Having established a those-who-reject-the-prophet-will-perish theme in the preceding sections, here Muhammad describes the early career of the prophet he most desired to imitate: Moses. It seems that Muhammad was aware of the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:18-22 about a coming prophet like Moses. This probably explains, to a large degree, why Moses is such a major character in the narratives in the Quran -- the story of Moses career is tinged and generously supplemented so as to provide parallels between Moses and Muhammad.
Verse 103 sums up the confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh (Firaun) and his advisors, beginning the presentation of those confrontations with the same phrase used to conclude another presentation of some of the same events in 27:14 and 28:40 Look what happened to the disbelievers! This surah picks up the story at the point where Moses confronts Pharaoh and performs the rod-to-serpent sign, parallel to Exodus 7:8.
In verse 108, Moses also presents the white-hand sign with a twist: it is white, but the Quran describes this whiteness as a sort of glowing radiance, not leprosy as in the Biblical text (Exodus 4:6). Surah 28:32, which is part of a narrative about Moses encounter at the burning bush, says that Moses was instructed to Put your hand into your bosom, it will come forth white without a disease; and draw your hand close to your side to be free from the fear. (A parallel-passage is in 20:22.) Perhaps Muhammad was misinformed about the nature of the whiteness of Moses hand, or perhaps he confused it with the temporary brightness of his face described in Exodus 34:29-35. No matter how you slice it, the Quran disagrees with the Bible about this.
In verses 109-110, the chiefs of the people of Pharaoh say, This is a well-versed sorcerer; He wants to get you out of your land, so what do you advise? These ordinary-looking verses are rather interesting because when telling the story on another occasion, Muhammad apparently told it a different way. Turn to 26:34-35. The Hilali-Khan translation says I quote exactly: [Firaun (Pharaoh)] said to the chiefs around him: Verily! This is indeed a well-versed sorcerer. He wants to drive you out of your lands by his sorcery: what is it then that you command? And in 20:57, He [Firaun (Pharaoh)] said: Have you come to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Musa (Moses)?
If the phrase The chiefs of the people of were missing in 7:109, the accounts would harmonize. But as it stands, there seems to be a problem: in surah 26, Pharaoh tells the Egyptian chiefs that Moses is an adept sorcerer and ask, What do you advise? and he gets an answer from a group (They in 26:36). Similarly in surah 20, Pharaoh makes the comment about Moses coming to drive the Egyptians out of their land, as in 26:35 (see also 7:123). Whereas in surah 7:109, it is the Egyptian chiefs who say that Moses is an adept sorcerer, and it is the Egyptian chiefs who say that Moses wants to get Pharaoh (apparently) out of Egypt, and it is the Egyptian chiefs who ask, What do you advise?. One could insist that Pharaoh and the Egyptian chiefs said the same thing simultaneously, and received the same answer simultaneously (and in 20:57 and 20:63 they repeat a similar phrase). But it looks to me as if Muhammad made a mistake either in the recitation of the story in 7:109 or in 26:34.
In 7:110, 20:63, and 26:35, Moses is accused of plotting to drive either Pharaoh or all the Egyptians (or both) out of Egypt. By putting that accusation in the Egyptians mouths, Muhammad probably mirrored a scenario in which he, Muhammad, had been accused of attempting to gain enough power to banish his opponents.
The Quran disagrees with Exodus regarding the timing of the Egyptian sorcerers acknowledgement of the supremacy of Moses Deity. In Exodus 8:19, it is not until the Plague of Gnats (after the plague on the Nile and the plague of frogs) that the sorcerers say, This is the finger of God. In 7:120-121, though, the Quran says that the sorcerers fell down prostrate and confessed belief in the Lord of the worlds, right after they saw Moses serpent prevail.
