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Rick Warren's
Inauguration Prayer - 2009 Barak Obama |
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Editors Note: The following article generated some specific questions, mostly regarding the sub-topic of whether Isa is the Jesus of Scriptures. This led to a part II for this article, which is included immediately after the original article. |
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Rick Warren's Inauguration Prayer - 2009 Barak Obama If I was going to offer a prayer that could be interpreted positively and embraced by as many people as possible, Rick Warren's prayer would be a great template.1 A formula for crafting such wording could go as follows: First, intentionally choose phrasing that would have special and recognizable wording to the groups you want to include. From Rick Warren's prayer:
Jews everywhere will recognize this as the Shema, the key statement in Jewish worship. For reference, the following is from the Jewish Virtual Library...
Moving to another large and growing religious group, again from Rick Warren's prayer:
Muslims would readily embrace this wording, which closely paraphrases the opening of the Qur'an and, indeed, the opening words of almost every section of the Qur'an. For reference, from a Muslim article entitled "Compassion In Islam - Theology and History"...
Finally, to encompass virtually every other person who has even a vague concept of God...
Certainly it is necessary to use wording that would be acceptable to Christians as well, Protestant or Catholic, and it should be noted that none of the statements above would be disagreed with by most using the name Christian. Apart from their meaning and understanding in their respective groups, Christians could claim the wording as their own.
The Jew, the Muslim, or the Christian, looking to their own definition of who God is, will define the "you" in this portion of Rick Warren's prayer. All can say Amen. So too with this later statement:
Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus - the "you" can be filled in by those praying along. But since the one praying professes to be a follower of Jesus, the prayer needs to subtly point out the path the prayer has chosen and personally works for him.
Hebrew, Spanish, or English - the name of Jesus has meaning. As with most languages in the world it was transliterated out of the original language, referencing the historical person revealed and defined by the Bible. The original defining work is the context of the name; while others can "redefine" it, there is an objective standard, the original work which establishes it. How can a prayer be softened to remove the offense of the name? Add another name, not merely another language, but one that it clearly defined by another work. The name "Isa (pronounced 'eee-sa')" is not a transliterated form of the name Jesus, it is the name of one we are often told is Jesus, but cannot be ascertained to be so by how he is defined in the original work. The Qur'an and the subsequent Muslim Hadith, a book of recollections of Muhammad's words and deeds, the only two books that define the name, fully describe their "Isa". (The following is a quotation from an article entitled "Isa, the Muslim Jesus" by Dr. Mark Durie, with some format changes for extra clarity. Even so, please tolerate his wording for the sake of its content).
This Jesus certainly would appeal to the Muslims saying Amen to this prayer. Not evangelical Bible believing Christians who speak Arabic, for the name is not merely an Arabic translation as some profess, but Arabic speaking evangelicals are a small minority so there's nothing to worry about in trying to be acceptable to the masses. [See END NOTE 2 on the true Christian Arabic name for Jesus.] Everything included so far would be what I would do to make a non-offensive, extremely ecumenical, prayer. I'm not sure I could do it any better than Rick Warren's example. BUT, I would not want to craft my prayer for the earthly audience, but with a focus on the heavenly one and a goal that others will be able to legitimately say amen along with me (-"along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." 2 Timothy 2:22b). Heaven forbid that I should invoke the name of a false god - or even pray to the one true God in the name of a false prophet.
The only way to God is through His Son - Jesus.
