Is Christianity theologically linked to Islam in any way?
I read that there is no correlation between the two religions, and that Islam actually has nothing at all to do with either Judaism or Christianity. How true is this, when many Muslim's have made claims that they are in fact connected? I also read that the word Allah does not directly translate to mean God in English, but that it was literally the name of the Muslim Moon God.
Any opinions, facts, etc?
Re: Is Christianity theologically linked to Islam in any way?
Originally posted by Stoic
I also read that the word Allah does not directly translate to mean God in English, but that it was literally the name of the Muslim Moon God.
Originally posted by FinalAnswer
I mean, the Muslims actually do revere Jesus as the Messiah.
They actually do revere him as messiah, but they'll be quick to point out that "messiah" is Hebrew for anointed.... which they believe all prophets are anointed.
As for a connection? None. The Quran is a book of stone age tribe tales, stolen stories from other religions and stories from the apocrypha. Arabs aren't related to Abraham through his son. That's a myth.
Actually, they've recently found a book with identicle stories and commandments, almost word for word...... and it was written before Muhammad was born.
Originally posted by Astner
Yes. There's historical evidence that Allah was originally the name of a Pagan moon god, just like Yahweh was originally the name of a Pagan storm god.No. They revere him as a prophet.
The Hebrews were, biblically and historically polytheists for thousands of years before becoming monothiestic. The bible itself calls yhvh a storm God. He was a storm God before Abraham converted and was a storm God after.
There are a lot of now-defunct religions that existed concurrently with both Christianity and Islam in their earlier days. Many shared a lot of the same motifs, similar stories or story elements, etc. At a certain point, it becomes very hard to say who borrowed from whom, or where the origin of certain stories came from. People love pointing out, for example, the pagan roots of a lot of the symbolism surrounding Christmas. Other examples abound. And that's just from contemporaries of these religions, and doesn't begin to touch on mythological predecessors like the one(s) OV mentioned. Some, like flood stories, exist in many cultures. Whether written separately or borrowed hardly matters. But there are other examples. A brief stroll through, say, some Joseph Campbell or comparative religion books will produce several more. So it's not only logical to assume that there are some shared elements between all of them, but imo illogical to assume that there are none.
I'm obviously less versed in Islam - such is the curse of my culture - but from what I understand, and as a couple others have mentioned, Jesus does play a role in their history and he's given some status as a prophet.
Originally posted by Astner
Why couldn't they have come up with it separately? Local floods still occur worldwide and it doesn't take too much imagination to extrapolate a flood to a global event.
Originally posted by Astner
I thought Christians believed that the global flood actually took place.
Not the majority of them. Just a vocal subset of evangelicals. For many Christians - though I won't guess at a percentage - much of the Old Testament is metaphoric. So the story of Noah is a parable about obedience to God and his laws, not about a literal flood.
Originally posted by Digi
Not the majority of them. Just a vocal subset of evangelicals. For many Christians - though I won't guess at a percentage - much of the Old Testament is metaphoric. So the story of Noah is a parable about obedience to God and his laws, not about a literal flood.
Originally posted by Astner
I thought Christians believed that the global flood actually took place.
They believe the biblical flood happened exactly how the bi le says and the Gilgamesh story was just another account of the same event, just tweaked.
Originally posted by Astner
Why couldn't they have come up with it separately? Local floods still occur worldwide and it doesn't take too much imagination to extrapolate a flood to a global event.
Last year there was a book about the relationship between the Bible and the Epic of Gilamesh tale of the flood. Apparently the hebrews were aquainted with the tale and adapted it during an specific timeframe.
That doesn't rule out the possibilities of other flood histories happening spontaneously, but there was a lot of exchange between close communities back in the day, so probably in most cases preexisting water folk tales became a flood stories after meeting with the idea of the universal flood.
Originally posted by long pig
Arabs aren't related to Abraham through his son. That's a myth.
Who are Esau's descendants according to Judaism?
Originally posted by long pig
Actually, they've recently found a book with identicle stories and commandments, almost word for word...... and it was written before Muhammad was born.
Do you have a link for that?