Jesus
Jesus referred to as Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Christ, was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the central figure of Christianity, is described as the most influential person in history. Most Christians believe he is the incarnation of God the Son and the awaited Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament. All modern scholars of antiquity agree that Jesus existed although the quest for the historical Jesus has produced little agreement on the historical reliability of the Gospels and on how the Jesus portrayed in the Bible reflects the historical Jesus. Jesus was a Galilean Jew, baptized by John the Baptist and began his own ministry, he preached orally and was referred to as "rabbi". Jesus debated with fellow Jews on how to best follow God, engaged in healings, taught in parables and gathered followers, he was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, turned over to the Roman government, crucified on the order of Pontius Pilate, the Roman prefect. After his death, his followers believed he rose from the dead, the community they formed became the early Church.
The birth of Jesus is celebrated annually on December 25th as Christmas. His crucifixion is honored on his resurrection on Easter; the used calendar era "AD", from the Latin anno Domini, the equivalent alternative "CE", are based on the approximate birthdate of Jesus. Christian doctrines include the beliefs that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, was born of a virgin named Mary, performed miracles, founded the Christian Church, died by crucifixion as a sacrifice to achieve atonement for sin, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, from where he will return. Most Christians believe; the Nicene Creed asserts that Jesus will judge the living and the dead either before or after their bodily resurrection, an event tied to the Second Coming of Jesus in Christian eschatology. The great majority of Christians worship Jesus as the incarnation of God the Son, the second of three persons of the Trinity. A minority of Christian denominations reject Trinitarianism, wholly or as non-scriptural. Jesus figures in non-Christian religions and new religious movements.
In Islam, Jesus is considered one of the Messiah. Muslims believe Jesus was a bringer of scripture and was born of a virgin, but was not the son of God; the Quran states. Most Muslims do not believe that he was crucified, but that he was physically raised into Heaven by God. In contrast, Judaism rejects the belief that Jesus was the awaited Messiah, arguing that he did not fulfill Messianic prophecies, was neither divine nor resurrected. A typical Jew in Jesus' time had only one name, sometimes followed by the phrase "son of <father's name>", or the individual's hometown. Thus, in the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth". Jesus' neighbors in Nazareth refer to him as "the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon", "the carpenter's son", or "Joseph's son". In John, the disciple Philip refers to him as "Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth"; the name Jesus is derived from the Latin Iesus, a transliteration of the Greek Ἰησοῦς. The Greek form is a rendering of the Hebrew ישוע, a variant of the earlier name יהושע, or in English, "Joshua", meaning "Yah saves".
This was the name of Moses' successor and of a Jewish high priest. The name Yeshua appears to have been in use in Judea at the time of the birth of Jesus; the 1st-century works of historian Flavius Josephus, who wrote in Koine Greek, the same language as that of the New Testament, refer to at least twenty different people with the name Jesus. The etymology of Jesus' name in the context of the New Testament is given as "Yahweh is salvation". Since early Christianity, Christians have referred to Jesus as "Jesus Christ"; the word Christ was a office, not a given name. It derives from the Greek Χριστός, a translation of the Hebrew mashiakh meaning "anointed", is transliterated into English as "Messiah". In biblical Judaism, sacred oil was used to anoint certain exceptionally holy people and objects as part of their religious investiture. Christians of the time designated Jesus as "the Christ" because they believed him to be the Messiah, whose arrival is prophesied in the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
In postbiblical usage, Christ became viewed as a name—one part of "Jesus Christ". The term "Christian" has been in use since the 1st century; the four canonical gospels are the foremost sources for the message of Jesus. However, other parts of the New Testament include references to key episodes in his life, such as the Last Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23. Acts of the Apostles refers to the early ministry of its anticipation by John the Baptist. Acts 1:1 -- 11 says more about the Ascension of Jesus. In the undisputed Pauline letters, which were written earlier than the gospels, the words or instructions of Jesus are cited several times; some early Christian groups had separate descriptions of the life and teachings of Jesus that are not included in the New Testament. These include the Gospel of Thomas, Gospel
Abraham in Islam
Ibrahim, known as Abraham in the Hebrew Bible, is recognized as a prophet and messenger in Islam of God. Abraham plays a prominent role as an example of faith in Judaism and Islam. In Muslim belief, Abraham fulfilled all the commandments and trials wherein God nurtured him throughout his lifetime; as a result of his unwavering faith in God, Ibrahim was promised by God to be a leader to all the nations of the world. The Quran extols Ibrahim as a model, an exemplar and not an idolater. In this sense, Abraham has been described as representing "primordial man in universal surrender to the Divine Reality before its fragmentation into religions separated from each other by differences in form"; the Islamic holy day Eid al-Adha is celebrated in memory of the sacrifice of Abraham, each able bodied Muslim is supposed to perform the pilgrimage to pay homage at the Ka‘bah in the Hijazi city of Mecca, built by Abraham and his son Ishmael as the first house of worship on earth. Muslims believe that the prophet Abraham became the leader of the righteous in his time, that it was through him that Adnanite-Arabs and Israelites came.
