A Clear-cut Prophecy Regarding Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) in 'Assumption of Moses' - Abdus Sattar Ghauri

A Clear-cut Prophecy Regarding Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) in 'Assumption of Moses'

 There is a strangely arranged prophecy regarding Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) in a pseudepigraphical book attributed to Moses (pbAh) named ‘The Assumption of Moses’.[1] It was introduced to me by a worthy friend, Mr. Muḥammad Farooque Kemal.[2] The book ‘The Assumption of Moses’ consisted originally of 1,100 stichoi [lines], about half of which had been discovered. This ‘Assumption of Moses’ has been included in R. H. Charles’ compilation, ‘The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English’. According to the Introduction of this book by its editor, it was originally written in Hebrew, between AD 7 and 29. A Greek version of it appeared in the first century AD. The Greek version was translated into Latin not later than the fifth century. A large fragment of this version was discovered by Ceriani in the form of a sixth-century MS in the Ambrosian Library in Milan and published by him in his Mon. sacr. Et prof. I. i. 55-64 in 1861. This MS is a palimpsest[3] of the sixth century.[4] The editor has observed:

It is not, as scholars have supposed, the actual work of the original Latin translator, but only a fragmentary copy of that version; for our text contains duplicate renderings and attempts at a better translation, which were primarily marginal glosses, but afterwards introduced by a copyist into the text.[5]

The present book is the English translation of the Latin Version, which was translated from the Greek Version. But the Greek Version is not its original form. It may have been translated from the Hebrew original. That’s why the editor has observed:

In some cases we must translate, not the Latin, but the Hebrew presupposed by it; (…). Frequently it is only through retranslation that we can understand the source of the corruptions in the text.’[6]

The author was not a Sadducee, or a Zealot, or an Essene; but was a Pharisaic Quietist[7].

The present treatise, ‘The Assumption of Moses’, consists of 12 chapters, rather paragraphs, of an average of more or less twenty lines each. At the very outset, in chapter 1, Moses (pbAh) calls Joshua the son of Nun to him, and tells him:

That the time of the years of my life is fulfilled and I am passing away to sleep with my fathers even in the presence of all the people. And receive thou this writing that thou mayst know how to preserve the books which I shall deliver unto thee.[8]

He also tells him:

that he might be the minister of the people (…), and that he might bring the people into the land given to their fathers, that it should be given to them according to the covenant and the oath.[9]

It is evident from these lines that this treatise consists of some information which is very important according to Moses (pbAh). That’s why he is putting it forward at the end of his ‘years of life’ as his last will or ‘testament’.[10] It would be pertinent to study very briefly the outlines of the contents of each chapter to understand the development of the theme.

In chapter 2 Moses (pbAh) tells Joshua:

Thou shalt bless and give to them individually and confirm unto them their inheritance in me.[11]

He also informs him briefly about the salient features of the history of Israel till the conquest of Nebuchadnezzer[12] in a symbolic manner. In chapter 3 Moses (pbAh) gives a brief account of the destruction of Jerusalem at the hands of Nebuchadnezzer. In chapter 4 Moses (pbAh) informs about the coming of Daniel and his praying for the Jews and their deliverance from the captivity and return from the exile of Babylon to their homeland, Jerusalem.[13] Chapter 5 states the occupation of the Seleucidae and the Greek kings and generals. Later, in the person of Antiochus, they punished the apostate Jewish nation. Chapter 6 relates to the Maccabees without mentioning their names.

With the end of chapter 6 the author’s own lifetime starts. He can now no more state the events of the past as well as the predictions of the future. He can now state only some obscure predictions and enigmatical symbols. The treacherous men, self-pleasers, gluttons, and deceitful people of chapter 7 can be interpreted in terms of the Sadducees. According to the editor the ‘second visitation is too accurate an account of Antiochus Epiphanes’[14] persecution.’[15] As regards chapter 9, Moses (pbAh), or whosoever of the inspired saints or scribes be the author, foretells the incident of taking refuge of the ‘Seven Sleepers’ in a cave to spare themselves from the persecution of the Roman Emperor, Decius.[16] The incident has been recorded in the Qu’ān in chapter 18 (al-Kahf, i.e., The Cave). Although the editor attaches chapter 9 to some other irrelevant person Eleazar of 2 Macc. vi. 18 (whose name has been mentioned here as ‘Taxo’), who was one of the chief scribes, and, according to 4 Macc. v. 3, a priest; its application to the event of the ‘Seven Sleepers’ of Ephesus is more significant. Some of its excerpts would illustrate it:

