apostolic age.  She was given the title theotokos, meaning “God-bearer” or “mother of God” in the 3rd or 4th century.  Popular devotion to Mary—in the form of feasts, devotional services, and the rosary—has played a tremendously important role in the lives of Roman Catholics and the Orthodox. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 7. pp. 897-8 and vol. 16, pp. 278-9).

[54][54] The angels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael were made saints and the religious celebration known as Michaelmas (called, “the Feast of St. Michael and All Saints” by the Anglicans) was dedicated to them on the 29th of September by the Western churches, and 8th of November by the Eastern Orthodox Church. The cult of St. Michael began in the Eastern Church in the 4th century CE. Because of St. Michael’s traditional position as leader of the heavenly armies, veneration of all angels was eventually incorporated into his cult. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 8, p. 95).  He became the patron saint of soldiers.

[55][55]  The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 509.

[56][56]  The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 11, p. 146.

[57][57]  Ibid., vol. 3, p. 417.

[58][58]  Sunan Abu Dawud, vol. 1, p. 387, no. 1474.

[59][59] The Iconoclastic Controversy was a dispute over the  use of religious images (icons) in the Byzantine Empire during the 8th and 9th centuries. The Iconoclasts (those who rejected images) objected to icon worship for several reasons, including the Old Testament prohibition against images in the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:4) and the possibility of idolatry. The defenders of icon worship insisted on the symbolic nature of images and on the dignity of created matter.

            In the early church, the making and veneration of portraits of Christ and the saints were consistently opposed. The use of icons, nevertheless, steadily gained in popularity, especially in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire. Toward the end of the 6th century CE and in the 7th, icons became the object of an officially encouraged cult, often implying a superstitious belief in their animation. Opposition to such practices became particularly strong in Asia Minor. In 726, the Byzantine emperor Leo III took a public stand against icons and by 730 their use was officially prohibited. This led to the persecution of icon worshippers that reached great severity in the reign of Leo’s successor, Constantine V (741-775 CE).

            In 787, however, the empress Irene convoked the seventh ecumenical council at Nicaea, at which Iconoclasm was condemned and the use of images was reestablished. The Iconoclasts regained power in 814 after Leo V’s accession, and the use of icons was again forbidden at a council (815 CE). The second Iconoclast period ended with the death of the emperor Theophilus in 842. In 843 his widow finally restored icon veneration, an event still celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox Church as the Feast of Orthodoxy. (The New Encyclopaedia Britannica, vol. 6, p. 237)

[60][60] “Ahmad” like “Muhammad” is a derivative from the Arabic root hamd meaning “praise; thanks”.  Prophet Muhammad (e) was also known by this name.

[61][61] The Greek word paraclete is translated as “Comforter” in the King James Version, and as “Advocate” and “Helper” in other translations.  Parakletos means one who pleads the cause of another, one who counsels or advises another from deep concern for the other’s welfare. (Beacon Bible Commentary, vol. 7, p. 168).

[62][62] See John 14:26, “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things...”  However, in 1st John 4:1, the term “Spirit” is used to refer to a prophet, “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.”

[63][63] In English, “another” may mean “one more of the same kind” or “one more of a different kind.” The Greek text of the New Testament uses the word allon, which is the masculine accusative form of allos: “another of the same kind”.  The Greek word for “another of a different kind” is heteros, but the New Testament does not use this word in John 14:16. (Jesus, a Prophet of Islam, pp. 15-6).

[64][64] John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15); Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41); John’s father, Zacharias, was also filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke:1:67).

[65][65] The Holy Spirit was on Simeon (Luke 2:26) and it descended in the shape of a dove on Jesus (Luke 3:22).

[66][66] Jesus, A Prophet of Islam, p. 13.

[67][67] The brethren of the Jews—who are themselves descendants of Abraham’s son Isaac—are the Arabs, descendants of Isaac’s brother Ishmael.

[68][68] The Qur’aan literally means “the recital”.  Prophet Muhammad (e) taught that the Qur’aan was the words of God. His own explanations and instructions are referred to as hadeeth.

[69][69] Each of the 114 chapters of the Qur’aan begins with the prayer: “In the name of Allaah, the Beneficient, the Most Merciful,” except one, chapter 9.

[70][70] Ishmael’s descendants came to be known as Arabs, a term which, in Hebrew, meant those who inhabited the ‘arabah or desert (Dictionary of the Bible, p. 47). The most prominently mentioned of Ishmael’s twelve sons is Qaydar (Kedar in Hebrew). In some Bible verses Qaydar is synonymous with Arabs in general (Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:21; Isaiah 60:7; Song of Solomon 1:5).

[71][71]   Jesus, A Prophet of Islam, p. 11.