Abraham, in the belief of Islam, was instrumental in cleansing the world of idolatry at the time. Paganism was cleared out by Abraham in both Canaan, he spiritually purified both places as well as physically sanctifying the houses of worship. Abraham and Ismāʿīl further established the rites of pilgrimage, or Ḥajj, which are still followed by Muslims today. Muslims maintain that Abraham further asked God to bless both the lines of his progeny, of Isma'il and Isḥāq, to keep all of his descendants in the protection of God. Muslims maintain that Abraham's father was Aazar, which could be derived from the Syriac Athar, known in the Hebrew Bible as Terah. Abraham had two children and Ishmael, who both became prophets. Abraham's two wives are believed to have been Sarah and Hājar, the latter of whom was Sarah's handmaiden. Abraham's nephew is said to have been the messenger Lut, one of the other people who migrated with Abraham out of their community. Abraham himself is said to have been a descendant of Nuh through his son Shem.
Abraham's personality and character is one of the most in-depth in the whole Quran, Abraham is mentioned as being a kind and compassionate man. Abraham's father is understood by Muslims to have been a wicked and idolatrous man who ignored all of his son's advice; the relationship between Abraham and his father, who in the Quran is named Azar, is central to Abraham's story as Muslims understand it to establish a large part of Abraham's personality. The Quran mentions that Abraham's father threatened to stone his son to death if he did not cease in preaching to the people. Despite this, the Qur'an states that Abraham in his years prayed to God to forgive the sins of all his descendants and his parents. Muslims have cited Abraham's character as an example of how kind one must be towards people, one's own parents. A similar example of Abraham's compassionate nature is demonstrated when Abraham began to pray for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah after hearing of God's plan through the angel Gabriel for them.
Although the angel Gabriel told Abraham that God's plan was the final word, therefore Abraham's prayers would be of no effect, the Quran nonetheless reinforces Abraham's kind nature through this particular event. Ibrahim was born in a house of idolaters in the ancient city of Ur of the Chaldees the place called'Ur' in present-day Iraq, in which case, the idolaters would have been practitioners of the hypothesized Ancient Mesopotamian religion, his father Azar was a well-known idol-sculptor. As a young child, Ibrahim used to watch his father sculpting these idols from stones or wood; when his father was finished with them, Ibrahim would ask his father why they could not move or respond to any request and would mock them. Despite his opposition to idolatry, his father Azar would still send Ibrahim to sell his idols in the marketplace. Once there, Ibraham would call out to passersby, "Who will buy my idols? They will not help you and they cannot hurt you! Who will buy my idols?" Ibrahim would mock the idols.
He would take them to the river, push their faces into the water and command them, "Drink! Drink!" Once again, Ibrahim asked his father, "How can you worship what does not see or hear or do you any good?" Azar replied, "Dare you deny the gods of our people? Get out of my sight!" Ibrahim replied, "May God forgive you. No more will I live with you and your idols." After this, Ibrahim left his father's home for good. During one of the many festivals that would take place in the city, the people would gather in their temple and place offerings of food before their idols. Ur's most prominent temple is the Great Ziggurat. Ibrahim would ask them, "What are you worshiping? Do these idols hear when you call them? Can they help you or hurt you?" The people would reply, "It is the way of our forefathers." Ibrahim declared "I am sick of your gods! I am their enemy." After several years, Ibrahim became a young man. He still could not believe, he laughed whenever he saw them entering the temple, lowering their heads, silently offering the statues the best of their food and asking forgiveness from them.
