\u201cEven though I managed to raise the dead, I have never been able to cure an idiot!\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
(See al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b, \u201cO Son!,\u201d trans. David C. Reisman, in\u00a0Classical Foundations of Islamic Educational Thought<\/i>, ed. Bradley J. Cook [Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 2010], 103.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, I\u2019ll admit that my first inclination was to say that this alleged statement couldn\u2019t possibly be authentic.\u00a0 And that\u2019s still probably correct.\u00a0 But al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b is entirely serious, and he plainly regards the saying\u00a0as genuine.\u00a0 Furthermore, his citation of it takes us back fully a thousand years or more, halfway to the time of Jesus.\u00a0 So . . .<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I have to confess that I rather like the idea that the Savior might have said such a thing.\u00a0 It humanizes him a bit.\u00a0 Surely, with all those long walks from Nazareth to Capernaum, and from Capernaum to Jericho, and from Jericho to Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem back up to Capernaum or Nazareth, it can\u2019t all have been immortal sermons and solemn earnestness.\u00a0 (Can it?\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m just not fit for heaven.)\u00a0 There must have been some small talk.\u00a0 And I love the image of Jesus, trudging along with the disciples up and down those dusty, hilly paths, chatting with them, sharing warm memories and anecdotes and good-natured banter and the occasional joke. \u00a0 At the end of a tough day, Jesus confides in his chief apostle: \u201cYou know what, Peter?\u00a0 I can raise the dead, but I just can\u2019t cure idiots.\u201d \u00a0That\u2019s oddly appealing to me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If we believe that Jesus became fully human, though \u2014 and we do<\/em> \u2014 that kind of wistful humanity almost seems part of the package.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, alas, the passage is probably bogus. \u00a0Sigh.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 While I\u2019m in an elegiac mood with regard to Brigham Young University\u2019s Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI), which I conceived and founded and for which I served for many years as director and editor-in-chief \u2014 see\u00a0\u201cMiddle Eastern Texts Initiative moving to Brill\u201d\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I hope that you\u2019ll indulge me by permitting me to celebrate, once […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":19366,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>