menu_open Columnists
We use cookies to provide some features and experiences in QOSHE

More information  .  Close

Reading Other Peoples Religious Scriptures

87 0
23.04.2026

Some Cristian’s ask “How do the Jews explain Matthew 27:25?” Jews really explain a verse from Other Peoples Religious Scriptures like Matthew, just as Christians need to explain verses from the Quran. For Christians, the Quran came later, and does not affect the New Testament at all.

Jews feel the same way about the New Testament. We mostly read it to better understand what some Christians are talking about. Or we ignore it, as Christians no doubt do very frequently, ignore the Quran.

Some Muslims claim that Abraham and Moses were Muslim, which is the adjective used for followers of the religion Islam. But that religion did not exist in the times of Prophet Abraham the Hebrew, (Genesis 14;13) or Prophets Moses and Aaron.

Moses delivered God’s Law to the Israelites, and since adherence to that Law (Torah) is the foundation of the religion called Judaism, it can be argued that Moses was the first Jew.

Abraham predates Judaism. He is called a Jewish Patriarch because he gave birth to the Jewish people and set them on the spiritual path to imageless Judaism, but he (Moses) was basically a imageless monotheist as the people of his time understood the concept, as a Hebrew-Jew, but not as a Muslim.

A major misunderstanding of the Biblical concept of God choosing a people or a prophet is caused by the use of the word ‘the’ chosen when a better translation would be ‘a’ chosen prophet or people. Relationships are always unique and exclusive, but just as a parent can and should have a loving relationship with several different children; God can and does have unique and exclusive relationships with many different prophets and many different religious communities.

Before Prophets Abraham, Moses, David and Jesus, “We (God) sent messengers to many nations, and We afflicted the nations with suffering and adversity, that they call Allah in humility. When the suffering reached them from Us, why then did they not call Allah in humility? On the contrary, their hearts became hardened, and Satan made their sinful acts seem alluring to them.”(Qur’an 6:42-43)

The Banu Israel (Jewish People) became the first ongoing monotheistic community to last to the present because God made a special covenant with the whole Banu Israel which; according to the Bible, was similar to a marital partnership, as can be seen from the following Biblical verses:

1. God proposes a marriage covenant at Sinai: God said to Moses “Speak thus to the house of Jacob, and tell this to the children of Israel… Now if you listen to me and keep my covenant, then you will be my special possession out of all the peoples, for the whole earth is mine. You will be my kingdom of priests, my holy nation. These words you shall speak to the people of Israel” (this is the proposal)

“Moses came and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these proposals as God had commanded him. All the people answered together, ‘All that God has proposed, we will do.’ (like “I do” at a wedding). Moses brought this answer back to the Lord.” (Exodus 19:5-8).

2. Why the Jews? Because God loved their ancestors. “The Lord cared for your ancestors loving them and chose their descendants after them from all nations, as you are this day.” (Deuteronomy 10:15) “I will fulfill my covenant between myself and you (Abraham) and your descendants after........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)