Early Islam as a Messianic Movement : A Non-Issue?

José Costa (1)

1 CEAO - CEAO - Centre des Etudes Arabes et Orientales - EA 1734

José Costa reminds us that, while the Qur’ān refers to Jesus as the ‘Messiah’, it never explains the meaning of the term. And if one leaves aside the ambiguous passages dealing with al-masīḥ, then the Messiah and messianism do not appear in the Qur’ān. This absence is all the more puzzling given that eschatology and apocalypticism do play an important role within it. Costa argues that the early layers of the Qur’ān contain a non-messianic eschatology, and the late layers a non-eschatological Messiah. The former may be related to a Jewish background, the latter connected to Ebionite Christology.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société

José Costa. Early Islam as a Messianic Movement : A Non-Issue?. C. A. Segovia (éd.). Remapping Emergent Islam : Texts, Social Settings, and Ideological Trajectories, Amsterdam University Press, p. 45-81, 2020. ⟨hal-03993133⟩