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In reading the Qur'an, I noticed this passage:

Qur'an 9:30 The Jews say, "Ezra is the son of Allah "; and the Christians say, "The Messiah is the son of Allah ." That is their statement from their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who disbelieved [before them]. May Allah destroy them; how are they deluded?

Is there any basis for the claim? Did Jews believe Ezra to be the son of God when the Qur'an was written?

Loewian
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StackExchange saddens dancek
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    I'm sorry if this is off-topic. I don't believe the claim at all, but I want confirmation -- and this is the only place I know for asking. – StackExchange saddens dancek Sep 28 '11 at 05:09
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    Maybe it comes from the notion that Ezra was the one who translated the Torah into Ashurit and gave it taamim (trope) and nedukot (vowels)? – Adam Mosheh Jan 10 '12 at 18:11
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    i dont think Islam or Christianity should be up for discussion in this forum. – rabbi Jan 14 '14 at 23:28
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    @rabbi You may bring that up on [meta] if you want, but as far as I know everyone agrees with that... – Double AA Jan 15 '14 at 02:55
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    This verse has been cited as proof that the Koran is a fraud. Indeed the claim that Jews ascribe any sort of divinity to Ezra is preposterous. Muslim apologists have attempted to defend the verse by saying that it refers to some local heretical sect of Jews who did have such beliefs. (Of course, there's no reason to believe that such a sect actually existed.) – Ephraim Jan 15 '14 at 06:36
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    @Ephraim "Of course, there's no reason to believe that such a sect actually existed." - According to this question: http://judaism.stackexchange.com/questions/75857/what-school-of-thought-did-the-jews-of-medina-or-yathrib-follow it seems like nobody knew what school of thoughts the jews in Medina was practicing. What if they (or some of them) actually believed Ezra was the son Of God? The statement in the Quran should instead indicate that yes, some Jews (in that particular time and place) believed in Ezra as the son of God. It doesn't mean all Jews believed this. – Kilise Aug 30 '16 at 11:31
  • See also pg. 9 (through 10) here. – Seth J Nov 19 '17 at 17:03
  • dude don't bring non jewish sources for a jewish site, just basic common sense –  Aug 08 '19 at 06:35
  • A friend who's studying Middle Eastern culture and Arabic told that the Jewish-Arab tribes that Mohammed had contact with may not have actually been Jewish. If this is so, or that they weren't too observant, at least, I can see Mohammed hearing some of them saying something like this without basis and thinking this is a real Jewish belief. – Harel13 Feb 14 '20 at 05:03
  • Maybe some kooks did. Not the vast majority of Jews. – Turk Hill Nov 30 '21 at 00:43

7 Answers7

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I had never heard of this claim before. It certainly doesn't fit with everything I understand about Judaism.

The Wikipedia article on Uzair (Qur'anic Arabic for Ezra, apparently) contains a great deal of interesting information about this claim in the Qur'an, including why it's incompatible with actual Jewish beliefs and some suppositions about how it got into the Qur'an anyway. I think the following quotation from Exodus Rabba 29 makes the former point pretty ably:

'I am the first and I am the last, and beside Me there is no God' I am the first, I have no father; I am the last, I have no brother. Beside Me there is no God; I have no son."

Isaac Moses
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    If you translate the Arabic verse there in the Quran then you will come to know that it is a claim of some Jews and not something which forms the core belief of Judaism. FYI: http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.030 – Maxood Feb 21 '12 at 10:32
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    Do some jews really claim that or is the muslim just made this up? – user4951 May 02 '12 at 11:04
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    @JimThio I have never heard of this claim except from here. Ever. If any Jews had ever claimed this, you can bet there would at least be historic Rabbinic authorities mentioning it as a false belief. I can't comment on the last part of your sentence. – HodofHod May 15 '12 at 18:41
  • Maybe muhammad think that christians think that jesus is a son of God and not knowing details he interpolate that jews are similar too. – user4951 May 16 '12 at 08:33
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    @JimThio Even if, I find it strange that he chose Ezra, who, although important, is not seen as fundamental as say, Moses. – HodofHod May 17 '12 at 03:10
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    @maxood, this question is not, "what does this verse in the Qur'an mean," but, "has this claim in the Qur'an about Jews ever been true?" – Seth J Dec 27 '12 at 01:35
  • See also pg. 9 (through 10) here. – Seth J Nov 19 '17 at 17:00
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No. This concept is completely foreign to Judaism. The other religion mentioned derived the concept from paganism, not Judaism.