Then in that day there shall be a man of the tribe of Levi, whose name shall be Taxo, who having seven sons shall speak to them exhorting (them): ‘Observe, my sons, behold a second ruthless (and) unclean visitation [trouble or disaster considered as a punishment from God (Oxf. Adv. Learner’s Encyclopedic Dic., p. 1010)] has come upon the people, and a punishment merciless and far exceeding the first. (…). Now, therefore, my sons, hear me (…). Let us fast for the space of three days and on the fourth let us go into a cave which is in the field, and let us die rather than transgress the commands of the Lord of Lords, the God of our fathers. For if we do this and die, our blood shall be avenged before the Lord.[17]

It may be noted here that the event of the ‘Seven Sleepers of Ephesus’ is the main and significant event of the domain of religion between the period of Jesus Christ (pbAh) and Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh). That’s why Moses (pbAh) has told it to Joshua.

It may also be noted here that the book ‘Assumption of Moses’ was written in the first quarter of the first century AD. It is, as such, foretelling the event more than two hundred years before its occurrence. It is an obvious testimony of the veracity of the event and the very book.

 Now comes the most conspicuous chapter 10 of the ‘Testament’, which indicates its main and central theme. It relates the advent of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh). Some of its lines are reproduced below:

And then His kingdom[18] shall appear throughout all His creation, [19]

And He will appear to punish the Gentiles,[20]

And He will destroy all their idols.[21]

(…).[22]

And do thou, Joshua (the son of) Nun, keep these words and this book;

For from my death [assumption] until His advent[23] there shall be CCL times.[24]

And this is the course of the times which they shall pursue till they are consummated.

And I shall go to sleep with my fathers.

Wherefore, Joshua thou (son of) Nun, (be strong and) be of good courage; (for) God hath chosen (thee) to be minister in the same covenant.[25]

In chapter 11 Moses (pbAh) reminds Joshua his assignments emphatically. Joshua is aggrieved upon and afraid of the heavy task before him. Finally, in chapter 12 Moses (pbAh) consoles and encourages Joshua. He affirms that the will of God shall be fulfilled and shall prevail and He shall help him in the accomplishment of his assignment. And with this our present treatise comes to the end.

As can be easily appreciated, chapter 10 is the most conspicuous part of the book, because it foretells the advent of the ‘kingdom of God’, which is to be established 1750 years after the death of Moses (pbAh). To appreciate the exact personality that was to establish the foretold ‘kingdom of God’, first of all we have to find out the point of time in the world history that falls 1750 years after the death of Moses (pbAh). Although the time of Moses’ (pbAh) death cannot be exactly pinpointed, the scholars have made all out efforts to reach as near to the exact point of time of the event as possible with the help of the available data of the annals of the world history.

Oxford Bible Atlas asserts that the Exodus of the Israelites under Moses (pbAh) from Egypt took place during the period of Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II of the 19th dynasty, who ruled Egypt from 1290 to 1224 BC:

The oppression of Israel and the exodus from Egypt took place most probably under Rameses II (1290-24),[26]

Bernhard W. Anderson[27] and John Bright[28] have also assigned the same dates (1290-24) to Ramses II.

J. A. Wilson has noted in the Interpreter’s Dic. of the Bible that the period of Ramses II’s reign was 1290-24 BCE:

The long reign of Ramses II (1290-24) left an indelible mark upon Egypt. (…), he is the traditional Pharaoh of Oppression. (….). Ramses II was succeeded by his son Merneptah.[29]

Paul Johnson asserts:

Indeed there is pretty convincing evidence that the period of Egyptian oppression, which finally drove the Israelites to revolt and escape, occurred towards the last quarter of the second millennium BC, and almost certainly in the reign of the famous Rameses II (…). This [the victory stele of Pharaoh Merneptah, who was the son and successor of Rameses II, which has been dated 1220 BC] is the first non-Biblical reference to Israel. Taken in conjunction with other evidence, such as calculations based on I Kings 6:1 and Judges 11:26, we can reasonably be sure that the Exodus occurred in the thirteenth century BC and had been completed by about 1225 BC.[30]

New Bible Atlas concludes on the basis of archaeological research that the event of exodus related to ca. 1230/20 BC:

Among the L. B. [Late Bronze Age: 1550-1200 BC] towns destroyed at the end of the period are some listed among Israel’s conquest: Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir), Eglon (Tell el-Hesi), Debir (Tell el-Beit Mirsim) and Hazor. Many scholars have therefore interpreted these destructions as the archaeological evidence for Israel’s entry into Canaan, dating the event c. 1230/20 BC. The relatively poor Iron Age I [1200-330 BC] culture which followed has therefore been labelled ‘Israelite’. (….). It appears from the latest evidence that Lachish was also destroyed c. 1175 BC rather than 1230/20 BC.[31]

Pictorial Biblical Enc. asserts:

The work was begun by Seti I (1312-1289 BCE) and continued by his son, Ramses II (1289-1224 BCE), using the forced labour of the Delta’s nomadic population.[32]

The New Jerusalem Bible writes:

The reference indicates Rameses II (1290-1224) as the oppressive Pharaoh and gives an approximate date for the Exodus.[33]

The New Jerusalem Bible Pocket Edn. (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1990), p.1450, says in its Chronological Table: ‘1290-1224 Rameses II’.

K.A.Kitchen and T.C.Mitchell in their article, ‘Chronology of the OT’ in the New Bible Dic. (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 2nd Edn. 1982, p. 195) have assigned 1290-1224 BC as the period of Ramses II. They have also mentioned 1279-1213 BC as an alternative probability.

It can thus be noted that the reign of Ramses II has been recorded 1290-24 BCE by the following authorities, which makes it clear that the date of the advent of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) is exactly CCL Times after the death of Moses (pbAh):

Understanding the OT by Bernard W. Anderson.

A History of Israel by John Bright.

New Bible Dic. 2nd Edition.

Interpreter’s Dic. of the Bible, Vol. IV.

The New Jerusalem Bible.

The New Jerusalem Bible Pocket Edn., 1990.

Pictorial Biblical Enc.

Oxford Bible Atlas.

New Bible Dic.

Now if this Pharaoh Rameses II (1290-24 BC) be, as is generally accepted by the scholars of the Bible, the same Pharaoh, during whose reign the Israelites migrated from Egypt with Moses (pbAh), he must have drowned in the sea while chasing Israelites. The Bible has recorded the event fairly in detail:

When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about them and said, “What have we done? We have let the Israelites go and have lost their services!” So he [this ‘he’, obviously, here means none other than ‘Pharaoh’] had his chariot made ready and took his army with him. He took six hundred of the best chariots, along with all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, so that he pursued the Israelites, who were marching out boldly. The Egyptians—all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots, horsemen and troops—pursued the Israelites and overtook them as they camped by the sea near Pi Hahiroth, opposite Baal Zephon.

As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt? Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”

Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army, through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen.” (….).

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with a wall of water on their right and on their left.

The Egyptians pursued them, and all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and horsemen followed them into the sea. ….

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may flow back over the Egyptians and their chariots and horsemen.” Moses stretched his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it and the Lord swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived.[34]

It shows that the Pharaoh, who followed the Israelites in the dried seabed, had been drowned and was not spared. Consequently the Israelites entered into Sinai. Thus the Exodus took place in 1224 BC, which is also the same year in which Pharaoh Rameses II died of drowning in his hot pursuit of the fleeing Israelites.

Now the Israelites along with Moses (pbAh) wandered for forty years in Sinai before entering into the land of Canaan. Moses (pbAh) died at the end of this forty-year wandering in the wilderness before the entry of the Israelites into the Promised Land of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua son of Nun. It shows that Moses (pbAh) died in the year 1184 BC (1224-40=1184). That the Israelites had wandered in Sinai for forty years after the announcement of this punishment for their misbehavior in Sinai and before their entry into the Promised Land of Canaan, can be appreciated from the following excerpt of the Bible:

In this desert your bodies will fall — every one of you twenty years old or more who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun. As for your children that you said would be taken as plunder, I will bring them in to enjoy the land you have rejected. But you — your bodies will fall in this desert. Your children will be shepherds here for forty years, suffering for your unfaithfulness, until the last of your bodies lies in the desert. For forty years — one year for each of the forty days you explored the land — you will suffer for your sins and know what it is like to have me against you. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will surely do these things to this whole wicked community, which has banded together against me. They will meet their end in this desert; here they will die.[35]

The punishment of forty years wandering in the wilderness had not started just after the entrance of the Israelites into Sinai. There had elapsed a number of events and misdeeds of the Israelites stretching on a long time that justified this heavy punishment. The description of this period is stretched in the Bible on 26 chapters of the book of Exodus, complete book of Leviticus (27 chapters), and fourteen chapters of the book of Numbers; which make a total of 67 chapters. It would have definitely taken at least four years of the sinful activities of the Israelites to justify the pronouncement of the punishment of forty years wandering into the wilderness of Sinai.