He started feeling angry towards his people, who could not realize that these are only stone
Muhammad
Muhammad was the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet, sent to present and confirm the monotheistic teachings preached by Adam, Moses and other prophets, he is viewed as the final prophet of God in all the main branches of Islam, though some modern denominations diverge from this belief. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief. Born 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at the age of six, he was raised under the care of his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, upon his death, by his uncle Abu Talib. In years he would periodically seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer; when he was 40, Muhammad reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave, receiving his first revelation from God. Three years in 610, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "submission" to God is the right way of life, that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to the other prophets in Islam.
The followers of Muhammad were few in number, experienced hostility from Meccan polytheists. He sent some of his followers to Abyssinia in 615 to shield them from prosecution, before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina in 622; this event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca; the conquest went uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; the revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the verbatim "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings and practices, found in the Hadith and sira literature, are upheld and used as sources of Islamic law.
The name Muhammad appears four times in the Quran. The Quran addresses Muhammad in the second person by various appellations. Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he is referred to as the enwrapped in Quran 73:1 and the shrouded in Quran 74:1. In Sura Al-Ahzab 33:40 God singles out Muhammad as the "Seal of the prophets", or the last of the prophets; the Quran refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad "more praiseworthy". The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, begins with the kunya Abū, which corresponds to the English, father of; the Quran is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe; the Quran, provides minimal assistance for Muhammad's chronological biography. Important sources regarding Muhammad's life may be found in the historic works by writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era; these include traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which provide additional information about Muhammad's life.
The earliest surviving written sira is Ibn Ishaq's Life of God's Messenger written c. 767 CE. Although the work was lost, this sira was used at great length by Ibn Hisham and to a lesser extent by Al-Tabari. However, Ibn Hisham admits in the preface to his biography of Muhammad that he omitted matters from Ibn Ishaq's biography that "would distress certain people". Another early history source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by al-Waqidi, the work of his secretary Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi. Many scholars accept these early biographies as authentic. Recent studies have led scholars to distinguish between traditions touching legal matters and purely historical events. In the legal group, traditions could have been subject to invention while historic events, aside from exceptional cases, may have been only subject to "tendential shaping". Other important sources include the hadith collections, accounts of the verbal and physical teachings and traditions of Muhammad. Hadiths were compiled several generations after his death by followers including Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi, Abd ar-Rahman al-Nasai, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah, Malik ibn Anas, al-Daraqutni.
Some Western academics cautiously view the hadith collections as accurate historical sources. Scholars such as Madelung do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in periods, but judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures. Muslim scholars on the other hand place a greater emph
Muhammad in Islam
Muḥammad ibn ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAbdul-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim known as Muhammad, is the last Messenger and Prophet of God in all the main branches of Islam. Muslims believe that the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad by God, that Muhammad was sent to restore Islam, which they believe to be the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Musa,'Isa, other Prophets; the religious and political tenets that Muhammad established with the Quran became the foundation of Islam and the Muslim world. Muslims refer to Muhammad as Prophet Muhammad, or just The Prophet or The Messenger, regard him as the greatest of all Prophets, he is seen by the Muslims as a possessor of all virtues. As an act of respect, most Muslims follow the name of Muhammad by the Arabic benediction sallallahu'alayhi wa sallam, sometimes abbreviated as SAW or PBUH; the deeds and sayings in the life of Muhammad – known as Sunnah – are considered a model of the life-style that Muslims are obliged to follow.
