Hmm. Well, I don't personally mean to annoy any Muslim here, but ask this question to try to better understand your beliefs so we can have greater tolerance between one another. I wanted to ask a question of my own, because I wanted to frame it in a respectful way.
At the moment, I my understanding of the Islamic faith is that it does believe that Jesus was a prophet, the human son of Joseph and Mary.
My question is regarding a word we use "Christ". According to Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, page 672 from the original Koine Greek manuscripts of the Bible it means "Annointed". In the Bible, it is used w/ the prophet Moses, as well as other Kings of Israel. They were annointed. Moses, was the "Christ" or "annointed" one of God, the mericful at that time.
Is this something that you would agree with? In other words, given that definition, would you be able to say that yes, in that sense, Jesus was a Christ since you already believe him to be one of the prophets?
2006-12-09 01:21:23 · 4 answers · asked by raVar 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Yes we believe he is one of the prophets,and an extremely important one .however, we don't accept the belief that Jesus was the son of God (literally or metaphorically), although we do believe he is the son of Mary (in Arabic, "Maryam").we further believe that at the time of the Crucifixion, another man was substituted for Jesus and made to look like him. Jesus was then raised up, "body and soul" by God into heaven.
This is probably the most significant point of difference between Christians and Muslims. Some Christian theologians and clergy believe that Christians err by placing too much emphasis on Jesus and elevating him to God's level, but that's an argument for another time and place.
2006-12-09 01:36:11 · answer #1 · answered by Lucifer 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Christ in Greek "khirstos" = Hebrew "mashach" meaning anointed one.
Anointing meant a sign of favor. The process includes greasing the head with oil.
In the bible, the term "khri-stos" is used more than 40 times as a title of anointed priests, kings, AND PROPHETS. For example, Aaron, the high priest, was "the anointed one" (aka Christ or khristos). Also, the bible states: "Elisha...you should ANOINT AS PROPHET in place of you" 1Kings 19:16 All prophets, priests or kings are "chosen", "anointed".
If Christ (khristos) means to anoint and Moses was anointed then why don't Christians call Moses "Moses Christ"?
Yes, Jesus was an anointed one, messiah, as were the prophets that came before him. However, it was Christians who decided to place the TITLE "Christ" on the name Jesus to distinguish him as THEIR chosen one and seperate them from the messiah the non-christian Jews awaited. The word still means anointed and there is no arguing he is anointed or chosen as all other prophets.
We can play with semantics all we want...fact remains all prophets are anointed (aka khristos/masach) and that has nothing to do with being the son of god or god it just goes to show that he isn't the son of god or god because how can you "show a sign of favor" and anoint a god? Why should he anoint or choose himself if he himself is god?
2006-12-09 02:36:03 · answer #2 · answered by Sugar 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe Jesus is the messenger of God and nothing can change my mind. Yes we do believe that he is the Mesiah and its mentioned in Quran too. And thank you for your thought about being tolerant to each other. We need it.
2006-12-09 01:27:38 · answer #3 · answered by Zifikos 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
thanks for considering our feelings unlike other people here....
peace...........
2006-12-09 06:27:01 · answer #4 · answered by P.Y.T. 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