Jerusalem before Titus

[إبن سينا]

The people of Jerusalem fell into the idolatry: they worshiped their religious men besides God, in addition to sanctifying the statues and the stars of the sky

So God sent them Jesus Christ, who came to them miraculously, and he invited them to God alone Who sent him to them; but most of them refused and denied him

Then few decades later, the association of the people of Jerusalem increased (it means: they also increased in their wrong-doing towards each other

So God sent them the disciples of Jesus: John and Peter, and the Jews denied them, and then He confirmed these two apostles by another one: Philips

The people of Jerusalem captured and tortured the three apostles, and intended to stone them, so Gamaliel came to support them

But the Jews of Jerusalem disbelieved in the apostles as had they disbelieved in the Christ before

Therefore, they were destroyed utterly by Titus


{Quran 36: 13. And tell them a the parable b of the people of the city [of Jerusalem in Palestine], when the apostles [: the disciples of Jesus Christ] came to it. c

14
When We sent to them two [apostles: Peter and John], but they denied them, so We confirmed them by a third [apostle: Philips], and they said: "We are sent [by God] to you d
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a i.e. your people

b Concerning the arrogance and stubbornness

c That was some years following the death of the Christ, when the hearts of the Children of Israel became hard, and they were ungrateful to the bounties of God, and they associated [in the worship of God

d To invite you to worship God alone, to abandon the disbelief and avoid the wrong-doing and the disobedience

The interpretation is by Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly

[إبن سينا]

Quran: 36: 15. [The people of the city] said [to their apostles]: "You are only human beings like us, and [God] Most Gracious has not revealed any [revelation to you]; you only are lying [; you are not apostles.]"

16
[The apostles] said: "Our Lord knows that surely we are sent [to you]

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"And our duty is only the plain delivery of the message

[إبن سينا]

Quran: 36: 18. [The people of the city] said [to the apostles]: "We have received an augury of you; if you desist not [from your words and return to your places], we shall surely stone you, and a painful chastisement shall befall you by our hands

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The [apostles] said: "Will you receive augury [of anyone that admonishes you!?] e
And now you have been admonished; indeed, you do commit much [of sins
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e While on the contrary, you should welcome him, not to receive augury of him

[إبن سينا]

Gamaliel came to support the apostles:

{Quran: 36: 20. Then a man [: Gamaliel f] came from the remote part of the city, walking in a hurry; he said: "My people, follow [the way of] the apostles g."

21. "Follow such as ask no wage of you, and are guided [to the way of the truth.]"

22. "And why should I not worship [God] Who originated me by division [of cells inside my mother's womb h], and to Him you shall be returned [after death when He shall punish you for your disbelief.]"

[Then Gamaliel disapproved of their adopting and worshipping the idols and statues, and he said:]

23. "Should I choose – besides God – [other] gods i [to worship them], that if God intends harming me, their intercession will not avail me anything nor will they rescue [me of the punishment.]"

24. "I would then, [if I were to do as you do], be in manifest error."

25. "I have believed in your Lord [O apostles], so hear me [to be my witnesses before God j.]"

26. [And when Gamaliel died] it was said [to him by the angels]: "Enter Paradise"; [and when he entered it] he said: "Would that my people knew,"

27. "That my Lord has forgiven me and made me one of the honored."}
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f Who was one of the scholars [: a doctor of the Law] of the Children of Israel, and known to them with his righteousness and piety.
g And release them, but never stone them.

Therefore, they released them after lashing them, and they went to Antioch to preach there about the prophecy of Jesus; Barnabas also followed them to Antioch.

Their story is written in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 3-5.

h When I was a lump in the womb of my mother.
i That do not profit or harm.
j That I am a believer: a monotheist, and that I do not worship the idols and statues.

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{Quran: 36: 28. And We sent down upon his people k after his [death] no hosts from heaven [to fight them], nor had We ever sent down any.

29. It was but a single [war] cry [of their enemy against them l], and behold, they were still m.
30. "Alas for servants! [For] there never comes to them any apostle, but they mock at him." n }
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k i.e. upon the people of Gamaliel: the Jews.
l It means: Their enemies shouted one shout against them, when they attacked and killed them.
m Without movement or noise; it means: they submitted themselves to killing and resigned to captivity.