It means that Moses (pbAh) would have died almost forty-four years after the death of Rameses II who died of drowning in the sea in the year 1224 BC. As such the year of the death of Moses (pbAh) becomes 1180 BC (1224-44=1180). It can thus be affirmed that the gap between the death of Moses (pbAh) and the birth of Jesus Christ (pbAh) is 1180 years.

It is almost unanimously held that Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) was born in AD 570. Geo. W. Gilmore observes in his article ‘Mohammed, Mohammedanism’:

Mohammed, ‘The Praised,’ the posthumous son of Abdu Allah, a member of the Koraish tribe, by Aminah, was born at Mecca Aug. 20, 570, and died at Medina June 8, 632.[36]

Michael H. Hart writes:

The majority of the persons in this book had the advantage of being born and raised in centers of civilization, highly cultured or politically pivotal nations. Muhammad [pbAh], however, was born in the year 570, in the city of Mecca, in southern Arabia, at that time a backward area of the world, far from the centers of trade, art, and learning.[37]

It can thus be appreciated that the number of years from the death of Moses (pbAh) till the birth of Jesus (pbAh) is 1180 years; and the number of years from the birth of Jesus (pbAh) till the birth of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) is 570. Now 1180+570 make nothing else than 1750 years. It reveals that Moses (pbAh) foretold about none other than Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) in his prophecy recorded in the ‘Assumption of Moses’. It should also be borne in mind that there is only one prominent figure in the annals of history that fulfils this prophecy of the ‘Assumption of Moses’ in letter and spirit. It is only the person of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh), and none other than he. He came exactly after 1750 years from the death of Moses (pbAh). As such, there remains no justifiable reason to denying the sincerity of the claim to the apostolate of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) for an honest, impartial, and unbiased person.

__________________________

 

[1] Included in ‘The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament in English’, Vol. II, edited by R. H. Charles in conjunction with many scholars, (The Oxf. Univ. Press, 1979), pp. 414-24, with an Introduction to this ‘Assumption’, pp. 407-13. It was first published in 1913.

[2]Mr. Muḥammad Farūque Kamāl is a renowned scholar. He is the author of a number of books. Some of his titles are: (i)Vindication of the Crescent, (ii) Crescent Versus the Cross, (iii) Islām for the West, (iv) Muḥammad (pbAh), Rasūlullāh(Urdū). These can be had from: ‘Defenders of Islām Trust, 28-Empress Road, Lahore.’ He has reproduced this prophecy in some of his works for the first time. As far as my study is concerned I did not find this prophecy quoted by any of the Muslim scholars, other than Mr. Muḥammad Farūque Kamāl.

[3] ‘Palimpsest’ means ‘a piece of writing-material or manuscript on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for other writing.’ (Oxf. Dic & Thesaurus, ed. Sara Tulloch, Oxf. Univ. Press, 1997, 1096).

[4] Please see ‘The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT’, ed. R. H. Charles (Oxford Univ. Press, 1979), 407,8.

[5] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 409.

[6] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 410.

[7] ‘Quietism’ is a religious system which teaches that one should give up all desires, and gain peace by thinking quietly about God and His things.

[8] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 415.

[9] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 414.

[10] The name of this treatise, in fact, is ‘Testament of Moses’, and not ‘The Assumption of Moses’. The editor points it out in his introduction under § 2 as its caption, ‘The present book in reality a Testament of Moses—not the Assumption, which is preserved only in a few Greek quotations.’

[11] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 415 f.

[12] Nebuchadnezzer was the king of Babylonia for 605-562 BC. His father was Nabupolassar, who was a Chaldean chieftain appointed by the Assyrians the governor of ‘the Sea lands,’ the extreme S of Mesopotamia. The weakness of Assyria, then in its decline, made it possible for Nabupolassar to revolt and proclaim himself king of Babylon in 626 BC. His son, Nebuchadnezzer, conquered and destroyed Jerusalem after a bitter siege in 587-6 BC.

[13] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 417.

[14] King of Syria from 175 to 163 BC. ‘Epiphanes’ means great or distinguished. His policy of attaining political unity by propagating Greek culture met with violent resistance from the Jews. In 169 BC he attacked Jerusalem and spoiled the Temple, and in 167 BC made a renewed and fiercer onslaught in a determination to exterminate Judaism. Jewish customs were forbidden under penalty of death, the Temple defiled and pagan cults instituted. This led to the Maccabean Revolt, after which Antiochus retired to Persia, where he died.

