KASPARS OZOLINS | Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Word of God provides scant information about the early life of our Lord. One notable exception is Luke’s account of Jesus sitting in the temple, asking questions of the teachers gathered there (Luke 2:41–52). But there are also other ancient texts that fill in some details about Jesus’ boyhood and his upbringing. One such text dates back to the second century AD, about a hundred years after Christ. Here is an excerpt:
When the boy Jesus was five years old, he was playing in a narrow part of a rushing stream. He was gathering the flowing waters into ponds, and immediately they were made clean, and he ordered these things with a single word. And after this, he made clay and molded twelve sparrows from it. And it was the Sabbath when he did these things. But there were also many other children playing with him. Then, a certain Jew saw what Jesus was doing while playing on the Sabbath. Immediately, he departed and reported this to Jesus’ father, Joseph. “Look, your child is in the stream and he took clay and formed twelve birds and profaned the Sabbath!” And Joseph went to the area and when he saw him, he shouted, “Why are you doing these things that are not permitted on the Sabbath?” Jesus, however, clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows, “Depart, fly, and remember me now that you are alive.” And the sparrows departed shrieking. When the Jews saw this, they were amazed. After they had gone away, they described to their leaders what they had seen Jesus do.
This report about Jesus was written by someone who introduces himself in the text as “Thomas the Israelite.” The “infancy gospel of Thomas,” as it is titled by scholars, provides many other details about the early life of Jesus, painting a particular (striking) image of Jesus of Nazareth. These and other similar stories about Jesus, it seems clear, had a wide distribution, and were to end up in several other surprising contexts.
Isa in Islam
Muslims revere Isa (Jesus) as a great prophet. He appears in over 90 verses in the Qur’an and is closely linked with the Injil (gospel). Isa is described as being born miraculously from the virgin Mary; in fact Muslims fully affirm the virgin birth. Isa is viewed by Muslims as the greatest of all prophets in Islam (apart from Muhammad). Furthermore, no one else in the Qur’an is identified as a “word” from God, giving Isa a unique and special status before Allah. In the Qur’an Isa performs many miracles, such as giving sight to the blind, healing lepers, and raising the dead to life. One such miracle is described by Allah in the Qur’an as follows:
And on Judgment Day Allah will say, “O Isa, son of Mary! Remember My favor upon you and your mother: how I supported you with the holy spirit [i.e., the angel Gabriel] so you spoke to people in your infancy and adulthood. How I taught you writing, wisdom, the Torah, and the Gospel. How you moulded a bird from clay—by My Will—and breathed into it and it became a real bird—by My Will. How you healed the blind and the lepers—by My Will. How you brought the dead to life—by My Will. How I prevented the Children of Israel from harming you when you came to them with clear proofs and the disbelievers among them said, “This is nothing but pure magic.” (Qur’an, surah 5:110)
This miracle account of Isa creating living birds from clay is uncanny in its resemblance to the story found in Thomas’ infancy gospel, and it is in all likelihood derived from it. It turns out that the prophet Muhammed heard many stories and legends in the desert about Jesus, and they form an important background in the portrait of Isa, son of Mary, prophet of Allah.
Yeshu in Judaism
Unlike in Islam, rabbinic Judaism does not have a favorable view of Yeshu (Jesus). The Talmud describes Yeshu the Nazarene as a sorcerer and a magician, one who deceived the people and enticed them to apostasy. (Note that they called him a sorcerer because they could not refute his miracles.) He was therefore tried and stoned for his evil. His body was hung on the eve of Passover. The ultimate fate of Yeshu the Nazarene was grim: he would be boiled in excrement in Gehenna for all eternity.
A certain polemical text that circulated later in the Middle Ages called “Toledot Yeshu” speaks in mocking terms about Yeshu. It is, in effect, a parody of Christianity.
A certain polemical text that circulated later in the Middle Ages called “Toledot Yeshu” speaks in mocking terms about Yeshu. It is, in effect, a parody of Christianity. Yeshu is described as having been born as a result of illicit sexual activity during Mary’s period. In his adulthood, he gathered apostate followers around him and created great division in Israel (which was ruled at that time by a queen). At one point in the narrative, the legend from Thomas’ infancy gospel suddenly and surprisingly reemerges:
Yeshu went to upper Galilee. And the wise men gathered and went before the queen and said to her, “Our lady, he [Yeshu] employs sorcery and he is deluding creatures by means of it.” Thus she sent cavalrymen for him, and they found him as he was deluding the people of upper Galilee, and he was saying to them, “I am the son of God, as is written in your Torah.” The cavalrymen stood up to bring him, but the people of upper Galilee would not release him, and they made war. Yeshu said to them, “Do not make war! Return in the might of my Father who is in heaven.” And the men of the Galilee made birds of clay, and he [Yeshu] would pronounce the letters of the Name [of God], and the birds would fly.
Jesus in Seventh-day Adventism
The prophetess of Seventh-day Adventism, Ellen G. White, wrote voluminously about Jesus. In addition to her well-known book, The Desire of Ages (1898), there is a lesser-known adaptation of hers written for children, titled The Story of Jesus. In this book, a Jesus is presented to children which can only be described as distinctive and unique.