This is their story quoted from the Arabic book: (The Global Judaism) by Dr. Riadh Baroodi, he said in Arabic:
“In the year 66 AD a rebellion started among the Jews of Jerusalem and its precincts, under the leadership of Anania the chief of the priests, for managing a revolution against the Roman Byzantine to achieve the independence of Israel and to revive its lost glory.
The movement grew quickly because of the Byzantine persecution and the recurrent conflicts; so the revolutionaries succeeded at the start in occupying all the city centers, and they drove the Byzantine out of them.
But shortly Rome sent a big army to the rebellious state, under the leadership of Titus the well-known Roman Byzantine general. He came to the city in the year 70 AD; he besieged it and started to occupy its centers one by one until he completed it as a whole.
So he killed all the adults both the military and civilian, he sold the children as captives, destroyed all their houses, the wall and the temple, to the extent that one who saw it from distance, could not believe that there was a city in its place.
Its land remained ruined, void and lifeless for about fifty years until some Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit its holy Christian sites, and as such did some Christian families go to it gradually, so that in the year 450 AD the major part of the city was rebuilt, but the majority of citizens were Christians. While the place of the temple was still ruined and a place of garbage, and the Christians increased in the humiliation of that place by casting the dirt and garbage there in defiance of Jews.
In the year 453 AD, Jerusalem was made an isolated Patriarchy, which was managed for both civilian and religious affairs by the Patriarch, when the Roman Byzantine kingdom embraced the Christianity.”

n This also is the saying of Gamaliel.

The interpretation is by Mohammed-Ali Hassan Al-Hilly.

[إبن سينا]

The stand of Gamaliel to support the apostles:

Gamaliel was one of the Jewish scholars; he was respected among them and known with his piety and righteousness. He believed in Jesus teachings:
that God is One,
and that they should forsake the enthusiasm about their imams (: i.e. their religious sages) whose tombs the Jews worshipped and glorified at that time.

But he kept secret his belief and did not proclaim it, until the apostles were in true need for his support.

It appears that Jews at that time fell in the idolatry: the glorification of their religious men and the enthusiasm about them. They erected their tombs and shrines, in addition to their idols and statues.

Also he was an apostle sent by God to support the three apostles: Peter, John and Philips.

So when they captured the apostles and put them in jail, and they were about to stone them till death, at that time Gamaliel came, and started his argument with the Jews, who then released the apostles after lashing them.

This central teaching of Jesus has been altered, in the available Gospels, into something like the glorification of Jesus himself; as if the mission of Jesus was to glorify himself; while in fact the 'association with God' (which is like the idolatry) was prevalent in the community, and the mission of the Christ was essentially directed against that idolatry.

Then the apostles went to Antioch and started to preach the God's religion there: that is the exclusive devotion to God alone.

{Quran 36: 20. [Gamaliel] said: "My people, follow [the way of] the apostles."

21. "Follow such as ask no wage of you, and are guided [to the way of the truth.]"

22. "And why should I not worship [God] Who originated me by division [of cells inside my mother's womb], and to Him you shall be returned [after death when He shall punish you for your disbelief.]"

[Then Gamaliel disapproved of their adopting and worshipping the idols and statues, and he said:]

23. "Should I choose – besides God – [other] gods [to worship them], that if God intends harming me, their intercession will not avail me anything nor will they rescue [me of the punishment.]"

24. "I would then, [if I were to do as you do], be in manifest error."

25. "I have believed in your Lord [O apostles], so hear me [to be my witnesses before God.]"}

Refer to the post #13 for more explanation.

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So from the words of Gamaliel, we see that Jews in Jerusalem at that time:
They worshiped God but they associated with Him, their religious men or sages; they glorified them together with God, and believed that they would be their intercessors before God:

Quran 36: 23. [Gamaliel said also] "Should I choose – besides God – [other] gods [to worship them], that if God intends harming me, their intercession will not avail me anything nor will they rescue [me of the punishment.]"