We sent Noah to his people, and he stayed among them for one thousand years, less fifty. Then the flood overtook them, as they were transgressors.
Genesis 6:17 (RSV)
For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall die.
The parallel. The Hebrew word for the flood is mabbūl (מַבּוּל), but the Aramaic Targum Onkelos renders it in this verse with ṭūfānā (טוּפָנָא), the same word the Quran uses. Likewise, the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin 96a) uses ṭūfānā for the flood of Noah, in a story in which a rabbi finds a plank from Noah’s ark and says that this is the great God who saved Noah from the ṭūfānā. So rabbis used the Aramaic word for the flood of Noah, and the Quran uses its Arabic form for the same event. Arthur Jeffery pointed out this connection.
Part of the Hebrew Bible is written in Aramaic, such as portions of the Book of Daniel. The two divine names al-Ḥayy al-Qayyūm appear together in Surah Al-Baqarah 2:255 (quoted above in section 4) and in Surah Al Imran 3:2:
GOD: there is no god except He, the Living, the Eternal.
Daniel 6:26 (RSV)
I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion men tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring for ever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.
The parallel. The Arabic Allāh corresponds to Aramaic ʾĕlāhā, huwa corresponds to hū (he), al-ḥayy to ḥayyā (living), and al-qayyūm to qayyām (enduring). The two also follow a similar sequence: first God is named, then described as living and enduring. Nicolai Sinai points this out in The Qur’an: A Historical-Critical Introduction (p. 140).
“I have devoted myself to the One who initiated the heavens and the earth, monotheism. I am not one of the idol worshipers.”
The pattern. Islamic tradition understands ḥanīf as one who follows a primordial monotheism apart from Judaism and Christianity. The Quran nearly always follows ḥanīf with the qualification “he was not among the mushrikīn” (2:135, 3:67, 3:95, 6:79, 6:161, 16:120, 16:123, and 22:31 are among the examples).
The explanation. A scholarly article on the Quran’s engagement with Jewish and Christian literature proposes an answer: the Quran is engaging Syriac Christian terminology. The Syriac cognate of ḥanīf is ḥanpā, which may originally have designated a gentile, but among Syriac Christians came to mean “pagan” or “heretic.” The Quran’s emphasis that Abraham was “not among the idolaters” therefore forecloses any possibility that a Syriac-Christian audience would misunderstand ḥanīf in the negative sense.
An objection. In 6:79, Abraham himself speaks the word. His people were not Syriac-speaking Christians, so why would he need to clarify? The answer is that Quranic dialogue is given by meaning, not verbatim. Abraham would not have literally used the Arabic word ḥanīf; he would have spoken whatever language his people spoke. We know this from the Quran itself: the same story appears in different surahs with slightly different dialogue, and, as we saw in section 3, the Quran does not intend everything it quotes to be verbatim. So the word choice reflects the Quran’s audience, and one of the wisdoms seems to be preventing misunderstanding.
Their prophet said to them, “The sign of his kingship is that the chest will come to you, containing tranquility from your Lord, and relics left behind by Moses’ folks and Aaron’s folks. It will be carried by the angels. This should be a sign for you, if you are believers.”
The Hebrew background. God commands that the ark be built so that He may dwell among the people:
Exodus 25:8 (RSV)
And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.
וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם
The verb “dwell” is shākhan (שָׁכַן). The Aramaic Targum Onkelos renders the verse as God saying, “Let them make before me a sanctuary, and I will let my presence ( shekhintā) rest among them.” The Talmud (Sotah 13a) likewise speaks of God’s presence dwelling in the ark.
The parallel. The Quran says the sakīnah from the Lord is in the ark. The word is cognate with shekhinah, and Gabriel Reynolds notes that this follows the usage of Aramaic texts that speak of God’s shekhinta, his dwelling or presence, residing in the ark.
The difference. The Jewish concept seems to be that God’s presence literally dwells in the ark in some sense. But the Quran’s usage shows that sakīnah means tranquility from the Lord and does not mean God Himself dwelling in the ark. We know this because other verses speak of sakīnah descending on the believers:
He is the One who sent down tranquility into the hearts of the believers, to increase their faith, in addition to their faith. To GOD belong the soldiers of the heavens and the earth. GOD is Omniscient, Wise.
Nicolai Sinai observes that the Targum renders the verse as God causing his presence to dwell among them, while the Quran integrates the term into the theme of God’s reassuring impact on the hearts of the believers. In the presenters’ reading, the Quran therefore engages with the Jewish concept and corrects it: it is tranquility from God, not God dwelling in the ark.
The word for ark. The verse also calls the ark tābūt. Gabriel Reynolds notes that this is closer in form to the Aramaic tēvūtā, used in Targum Onkelos for both Noah’s ark and Moses’ basket, and even closer to Ethiopic tābot, the word for the ark of the covenant in the Ethiopic Bible. The Ethiopic connection may be especially important because, like Syriac, it uses the word for Noah’s ark, Moses’ basket, and the ark of the covenant.
