Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yigal Levin <Yigal-Levin AT utc.edu>]

At 11:58 AM 7/15/2003 -0700, Peter Kirk wrote:
>Well, let me put it this way. According to Muslim tradition and the 
>Qur'an, all prophets were sinless, and that includes most of the major 
>figures in the Bible. According to the New Testament, only Jesus Christ 
>was sinless and indeed all others have sinned. Some ancient Christian 
>traditions also hold that the Virgin Mary was sinless.
>
While I have no stake in this one way or another, a billion Catholics (give
or take a few million) are "some ancient Christian traditions"? In any
case, it's important to distinguish between personal "sins" committed by
some (and probably all) humans and that "Original Sin" that Paul et al.
would have us all responsible for. No Jewish tradition, Chronicles
included, ever claimed that anyone is "sinless" - look at Moses and his
rock-hitting. As far as Muslim traditions, what the "perverted"
Jewish/Christian Bible says about Musa, Daud, Suleiman or Isa (Jesus) is
irrelevant anyway.

Yigal


Dr. Yigal Levin
Dept. of Philosophy and Religion
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
615 McCallie Avenue
Chattanooga TN 37403-2598
U.S.A.