yoel
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    Do you have a source for the second part of your answer? – Seth J Sep 28 '11 at 15:31
  • I agree with you that the notion is completely foreign to Judaism. But if you read the Arabic verse then it merely states this notion as a "claim", and not a part of Jewish faith. FYI: http://www.cmje.org/religious-texts/quran/verses/009-qmt.php#009.030 – Maxood Feb 21 '12 at 10:34
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    @maxood, this question is not, "what does this verse in the Qur'an mean," but, "has this claim in the Qur'an about Jews ever been true?" – Seth J Dec 27 '12 at 01:36
  • @SethJ As i said before: "it is not a claim by the Quran but a certain number of Jews used to debate with the Christians in those days at a particular event." – Maxood Dec 27 '12 at 08:53
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    @Maxood where is this claim made other than in the Quran? If it cannot be sourced anywhere else, it is by definition a claim made by the Quran. You are perhaps assuming that the Quran is true. This is not an assumption you will find shared by non-Muslims. – yoel Dec 27 '12 at 11:00
  • @SethJ If no one can know for sure what school of thought the Jews in the time (and place) of the Prophet Muhammad was following (or those who the verse is directed upon), one cannot say "has this claim in the Qur'an about Jews ever been true?" – Kilise Sep 01 '16 at 14:16
  • @Kilise, I don't disagree with you. But then, that does not make this question into something about the validity of a Qur'anic verse vis a vis Jewish theology; rather, it makes this question unanswerable. Either way, we can only provide answers about Judaism, not about the personal thoughts inside the heads of some Jews who lived around the time and place of Muhammad. – Seth J Sep 01 '16 at 15:46
  • @SethJ I agree. But I do think an answer including the fact that some Jews in that time and that particular area might have hold these beliefs even though it is against the mainstream beliefs in Judaism and that such claims from a Jew would be unacceptable (and maybe such claims would exclude one as Jew at all?) – Kilise Sep 01 '16 at 18:41
  • @Kilise Not sure what you're trying to say. That would probably be off-topic. – Seth J Sep 01 '16 at 19:38
  • @SethJ Maybe you are right. Also feels the whole question would be Off topic , because the statement is related to the question. Anyways have a nice day! – Kilise Sep 01 '16 at 19:42
  • Down-voted because while most of this answer is correct, it included a false statement claiming Christianity borrowing was borrowing from paganism with regards to a divine messiah. Virtually no credible scholars of 1st century Israel believe such a thing. It's merely a slur by religious fundamentalists within Judaism to make such an unsubstantiated claim. On the contrary, reputable scholars, like R. Daniel Boyarin of Berkeley, have demonstrated that the idea of a divine messiah was one of several competing Jewish expectations of messiah among 1st century Judaisms. – Judah Gabriel Himango Apr 30 '18 at 21:07
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No more so than the belief that we are all G-d's children. Ezra is, however, compared to Moses (Sanhedrin, bottom of 21b; See also Yad Rama ad loc Sanhedrin 36a and Gittin 59a (comparing Ezra to Moses as a national leader and the greatest Torah scholar of his generation).

Bruce James
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    Welcome to Mi Yodeya! +1 for the first part. Please consider adding a source for the second. – HodofHod Dec 26 '12 at 21:49
  • Comparing Ezra to Moses proves nothing, as no one ever claimed Moses was the son of G-d, chas veshalom. – N.T. Nov 30 '21 at 01:13
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The concept of anyone being the son of God is very foreign to Judaism, as well as the majority of Jews.

Also, that's not what that verse says (but interpreting the Quran is off-topic here).

Monica Cellio
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Rabbi Tovia Singer, in response to this claim, said that some Jews in Egypt probably did believe Ezra was the son of G-d but that everyone has their “crazies,” and that this should not be attributed to mainstream Judaism which is strictly monotheistic.

Yehuda
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Turk Hill
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Dr. Bat Sheva Garsiel in her book "Bible, Midrash and Quran", pp. 181-182, discusses this passage and suggests two possible explanations for the origins of this idea:

  1. What @BruceJames brought, that Ezra is compared to Moshe in the gemara.

  2. In the apocryphal 4th Ezra, it says that Ezra, upon completing his duties on earth, rose to the heavens and became known as the "Scribe of the Most High" (Syriac 4th Ezra/2 Esdras, 14:49)

The second possibility falls in line with what Tabari, one of the classic Quran commentators, says about this passage: Tabari, according to Garsiel, heard from Jews of his time that Jews do not have such a tradition. And so he wrote that this tradition was held either by one Jew named Pinchas, or by a small sect of Jews. He also wrote that he heard from Wahb ibn Munabbih, a Muslim who wrote works on Jewish stories and traditions, that Jews hold the belief that when the First Temple was destroyed, all of the Torah was lost and Ezra remembered all of it and wrote it down. This particular claim is a key part of 4th Ezra (see chapter 14).

Garsiel wrote the connection to 4th Ezra in the name of Speyer, who also suggested (pg. 413) something she didn't mention, which is that perhaps Muhammed knew a Jewish-Christian sect that worshipped Ezra in the manner that some Christians worship Malkitzedek.

Harel13
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It's an absurd concept that has no historical basis. Islam came along 600 years or so after the fall of the Second Temple so it isn't even like the Quran has any historical/archeological basis to that claim. It is like claiming that the rabbis distorted the words of the Torah to make Lot look like a non-righteous man (Islamic doctrine does not agree with Jewish doctrine that Lot slept with his daughters).

rosen
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    Sources for your claims would increase the value of this post. – Double AA May 13 '13 at 15:28
  • so it isn't even like the Quran has any historical/archeological basis Maybe Muhammad was describing what he saw in his time? –  Jun 17 '16 at 02:52