Recognizing Muhammad as God's final messenger is one of the central requirements in Islam, laid down in the second part of the Shahada: Lā ilāha illā l-Lāh, Muhammadun Rasūlu l-Lāh. The Quran, in passages such as 3:132, 48:29 and 66:1 uses the words "messenger" and "prophet" (such as ar-Rasūl or Rasūl Allāh for Muhammad, asks people to follow him, so as to become successful in this hayāt and al-Ākhirah. Born about 570 into a respected Qurayshi family of Mecca, Muhammad earned the title "al-Amin". At the age of 40 in 610 CE, Muhammad is said to have received his first verbal revelation in the cave called Hira, the beginning of the descent of the Quran that continued up to the end of his life; because of persecution of the newly converted Muslims, upon the invitation of a delegation from Medina and his followers migrated to Medina in 622 CE, an event known as the Hijrah. A turning point in Muhammad's life, this Hegira marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad sketched out the Constitution of Medina specifying the rights of and relations among the various existing communities there, formed an independent community, managed to establish the first Islamic state.
Despite the ongoing hostility of the Meccans, along with his followers, took control of Mecca in 630 CE, ordered the destruction of all pagan idols. In years in Medina, Muhammad unified the different tribes of Arabia under Islam, carried out social and religious reforms. By the time he died in 632 all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; the Quran enumerates little about Muhammad's early life or other biographic details, but it talks about his prophetic mission, his moral excellence, theological issues regarding Muhammad. According to the Quran, Muhammad is the last in a chain of prophets sent by God. Throughout the Quran, Muhammad is referred to as "Messenger", "Messenger of God", "Prophet"; some of such verses are 2:101, 2:143, 2:151, 3:32, 3:81, 3:144, 3:164, 4:79-80, 5:15, 5:41, 7:157, 8:01, 9:3, 33:40, 48:29, 66:09. Other terms are used, including "Warner", "bearer of glad tidings", the "one who invites people to a Single God"; the Quran asserts that Muhammad was a man who possessed the highest moral excellence, that God made him a good example or a "goodly model" for Muslims to follow.
The Quran disclaims any superhuman characteristics for Muhammad, but describes him in terms of positive human qualities. In several verses, the Quran crystallizes Muhammad's relation to humanity. According to the Quran, God sent Muhammad with truth, as a blessing to the whole world. In Islamic tradition, this means that God sent Muhammad with his message to humanity the following of which will give people salvation in the afterlife, it is Muhammad's teachings and the purity of his personal life alone which keep alive the worship of God on this world; the Quran categorizes some theological issues regarding Muhammad. The most important among them is the edict to follow the teachings of Muhammad; the Quran commands people to "follow God and his Messenger" in verses including 3:31-32, 3:132, 4:59, 4:69. Muhammad, the son of'Abdullah ibn'Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim and his young wife Aminah, was born in 570 CE in the city of Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula, he was a member of the family of Banu Hashim, a respected branch of the prestigious and influential Quraysh tribe.
It is said that'Abd al-Muttalib named the child "Muhammad". Muhammad was orphaned; some months before the birth of Muhammad, his father died near Medina on a mercantile expedition to Syria. When Muhammad was six, he accompanied his mother Amina on her visit to Medina to visit her late husband's tomb. While returning to Mecca, Amina died at a desolate place called Abwa, about half-way to Mecca, was buried there. Muhammad was now taken in by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who himself died when Muhammad was eight, leaving him in the care of his unc
Elisha
Elisha was, according to the Hebrew Bible, a prophet and a wonder-worker. Mentioned in the New Testament and the Quran, Elisha is venerated as a prophet in Judaism and Islam. Amongst new religious movements, Bahá'í writings refer to him by name, his name is transliterated into English as Elisha via Hebrew, Eliseus via Greek and Latin, or Alyasa via Arabic, Elyesa via Turkish. He is said to have been a disciple and protégé of Elijah, after Elijah was taken up in a chariot of fire, accepted as the leader of the sons of the prophets. Elisha's story is related in the Book of Kings in the Hebrew Bible. According to this story, he was a prophet and a wonder-worker of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, active during the reign of Joram, Jehu and Jehoash. Elisha was the son of a wealthy land-owner of Abel-meholah, his name first occurs in the command given to Elijah to anoint him as his successor. After learning in the cave on Mount Horeb, that Elisha, the son of Shaphat, had been selected by Yahweh as his successor in the prophetic office, Elijah set out to find him.
