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THE MOHAMMEDAN CONTROVERSY

things were created, and especially Christ, who was born without a father; "the word Be was in the beginning before all creation, and the word was God," that is, by an ellipse, "was the word of God"; and "the word became flesh," that is, was the cause of Christ's birth!1 To the catholic interpretation of this passage he opposes the dictates of reason regarding the impossibility of the incarnation of God; and he asserts that Pfander has mistranslated the words "dwelt among us"[John 1:14]—the Arabic version having in this place, "he entered into us" (halla fî nâ), which involves the doctrine of transmigration or communication of the Divine essence to another (hullûl), a tenet regarded by orthodox Mussulmans with peculiar horror. Had the Maulavi consulted the original, he would have found that the words έσκήνωσεν έν ήμίν [eskeénoosen en heemín, dwelt among us] were most aptly rendered as above. Indeed, the Maulavi is too much in the habit of throwing grave suspicions on the integrity of Pfander's views and translations, merely on the authority of Arabic

1 Of his frivolous perversions of the sacred text, a few examples may be noticed. "No man hath ascended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven"; this, and similar passages as "I am from above," apply equally to Elijah, who also "ascended up," and must therefore have also "come down from heaven." The last clause, "even the Son of Man which is in heaven," is denied as an interpolation, and a curious tradition is mentioned of Imam Riza having publicly stated before a Christian minister called Hathuliq, who could not deny the correctness of the quotation, that the verse originally ran thus: "Verily, verily, my disciples, I say unto you that no man shall ascend into heaven but he that descended from heaven, except the camel-mounted, the last of the Prophets,—he, indeed, will ascend to heaven, and again descend," referring to Mohammed's Mirâj (ascent to the seventh heaven); and this tradition he says is a thousand times more deserving of credit than all your corrupted Gospels put together. Even admitting the present reading, he says, "who is in heaven," does not mean actual presence there, but alludes, by a common mode of speech, to his residence in heaven as being close at hand. The power of raising the dead, which Christ assumed as inherent in Himself, he describes as referring to the approaching miracle of Lazarus, and as implying no higher virtue than Elisha possessed. His presence, promised to the disciples to the end of the world, is explained metaphorically, "I shall be so aware of the state of each, that, as it were, I shall be always in the midst of you"; or if it does mean spiritual presence, it is nothing more than what we believe of other angels, and extends at most to the Judgment Day,—intimating that then, like other men, he must die.