23. Tabut (تَابُوت)
▶ 1:00:00
The Quran also calls the basket in which Moses’ mother placed him a tābūt:
When we inspired your mother with what we inspired: “Put him in the chest, then throw it in the river, and the river will cast it to the shore. He will be picked up by an enemy of Mine and his enemy.” I bestowed upon you love from Me, and in order to be reared under My watchful eye.
Exodus 2:3 (RSV)
When she could hide him no longer she took for him a basket made of bulrushes, and daubed it with bitumen and pitch; and she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds at the river’s brink.
The parallel. The Hebrew word for the basket is tēvāh (תֵּבָה, here in the construct form tēvat), the same word used for Noah’s ark. In modern Arabic, tābūt means a casket or coffin, but Gabriel Reynolds says the term is best understood in light of the Hebrew tēvāh, which means simply a chest or ark. Whether or not his etymology is right, he recognizes that the Quran uses the same word as the Hebrew of Exodus, and as noted in the previous section, the word also appears in the Targums and in the Ethiopic Bible.
24. Maqalid (مَقَالِيد)
▶ 1:01:10
The pattern. One Arabic word for “keys” is mafātīḥ, which the Quran uses three times in different contexts (the keys of the unseen, keys in general, and the keys of one’s house). Another word is maqālīd, used twice, and both times it refers to God owning the keys of the heavens and the earth:
To Him belong the keys of the heavens and the earth. He increases the provision for whomever He wills, and He restricts it. He is fully aware of all things.
In both verses the phrase begins with lahu (“to Him”), which implies that the keys belong exclusively to God.
The Gospel background.
Matthew 16:19 (RSV)
I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
The Greek word for “keys” here is kleidas. According to some grammarians, Arabic iqlīd (plural maqālīd) derives from this Greek word, and in the Syriac rendering of the verse the word is the equivalent of the Greek.
The parallel. In the Gospel, Jesus gives the keys to Peter. In the Quran, the keys of the heavens and the earth belong to God, using the same word. Where Arabic had the ordinary mafātīḥ, the Quran chose a word matching the Greek or its Syriac equivalent, which seems to show awareness of the wording in the Gospel. Even if one argues the Quran only needs Syriac, not Greek, the word choice still reflects knowledge of a language other than Arabic.
One scholar of Quranic intertextuality says that by using this word rather than the standard word for keys, the Quran appropriates Matthew’s notion of the keys to the kingdom, and recasts it in a stricter monotheistic form, keeping divine authority with God alone rather than entrusting it to a human intermediary. The presenters do not necessarily agree with the framing that the Quran “appropriates” Matthew, but cite him to show that the parallel has been noticed, and that he connects it to the Syriac rendering.
A note from the discussion: the co-presenter said that in his own evaluation of such cases he gives this one a more charitable reading, taking the meaning as sound even if the Quran may be editing the wording of what Jews or Christians were saying.
The first sanctuary established for the people is the one at Becca; blessed and a guide for the world. In it are clear signs, such as the shrine of Abraham. Anyone who enters it attains security. The people are obligated to GOD to make the pilgrimage to the sanctuary, if they can afford it. As for those who disbelieve, GOD is independent of the world.
The key words are bayt (house), nās (mankind), mubārak (blessed), Bakkah (the name used here instead of Makkah), and sabīl (way).
The Bible.
Psalm 84:5–7 (RSV)
Blessed are the men whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.
The parallel. Many have connected the Quranic passage to Psalm 84, which is about pilgrimage and the valley of Bākhā (Baca). Neal Robinson argues that the Christians of Arabia were probably more familiar with the Syriac version of the Psalm, which differs from the Hebrew in several respects and has remarkable similarities to the Quranic verses. In the Syriac, the Psalm speaks of the blessed man, of “ways” in his heart, of passing through the valley of weeping ( bākhā) and making it a house of dwelling, and of the “lawgiver” being wrapped in blessing. Robinson notes the presence of Syriac words corresponding to bayt, mubārak, and sabīl in Quran 3:96, and that “the valley of weeping” resembles Bakkah. He also connects the Syriac “house of dwelling” to 52:4:
This is usually understood as the heavenly counterpart of the Kaaba, a house of worship for the angels, although there is also an opinion that it is the Kaaba itself.
The Hebrew of the Psalm also has Bākhā, berākhōt (blessings), and mĕsillōt (highways), which correspond to Bakkah, mubārak, and sabīl in the verse.
Why Bakkah and not Makkah? The Quran appears to connect to the Hebrew Bākhā. In Hebrew, a mem and a bet often interchange across Semitic languages, as with many other words. One opinion is that Bakkah is the older name for Makkah and Makkah the newer one. So if the Psalm is about Makkah, it could have been called Bakkah when the Psalm was written.
Robinson makes a strong argument that the Quran recalls the Psalm as Christians would have understood it in Syriac. The co-presenter added that there is also a hadith echoing the Psalm’s idea that a day of worship there is better than elsewhere.