RELIGIOUS RESEARCH (PAJOUHESHHA YE ADYANI)
Year:2016 | Volume:4 | Issue:7 |Papers Count:6

This paper aims at surveying the history of the idea of biblical falsification among Jew and Christian theologians within the period of the second to seventh century AD. It shows how this matter began from unstudied accusations towards Jews by Christian theologians and how it developed by the developments of biblical theology. This paper surveys the polemics among two more important Jewish sects, i.e. Orthodox and Samaritans, as well as Jewish-Christian polemics, based on the historical sources, rabbinic literature, including Talmud and Midrashim, theological and polemic works of Christian fathers, as well as modern studies on the Bible and the history of its translations. Therefore allegations expressed in this area on the behalf of the dissident Christian sects are not considered here.

This paper aims at studying the feasibility of the affect and the affected and comparing two mystical schools including "Ibn Arabi" and "prophetic Kabbala" by studying the secrets of the letters in these two schools According to their common geographical origin namely Andalusia in the flourishing era of translation movement. This paper addresses this subject by studying historical documentation (out-texual method) as well as qualitative analysis of surviving written works of these two mystical tradition (intertextual method). The paper studies the similarities and differences of these two theories. One of them is rooted from Kabbala named “Tree of Life” that divides the eternal units to ten Saphirot, and shows 22 letters of the Hebrew language as bridges among Saphirot and suggested 32 ways of wisdom. Another one is based on and adopted from Ibn Arabi’s ideas in his book “Shajar al-Koun”. Ibn Arabi's unique characteristic traits are in the way that was less influenced from others despite access to texts and familiarity with the great diversity of views of religions and denominations and had more effects on others because of originality and independence of thought.

Elijah the Prophet is one of the common figures of Abrahamic religions mentioned in the Quran and Bible. The description of his mission in the scriptures shows his mastery of contemporary cultural atmosphere at that period, and designates a scientific and practical model of a religious missionary. By taking a systematic approach to status of Bible in interpretation of the Quran, it can be suggested that at least some parts of these two books together are capable of intertextual echoes. Intertextual approach in the case of Elijah, will lead us to a better understanding of the Qur' anic verses. How to fight against idolatry, establishment of cursing method (Mubahalah), training Elisha as substitute of Elijah, hosting mother of Jonah and the miracle of the resuscitation of Jonah, are samples of this approach. The mission of the prophet Elijah in Judaism and Christianity is not bounded to his lifetime and has extended after the ascension, especially in the areas of mystical, some rituals and also in the event of the return of the Messiah.

During the 3400 years of Jewish history from the time of Moses to the next, believing the resurrection and the related concepts has encountered many developments. In particular, there is no significant belief in resurrection among the Jews before the Babylonian captivity in 597 BC. But after the Babylonian captivity under the influence of Zoroastrians, belief in resurrection came into being among the Jews. After the domination of Romans and Jewish Diaspora, believing in Messiah and the Apocalypse were taken into account. After this period also, especially in the Middle Ages, new viewpoints about the Resurrection such as denial of bodily resurrection, heaven and hell and reincarnation came into appearance. Nowadays with the advent of Zionism, the formation of an independent state and a powerful Jewish State of Israel has replaced the belief to afterlife and resurrection. It seems that evolution in belief of resurrection before the Jews is the product of their historical situation; So that it was during the disastrous days of the Jews, and in the days of joy was excluded. In this paper, evolution of believing in resurrection in Jewish history will be studied through descriptive method.

In this new study presenting for the first time some of the Manichaean Manuscriptfragments which are preserved in the Berlin collection entitled Ewangelyonig basahan, ‘Ewangelyoī Hymns’ or the ‘Hymns of the Gospel’ introduce. These hymns that are composed by Parthian-speaker writers in Khorasan and Transoxania and their most important topic is about the “myth of the Manichaean Creation” are composed in the abecedarian and alphabetic order respectively. The article deals with the background of the hymns before Mani and the forming of them before him as well the Manichaeans. The present article tries to show why these texts are called Ewangelyonig, in addition, to answer whether the hymns show the same ‘concepts and motifs’ that Mani’s Gospel needed. Here we attempt to show to what extent Mani could have been influenced by Psalms of David and by Bardesanes’ style of hymnology. Additionally, Identification of one of the hitherto-unpublished Turfan Manichaean fragment in this article proves that there was a melody of Mani’s Living Gospel that it sung in the Manichaean church of Central Asia. Here, we have read and reconstructed two Manichaean Turfan manuscript fragments to represent an example of a “Hymn of the Gospel”.

With the advent of Akbar the Great’s reign, the Jesuits preaching the Catholic Church started their dominance in Iran, India and Ottoman Empire. What started the religious dialogues in India was Jalal ud-din Muhammad Akbar‘s invitation of the Portuguese Jesuit preaching groups to India. After such invitation, in order to spread their religious sect, willingly, the Jesuits started travelling and sent some thinkers into Indian Mughal Empire. Akbar the Great asked the convoys to write a book, which was done by Jaerom Xavier by compiling a book entitled “Right presenting mirror”. Finally Akbar the Great made a school of thought called “Divine religion” intending to merge the best elements of the religions of his empire, and thereby reconcile the differences that divided his subjects. In this paper, while studying Akbar the Great’s Narcissism, the Jesuits, movements in his time are analyzed, using a descriptive analytic method to study Akbar the Great’s motivation in invitation of the Jesuits and establishment of “ Divine Religion”.