Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

An Historical Account of Jesus 35

According to the rules of logic therefore, one is brought

to see in John' s Paraclete a human being like Jesus, pos­

sessing the faculties of hearing and speech formally

implied in John's Greek text. Jesus therefore predicts that

God will later send a human being to Earth to take up

the role defined by John, Le. to be a Prophet who hears

God's word and repeats his message to man. This is the

logical interpretation of John' s texts arrived at if one at­

tributes to the words their proper meaning. 14

e e e e e

It is clear from virtually all the sources available to us today that
Jesus' spopularityamongstthe common people was largely due to
his extraordinary purity and compassion which were expressed
not only by the wisdom in his words and the simplicity of his be­
haviour, but also by his many miracles - which were only made
possible, as he always said, by the grace of God.
Jesus was not seeking worldly power, either as ruler of the coun­
try, or within the closed hierarchy of the Scribes and Pharisees.
However, his popularity with the common people and the large
number of his following caused the Romans and those priests who
supported them to fear that this was his intention. It was this ap­
parent threat to their position of power which, as has already been
stated, prompted them to try to dispose of him.
[esus's mission was solely to establish worship of the Creator
in the manner in which the Creator had ordained. He and his fol­
lowers were prepared to fight anyone who tried to prevent them
from living as their Lord wished them to.
The first fighting took place with the Iews loyal to the Romans.
It was led by Bar Jesus Barabbas, and it completely demoralised
this group of Jews, as their leader was killed in the encounter. Bar
Jesus Barabbas was arrested.
The next objective was the/Temple itself. The Romans had a
strong force near at hand, since it was the time of the annual festi­
val and the feast of the Passover was approaching. The Romans
who at that time of year were always ready for minor disturbances,
were even more alert than usual. In addition, there were the Tem­
ple police who guarded the sacred place. The entrance made by
Jesus was so well planned that the Roman soldiers were taken com­
pletely by surprise, and Jesus took over the control of the Temple.