The Trinity in Quran

Submitted by The Scholar (United States), Nov 29, 2005 at 01:41

John and Lisa think they have found the proof that the Quran is false. After searching in a 1400 years old book, this is what they came up with:

(Quran 5:116) "And behold! Allah will say: "O Jesus the son of Mary! Didst thou say unto men, ‘Take me and my mother for two gods beside Allah?" He will say: "Glory to Thee! Never could I say what I had no right (to say). Had I said such a thing, Thou wouldst indeed have known it. Thou knowest what is in my heart, though I know not what is in Thine. For Thou knowest in full all that is hidden."

I could not find the word "trinity" here although it was actually mentioned in the Quran in two verses (4:171 and 5:73). In these two verses though Mary is not mentioned as "the third Person of the Holy Trinity". So, why did John and Lisa think that God meant the Trinity in this verse? And why hadn't they noticed the other two verses? Isn't the fact that the trinity here is not explicitly mentioned enough? If not, would it be enough to know that there were people out there who actually worshipped Mary? The fact that you believe in the Trinity that was introduced hundreds of years after Jesus, does not mean that this is the only belief that ever existed!

What about the Collyridians?
In the Mary Question page (http://www.udayton.edu/mary/questions/yq2/yq315.html)
the following description is given for the Collyridians:
"Kollyridians or Collyridians were adorers of Mary in the 4th century Arabia, as Epiphanius mentioned in his writing against heretics (see: Haer. 78, 23; 79). He coined the expression Collyridians which has the meaning of "cake-eater-sect". Leontius of Byzance had a different name for them. He called them "Philomarianites", meaning Mary-lovers (PG 87, 1364). The priestesses of this sect used to present Our Lady with cakes or a special kind of bread (kolluris) intended as offerings as was the custom in pre-Christian times. This sect, mainly consisting of women or at least led by woman priests, propagated what amounts to a Goddess cult regarding Our Lady. Epiphanius had this warning on their behalf: "Although Mary is the most beautiful and holy and worthy of praise, we don't owe her adoration" (Haer. 79, 7, PG 42, 752). In a different passage Epiphanius uses even stronger words: "Adoration must cease. For Mary is no goddess nor has she received her body from heaven. (oute gar theos hae Maria oute ap'ouranou exousa to soma)" (Haer. 78, 24). Collyridians are also known and mentioned by John Damascene (PG 94, 728)."

In another reference, George Sale (The Koran, IX Edition of 1923, J B Lippincott Company, London, p. 25) says: "Among the Arabs it was that the heresies of Ebion, Beryllus, and the Nazareans, and also that of the Collyridians, were broached, or at least propagated; the latter introduced the Virgin Mary for God, or worshipped her as such offering her a sort of twisted cake called collyris, whence the sect had its name.
This notion of the divinity of the Virgin Mary was also believed by some at the Council of Nice, who said there were two gods besides the Father viz. Christ and the virgin Mary, and were thence named Mariamites."
So clearly there were people out there who worshipped Mary and Jesus! Isn't this what the Quran says? Case closed.

Lisa even questioned Mary's kinship in the Quran and thought that this is another proof that the Quran is false. It seems though that Matthew and Luke contradict each other regarding the genealogy of Jesus, so why should we believe the New Testament? It does not seem like a very reliable source of genealogy! By the way, the apologetics are coming up with an excuse for this in that Luke recorded the lineage of Mary, and Matthew that of Joseph, convincing, right?

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