There is also a problem arising from v. 124: Pharaoh threatens to cut off a foot and a hand from each believing sorcerer (from opposing limbs), and to crucify them. (This is re-stated in 20:71 where Pharaoh threatens specifically to crucify them on the trunks of date-palms -- and 26:49.) Both crucifixion and the amputation of a hand and foot from opposite limbs are mentioned in 5:33 as punishments against those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger. Thus it seems obvious that both punishments were familiar to, and under some circumstances advocated by, Muhammad himself. The problem is that crucifixion was not practiced in ancient Egypt. Some Islamic apologists have proposed that what is being referred to in 7:124 is not crucifixion like Roman crucifixion, in which the subject suffered as he died, but the display of a corpse on a tree. However, 5:33 seems to be referring to the crucifixion of a living person, not a corpse. While some new evidence may arise indicating that crucifixion was practiced in ancient Egypt, for the time being this reference appears to be an anachronism. It may echo a threat made against Muhammad by some influential opponent in Mecca.
Although the plight of the penitent sorcerers is not mentioned in Exodus, verses 120-126 goes into detail about them. Islamic legends name two of the sorcerers Sadur and Ghadur, just as other accounts call them Jannes and Jambres (as alluded to by Paul in Second Timothy 3:8), and stories about them abound to supplement the Quranic text. Why would Muhammad present this material? To provide a parallel between the servants of Pharaoh who converted to Moses side, and the servants of leading citizens of Mecca who converted to Muhammads side. Probably when Bilal and some others heard this passage, they could not resist thinking, That sounds a lot like what I endured.
In verse 127 (which is similar to part of 2:49) Pharaoh is pictured increasing the Hebrews hardship by ordering that their sons will be killed, and their daughters will be spared. This is not at all like the response given in Exodus 5:6-11, where ~ before Moses reveals the staff-to-serpent sign ~ Pharaoh responds to Moses instructions by ordering that the Hebrews are to make bricks without straw. It is like the hardship that was imposed by the previous Pharaoh, during Moses infancy, as related in Exodus 1:22. The Quran, while it covers the story about Moses in the basket, doesnt mention this sort of thing in the course of that story (at least, I havent come across it yet). It looks like Muhammad misplaced this element of the story.
Verses 129-131 relate brief discussions between the Hebrews and Egyptians and Moses. The point intended to be conveyed, again, is that Moses career in Egypt and Muhammads career in Mecca. In this case the years of drought and shortness of fruit experienced by Egypt (which sounds like a feature taken from the story of Joseph) was meant, it seems, to be compared to the famine which Mecca had endured.
Having supplied enough of the story of Moses and Pharaoh to make his point about how his career resembles the career of Moses, Muhammad summarized Exodus 7:14-15:21 in just four verses (133-136), emphasizing that Allah drowned them in the sea, because they belied our Ayat and were heedless about them. The them in the story is not all the Egyptians, of course, only Pharaohs chariot-cavalry, but this is minimized so as to stress the those-who-reject-the-prophet-will-perish point.
The list of plagues in v. 133 begins with the mention of the flood and ends by mentioning the blood. It looks like the Quran lists only five of the ten plagues, and in reverse-order. One might readily ask, then, What flood?? The Egyptian cavalrys demise at the Yam Suph does not seem to be in view, given that the following verse assumes a scenario, or repeated scenarios, with the Hebrews still enslaved. Probably this is a matter of mistranslation, and the Arabic term tufan was used here in a secondary sense to name the plague of the death of the firstborn sons. (Similarly the Greek term cataclysm is used in the New Testament to describe Noahs Flood but also has a secondary sense, I think, in which it refers to fatal catastrophes in general.)
