Divisive Portrayals of Sacred Characters

Today we see around us interactions of world religions on a grand scale, sometimes tolerant, sometimes destructive. In the United States in particular, there exists much disagreement over the treatment of different religious groups. The suspicions felt by some Christian groups toward Islam come prominently to mind in the light of extremist terrorism. Some of these tensions come undoubtedly from the fact that the two groups believe different details and stories about the same religious figures and events, and there is nothing new here. Centuries ago, while Christians and Muslims were acknowledging their similarities, they were also speaking in confusion about what they saw as incorrect interpretations of the sacred stories and characters they had in common.

One such story is the Childhood of Jesus as it is presented in both the Qur’an and apocryphal Christian texts such as the Pseudo-Gospel of Matthew and the Infancy Gospel of Thomas which were popular in the Middle Ages. In each tradition, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, created birds from clay and brought them to life, but differences were present in details such as Mary’s suffering at the birth of Jesus and the way Christ spoke as an infant to comfort her in the Qur'an. Medieval Christians, on the other hand, believed in a peaceful picture of the birth of Christ and did not believe he spoke during infancy.

Each group found the other strange for telling "untrue" stories about familiar figures, but ultimately, as seen in the fourteen-century writings of Sir John Mandeville, similarities were exploited for the purpose of conversion. The point here is that for one reason or another, suspicions have always been present and can hinge on even slight details of belief. Even tiny differences in portrayals can be used by one group to demonstrate sacrilege in the other. In her article "Jesus and the Birds in Medieval Abrahamic Traditions," Mary Dzon states that the story of Jesus and the clay birds was "a multivalent trope used by different faiths to undercut competing groups perceived as challenging to the integrity of one's own religious tradition," (230) and such rhetoric can be used across religious in a wide variety of tales regarding sacred characters and events.