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Part II -- Is the Muslim Isa the Jesus of Scriptures? It is improbable that Rick Warren utilized Isa, as a name for Jesus, with blatantly evil intent. It is more likely that in his striving to be all inclusive he did so out of carelessness, not understanding his choice of words. In fact, if he inquired of a Muslim, they would be quick to tell him that Jesus' name is Isa - based solely on the Qur'an. It was not his goal to include the Arabic language so much as it was his objective to include Muslims. If the prayer was merely trying to encompass a multitude of Christians, in varying cultures represented in the United States, census statistics show eleven other languages which have more speakers than Arabic.4 The etymology of the word Isa is a great question. Is there any justification for using this name as a valid representation of the Jesus of Scriptures? From my research, I cannot find any scholar, including Muslim apologists, who show any pre-Islamic usage of the name Isa in Arabic texts or documents. This leaves the Qur'an alone as the earliest defining tome on this name. In fact, the Qur'an, in regards to most other names, and especially that of "prophets" (by their definition), the names in the Qur'an followed the usual method of transliteration, carrying a similar sounding. Examples include: Ibrahim (Abraham), 'Ishaq (Issac), Yaqub (Jacob), Nuh (Noah), Dawud (David), Sulaiman (Solomon), Ayyub (Job), Yusuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Harun (Aaron), Zakariyya (Zachariah), Yahya (John the Baptist), Ishmael, Al-Yash'a (Elisha), Yunus (Jonah) and Lut (Lot). This makes senses that Muhammad, who was illiterate, would use similar sounding names. To utilize names having similar meaning requires a deeper understanding of the original languages. So what happened with the name of Jesus? Simply put, it appears that Muhammad substituted a different and original name for Him. Perhaps this was the work of the "angel", the one who mislead Muhammad, his professed source of the demonic doctrines which he subsequently taught. Some Muslim apologists have tried to claim that the name Isa is from the Latin Iesus (of the Greek Iesous, itself a Hellenisation of the Hebrew Yehoshua or the related Aramaic Yeshua, meaning "God Yahweh saves"), but scholars disagree. A "major discrepancy" is the best term assigned to any comparison between alternate and earlier forms of the name Jesus and the Muslim Isa. A later variant of the Aramaic language, called Western Aramaic, is said to have the name "Eesho", which some speculate became "Eesaa", and finally Muhammad's Isa. If this is so, it raises concerns based on meaning, as "Eesho" means "something white in color mixed with darkness or reddishness." How far removed would this name be from the meaning of the Biblical name Jesus?! In fact, by meaning of name (and names commonly have meaning throughout the Biblical languages and many Middle Eastern languages of the past and present), this name opposes the revealed nature of God.
Regardless of much speculation, there is virtually no hard evidence that the Isa of the Qur'an was derived from even the western Aramaic variant and one would have to question why this single name would be pulled from that language while the names of Muhammad's other prophets don't seem to have the same source. This appears to be Muslim scholars grasping at some kind of evidence to support an aspect of the Qur'an which make no sense in light of its professed compatibility with Jewish and Christian Scriptures. Because names make a difference, especially one that is only defined by an anti-Christian source, the Arabic Christian church has rejected the name Isa. Evidence of this being a longstanding rejection extends back at least to the 10th century A.D. Arabic translations of the Bible have utilized the name Yasou (alt Yasu, Yaso'a) instead of Isa. It is the long held belief of the Arabic church that this was always so, but manuscript evidence, for or against, is quite sparse. Certainly, that the Arabic translators of that early era used a name transliterated with meaning is itself evidence that believers retained knowledge of Jesus' name apart from the alternate created in the Qur'an. Early examples of variants of the name Yeshua where in common usage throughout the Middle East, not only among later Arabs, but even employed by some who wrote works to disparage the Biblical Jesus. A Muslim apologist's response to the claim that Yasou was the original Arabic name for Jesus is quite revealing. While acknowledging that the word was used, and that it was a transliteration of the Aramaic "Yeshua", he claims that because it was borrowed from the Hebrew (sic) it is not Arabic. In fact, he then claims that since Muslim created Arabic lexicons do not have the word today, this is proof that it's not an Arabic word!
By this definition the rest of the names of the other prophets of Islam (Old Testament and New) should not be considered Arabic as well, except Muslims have accepted them. This same Muslim apologist acknowledges that Jesus' name is normally transliterated in most translations of the Bible -INCLUDING in the Arabic Bible. But, grasping at straws, he can cite ONE example where a single translator used Qur'anic terminology. Since I am not an expert in Farsi, nor do I know any, I cannot comment on the accuracy of his terms and usage in that language.
The fact is, in Arabic, Christian Scriptures don't use Isa as a name for Jesus - believers know, and have known, that the Isa of the Qur'an is not the Jesus of the Bible. If Rick Warren wanted to validly be inclusive of Arabic believers he would have done well to have used the word Yasou instead of Isa. If Warren's usage was unintentional, upon finding this out, I believe that such a public figure should issue a clarification or apology for invoking the name of Isa. Should a believer allow this to stand as an offense to Arabic believers for the sake of including Muslims unbelievers?
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END NOTES. 1. Transcript of Dr. Warren's prayer at the presidential inauguration:
2. Also from an article entitled "Isa, the Muslim Jesus" by Dr. Mark Durie. Notice especially the last line showing that Arabic believers do have a transliterated name to reference the Jesus of Scriptures.
More on this subject is in the later written part II of this article. 3. If a person did go so far as to invoke the name of a false god, the principle behind the following passage in Deuteronomy still applies...
The one invoking the name of another god should be counted as dead to the church - in other words we shouldn't be listening or saying Amen. Invoking God through the name of a false prophet is dangerously close. 4. The 2000 Census shows these languages being used in the United States (with number of speakers):
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Article by Brent
MacDonald, Lion Tracks Ministries (c) 2009
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