Finally, verse 137 ~ the first part of which seems to momentarily fast-forward so as to describe the Hebrews settlement in territory both east and west of the Jordan River ~ may be problematic because it states that Allah destroyed completely all the great works and buildings which Firaun (Pharaoh) and his people erected. Quite a few Bible scholars think that the Pharaoh of the exodus was Ramesses II, using a late-date chronology in which the 480 years mentioned in First Kings 6:1 is interpreted as a non-literal expression meaning 12 generations (in which each generation is represented by 40 years). If Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of the exodus, then the statement in 7:137 is mistaken about the destruction of his buildings.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
Verse 103 sums up the confrontations between Moses and Pharaoh (Firaun) and his advisors, beginning the presentation of those confrontations with the same phrase used to conclude another presentation of some of the same events in 27:14 and 28:40 Look what happened to the disbelievers! This surah picks up the story at the point where Moses confronts Pharaoh and performs the rod-to-serpent sign, parallel to Exodus 7:8.
In verse 108, Moses also presents the white-hand sign with a twist: it is white, but the Quran describes this whiteness as a sort of glowing radiance, not leprosy as in the Biblical text (Exodus 4:6). Surah 28:32, which is part of a narrative about Moses encounter at the burning bush, says that Moses was instructed to Put your hand into your bosom, it will come forth white without a disease; and draw your hand close to your side to be free from the fear. (A parallel-passage is in 20:22.) Perhaps Muhammad was misinformed about the nature of the whiteness of Moses hand, or perhaps he confused it with the temporary brightness of his face described in Exodus 34:29-35. No matter how you slice it, the Quran disagrees with the Bible about this.
In verses 109-110, the chiefs of the people of Pharaoh say, This is a well-versed sorcerer; He wants to get you out of your land, so what do you advise? These ordinary-looking verses are rather interesting because when telling the story on another occasion, Muhammad apparently told it a different way. Turn to 26:34-35. The Hilali-Khan translation says I quote exactly: [Firaun (Pharaoh)] said to the chiefs around him: Verily! This is indeed a well-versed sorcerer. He wants to drive you out of your lands by his sorcery: what is it then that you command? And in 20:57, He [Firaun (Pharaoh)] said: Have you come to drive us out of our land with your magic, O Musa (Moses)?
If the phrase The chiefs of the people of were missing in 7:109, the accounts would harmonize. But as it stands, there seems to be a problem: in surah 26, Pharaoh tells the Egyptian chiefs that Moses is an adept sorcerer and ask, What do you advise? and he gets an answer from a group (They in 26:36). Similarly in surah 20, Pharaoh makes the comment about Moses coming to drive the Egyptians out of their land, as in 26:35 (see also 7:123). Whereas in surah 7:109, it is the Egyptian chiefs who say that Moses is an adept sorcerer, and it is the Egyptian chiefs who say that Moses wants to get Pharaoh (apparently) out of Egypt, and it is the Egyptian chiefs who ask, What do you advise?. One could insist that Pharaoh and the Egyptian chiefs said the same thing simultaneously, and received the same answer simultaneously (and in 20:57 and 20:63 they repeat a similar phrase). But it looks to me as if Muhammad made a mistake either in the recitation of the story in 7:109 or in 26:34.
In 7:110, 20:63, and 26:35, Moses is accused of plotting to drive either Pharaoh or all the Egyptians (or both) out of Egypt. By putting that accusation in the Egyptians mouths, Muhammad probably mirrored a scenario in which he, Muhammad, had been accused of attempting to gain enough power to banish his opponents.
The Quran disagrees with Exodus regarding the timing of the Egyptian sorcerers acknowledgement of the supremacy of Moses Deity. In Exodus 8:19, it is not until the Plague of Gnats (after the plague on the Nile and the plague of frogs) that the sorcerers say, This is the finger of God. In 7:120-121, though, the Quran says that the sorcerers fell down prostrate and confessed belief in the Lord of the worlds, right after they saw Moses serpent prevail.
