The Rightly-Guided Injil

Section 4: Presentation in the temple, boyhood and the visit to Jerusalem

The Gospel According to Islam · Chapter 1, Birth and Childhood · Section 4

Presentation in the temple, boyhood and the visit to Jerusalem. 22 verses.

4

1And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus, which is how he was named by the angel of God before he was conceived in the womb. 2And when the days of Mary’s purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord; 3As it is written, Every male that openeth a womb shall be called holy to the Lord. 4And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is written in the law, A pair of turtle-doves, or two young pigeons.

5And, behold, there was a just and devout man in Jerusalem, Simeon by name. 6When he saw the child, he took him from his parents in his arms and blessed God and said, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign for the people. 7He shall prepare the way for a light to lighten the nations.1 8And after some time, Joseph and Mary returned with the boy Jesus to Nazareth. 9And there he grew and waxed strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was with him.2

10And none but a few knew that he was not Joseph’s son but was created by God without a father, even as Adam was created without father or mother3 11Now Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem every year of the Passover. 12And when Jesus was twelve or thirteen years old, they went up to Jerusalem with him, to make him a son of the law, after the custom of the Jews.4 13This meant that Jesus was now responsible for the commandments of the law. 14And when the ceremony was completed, and the days were fulfilled,5 the caravan missed Jesus, and he was left behind in Jerusalem, but Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

15And they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinfolk and acquaintances. 16And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. 17And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. 18And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.6 19And when he went with Joseph and Mary, his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us: Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

20And he said unto them, Ye knew that I have to be in these matters that are God’s.7 21And the family returned to their home in Galilee. 22And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and men.

  1. Luke 2:21-25, 28, 34. By a phenomenon rather frequent in the Gospels, this incident is duplicated in Luke 2:36-38, where it is an eighty-four years old woman, Anna, who acclaims the infant Jesus the future Saviour. Although none of the incidents is mentioned by any other gospel, they are not implausible since there must have been quite a few poor old people roaming among the temple visitors and heaping adulations on infants in the hope of flattering their parents into greater alms. However, what Luke puts in the mouth of Simeon and Anna reflects in large measure his own view of Jesus as a universal messenger. But as modern critical scholarship has shown, such a view was not shared by Jesus himself. For if he hesitated even to heal a non-Jewish girl (Mark 7:24-28) and did not want to throw bread (ie., teaching) to the Gentile dogs, and if he instructed the apostles to restrict their mission only to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5-6), it cannot be maintained that he presented himself as a light to lighten the Gentiles. Here the historical validity of the two Gospel reports cited is immaterial; for in any case they point to a serious conflict among Christians concerning the Gentile mission, and such a conflict could not have arisen if Jesus was as clear of his universal role as Simeon and Luke are.

    The conclusion of critical scholarship that Jesus did not direct his teachings to the Gentile world is consistent with the Qur’an, which presents Jesus as “a messenger of God to Israel” (3:49, etc). However, the Qur’an does not lose sight of the fact that Jesus’ story came to be told among all the nations but takes it into account by saying that God made Mary and “her son a sign for all the nations” (21:91), a description that is also applicable to Noah’s story (29:15) and does not mean that Mary or Jesus or Noah was a universal Saviour in the sense the Gentile Christianity came to regard Jesus. ↩
  2. Luke 2:40. ↩
  3. Qur’an 3:59. ↩
  4. The incident is reported by Luke only (2:41-51), who says that Jesus was twelve when it took place. But the ceremony of making a young Israelite a son of the law (bar mitzvah), for which Jesus was most probably taken to the temple, took place at thirteen. ↩
  5. The pilgrims were not obliged to spend the entire week of the Passover in Jerusalem. Luke’s statement that Joseph and Mary “fulfilled the days” means that they completed the whole week or at least stayed until the day of matsoth when the ceremony of investing a boy as a son of the law takes place. ↩
  6. It is not unusual for great men to show signs of extraordinary intelligence in their youth or even childhood. Indeed, greatness always goes back to a deep childhood involvement with some issues. This deep personal involvement gives them a very special type of knowledge about these issues that escapes the learned and “the doctors.” The fact, therefore, that the great Jewish historian of the New Testament times, Flavius Josephus, also showed extraordinary intelligence at age fourteen is not sufficient ground to attribute the incident we are reporting from Luke to Josephus’s influence on that Gospel. ↩
  7. Luke’s text is, “Know ye not that I had to be in these that are of my Father’s.” Jesus’ preoccupation with religious matters must have started earlier than his first passover since only then could he have had ideas to express to “the doctors.” And his parents must have known of their son’s deep interest in that area. What Jesus is saying in his answer to Mary is that a compelling, deep involvement with religious matters, of which Mary and Joseph are well aware, had made him forget about the caravan and get absorbed in religious discussions. ↩

From the Infancy Gospel of Thomas

The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, not to be confused with the Gospel of Thomas, tells stories of the boyhood of Jesus. It is not scripture for Muslims or for most Christians. Its earliest Greek manuscript, Hagios Saba 259, was copied in the eleventh century, though versions in other ancient languages are earlier. Its date of composition is uncertain. Summaries are this website’s own, from Mark M. Mattison’s public-domain translation at gospels.net.

  • Beyond the measure Thomas 9, 10, 16-18. The boy Jesus calls a fallen neighbour back to life, heals a young man’s foot, heals James of a snakebite, and revives a child and a builder.8
  • Beyond the measure Thomas 6-7, 15. He sets out the alphabet for his first teacher, who admits he is out of his depth, and a third teacher recognises his wisdom.9

The same book also has the boy curse a playmate so that he withers, and another so that he dies, strike his accusers blind (Thomas 3-5), and curse a teacher who struck him so that he dies (Thomas 14). These conflict with the Qur’an, where the infant ʿĪsā says God has made him blessed wherever he is, dutiful to his mother, and neither arrogant nor wretched (19:31-32). They are set aside.

These books are weighed by the same measure as the gospels. Whether the Qur’an took its stories from them is answered on Did the Qur’an borrow its stories?

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Notes

  1. The Qur’an affirms that ʿĪsā healed and raised the dead, by God’s permission (3:49; 5:110), but names none of these cases. ↩
  2. Not in the Qur’an. Compare Luke 2:46-47, where the boy in the temple astonishes the teachers. ↩