John C. Reeves
John C. Reeves
Blumenthal Professor of Judaic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies, Department of Religious Studies

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    • LBST 2212 Literature and Culture
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    • RELS 1120: Bible and its Interpreters
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    • RELS 3104: Prophecy and Prophetic Literature in Ancient Israel
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    • RELS 6000: Pluriform Multilingual Zechariah
      • Various Zechariah Legends
        • Bordeaux Pilgrim (333 CE) on the Temple Mount
        • Cave of Treasures 47.12-17
        • Mas’udi, Muruj al-dhahab
        • Protevangelium Jacobi (Syriac) 22-24
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Course Materials » RELS 6000: Pluriform Multilingual Zechariah » Various Zechariah Legends » Mas’udi, Muruj al-dhahab

Mas’udi, Muruj al-dhahab

Translated from the Arabic text provided by Mas‘ūdī, Murūj al-dhahab wa-ma‘ādin al-jawhar: Les prairies d’or (9 vols.; ed. C. Barbier de Meynard and P. de Courteille; Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1861-77), 1:120-22.  See also Mas‘ūdī, Les prairies d’or tome 1 (rev. and corr. by Charles Pellat; Paris: Société asiatique, 1962), 50-51 §§117-18.

Between (the time of) Sulimān b. Dāwud and Christ (upon whom be peace) there were prophets and virtuous servants, among them (being) Jeremiah; Daniel; Ezra, although a few people strip him of prophetic status; Job; Isaiah; Ezekiel; Elijah; Elisha; Jonah; Dhū al-Kifl; al-Khidr, whom Ibn Ishaq says is Jeremiah, but of whom it is said (by others) that he was a virtuous servant; and Zakariyyā’.

Zakariyyā’ was the son of ’Ādaq, one of the descendants of David from the tribe of Judah. He married Išbā‘ (i.e., Elizabeth) the daughter of ‘Imrān and the sister of Maryam the daughter of ‘Imrān (and) the mother of Christ. This ‘Imrān was the son of Mārān who was the son of Yo‘āqim, also a descendant of David. The name of the mother of Išbā‘ and Maryam was Hannah. She (i.e., Išbā‘) bore Yahyā to Zakariyyā’, and thus Yahyā was the son of the aunt of Christ.

Zakariyyā’ was a carpenter. The Jews relate that he committed the sin of adultery with Maryam, and they (plotted to) kill him. When he realized what they (were planning), he went to a tree and then entered its trunk, but Iblīs, the enemy of God, pointed him out to them, and they sawed down the tree with him inside of it. They cut it into pieces, and they dismembered him at the same time.

After Išbā‘ the daughter of ‘Imrān (and) sister of Maryam the mother of Christ bore Yahyā the son of Zakariyyā’, she fled with him to Egypt on account of the hatred of the king. When he became an adult, God sent him to the children of Israel. He endorsed the authority of God and communicated it to them, but they killed him. Events multiplied among the children of Israel, and God sent against them a king from the East whose name was Khardūš (i.e., Herod). He killed some of them because of the blood of Yahyā the son of Zakariyyā’, two thousand of the people, until the blood became still after a lengthy situation (of bubbling?).

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