There is also a problem arising from v. 124: Pharaoh threatens to cut off a foot and a hand from each believing sorcerer (from opposing limbs), and to crucify them. (This is re-stated in 20:71 where Pharaoh threatens specifically to crucify them on the trunks of date-palms -- and 26:49.) Both crucifixion and the amputation of a hand and foot from opposite limbs are mentioned in 5:33 as punishments against those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger. Thus it seems obvious that both punishments were familiar to, and under some circumstances advocated by, Muhammad himself. The problem is that crucifixion was not practiced in ancient Egypt. Some Islamic apologists have proposed that what is being referred to in 7:124 is not crucifixion like Roman crucifixion, in which the subject suffered as he died, but the display of a corpse on a tree. However, 5:33 seems to be referring to the crucifixion of a living person, not a corpse. While some new evidence may arise indicating that crucifixion was practiced in ancient Egypt, for the time being this reference appears to be an anachronism. It may echo a threat made against Muhammad by some influential opponent in Mecca.
Although the plight of the penitent sorcerers is not mentioned in Exodus, verses 120-126 goes into detail about them. Islamic legends name two of the sorcerers Sadur and Ghadur, just as other accounts call them Jannes and Jambres (as alluded to by Paul in Second Timothy 3:8), and stories about them abound to supplement the Quranic text. Why would Muhammad present this material? To provide a parallel between the servants of Pharaoh who converted to Moses side, and the servants of leading citizens of Mecca who converted to Muhammads side. Probably when Bilal and some others heard this passage, they could not resist thinking, That sounds a lot like what I endured.
In verse 127 (which is similar to part of 2:49) Pharaoh is pictured increasing the Hebrews hardship by ordering that their sons will be killed, and their daughters will be spared. This is not at all like the response given in Exodus 5:6-11, where ~ before Moses reveals the staff-to-serpent sign ~ Pharaoh responds to Moses instructions by ordering that the Hebrews are to make bricks without straw. It is like the hardship that was imposed by the previous Pharaoh, during Moses infancy, as related in Exodus 1:22. The Quran, while it covers the story about Moses in the basket, doesnt mention this sort of thing in the course of that story (at least, I havent come across it yet). It looks like Muhammad misplaced this element of the story.
Verses 129-131 relate brief discussions between the Hebrews and Egyptians and Moses. The point intended to be conveyed, again, is that Moses career in Egypt and Muhammads career in Mecca. In this case the years of drought and shortness of fruit experienced by Egypt (which sounds like a feature taken from the story of Joseph) was meant, it seems, to be compared to the famine which Mecca had endured.
Having supplied enough of the story of Moses and Pharaoh to make his point about how his career resembles the career of Moses, Muhammad summarized Exodus 7:14-15:21 in just four verses (133-136), emphasizing that Allah drowned them in the sea, because they belied our Ayat and were heedless about them. The them in the story is not all the Egyptians, of course, only Pharaohs chariot-cavalry, but this is minimized so as to stress the those-who-reject-the-prophet-will-perish point.
The list of plagues in v. 133 begins with the mention of the flood and ends by mentioning the blood. It looks like the Quran lists only five of the ten plagues, and in reverse-order. One might readily ask, then, What flood?? The Egyptian cavalrys demise at the Yam Suph does not seem to be in view, given that the following verse assumes a scenario, or repeated scenarios, with the Hebrews still enslaved. Probably this is a matter of mistranslation, and the Arabic term tufan was used here in a secondary sense to name the plague of the death of the firstborn sons. (Similarly the Greek term cataclysm is used in the New Testament to describe Noahs Flood but also has a secondary sense, I think, in which it refers to fatal catastrophes in general.)
Finally, verse 137 ~ the first part of which seems to momentarily fast-forward so as to describe the Hebrews settlement in territory both east and west of the Jordan River ~ may be problematic because it states that Allah destroyed completely all the great works and buildings which Firaun (Pharaoh) and his people erected. Quite a few Bible scholars think that the Pharaoh of the exodus was Ramesses II, using a late-date chronology in which the 480 years mentioned in First Kings 6:1 is interpreted as a non-literal expression meaning 12 generations (in which each generation is represented by 40 years). If Ramesses II was the Pharaoh of the exodus, then the statement in 7:137 is mistaken about the destruction of his buildings.
Yours in Christ,
Waterrock
