***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was the founder and, for years, the editor-in-chief of Brigham Young University\u2019s former Middle Eastern Texts Initiative, which was recently transferred by the Maxwell Institute to E. J. Brill Publishing in the Netherlands. \u00a0The Middle Eastern Texts Initiative (METI) \u00a0produced bilingual editions of books (mostly Islamic, but also sometimes Eastern Christian and Jewish) from the classical Islamic world. \u00a0The books were printed at Brigham Young University Press and distributed by the University of Chicago Press.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Anyway, one of the volumes features what I still consider the best single line that we ever published.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b (d. AD 1111), who was one of the most significant figures in the history of Islamic thought, a legendarily brilliant philosophical theologian and legal thinker who spent most of his life in Iran and Iraq but also sojourned for a significant period in Jerusalem, is talking about extremely poor students, and, in that context, attributes the following remark to Jesus:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\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 Classical 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 can\u2019t possibly be authentic.\u00a0 And that\u2019s still probably correct.\u00a0 But al-Ghaz\u0101l\u012b is entirely serious, and plainly regards the statement as 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 the image of Jesus trudging along with the disciples down those dusty paths and confiding, at the end of a tough day, \u201cYou know, Peter?\u00a0 I can raise the dead, but I just can\u2019t cure idiots\u201d is oddly appealing to me.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, alas, it\u2019s probably bogus.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 The 6 January 2019 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online. In it,\u00a0Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, Stephen Smoot, and Hales Swift discuss the new two-hour block, excitement at the temple, Grant Hardy\u2019s new study edition of the Book of Mormon, and John chapter 1 (Come, Follow Me\u00a0Lesson 4): \u00a0 https:\/\/interpreterfoundation.org\/interpreter-radio-show-january-6-2019\/ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
A limit on divine power?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\" The 6 January 2019 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online. In it,\u00a0Neal Rappleye, Jasmin Rappleye, Stephen Smoot,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/01\/a-limit-on-divine-power.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A limit on divine power?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\" The 6 January 2019 installment of the Interpreter Radio Show is now available online. 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![\"Brad](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/12\/9780842527637.jpg\")
<\/a>