Bismillah al Rahman al Raheem, in the name of Allah the most merciful the most gracious.
All credits for this article go to Dr. Sami Ameri. I just
translated his worked and cited references he has brought and references I have
found looking into the topic.
The Jews say,
“Ezra is the son of Allah,” while the Christians say, “The Messiah is the son
of Allah.” Such are their baseless assertions, only parroting the words of
earlier disbelievers. May Allah condemn them! How can they be deluded ˹from the truth˺?
Quran 9:30
Surah Al Tawbah
We have heard enough times from both Christian and Jewish
polemists. And even on the off occasions the laymen bringing this verse as an
argument against the infallibility of the Quran or to throw shade on Islam claiming
that this verse is historically inaccurate. And at the same time, we have heard
the standard Muslim response that a portion of the Jews found in Arabia, a sect
of Judaism were the ones who did believe that Ezra was indeed the son of God.
Although there is no shame in such response, and I am not here to talk about
this or varsity of this rebuttal. I am here to demonstrate the miraculous nature
of the Quran, which I can only highlight, all praise be to the most high. And
to demonstrate the level of ignorance of anyone who brings such and argument
towards their own sources and rabbinical traditions.
Ezra HaKohen(the priest) or Ezra HaSofer(the scribe), who
was he according to Jewish belief and tradition? and what did they attribute to
him? and did they really believe that he was the son of God?
Let’s start to unpack the questions jews especially around
the second temple period revered and honoured Ezra a lot. Very much so up to
the point where the Talmud states “It is taught in a baraita (Tosefta 4:5): Rabbi
Yosei says: Ezra was suitable, given his greatness, for the Torah
to be given by him to the Jewish people, had Moses not come first and
received the Torah already.” - “with regard
to Ezra, is for the Torah, as he taught Torah to the Jewish people and
was suitable to have originally merited to give it.” (Sanhedrin 21b ) this all but a side point a
nugget of Talmud. Let us look at sources that were used during second temple
period Judaism and even earlier.
Establishing who Malachi is and who wrote Malachi…… the majority of Jews even today believe
Malachi wasn’t a prophet but rather an angel, the belief that Malachi was a prophet,
or the name of a Jewish prophet is what you’ll find your everyday Christian
come with. Let’s look at what the Septuagint for example the common bible of
the time during second temple Judaism had to say.
(LXX) MALACHI 1:1
λῆμμα λόγου κυρίου ἐπὶ τὸν Ισραηλ ἐν χειρὶ ἀγγέλου αὐτοῦ θέσθε δὴ ἐπὶ τὰς καρδίας ὑμῶν
The highlighted word in many translations of the LXX they
translate to messenger/angel so we can see that the Jews at the time translated
the word Malachi into the Greek meaning. Now the questions to ask are, do names
get translated? Isit messenger or angel
and what’s the difference lets look at the uses of the word to get more depth.
(Luke 2:21, Acts 6:15, Acts 7:35, Acts 7:38, Acts 10:22, Acts 12:9, Revelation
1:1, Revelation 8:4, Revelation 8:4, Revelation 10:7, Revelation 10:8,
Revelation 10:10, Revelation 16:5, Revelation 21:17, Revelation 22:8) – in each
of these verses in the new testament the same word is used same letters same
positioning and in each verse in the NT
that contains this word it’s translated as angel. Let’s dig deeper: (Haggai
& Malachi- Everyman's Bible Commentary by Herbert M. Wolf PAGE 69 ) “Nothing is known about the family background or
the life of Malachi, outside the pages of his short book. There is even doubt
as to whether “Malachi” is a proper name. The word occurs in 3:1, meaning “my
messenger” or “my angel,” and it is also found without the possessive suffix in
2:7 and 3:1. Since it is an important concept in the book, could this have been
selected as a title for the whole prophecy, without regard to the actual name
of the prophet? The Septuagint handles verse 1 as “by the hand of his
messenger,” and other tradition ties the book to “my messenger, Ezra.””
I know you may be thinking what does Malachi have to do with
Ezra how are they linked? And how does this prove ezra is the son of God. “It is taught in a baraita:
Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korḥa said:
Malachi is in fact Ezra.” –“ Rav Naḥman said: It stands
to reason that indeed, they are one and the same person, like the
opinion of the one who said that Malachi is Ezra, since there is a
similarity between them, as it is stated in Malachi’s prophecy: “Judah has
dealt treacherously, and a disgusting thing has been done in Israel and in
Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the sanctity of the Lord which he loved, and
has married the daughter of a strange god” (Malachi 2:11). And who
was the one that removed the foreign women who were married to Jews? It
was Ezra, as it is written: “And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the
sons of Elam, answered and said unto Ezra: We have broken faith with our God,
and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land” (Ezra 10:2). It
therefore appears that Malachi was one of Ezra’s names, as the Bible describes
them both as confronting an intermarriage epidemic.” (megillah 15a
Talmud) as we can see that there was
prominent figures religious and spiritual teachers rabbis, commentators and
different traditions that present to us that Malachi = Angel = Ezra, but is
there another evidence maybe something more clear that demonstrates that these
three are the same thing that Malachi is an angel that was Ezra the scribe. Hmm
I wonder? Lol there is and guess what read it for yourself. Targum of Jonathon
on Malachi 1:1” A burden:
the pronouncement of the LORD upon Israel by the hand of angels [mal’akhei],
that is called by the name of Ezra the scribe.” So, as we have demonstrated
regardless of what the mainstream belief is. what we have proven is that this
belief existed weather within a few majorities or minority. To be frank this
doesn’t matter, and no one can really argue for any of the positions due to the
lack of historical attestation for the beliefs of the populous of Judaism
outside of our time but what there is evidence for is numerous attestations for
the belief to exist and it was a belief held by a at least in the bare minimum
some of the jews including there rabbis and commentators and it is found within
there tradition.
For the missing link how does all this proof that
they took Ezra as the son of God. Jews historically and within the modern time
believe that the angles are the sons of God. The children of God. There
are midrashic explanations which talk about these B'nai HaElohim(sons of
God) being actual Angels. But in those discussions, it emphasizes that the meaning
in the Midrash is to show that everything which takes place here on a physical
plane also occurs on the spiritual plane. The citations from Job are about
actual Angels. This is confirmed from the Targum to Job 1:6 and 2:1 which
translates this as כתי מלאכיא, which means types of
Angels. Metzudot Tzion says this same usage also applies to Job 38:7. He
explains that they are called B'nai HaElohim.
“The angels are called
"Sons of God," as it is said, "When the morning stars sang
together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7); and whilst
they were still in their holy place in heaven, these were called "Sons of
God," as it is said, "And also after that, when the sons of God came
in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them; the same became
the mighty men, which were of old, men of renown" (Gen. 6:4).”
(pirkei derabbi Eliezer 22)
So, to conclude angels are the son of God, Ezra was a son of
God – therefore Ezra is the son of God. Now tell me how can a man, who is
illiterate in his own language the Arabic language. Someone who can’t read
write in his own mother tongue have gone through all these sources baring in
mind. That these sources within their primary language consistent of koine
Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew, Syriac. All glory be to the Allah lord of the
worlds.
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