Did we find Muhammad in the 7th c. Doctrina Iacobi?

The Doctrina Iacobi is a Greek Christian polemical tract, from Carthage (Tunis), but written in Palestine by a Christian apologist. This anti-Jewish tract refers to a discussion of a group of Jews forced to convert by the Emperor Heraclius, yet one of the converted Jews, Jacob, who truly believes in Christ seeks to convince the other Jews of their need for Christianity. A childhood friend, Justus, comes from Palestine to debate with Jacob about his conversion. It is quite clear this is a fictitious account designed for apologetic purposes. From the debate between Jacob and Justus they all finally believe in Christ. Within this debate is a passage which we’re interested in written by the brother of Justus, named Abraham, who relates some quite startling information concerning the appearance of a new Prophet among the Saracens. This is that passage: Doctina Iacobi passage on ‘The Prophet’ “When the candidatus [i.e. Sergius, a member of the Byzantine imperial army in Palestine] was killed by the Saracens, I was at Caesarea and I set off by boat to Sykamina. People were saying "the candidatus has been killed," and we Jews were overjoyed. And they were saying that the prophet had appeared, coming with the Saracens, and that he was proclaiming the advent of the anointed one, the Christ who was to come. I, having arrived at Sykamina, stopped by a certain old man well-versed in scriptures, and I said to him: "What can you tell me about the prophet who has appeared with the Saracens?" He replied, groaning deeply: "He is false, for the prophets do not come armed with a sword. Truly they are works of anarchy being committed today and I fear that the first Christ to come, whom the Christians worship, was the one sent by God and we instead are preparing to receive the Antichrist. Indeed, Isaiah said that the Jews would retain a perverted and hardened heart until all the earth should be devastated. But you go, master Abraham, and find out about the prophet who has appeared." So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men's blood. He says also that he has the keys of paradise, which is incredible [i.e. not credible]”. There are a number of Problems with this passage: Crone & Cook: A number of areas which confront the Traditional Muhammad: 1) How can you have a Muslim prophet proclaiming ‘the Christ who was to come’, unless he was a Jewish Messiah, In the Qur’an in Surah 33:40 it says that Muhammad is the last prophets. 2) This passage assumes ‘Muhammad’ is still alive in 634, but the traditions say he died in 632 AD. 3) This prophet ‘has the keys of paradise’ which confronts the traditions. Nevo & Koren: A number of areas which suggest this prophet is a Jew, or a Christian: 1) It fits a Judeo-Christian Monotheist background. 2) The ‘Anointed one to come’ (This is ‘Christ’ = ‘Christos’ in Greek = ‘Mashiah’ in Hebrew). Who was to come. 3) He has the ‘Keys of Paradise’ (from Matthew 16:19 – referring to Peter’s papal authority in the Catholic Church) 4) He spoke in Aramaic, not Arabic (Jews wouldn’t know Arabic) What do the Scholars conclude about the Doctrina Iacobi? Crone & Cook: “This testimony is of course irreconcilable with the Islamic account of the Prophet’s career…we have here older material, a stratum of belief older than the Islamic tradition itself”. John Wansbrough: “Prophethood was a monotheistic constant, a basic belief, concrete examples of which arose in the area in every monotheistic religion, the specific manifestation of course differing from religion to religion”. [i.e. every leader claimed to be a prophet in order to get credibility] Nevo & Koren: “The Doctrina Jacobi provides no support for the identification of this prophet with Muhammad. In fact, if one thing is clear, it is that the account in the Doctrine Jacobi does not describe the Muhammad that we know…He could more easily be almost anybody else…In those troubled years there can have been no shortage of such prophets, appealing to the various Christian and Jewish sects”. Robert Spencer: “Inasmuch as the ‘keys of paradise’ are more akin to Peter’s “keys to the kingdom of heaven” than to anything in Muhammad’s message, the prophet in the Doctrina Jacobi seems closer to a Chistian or Christian-influenced Messianic millennialist than to the prophet of Islam as he is depicted in Islam’s canonical literature. Conclusion: There is no reference to the name Muhammad, no reference to this prophet being a Muslim, or belonging to the religion Islam, nor any reference to the city of Mecca, nor of his book the Qur’an. He sounds more like an Arab/Christian brigand, employing the status of a prophet to gain himself more credibility and authority. There’s just nothing Muslim about him! © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2020 (28,040) (Music: "small adventure", by Rafael Krux (from filmmusic-io - License CC BY)