[15] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 420.

[16] C. Messius Quintus Decius had been the Roman Emperor for 249-251. F. L. Cross describes in The Oxf. Dic. of the Christian Church, 2nd edn., (London: Oxf. Univ. Press, 1974), p. 384:

After Emp. Philip’s defeat and death near Verona, Decius was accepted by the Senate. In the next year he undertook the first systematic persecution of the Christians, beginning with the execution of Fabian, Bp. of Rome, in Jan. 250. In June all citizens were required to furnish proof of having offered sacrifice to the Emperor; and, though many gave way or escaped through bribery, thousands were put to death. (…) The persecution, which was probably initiated to combat the allegedly fissiparous [reproducing with fission] influence of Christianity, was ended by the death of Decius in June 251.

The event of ‘Seven Sleepers’ (Aṣḥāb al-Kahf of the Qur’ān) relates to ca. 250 AD to 447 AD. They had embraced Christian faith. Roman Emperor of the time, Dacius, was deadly against Christianity and the Christians. When they were brought before him, he allowed them a respite for three days to reconsider their stance and to return to their previous faith of idol worship; otherwise they would be put to death. They ran away and hid in a cave outside the city of Ephesus. There they went into the miraculous sleep in this mysterious cave ca. 250 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Decius. They got up in 447 AD in the days of the Roman Emperor Theodosius II. The Roman Empire had already accepted and adopted the Christian faith.

It was an important event spread over the span of the third to fifth centuries AD. The ‘Assumption’ was written in the Hebrew language not later than the first to third decades of the first century AD. Its factual account of an event which was to occur centuries after its compilation testifies its veracity.

[17] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 421.

[18] ‘His kingdom’ obviously means the Law of God, revealed through His Messenger.

[19] As far as the Israelites are concerned, the ‘Kingdom of God’ has never ‘appeared throughout all His creation’ at their hands. They had never been able to establish the ‘Law of God’, in whatsoever form, outside Canaan, and upon the people other than the Israelites (i.e. upon the Gentiles), throughout their history. It is only through Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) that the Kingdom of God ‘appeared throughout all His creation’, i.e. the world known by the people of that time irrespective of Geographic or ethnic identity.

It may be noted here that it is common in the Bible to use the word of ‘all’ in the sense of ‘magnitude’. Exaggeration is very common in the Bible. Every body knows that although the Flood of Noah (pbAh) covered a huge area, yet it was not a universal one. But the Bible has depicted it as universal phenomenon. It records:

And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. (Gen. 7:19 KJV)

There are other instances as well where ‘all’ has freely been used to describe some big amount or quantity. Similarly, ‘throughout all His creation’ here means a huge portion.

[20] This prediction of Moses (pbAh) is also true of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) that only through him ‘He [God] will appear to punish the Gentiles’, which the Jews could never do.

[21] It is also true of Prophet Muḥammad (pbAh) only that ‘He will destroy all their idols.’ A. Guillaume has recorded in ‘The Life of Muhammad’, (Karachi-2: Oxford University Press, 1974), 552:

The apostle entered Mecca on the day of the conquest and it contained 360 idols which Iblīs had strengthened with lead. The apostle was standing by them with a stick in his hand, saying, ‘The truth has come and falsehood has passed away; verily falsehood is sure to pass away’ (al-Isra #17.82). Then he pointed at them with his stick and they collapsed on their backs one after the other.

When the apostle prayed the noon prayer on the day of the conquest he ordered that all the idols which were round the Ka‘ba should be collected and burned with fire and broken up. Fad~āla b. al-Mulawwiḥ al-Laythī, a poet commemorating the day of the conquest, said:

Had you seen Muhammad [pbAh] and his troops

The day the idols were smashed when he entered,

You would have seen God’s light become manifest

And darkness covering the face of idolatry.

Sir William Muir, in ‘The Life of Muhammad’, (Edinburgh: John Grant 31 George IV Bridge, 1923), 408, records the event in the following words:

The abused, rejected, exiled Prophet now had the rebellious city at his feet. Moḥammad [pbAh] was Lord of Mecca. (…). Then, pointing with his staff to the idols one by one that stood around, he commanded them to be hewn down. ‘Truth hath come,’ he cried in the words of the Kor’ān, as the great image of Hubal, reared in front of the Ka‘ba, fell with a crash;—‘Truth hath come, and falsehood gone; for falsehood verily vanisheth away.’

