Philology and the Last Supper: A Lesson from Qur’an Prehistory for Gospel Prehistory?

Abstract

Abstract Qur’an researchers associated with philology and the recent revisionist paradigm (voices such as Alphonse Mingana, Christoph Luxenberg, John Wansbrough, Fred M. Donner, Andrew Rippin, Gabriel Said Reynolds, Emran Iqbal El-Badawi, Robert M. Kerr, and Ibn Warraq) evidence a methodological disparity with NT researchers. While Qur’an historians allow meaningful input from philology by appropriating a sensible linguistic milieu that can accord with the Qur’an’s linguistic phenomena, particularly Aramaic or Syriac influence on the Qur’an’s Arabic, several voices in Last Supper research (including Matthias Klinghardt, Dennis E. Smith, and Paul F. Bradshaw) pursue Greco-Roman symposial and/or pagan influences contrary to philological findings. This article considers philology in Qur’an studies and in NT studies and examines anew the Aramaic influence evident in Mark’s Last Supper. Research by Raymond A. Martin and Joachim Jeremias is especially noted. This article seeks to pose NT researchers with the following question: Is there a lesson to learn from scholars working in Qur’an studies?