Joe's Jewish Views on Islam's Origins (Part 2)

Carrying on from Joe's first episode, we are told that in 628 AD Nehemiah ben Hushiel, the radical Jewish Sadducee followers were kicked out of Edessa (situated in Southern Turkey today) by Hieraclius. They went to live in Tachkastan (situated in Northern Iraq today), where they were instrumental in establishing an alliance with the Ishmaelite Bakr tribe already living in Tachkastan. SADDUCEES: A little aside about the Sadducees...the Ishmaelites were converted by the Jewish King Alexander Jannaeus (born 127BC) into Sadducees when he conquered Nabataea. So, when we see those referred to as Sadducees in the New Testaments they descended from Alexander's movement including those Ishmaelites. WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Joe now refers to the character named 'Mahmet' or 'Muhammad' in the 7th century. There are a number of derivatives of his name: Sebeos seems to imply that Mahmet is also 'Amrh'. The Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN) say he is both 'Khaled' (eternal), or 'Umar' (longevity). The Byzantines refer to him as 'Ambrose' (immortality), so he goes by different names, depending on who is referring to him, but they all refer to a person named with the same basic meaning who conquered the Holy Land. Thomas the Presbyter (634 AD): refers to this Mahmet, pointing to his battle outside of Gaza, saying that this Mahmet led Tachkastan into battle there. The Doctrine Iacobi (634 AD): This document is allegedly written by a Jew, for other Jews. The author refers to a "Prophet among the Saracens...who could not be a true prophet, because he comes with a sword". For a Jew a "prophet" would have to be another Jew, but no prophet would come with a sword. So, Joe believes this could be either Nehemiah ben Hushiel, or the Sadducee-Ishmaelite Mahmet/Amrh from Tachkastan. When this 'prophet' (i.e. Emir Mahmet, Amrh, Omar, Amr, Khaled, Ambrose) reached the Holy land, he demanded that the Christians renounce Christ, and those who didn't, he beheaded. Sophronius mentions that he first came to Bethlehem and then Jerusalem, and defeated the Christians there between 636-637 AD (note: the Abbasid SIN gets this part correct). When entering Jerusalem, Sophronius takes this 'Omar' to pray at the Church of the Sepulchre (which houses the Tomb of Jesus "Holy Cube" = Kaaba), which he refuses to do, and marches off to the Temple mount instead, and builds a "Masjid" (place of prostration) there. In 638 AD Sophronius dies. Omar softens his stance towards Christianity and chooses a Christian Monophysite bishop for Jerusalem, an Armenian called Abraham I. In 644 AD Omar has a debate with John of the Sedre which softens him even more, and he allows the first translation of the Gospels into Arabic. Soon after Omar meets the Coptic Patriarch named Benjamin of Alexandria, a Monophysite Christian, and is quoted saying he "had never seen such an impressive man of God as Benjamin". Joe refers to an Islamic story where Omar catches his sister reading some writing on a Jaw bone, and infuriated, he hits and kills her with it. Upon reading the writing, he is so upset that he converts. Though it says he converts to Islam, which didn't yet exist, Joe says this conversion was obviously to a Monophysite belief in Jesus (more about that in Part 4). The MAHMAD COIN: At about this time (647 AD) a Byzantine-Arab coin appears with Omar's image on it holding a cross (proving that he was a Christian), and the name MHMD written on it, suggesting that was his new name. Both Thomas the Prebyter (640 AD), and Sebeos (660 AD) know him by that name, suggesting this was his later and final name. But what does MHMD/MHMT mean? Joe says to understand it we need to go to the Hebrew of Hos.9:6 meaning 'the pleasant place' (KJV) and Ez.24:16,21,25 all being prophetic references to the destruction of the "Temple of the Body of Christ" (John 2:21). Joe explains that in Jewish Theology, the spiritual Body of the Messiah is called 'Mahammadim' (Song of Songs 5:16) also used in Christian worship songs about 'the altogether lovely body of Christ'. Joe ends with the 647 AD coin of MHMD, concluding that this coin depicts Omar holding the cross as a Christian. This same man first persecuted the Christians, but now rejects that practice, suggesting that he had truly converted to Christianity. Soon after he was subsequently killed. This story of Omar, a Sadducee from Tachkastan, who goes West to conquer the Holy land, killing Christians who so impress him that he converts to Christianity himself, and finally dies after ordering the coins minted in 647AD. It completely contradicts the much later Abbasid Narrative. Which version do you think is more historical? Joe's Red Judaism site: ​@Bei-Abedan Joe’s Red Judaism Patreon Account: @ism © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, 2021 (54,730) Music: 'Reaching the Sky', by Alexander Nakarada, from filmmusic-io