Names of Mohammad and ‘Ali (SBUT) in the Bible

Part 10

Thus as previously mentioned, there indeed are authentic Ahadith which introduce الیا and ایلیا as the names of Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH) with the jews and christians. Let us now take a look at these two names to see if they have any thing to do with Elijah:

Different English translations of the bible present different versions of the name Elijah such as” Elijah (1 Kings 17:1, the American King James Version), Elias (1 Kings 17:1, Douay-Rheims Bible), Eliah (1 Chronicles 8:27, King James Bible), Elia (1 Chronicles 8:27 and Ezra 10:26, Douay-Rheims Bible) …

The name Elijah, Elias, … are said to be the transliterated forms of Elia, Eliya, Eliea, … (الیا); ELIJAH seems to be the Anglicized form of the Latin and Greek Elias, Ilias, …, which is originally the Hebrew Eliyah (Eliyahu).

Also, Ilias is clarified to be a variant form of the English and Hebrew Elijah in the Greek language. “Ilya, Illya, Iliya, ...  or Ilia … comes from the Byzantine Greek pronunciation of the vocative (Elia) of the Greek Elias …” (From the English Wikipedia) And the pronunciation of Ilias in Greek is said to be: “ill - ee- y AA s” ایلیاس.

It is noteworthy to mention that masculine names in Greek ordinarily end with a consonant, usually with an "s" sound to close the word; this rule has been applied even to names transliterated to Greek- and then from Greek to other languages such as English-; Jesus, Moses, Judas and … are a few popular examples. So some times Ilia ایلیا appears as Ilias too.

Therefore, it seems that the Hebrew  الیا sounds as ایلیا in other languages such as Greek; thus in Ahadith where it is mentioned that the name of Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH) with the yahood (jews) is الیا and with the nasaara (christians) ایلیا, this may stem from the fact that the name is pronounced differently in various languages. The jews usually use Hebrew texts whereas most of the so called gospels in the hands of christians were in Greek. It is noteworthy to mention  that it is said that the earliest extant manuscripts of the so called canon gospels belong to the fourth and fifth christian centuries and were written in Greek; it is generally acknowledged by christians themselves that the previous Latin texts were in a confused state due to the fact that they had been translated from the Greek, which, it is claimed by many Christians was the original language of the written so called gospels of the bible.

So Elijah, Elias … are indeed الیا and ایلیا.

Thus indeed the fourth possibility regarding the name of Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH) in bible and biblical documents is the Elijah in heaven where the records are kept.

Furthermore … adherents to the bible say that the name Elijah has been used for at least four different men in the current old testament of the bible. Also the book of Malachi (whom most jews and christians consider as a Minor Prophet of the 5th century before the Christian Era)- which has been placed as the last book of the old testament of the christian bible- mentions the future coming of at least one person called Elijah. While the general view among the jews is that this promised coming of Elijah will be the return of the Prophet Elijah (whom they consider as a Prophet of the 9^th century before C.E.), some christians interpret this prophecy as two different comings: firstly as the coming of John the Baptist- which according to them, has already occurred- and secondly the return of the Prophet Elijah in the future, and there are other christians who interpret this prophecy of Malachi as the two comings of John the Baptist and at least another unknown Elijah in the future. This makes the number of Elijahs mentioned in the old testament of the bible to at least six different persons; and counting the contradiction mentioned before regarding an Elijah in heaven and another on earth, that makes the number of Elijahs mentioned in the current old testament of the bible to at least seven different people.

In general a fifth possibility can not be ruled out that, firstly, the facts regarding any of the other Elijahs may have been distorted and they might have been originally a reference to Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH); or, secondly, the Ta’wil (Allah-intended hidden meaning …) or as biblical scholars say, the secondary application, of any of the other Elijahs may be a reference to Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH).

The sixth possibility for the name of Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH) in bible to consider is the issue of the promise of the return of Elijah; now Let us look at a few bible commentaries presenting different views in regard to the promised Elijahs by the old testament:

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible:

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet,.... Not the Tishbite, as the Septuagint version wrongly inserts instead of prophet; not Elijah in person, who lived in the times of Ahab …”

The Pulpit Commentary:

“There seems to be no valid reason for not holding the literal sense of the words, and seeing in them a promise that Elijah the prophet, who was taken alive from the earth, shall at the last day come again to carry out God's wise purposes. That this was the view adopted by the Jews in all ages we see by the version of the LXX., who have here, "Elijah the Tishbite;" by the allusion in Ecclus. 48:10; and by the question of our Lord's disciples in Matthew 17:10, "Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come." Christ himself confirms this opinion by answering, "Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things." He can not be referring here to John the Baptist, because he uses the future tense; and when he goes on to say that "Elias is come already," he is referring to what was past, and he himself explains that he means John, who was announced to come in the spirit and power of Elias (Luke 1:17) …”

B. L. Cocherell and Charles E. Barrett:

“Jesus clearly says that John the Baptist was the prophetic Elijah who was to come before the Messiah. When he says, "Elijah truly will come first and restore all things," Jesus reveals that Malachi's prophecy concerns yet another Elijah to come after John the Baptist. The reason another Elijah must come is that John the Baptist did not come to restore anything; however, when the third Elijah comes he will be involved in the restoration of all things …”