On his way from Sinai to Damascus, Elijah found Elisha "one of them that were ploughing with twelve yoke of oxen". Elisha delayed only long enough to kill the yoke of oxen, whose flesh he boiled with the wood of his plough. Elijah went over to him, threw his mantle over Elisha's shoulders, at once adopted him as a son, investing him with the prophetic office. Elisha accepted this call about four years before the death of Israel's King Ahab. For the next seven or eight years Elisha became Elijah's close attendant until Elijah was taken up into heaven. During all these years we hear nothing of Elisha except in connection with the closing scenes of Elijah's life. After he had shared this farewell repast with his father and friends, the newly chosen prophet "went after Elijah, ministered unto him." He went with his master from Gilgal to Bethel, to Jericho, thence to the eastern side of the Jordan, the waters of which, touched by the mantle, divided, so as to permit both to pass over on dry ground.
Elisha was separated from Elijah by a fiery chariot, Elijah was taken up by a whirlwind into Heaven. Before Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind, Elisha asked to "inherit a double-portion" of Elijah's spirit; some scholars see this as indicative of the property inheritance customs of the time, where the oldest son received twice as much of the father's inheritance as each of the younger sons. In this interpretation Elisha is asking that he may be seen as the "rightful heir" and successor to Elijah. Critics of this view point out that Elisha was appointed as Elijah's successor earlier in the narrative and that Elisha is described as performing twice as many miracles as Elijah. In this interpretation the "double-portion" isn't an allusion to primacy in succession, but is instead a request for greater prophetic power than Elijah. Much of this confusion comes from translations which incorrectly translate the phrase as a "double portion" while in Hebrew Elisha asks for "two thirds of a portion" of the prophetic spirit that imbued Elijah.
By means of the mantle let fall from Elijah, Elisha miraculously recrossed the Jordan, Elisha returned to Jericho, where he won the gratitude of the people by purifying the unwholesome waters of their spring and making them drinkable. Before he settled in Samaria, Elisha passed some time on Mount Carmel; when the armies of Judah and Edom allied against Mesha, the Moabite king, were being tortured by drought in the Idumean desert, Elisha consented to intervene. His double prediction regarding relief from drought and victory over the Moabites was fulfilled on the following morning; when a group of boys from Bethel taunted the prophet for his baldness, Elisha cursed them in the name of Yahweh and two female bears came out of the forest and tore forty-two of the boys. He became noted in Israel, for six decades held the office of "prophet in Israel", he is called a patriot because of his help to kings. Elisha cleansed the infected waters of Jericho which were considered to be a cause of miscarriages and fatalities.
To relieve a prophet's widow importuned by a harsh creditor, Elisha so multiplied a little oil as to enable her, not only to pay her debt, but to provide for her family needs. There is a Jewish tradition, or legend, that the woman's husband was Obadiah, the servant of King Ahab, who hid 100 prophets in two caves. To reward the rich lady of Shunem for her hospitality, he obtained for her from Yahweh, at first the birth of a son, subsequently the resurrection of her child, who had died. To nourish the sons of the prophets pressed by famine, Elisha changed a pottage made from poisonous gourds into wholesome food, he fed a hundred men with twenty loaves of new barley, leaving some left over, in a story, comparable with the miracles of Jesus in the New Testament. The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges notes that the focus of this narrative does not dwell "on the increase of the bread by a miracle, we are left to accept the result as either brought about in that way, or by the appetites of the men being satisfied with a small quantity."
Elisha cured the Syrian military commander Naaman of leprosy but punished his own servant Gehazi, who took money from Naaman. Naaman, at first reluctant, obeyed Elisha, washed seven times in the River Jordan. Finding his flesh "restored like the flesh of a little child", the general was so impressed by this evidence of God's power, by the disinterestedness of His Pr
Job (biblical figure)
Job is the central figure of the Book of Job in the Bible. In rabbinical literature, Iyov is called one of the prophets of the Gentiles. In Islam, Job is considered a prophet. Job is presented as a good and prosperous family man, beset by Satan with God's permission with horrendous disasters that take away all that he holds dear, including his offspring, his health, his property, he begins a search for the answers to his difficulties. The Hebrew Book of Job is part of Ketuvim of the Jewish Bible. Not much is known about Job based on the Masoretic text of the Jewish Bible; the characters in the Book of Job consist of Job, his wife, his three friends, a man named Elihu and angels. It begins with an introduction to Job's character—he is described as a blessed man who lives righteously in the Land of Uz; the Lord's praise of Job prompts an angel with the title of'satan' to suggest that Job served God because God protected him. God removes Job's protection, gives permission to the angel to take his wealth, his children, his physical health.
