hello in this episode i want to ask : who was the god that jesus and his followers
worshipped ? jesus said allah not deus , deus being the roman western name for the deity .
we have today the aramaic gospels these are known as the pashita (an aramaic translation
of the new testament) and in those gospels they present jesus as praying to and praising the god
whom he worshipped naming him allah or aloha the eastern and western vocalizations of the aramaic .
aramaic is a language so close in structure and vocabulary and sensibility to the quranic arabic
that our viewers of mel gibson's snuff movie the passion of the christ which came up some
years ago , could follow much of the dialogue and crusaders in every southern multiplex
doubtless wondered about that . so jesus is portrayed in the earliest gospels in the
new testament in greek in the morning it says in mark : while it was still very dark
jesus got up and went out to deserted place and there he prayed to god . so here is a typical jew
doing what they do . jesus surrendered to his lord and his words whether or not they are
authentically preserved in the gospels which is much debated indicate perfect slavehood to el
elohim in hebrew , allah in aramaic , allah in syriac . allah the true name of the one god of abraham .
after the end of his ministry we read in the bible jesus followers continue to worship
the jewish god in congregation at the temple as it says in acts chapter 3 verse 1 : one day philip
and john were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer at three o'clock in the afternoon . so
this is after jesus ascension into heaven now the hour of prayer at three in the afternoon is
not like in the anglican church where you have like you go along you just have some prayers
this is the arab sacrifice as well so the jewish system with its sacrifices detailed leviticus
and the jewish understanding of god is still very much adhered to by the chief disciples of
jesus peter and john in this case . so like jesus they continue to worship the god of the prophets
there's a very high-profile famous roman catholic priest hans kung
is a very distinguished catholic theologian and he wrote a while ago that this
community , this group of people was the original jewish community of the first disciples of jesus
the original jerusalem community and the communities east of jerusalem
in other words , the very first paradigm of christianity before the shift to the greek
hellenistic paradigm . that was a quote from hans kung . so explaining that basically
the earliest christianity wasn't christianity it was judaism . jesus didn't found a new religion the
earliest disciples after his ascension also continued to be observant jews .
it was only later partly or mainly to do with the theologizing of the hellenistic
greek jew paul of tarsus that we find this shift paradigm shift to a quite
a different understanding where you have a savior cult , where the messiah becomes a savior figure
rather than god himself is the center of the faith . and kung knows that primal christianity
or judaism contains the theology of judaism and islam . and obliquely he proposes this as a basis
for reconciliation . so it's fascinating that such a senior roman catholic theologian should
see that and also propose this as a way of bringing together the faith in a common word .
and that very term is found in the quran as well in a famous verse which says :
say o people of the scripture . now that's of course the jews and the christians come
to a common word between us and you that we shall worship none but god and that we shall describe no
partner to him and that none of us shall take others for lords besides god and if they turn
away then say bear witness that we are we are they who have surrendered unto him that's al imran 3:64.
it's interesting the bit there the answer is that we are of those who have surrendered unto him
in some translations , english translation of the quran it says that : we are muslims . but actually
the term means that people have surrendered to their lord as jesus did and as peter and john are
shown as doing in the new testament . so i think that's a very interesting
story that jesus and his disciples in the aramaic gospel said allah they didn't say deus they were
not roman , they were jews and jewish theology and islamic theology is essentially the same
apart from that and quite different from that is developed christian theology which believes
obviously that the father is fully god , the son is fully god , the holy spirit is fully god , three .
three persons each of which is fully god , and then with the rider just added on . oh but there's one
god now make of that what you will . i call that polytheistic monotheism it's literally an oxymoron
it's like saying: oh look at that round square . or : look at the squareness of that circle .
yeah it doesn't make any sense but anyway . so we have this kind of oxymoron but the
unoxymoronic , the unincoherent jewish and islamic conception of god stresses the unity of god
the oneness and unity of god is clearly attested to by jesus in the earliest gospels obviously
in the quran and it is the faith that they followed according even you find indications
of that in the christian bible today . so i hope you found that of interest . until next time