On Mon, 3 Jan 2000 09:31:35 -0500 "Harvey Newstrom"
<newstrom@newstaffinc.com> writes:
> <ronkean@juno.com> wrote on Monday, January 03, 2000 2:55 am,
>
> Sorry, but most of the books of the New Testament were letters
> written by Paul, who never met Christ. The Gospel of Luke, and its
sequel, The Acts of the Apostles were also written long after Jesus
died, as was The
> Revelation (Apocalypse) of John. Only three of the Gospels even claim
to have
> any association with Apostles of Christ, and the best evidence is that
> they were oral traditions written down 50-150 years afterward.
Yes, Paul converted to Christianity a couple of years after Christ was
killed, after he had been dispatched to Damascus to put down a Christian
community which he subsequently joined, but it might be fair to say that
he was a contemporary of Jesus, was closely associated with the some of
the earliest Christians, and was able to recount the life and teachings
of Jesus.
>
> > The Jews consider Jesus to have been a Rabbi (religious teacher),
>
> I would like to see some evidence of this.
I can't provide a specific quotation from a Jewish authority, but it is
not surprising to me that he could be called a Rabbi, since he was a Jew
who instructed Jews on religious matters, and had many followers, which
is pretty much the definition of a Rabbi. A controversial Rabbi, to be
sure.
>
> > and Islam lists Jesus as a prophet, one of many prophets who came
> before> Mohammed,> > the Seal of the Prophets (the last prophet).
>
> Mohammed was born around 570AD, and died around 632AD. The writings
> attributed to him occurred after that date, over 600 years after
> Christ.
>
> --
> Harvey Newstrom
Even though Mohammed lived centuries after Jesus, it would not preclude
Jesus being recognized by Muslims as a prophet. The holy building called
the Kabaa, which looks like a black cube, located in the center of the
religious compound at Mecca, was built by Abraham (according to legend),
so that suggests that Islam reveres Abraham, who long pre-dates Jesus,
and who is part of the Jewish tradition. The Muslims call Jews and
Christians 'People of the Book', meaning that Jews and Christians adhere
to the holy scriptures which pre-date the Koran, and Muslims allow that
Jews and Christians worship the one true God. That suggests that Muslims
respect the scriptures of the Christians and the Jews, just as Christians
respect at least some of the scriptures of the Jews. I don't have a copy
of the Koran, much less one with an index, so I can't easily look up
whether any mention Jesus actually appears in the Koran.
Ron Kean
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