Mohammed on Christianity

Islam has an interesting tradition when it comes to its views on Christianity. I would imagine most Christians would find them somewhat bizarre.

As I understand it, this is a brief overview of the Moslem position on Jesus. The virgin birth is accepted, Christ is the second greatest prophet (after Mohammed of course), Christ was not the son of God, nor was he 'literally' crucified, although it appeared as such. To me, the interesting question isn't whether the Muslims are right or not, but how these ideas formed and their original sources. I haven't found a good book explaining this, but looking at the puzzle pieces, I think I can make a reasonable conjecture. Of course, I think all my conjecture is reasonable, so take it with a grain of salt.

It seems to me that some of Islam's ideas are quite similar to Gnostic interpretations. I would think that Mohammed must have come into contact with different heterodox forms of Christianity in his travels, and in particular, Gnostic Christian groups. A strong similarity can certainly be seen with what the Koran says about the crucifixion. It appeared that Jesus was crucified, but this is not what happened. The exact same thing is said in some of the gnostic writings.

'Wherefore he did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them.'

This is Irenaeus quoting a bit of Basilides, an early Gnostic. You find something very similar in the Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter. In other gnostic texts the solution is similar, but not quite so extreme. For the most part, Gnostic's rejected Christ's humanity, because of their views on matter, and this meant different approaches towards what the crucifixion was or meant.

Within Islam is the notion that the books of the New Testament have been edited over time, and as such, the original meanings of the books have been lost, or at least have a spurious nature. I'm sure this view would not have been hard to come by among Gnostic circles as well. Or even some other heterodox form of Christianity.

Mohammed makes mention, and rejects, the doctrine of the Trinity, so perhaps there was contact with Orthodox Christianity as well. Of course, I have no idea which forms of Christianity Mohammed came into contact with, but approaching it objectively, I think certain conclusions could be drawn. Unfortunately, in doing so, you might be offending the nature of the sacred scriptures of both groups. Still, it's far to interesting to think that no one has even bothered to try.