A topic that caught my attention in Zellentin’s The Qurʾān’s Legal Culture, chapter 3, is that in the Didascalia Apostolorum he says of Jesus “the one who frees us from burdens and weights.” Similarly, the Quran describes the prophet of Islam in Al-A’raf 157 as “the lifter of their burdens”.
Since the Bible is the final law, he uses the expression “seal” for the Bible, just as the prophet is called the seal of the prophets in the Quran, and Didascalia’s definition of the Bible (confirming the Torah and replacing it, etc.) parallels the Quran’s description of itself. contains (Q3:50, Q5:48)
Another similarity of discourse between Didascalia and the Quran, explained in the same chapter, is that in both texts, the laws given to the Jews were given as punishment because the Jews were sinners.
Apart from such similarities in discourse, their similarities in terms of judgment are also explained in other chapters of the book:
If we look at the legal context of the Quran’s period, it is possible to see certain parallels. Parallels between Q24:31 and Didascalia Apostolorum, written approximately in the 3rd century C.E:
Another example of legal parallelism is the parallelism between Maide 33 and 38 and the sanctions of Codex Justinianus:
Likewise, parallels between Maide 33 and 2 Samuel 4 in the Masoretic Text and Targum Jonathan: It is also striking that the terms used for “killing, cross, hand and foot” in the Quran come from the same root as the expressions in the Hebrew text.
There was a concept that developed in the Hebrew Bible & New Testament of not looking at a woman with lust (Matthew 5.27-28, Job 31.1, Proverbs 6.25, Galatians 5.16, 1 John 2.16, 2 Peter 2.14). The difference is that there’s this conservative legal code in both, but Qu’ran had this concept of not looking at believing women, instead of just lust.
In the legal corpus prepared by Justinian (AD 542); If the husband accuses his wife of adultery and cannot prove it, he will receive the same punishment as the wife would have received for the crime of adultery: “Those who slander chaste women [and cannot prove it], give them eighty lashes.” | Nur 4
According to the same legal text, the punishment for women who commit adultery is: (1) Corporal punishment and (2) lifelong confinement in a monastery. However, if the husband wants to take his wife back, he can do so. | Corpus Iuris Civilis 134.10
The elements of ‘corporal punishment’ and ‘lifelong confinement’ in Justinian’s legal corpus are especially found in the verses Nisa 34, An-Nur 2 and An-Nisa 15 in the Quran.
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