Despite his difficult circumstances, he does not curse God, but rather curses the day of his birth. And although he anguishes over his plight, he stops short of accusing God of injustice. Job's miserable earthly condition is God's will. In the following, Job debates three friends concerning Job's condition, they argue whether it was justified, they debate solutions to his problems. Job condemns all their counsel and critiques of him as false. God appears to Job and his friends out of a whirlwind, not answering Job's central questions. Job, by staying silent before God, stresses the point that he understands that his affliction is God's will though he despairs at not knowing why. Job appears faithful without direct knowledge of God and without demands for special attention from God for a cause that all others would declare to be just, and the text gives an allusion to Job 28:28 "And unto man he said, the fear of the Lord, wisdom. God rebukes the three friends and gives them instruction for remission of sin, followed by Job being restored to an better condition than his former wealthy state.
Job 42:10–17 Job is blessed to have seven sons, three daughters named Jemimah and Keren-happuch. His daughters were said to be the most beautiful women in the land; the Septuagint, an ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, has a revised and updated final verse that claims Job's genealogy, asserting him to be a grandson of Esau and a ruler of Edom. This man is described in the Syriac book as living in the land of Ausis, on the borders of Idumea and Arabia: and his name before was Jobab, and he himself was the son of his father Zare, one of the sons of Esau, of his mother Bosorrha, so that he was the fifth from Abraam. And these were the kings who reigned in Edom, which country he ruled over: first, the son of Beor, the name of his city was Dennaba: but after Balac, called Job, after him Asom, governor out of the country of Thaeman: and after him Adad, the son of Barad, who destroyed Madiam in the plain of Moab, and his friends who came to him were Eliphaz, of the children of Esau, king of the Thaemanites, Baldad sovereign of the Sauchaeans, Sophar king of the Minaeans.
In addition to the Book of Job, Job is mentioned in several religious texts: Judaism He is mentioned in the Book of Ezekiel. Christianity He is cited as someone "who held fast to all the ways of justice" in the deuterocanonical Sirach, he is praised for his perseverance in the Christian Epistle of James. He is the protagonist of a pseudepigraphal book called the Testament of Job. Mormonism He is mentioned in the Doctrine and Covenants, one of the four sacred texts of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Islam He is discussed as a prophet in the Quran. Bahai In the Bahá'í writings: A lengthy tablet was written by Bahá'u'lláh, the first part of, focused on Job; the Tablet is referred to as the Tablet of Patience or the Tablet of Job. A clear majority of rabbis saw Job as having in fact existed as a factual figure. According to a minority view, Job never existed. In this view, Job was a literary creation by a prophet who used this form of writing to convey a divine message. On the other hand, the Talmud goes to great lengths trying to ascertain when Job lived, citing many opinions and interpretations by the leading sages.
Job is further mentioned in the Talmud. When Job was prosperous, anyone who associated with him to buy from him or sell to him, was blessed. Job's reward for being generous David and Ezekiel described the Torah's length without putting a number to it. Job was in fact one of three advisors that Pharaoh consulted, prior to taking action against the multiplying Israelites in the Book of Exodus; as described in the Talmud: Balaam urged Pharaoh to kill the Hebrew new-born boys. It is for Job's silence. However, the Book of Job itself contains no indication of this, to the prophet Ezekiel, Yahweh refers to Job as a righteous man of the same cal
Zechariah (priest)
Zechariah is a figure in the New Testament Bible and the Quran, hence venerated in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron in the Gospel of Luke, the husband of Elizabeth, a relative of the Virgin Mary. According to the Gospel of Luke, during the reign of king Herod, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the course of Abia, whose wife Elizabeth was of the priestly family of Aaron; the evangelist states that both the parents were righteous before God, since they were "blameless" in observing the commandments and ordinances of the Lord. When the events related in Luke began, their marriage was still childless, because Elizabeth was "barren", they were both "well advanced in years"; the duties at the temple in Jerusalem alternated between each of the family lines that had descended from those appointed by king David. Luke states that during the week when it was the duty of Zechariah's family line to serve at "the temple of the Lord", the lot for performing the incense offering had fallen to Zechariah.