As regards the Israelites, not to say of ‘destroying all their idols’, they themselves started to worship the idols for a number of times during their history, which has even been recorded in the Bible for many a time in so many words regretfully.

[22] The author, or some later redactor, has inserted some lines regarding the Israelites; but they are so glaringly irrelevant to the text that every unprejudiced reader will appreciate that they have nothing to do with the theme and must have been interpolated. They are, however, being reproduced hereunder for reference:

Then thou, O Israel, shalt be happy,

And thou shalt mount upon the necks and wings of the eagle,

And they shall be ended.

And God will exalt thee,

And He will cause thee to approach to the heaven of the stars,

In the place of their habitation.

And thou shalt look upon from on high and shalt see thy enemies in Ge[henna],

And thou shalt recognize them and rejoice,

And thou shalt give thanks and confess thy Creator.

[23] The words, ‘from my death [assumption] until His advent’, make it clear that all the events indicated here are related to the person whose advent has been described here.

[24] In the sentence, ‘For from my death [assumption] until His advent there shall be CCL times’, the key words are the ‘CCL times’. The editor of the ‘Assumption of Moses’ has explained in his footnote:

CCL times, i.e. 250 year weeks, or 1,750 years. (…), which gives the same date for the Messiah’s coming.

But, firstly, there is no mention of any Messiah’s coming in this chapter of the “Assumption”, there is rather ‘the kingdom of God’, and, secondly, if the Messiah be Jesus Christ (pbAh), the calculations are quite wrong. Jesus (pbAh) came some twelve centuries after Moses (pbAh), whereas Moses (pbAh) has remarked that between his (Moses’ pbAh) death and His (whosoever is to come; be it Jesus (pbAh) or someone else) advent there shall be 1750 years. Now it is an historical fact that it is only Prophet Moḥammad (pbAh) who happened to come about the CCL times after the death of Moses (pbAh). Now the CCL times, according to the editor, mean 250 year weeks i.e., 1750 years. We know that according to the Roman numerals ‘C’ stands for one hundred and ‘CC’ would stand for two times a hundred, i.e. 200. Similarly ‘L’ stands for fifty. If ‘L’ be inserted after a letter of larger value, it is added to it. Thus ‘CCL’ becomes 100+100+50, which obviously makes 250. The meanings of the original Hebrew word (according to its idiomatic usage in that context), which has been translated here in English as ‘times’, are ‘year weeks’ as explained by the editor. The ‘year week’ stands for ‘seven years’, in the same way as the ‘day week’ stands for ‘seven days’. Consequently ‘250 year weeks’ will mean ‘ 250 x 7 years, i.e. 1750 years’.

[25] The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the OT, 421-3.

[26] Oxford Bible Atlas, 3rd Edn, ed Herbert G. May (NY: Oxford University Press, 1984), 16.

[27] Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the OT, 3rd Edn. (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. Englewood Cliffs, 1975), in the Comprehensive Chronological Chart, 602.

[28] John Bright, A History of Israel (London: SCM Press Ltd, Bloomsbury Street, 1967), Chronological Charts, 465.

[29] The Interpreter’s Dic. of the Bible, ed. George Arthur Buttrick (NY: Abingdon Press, 1962), 4:11.

[30] Paul, Johnson, A Hist. of the Jews (NY: HarperPerennial, 1988), 25f.

[31].New Bible Atlas, Ed. Bimson, J.J. (Leicester: Trinity College, Bristol; Kane, J.P., Univ. of Manchester, Inter-Versity Press, 1985), 38.

[32] Pictorial Biblical Enc, ed. Gaalyahu, Cornfeld (NY: The Macmillan Co., 1964), 301.

[33] The New Jerusalem Bible, ed. Jones, Alexander (Bombay: Bombay Saint Paul Society, 1993), 81.

[34] Exodus 14:5-18,21-3,26-8 in The NIV Study Bible, ed. Barker, Kenneth (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing. House, 1995), 105,07.

[35] Numbers 14:29-35, in the NIV Study Bible, 209.

[36] The New Schaff-Herzog Enc. (12 volumes), ed. Samuel Jackson Macauley  (NY: Funk & Wagnalls Company, 1910), 436.

[37]Michael H. Hart, The 100, A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (NY: Hart Publishing Co, Inc.), 34. 

With Thanks To Monthly Renaissance, Written/Published: December 2003
Author : Abdus Sattar Ghauri
Uploaded on : Feb 02, 2016
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