Of his origins, White states, “Jesus in His childhood lived in a little mountain village.” His character is described in the following way, “His mind was bright and active. He was of quick understanding, and showed a thoughtfulness and wisdom beyond His years. Yet His ways were simple and childlike, and He grew in mind and body as other children grow.” White gives special information about his attitude toward others, including animals: “He was thoughtful and kind toward the aged and the poor, and He showed kindness even to the dumb animals. He would care tenderly for a little wounded bird, and every living thing was happier when He was near.”
Ellen White concludes her The Story of Jesus written to Adventist children by describing a future where “God’s holy law will be honored by all beneath the sun. Those who have proved themselves true to God by keeping His commandments, shall dwell with Him.”
By contrast, Scripture beautifully describes what the biblical Jesus will have accomplished for his people in the new heaven and earth by his death and resurrection: “[N]ight will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever”—(Revelation 22:5).
What’s in a name?
Islam, rabbinic Judaism, and Adventism have each in their own way painted a portrait of an extra-biblical Jesus. Whether by theological subtraction, or, more commonly, addition and alteration, the picture of Jesus that emerges is a distortion of how Scripture describes the Son of God. These extra-biblical portraits should alert a Spirit-indwelt believer that something very serious has gone awry.
In another respect, however, the Jesus of Adventism differs radically from that of Islam or rabbinic Judaism. What I mean by this is the following.
…both Muslims and Christians recognize that Islam’s “Isa” is not Christianity’s “Yasu.”
When Arabic-speaking Christians communicate and read about the true Jesus, they deliberately and universally avoid using the Islamic term “Isa.” Rather, they speak of “Yasu,” the true Son of God and only Savior of the world. In fact, both Muslims and Christians recognize that Islam’s “Isa” is not Christianity’s “Yasu.” If a Christian were to try to convert a Muslim by speaking about “Isa,” that would almost certainly be viewed as deceptive and misleading (this I have learned from my friend and colleague Dr. Ayman Ibrahim, an expert in Islamic studies here at SBTS). The God of Islam is Allah, and the God of Christianity is Jesus Christ—they are not to be confused.
Similarly, while rabbinic Judaism has a character named “Yeshu the Nazarene” (a term widely used in Israel today), Israeli believers in Jesus exclusively use the term “Yeshua.” The term “Yeshu” is viewed as derogatory and does not communicate and convey the Savior these believers know and love. “Yeshua” (ישוע) is, in fact, the true Hebrew name of Jesus, identical to Joshua’s in the Old Testament (which is fascinating, given the argument of Hebrews 4:8). There is some evidence that the term “Yeshu” (ישו) has its origins in the Jerusalemite dialect current in Jesus’ day. The slightly different pronunciation used by the scribes and Pharisees based in Jerusalem would have served to highlight the stigma attached to this would-be Messiah from backwater Nazareth (cf. John 1:46).
Adventism has learned from Ellen White and its other founders a Jesus that is radically different from the Jesus of the Bible, yet this different Jesus is masked by the use of the same term.
But the false Jesus of Seventh-day Adventism goes by the same name as the one used by Christians. Adventism has learned from Ellen White and its other founders a Jesus that is radically different from the Jesus of the Bible, yet this different Jesus is masked by the use of the same term. In White’s elaborate prehistory, Jesus supposedly received special honor from the Father, leading Satan to become jealous, since he alone was next in honor to Christ. As a matter of fact, the entire Great Controversy paradigm flows from a Jesus who looks awfully similar to a creature, and not almighty God. In his incarnation, this Jesus is claimed to have had a fallen, sinful nature. He must be given no advantage over us (read: the divine advantage of impeccability), lest sinful humans be found to be utterly helpless to save themselves, even with divine “assistance” for the perfection of their characters. Furthermore, had he failed to complete his mission, this Jesus would have apparently lost his status as the son of God (a status that was originally illegitimate in the first place, according to Satan).
Embracing the true Jesus
In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, a famous rhetorical question is posed by Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” The point is clear. It makes no difference to “Juliet of Capulet” that “Romeo of Montague” bears a name that links him to a rival feuding family. Romeo remains her beloved Romeo regardless of his name. But the Jesus of Adventism is a different Jesus altogether, and it is therefore a matter of great concern that the same name is used to refer to another Christ.
In Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he agonizes with them, pleading that the church’s hardened minority which is so vehemently opposed to him would repent. Paul writes movingly, saying that he feels “a divine jealousy” for the Corinthians, since he betrothed them to one husband, to present them as a pure virgin to Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2). Although we are not aware of the details concerning the kind of Jesus that some of them apparently had accepted, Paul clearly singles out this issue: “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:4).
We know, therefore, that salvation is not a mere word game. Another Jesus will never save, even if he is presented as bearing the same name as the true Jesus. The only name that saves—Jesus, which Peter identifies in his sermon in Acts 4—corresponds to the actual person who saves: the eternal Son of God. May we, together with the rest of the saints, wait in faith “for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ!” (Titus 2:13). †
Kaspars Ozolins was born in Latvia to an Adventist family. They moved to Los Angeles where Kaspars attended Adventist elementary and high schools in Glendale, California, and his father was an Adventist pastor. He met Ieva, his wife, while studying in Latvia before pursuing a doctorate at UCLA in historical linguistics. After Kaspars completed an M. Div. at The Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, California, he served as a research associate at Tyndale House in Old Testament and the Ancient Near East. He is now on the faculty at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary as Assistant Professor of Old Testament Interpretation.