In order to further analyze the issue of the return of Elijah- which is quite confusing for the jews and christians themselves-  wee need to look at the so called book of Malachi in the old testament of the christian bible:

“Malachi … is the last book of the Neviim [Prophets] contained in the [jewish] Tanakh, , the last of the twelve minor prophets (canonically) and the final book of the Neviim. In the Christian ordering, the grouping of the Prophetic Books is the last section of the Old Testament, making Malachi the last book before the New Testament … The book is commonly attributed to a prophet by the name of Malachi. Although the appellation Malachi has frequently been understood as a proper name, its Hebrew meaning is simply "My [i.e., God's] messenger" (or 'His messenger' in the Septuagint) and may not be the author's name at all. The sobriquet occurs in the superscription at 1:1 and in 3:1, although it is highly unlikely that the word refers to the same character in both of these references. Thus, there is substantial debate regarding the identity of the book's author. One of the Targums [a translation or paraphrase or interpretation in Aramaic of a book or division of the Old Testament] identifies Ezra (or Esdras) as the author of Malachi. St. Jerome suggests this may be because Ezra is seen as an intermediary between the prophets and the 'great synagogue' … Some scholars note affinities between Zechariah 9–14 and the book of Malachi. Zechariah 9, Zechariah 12, and Malachi 1 are all introduced as The word of Elohim. Many scholars argue that this collection originally consisted of three independent and anonymous prophecies, two of which were subsequently appended to the book of Zechariah (as what scholars refer to as Deutero-Zechariah) with the third becoming the book of Malachi. As a result, most scholars consider the book of Malachi to be the work of a single author who may or may not have been identified by the title Malachi. The present division of the oracles results in a total of twelve books of minor prophets— a number paralleling the sons of Jacob who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel …” “In England the [proper] name [Malachi] came into use after the Protestant Reformation.” (the English Wikipedia)

Let us look at the above information carefully:

a) The biblical book which is titled: Malachi, may not be written by some Prophet called Malachi at all; i.e. there may not be any biblical Prophet called Malachi at all.

b) Malachi in Hebrew means “My (God’s) messenger.

c) There are prophecies in this book regarding a person whom God calls: “My (God’s) messenger”.

d) This book may have been a prophecy written by another biblical Prophet such as Ezra or another single author, which biblical scholars made it as a separate book called Milachi later, containing prophecies with connections to prophecies which were added later to the biblical book of Zechariah (chapters 9–14).

e) Jews and christians have arranged the minor prophets so that The present division of the oracles may result in a total of twelve books of minor prophets— a number paralleling the sons of Jacob who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. I.e. Arranging the number of so called minor Prophets to be  twelve, a holy number, to make it look as a holy concept.

f) A separate book called Malachi was introduced later by biblical scholars; interestingly after the Protestant Reformation- which was after the christian Crusade wars with Muslims and thus after the undeniable realization of biblical scholars that the Last Prophet and Messenger of Allah, Mohammad (SAWA) was the Promised Prophet and Messenger- the term “Malachi” which means “My Messenger” started to be used as a proper name and not as a prophesied concept therefore conveniently hiding the identity of Mohammad (SAWA).

It is noteworthy to mention that Zechariah 9:9 contains a prophecy regarding a king for Jerusalem riding an ass, which- from bible itself- can be taken as a glad tiding for coming of the Prophet Jesus (SBUH); gospel of John 12:14 states, “And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written.”.

And that which is called the book of Malachi in the current bible contains prophecies regarding some one whom God refers to him as: ”My Messenger”.

Here let us again look at Isaiah 21:7, douay-rheims version, challoner revision (DRC) which states:

And he saw a chariot with two horsemen, a rider upon an ass, and a rider upon a camel: and he beheld them diligently with much heed. 

Now let us remember a statement from Imam Reza (SBUH) in one of his debates with a jewish scholar as narrated in Tawheed Sadooq, ‘Oyoon Akhbaar al-Reza and …:

… Imam Reza (SBUH): And the Prophet Esha'ya (Isaiah) has said in that which you and your companions say in Tawrat: I saw two riders which the earth became bright for them, one of them was on ass, and the other one on camel; so who rode the ass, and who the camel?

Ra's al-Jaaloot: I do not know those two; so inform me of them.

The Imam: The rider of ass was ‘Eesa (Jesus), and the rider of camel, Mohammad …

Of course due to distortions, omissions, additions and … the statements of previous scriptures have not remained pure but still it is obvious that there were glad tidings to two major Prophets and Messengers to come after Moses (SBUT), i.e. Hadrat ‘Eesa (SBUH) and Hadrat Mohammad (SAWA) in the original scriptures. Here it is a logical assumption that the glad tidings to “My Messenger” “whom you desire” in the so called book of Milachi may be related to Hadrat Mohammad (SAWA) and Hadrat ‘Ali (SBUH).

In the so called book of Malachi it is said:

King James Version (KJV):

3:1 Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me [before my face (DRC)]: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even [and (ASV and DRC)] the messenger of the covenant, whom ye (you) delight in [desire (ASV and DRC): behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.

To be continued …