Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Divine revelations, through which medium?

In answer to the video "Muhammad and Merkabah Mysticism"

The common understanding between the Bible and the Quran as regards to a prophet is that it is someone chosen to be spoken to by God, receiving His spirit, becoming His spokesman, conveying teachings of holiness, scholarship and closeness to God. A prophet therefore in Jewish belief doesnt have to be explicitly labelled "prophet" for him to fit the function, in the same way as, contrary to Christian belief, the promised messianic figure to come at the end of times is never labelled "the messiah". Both have to fit a certain description to qualify, and for a prophet, he has to be first of all cleared from what constitutes the criteria of a false prophet Deut13,18 and then he has to have some type of communication with the divine, through the ruach hakodesh. More on that point later.

Now the HB does not grade the prophets according to their revelational experience, ie there are no half-prophets and minor prophets. It is the Talmudic scholars that discriminate between these personalities based on the manner in which God communicated with them. For example Moses is considered the most superior -and Jews a required to acknowledge that superiority in their creed- because God spoke directly with him. All others are less in status because divine communication was in a less direct manner, in a "blurry" fashion, through visions (in sleep or awake). And the most distant mode of divine communication is believed to be either through the ruach hakodesh/ which literally translates to "spirit of holiness" or through angels. Those persons arent considered prophets anymore, but simply holy individuals with a faint level of divine inspiration.

With these principles in mind, Talmudic scholars are nevertheless in disagreement whether to consider Daniel, one with whom God communicated through angels and visions, a prophet or not.

The HB on the other hand, as stated in introduction discards these discriminatory criteria at once when it states, concerning all prophets, including since the time of their exodus with Moses whom they regard as the chief of all prophets
Hosea12:10"I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them".  
All of them are true prophets, no mention of grades despite the different visions they received. The Quran addresses this discriminatory criteria they make in many places.

The Talmud speaks of hundreds of thousands, even millions of other prophets without naming them all and whose stories are omitted from the Tanakh because of the limited impact of their mission as compared to those chosen to be included in it. In the Tanakh itself, an allusion is often made of "prophets" without naming them, living and performing, alongside other prominent prophets.

The Israelites, from their corrupt leaders and doctors of Law down to the populace are known for having pursued and persecuted, rejected, mocked, slandered, imprisoned, physically assaulted or even killed the prophets sent to them and telling them to adhere to their own books meaning there could have been many more by their own standards. 

In the NT, Jesus and others use very harsh words too when denouncing their rejection and killing of prophets Matt23:30-37,Mk12:1-12,Lk7:28,1Thess2:15,Acts7. 

The killing of their prophets, as stated in the Quran was done "unjustly" ie knowingly and intentionally - not by mistake, ignorance or misunderstanding 2:87,3:21,181,183,5:70,33:69.

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