Jesus in the Qur'an: the Word of God (Kalimatullah)
The Titles of Jesus in the Qur'an and the Bible
Chapters
« Jesus in the Qur'an: the Messiah (Al-Masih)
Jesus is also called "His word" in Quran 4.171, meaning the Word of God. In Quran 3.45 we also read that the angels said to Mary "Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary". More than once in the Qur'an, therefore, Jesus is called God's Word. He is also called the Word of God in the Bible.
"He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God". (Revelation 19:13)
Once again, therefore, Jesus is given a title in the Qur'an which the Bible gives him as well. Like the title Messiah this is a very distinctive and exalted title. Whether we take it in its actual Biblical form, "The Word of God", or in its actual Qur'anic forms, "a Word from God" and "God's Word", two things are strikingly and abundantly clear. Jesus himself, in his actual person, is the Word; and the source, origin and the fountainhead of the Word is God.
As with the title Messiah, the Qur'an gives no explanation of the title. Nevertheless, in seeking to reconcile it with the Qur'anic assertion that Jesus was only a messenger, Muslim commentators generally have claimed that Jesus is called the Word of God solely in accordance with the teaching in the Qur'an that he was created in the womb of a virgin-woman by the Word of God:
"She said: My Lord!! How can I have a child when no mortal hath touched me? He said: So it will be. Allah createth what He will, if He decreeth a thing, He saith unto it only; Be! and it is." (Quran 3.47)
By the single word of God "Be", it is alleged that Jesus was created and from this verse Muslim commentators have concluded that this is why Jesus is called the Word of God. It is a convenient but inadequate conclusion. According to that verse, this is how anything is created by God. But Jesus alone receives the title Word of God and its unique character must compel us to reject this theory as over-simplistic. Secondly it is exposed further as being an insufficient answer to the question of its meaning by a simple consideration of a similar statement just twelve verses later in the same Surah:
"Lo! the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam, He created him from dust, then He said unto him, Be! and he is". (Quran 3.59)
Once again it is said of Jesus that he was created by God purely through the expression "Be" but this time it is said that "the likeness of Jesus with Allah is as the likeness of Adam", implying that both were made by the single word of God "Be" in the same way. If Jesus is called the Word of God purely as a result of the manner of his conception, then Adam too must be the Word of God for according to the Qur'an they were both created in the same manner. Now a real difficulty arises because Adam is not called the Word of God in the Qur'an. Nor are the angels, nor is any other creature so called in the Qur'an. Jesus alone is called the Word of God.
The very exceptional nature of the title, by which Jesus is distinguished from all other men and all creatures, demands that there is some other meaning and significance behind it. The very fact that the title is given to Jesus alone in both the Qur'an and the Bible clearly shows that there is something about the person of Jesus that makes him the Word of God in a way in which no other man or creature can compare. Jesus himself is called the Word of God and the title relates to his person and not to any feature or circumstance of his life.
As mentioned earlier, one of the distinctive features of this title is the emphasis of deity as the source of the person who bears it. The Word is from God. And the title Word implies that he is the communication and revelation, in his own person, of God to men. The Word of God is one who indeed is actively the real manifestation of God to men. To know him is to know God. He does not merely bring the religion and words of God to men, he himself is the word and revelation of God, Jesus himself made this clear when he said:
"He who has seen me has seen the Father". (John 14:9)
Let us now turn to the plain teaching of the Bible about Jesus as the Word of God. The prologue to the Gospel of John gives us a clear explanation of the title:
"In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made". (John 1:1-3)
To emphasize strongly that Jesus himself is the Word of God and not that God's word is somehow related to him as is suggested by the major Muslim commentators, let us briefly paraphrase those two verses:
In the beginning before God ever began to create, the Word already existed. Far from being part of the created order, the Word was in the realm of God and indeed the very nature of the Word was that of God. When God first began to fashion the created order, the Word already existed in the divine order. He himself was not created but all other things were created by God through him as agent, indeed as the very Word of God. Because he alone is the Word of God, and is therefore the sole means of communication between God and his creatures, nothing was created without being created by and through him. (John 1:1-2)
The clear teaching of the Bible is that Jesus existed as the Word of God before God ever created anything and that he is therefore deity. But then the Word of God became the man Jesus, the son of Mary.
"And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth". (John 1:14)
Jesus is the Word of God not because of any intervention by God at his conception nor by any other circumstances. He always was, from all eternity, the Word of God before he took on human flesh and became the man Jesus, the son of Mary.
Every prophet of God has been a messenger but only Jesus is the Word of God. The distinction comes out in this contrast; whereas every prophet only delivered the words of God when proclaiming God's message, Jesus at all times spoke the words of God. In private conversation with their friends, for example, the prophets spoke their own words and we accordingly distinguish between the prophet's own words in normal conversation and the words of God which the prophets spoke at various intervals whenever bidden to do so by God. But Jesus is the Word of God and every word he spoke - whether in teaching or in private conversation - was God's work. There was no distinction between the words of Jesus and the words of God. This is abundantly clear from the teaching of Jesus himself:
"I have not spoken on my own authority, but the Father who sent me has given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me". (John 12:49-50)
"The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works." (John 14:10)
The words which Jesus spoke were not the words of a man but of God. Yet because Jesus himself is the Word of God, he could quite justifiably call them his own words. This is something no other prophet could do. No one else could say that his own words were the words of God. See how Jesus speaks of his words as his own and yet also as the words of God.
"He who does not love me does not keep my words, and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me". (John 14:24)
Again, whereas Jesus often proclaimed that nothing he said was on his own authority (as we have seen) but that every word he spoke was God's, yet because he is the Word of God he could quite rightly claim then as his own.
"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life". (John 5:24)
"If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free". (John 8:31)
"If I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name". (Revelation 3:8)
Nevertheless not only does Jesus on every occasion speak of God's words as his own because he is the Word of God, but he himself, being himself the Word of God, is the final, ultimate and complete revelation of God to men.
"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in everything he might be pre-eminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell". (Colossians 1:15-19)
So we see that far from being only a messenger of God, that is, one who receives an independent message from God, Jesus himself is the message of God and there is accordingly no independence between God and his Word. This is why Jesus alone is the unique Word of God. He is not a created messenger, he is the eternal Word of God. Other men are made from the dust - this man is from God. Other men return to the dust - this man returned to God.
At this stage we are constrained to say that we Christians do not really see where we are exaggerating in our religion as the Qur'an suggests in the passage under review (Quran 4.171). Because we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, we are supposedly exaggerating in our belief in him and yet, in that very same passage, the Qur'an calls Jesus the Messiah which implies fundamentally that he is the Son of God. But now we come across the title Word of God which, to all intents and purposes, is really more emphatic and suggestive of deity than the title Son of God.
The latter title at least implies some limitation and submission on the part of its bearer - a son is subject to his father - but the title Word of God implies no such limitation. By itself it clearly implies that its bearer is the express image of the invisible God and only the latter, title Son of God implies some submission on his part to the Father. The Qur'an denounces Christians for believing that Jesus is the Son of God and yet, in the very same breath, gives him the title Word of God which is as indicative of deity on the title Son of God. There is really no meaningful difference between the titles. Quite where we are exaggerating in our religion is not at all clear to us! So we see that the first two titles in Quran 4.171 that we have considered, i.e. Messiah and Word of God far from supporting the suggestion that Jesus is "only a messenger", in fact heavily reinforce the Christian belief that Jesus is the Word and Son of God incarnate. But let us press on now to the third title in Quran 4.171.