The stories of how Jesus was conceived as narrated in the Qur’an and Bible

Table of Contents

• Revelations or Representation? 
• The Mary Question 
• The Qur'an
• The Bible

Today, I have chosen the eve of Christmas to write about how Jesus was conceived as narrated in the Qur’an and the Bible. Doing this, I intend to infer Mary’s role as the ark who delivered the child to the world. I must declare at this point that this is not an academic paper, even though I pose the question: Revelations or representation?

Revelations or Representation? 

Some scriptural scholars have argued that there are elements of biblical events and incidents noted in the Qur’an and because the bible came first before the Qur’an such events and incidents must have been from the Bible. Some have argued that they were as results of divine revelation, that is, God communicating his mind to humans. Whichever side you take, this writing aims to uplift human spirits to righteousness, peace and joy and seeks to bridge the gap between Christianity and Islam.  

The Mary Question 

Mary or Maryam is an important figure both in the Bible and the Qur'an because of her role as a mother of Jesus, who is God and Man for the Christians, and mother of Jesus, who is a Messenger of Allah for the Muslims. The accounts of her role in both sacred literatures are similar though the interpretations differ. Briefly, I will examine some Qur'anic and Biblical texts to support these claims.

The Qur'an

In the Qur’an Mary is considered as an embodiment of piety, honour, and dignity. She was a woman whom the Qur’an devoted to her name a full chapter, called Maryam – the 19th chapter of the Qur’an. In the Qur’an, Mary is accorded great respect and regarded as a vessel of honour.

Writing about Mary in the Qur’an, a few citations will be made from the Qur’anic surahs: Al-Imran and Maryam.

The angels were sent to Mary, and they greeted her with respect and declared to her how she has been chosen by God.

And (mention) when the angels said, ‘O Mary, indeed God has chosen you, purified you, and chosen you above the women of the worlds.’  ‘O Mary be devoutly obedient to your Lord and prostrate and bow down along those who bow down (in prayer)’ (Qur'an 3:42-43).

In the Qur’an, Mary is considered as a devoted handmaid of God. She was noted as separating herself from people to be alone with none but God. “And mention, [O Muhammad], in the Book [the story of] Mary, when she withdrew from her family to a place toward the east” (Qur'an 19:16).

In the Qur’an, Mary is considered a virgin. She was untouched by any human person before she was conceived of her son. The Qur’an teaches that Jesus is the word of God but only the son of Mary and not Son of God. The Qur’an identifies Jesus as created by God and thus, he is a worshipper of God, as well as a righteous and honest person.

[And mention] when the angels said, “O Mary, indeed Allah gives you good tidings of a word from Him, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary – distinguished in this world and the Hereafter and among those brought near [to Allah]. He will speak to the people in the cradle and in maturity and will be of the righteous.” She said, “My Lord, how will I have a child when no man has touched me?” [The angel] said, “Such is Allah; He creates what He wills. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, ‘Be,’ and it is” (Qur'an 3:45-47).

The Qur’an expressively stated that the angel brought to Mary the message that she was to conceive of a son, whose name will be the Messiah, Jesus, and son of Mary, and set apart from the rest, here now and hereafter.

Briefly, the above Qur’anic account on how Jesus was conceived is centred on Mary’s character. At the same time, her motherly role was imbued with deep sense of holiness and devoutness.  

The Bible

There is not much difference from the account given above from the biblical account. However, of all the accounts about Jesus in the Gospels, only the account according to Luke explicitly recounted how Jesus was conceived that appears to suggest that the same revelation given to Luke was also given to the person(s) who wrote the account about Mary in the Qur’an. In both writings, Mary’s character, devotion, and simplicity were remarkably established.

To delineate the correspondence of the Lukan account with the Qur’anic accounts mentioned above, I am going to intersperse the story of how Jesus was conceived according to the gospel of St Luke chapter 1: 26-38.

In Luke chapter 1:26-29, the angelic message was enunciated:

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you (Luke 1: 26-28).

We understand favour as ‘approval’, ‘liking’ or ‘esteem’. The angel declared to Mary that she was God’s favourite for a role. It was a praise of her character from God. And then the angel dropped the bulk of the message.

But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:29-33).

Mary was perplexed when the angel told her that she has found favour in the eyes of God. However, her reaction to the angel’s message that she would conceive while a virgin is mind boggling to me as I write this, how much more Mary’s consternation and reaction to it. As if that were not enough, the angel told her that she would become the ‘Mother of Son of God.’ Here is a contrast with the Qur’anic depiction of Jesus as son of Mary. The Lukan account considers Jesus as ‘Son of God’.

Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I am a virgin? (Luke 1:34).

The angel even made another outlandish utterance to a woman who barely knew the man she was to marry how much more sleeping with another man. "The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most-High will overshadow you; therefore, the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God …” (Luke 1:35).

Imagine a child that was told that he is ‘the father of the man.’ What the angel said to Mary made no sense to her. They were like paradoxes. However, in her simplicity, Mary submitted to the will of God in these words:

Then Mary said, 'Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word' (Luke 1:38). She did not fight it. She took it to heart and reflected on it.

Some would ask: What is peaceful, joyful, and righteous about this story of how Jesus was conceived? Was it about a virgin who was not consulted before a decision was made by God? Was it her husband who was denied the right to be the man to be with his wife? Was it the choice made by a higher power rather than the person who was being asked to carry the burden of becoming a mother of a Son of God? All these make no sense to our natural ways of looking at things.

What makes sense is how God appears in history, in situations unimaginable and conditions unexplainable.

The stories of how Jesus was conceived as narrated in both the Qur’an and the Bible is one and the same story. They could be nuanced here and there; the themes are the same: Mary was a virgin who mysteriously conceived a child, and that Jesus is the Messiah. Both are enough to solder the fractured relationship between those who consider the Qur’an as their source of revelation and those who consider the Bible as theirs.