Page 271 - Demo

267If he believed himself to be the Son of Man, it would follow that either he or the Apocalyptists were in error; and in either case, the argument goes most decidedly against Jesus Christ (pbuh) . For his error, concerning his own personality and mission is as bad as the erroneous predictions of the Apocalyptists, whom he believed to be divinely inspired. Of course, this dilemmatic reasoning will lead us to a conclusion unfavourable to himself. The only way to save Jesus (pbuh) from this dishonour is to look upon him as the Quran pictures him to us, and accordingly to attribute all the contradictory and incoherent statements about him in the Gospels to their authors or redactors.Before discussing further the subject, “the Son of Man” as depicted in the Jewish Apocalypses, a few facts must be carefully taken into consideration. First, these Apocalypses not only do not belong to the canon of the Hebrew Bible, but also they are not even included among the Apocrypha or the so-called “Deutro-canonical” books of the Old Testament. Secondly, their authorship is not known. They bear the names of Enoch, Moses (pbuh) , Baruch, Ezra, but their real authors or editors seem to have known the final destruction of Jerusalem and the dispersion of the Jews under the Romans. These pseudonyms were chosen, not for fraudulent purposes, but out of a pious motive by the Sophees or Seers who composed them. Did not Plato put his own views and dialectics into the mouth of his master, Socrates? Thirdly, “these books,” in the words of the Grand Rabbin Paul Haguenauer, “in an enigmatical, mystical, supernatural form, try to explain the secrets of the nature, the origin [sic] of God, the problems of good and evil, justice and happiness, the past and the future. The Apocalypse makes upon