The Gospel of Luke states that while Zechariah ministered at the altar of incense, an angel of the Lord appeared and announced to him that his wife would give birth to a son, whom he was to name John, that this son would be the forerunner of the Lord. Citing their advanced age, Zechariah asked with disbelief for a sign whereby he would know the truth of this prophecy. In reply, the angel identified himself as Gabriel, sent by God to make this announcement, added that because of Zechariah's doubt he would be struck dumb and "not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed"; when he went out to the waiting worshippers in the temple's outer courts, he was unable to speak the customary blessing. After returning to his house in "Hebron, in the hill country of Judah", his wife Elizabeth conceived. After Elizabeth completed her fifth month of pregnancy, her relative Mary was visited by the same angel, overshadowed by the Holy Ghost and – though still a virgin – became pregnant with Jesus.
Mary travelled to visit her relative Elizabeth, having been told by the angel that Elizabeth was in her sixth month of pregnancy. Mary remained about three months. Elizabeth gave birth, on the eighth day, when their son was to be circumcised according to the commandment, her neighbours and relatives assumed that he was to be named after his father. Elizabeth, insisted that his name was to be John; as soon as Zechariah had written on a writing table: "His name is John", he regained the power of speech, blessed "the Lord God of Israel" with a prophecy known as the Benedictus or "Song of Zechariah". The child grew up and "waxed strong in spirit", but remained in the deserts of Judæa until he assumed the ministry, to earn him the name "John the Baptist". Origen suggested that the Zechariah mentioned in Matthew 23:35 as having been killed between the temple and the altar may be the father of John the Baptist. Orthodox Christian tradition recounts that, at the time of the massacre of the Innocents, when King Herod ordered the slaughter of all males under the age of two in an attempt to prevent the prophesied Messiah from coming to Israel, Zechariah refused to divulge the whereabouts of his son, he was therefore murdered by Herod's soldiers.
This is recorded in the Infancy Gospel of James, an apocryphal work from the 2nd century. The Roman Catholic Church commemorates him as a saint, along with Elizabeth, on September 23, he is venerated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on September 5. The Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the feast day of Zechariah on September 5, together with Elizabeth, considered a matriarch. Zechariah and Elizabeth are invoked in several prayers during the Orthodox Mystery of Crowning, as the priest blesses the newly married couple, saying "Thou who didst... accept Zechariah and Elizabeth, didst make their offspring the Forerunner..." and "...bless them, O Lord our God, as Thou didst Zechariah and Elizabeth...". In the Greek Orthodox calendar and Elizabeth are commemorated on June 24. Armenians believe that the Gandzasar Monastery in Nagorno Karabakh, Azerbaijan contains relics of Zechariah. However, his relics were kept in the Great Church of Constantinople, where they were brought by the praefectus urbi Ursus on September 4, 415.
In 2003, a 4th-century inscription on the so-called Tomb of Absalom, a 1st-century monument in Jerusalem, was deciphered as, "This is the tomb of Zachariah, the martyr, the holy priest, the father of John." This suggests to some scholars that it is the burial place of Zechariah the father of John the Baptist. Professor Gideon Foerster at the Hebrew University states that the inscription tallies with a 6th-century Christian text stating that Zechariah was buried with Simon the Elder and James the brother of Jesus, believes that both are authentic. What makes the theory less plausible is the fact that the tomb is three centuries older than the Byzantine inscriptions, that a tomb with just two burial benches is unlikely to be used for three burials, as well as the fact that the identification of the tomb has changed during its history. Zechariah is as a prophet in Islam, is mentioned in the Qur'an as the fat
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