Further Notes on the Word Ṣibgha in Qurʾān 2: 138
Recent scholarship on the interpretation of ṣibghat Allāh (lit., ‘the dye of God’) in Qurʾān 2:138 has trended in two directions. A moderate trend views the word ṣibgha as merely a caique of the Syriac word for baptism, maṣbūʿītā. Another recent, more radical approach regards ṣibgha as a product of...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
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Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Oxford University Press
[2014]
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In: |
Journal of Semitic studies
Year: 2014, Volume: 59, Issue: 1, Pages: 117-129 |
RelBib Classification: | BJ Islam |
Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) |
Summary: | Recent scholarship on the interpretation of ṣibghat Allāh (lit., ‘the dye of God’) in Qurʾān 2:138 has trended in two directions. A moderate trend views the word ṣibgha as merely a caique of the Syriac word for baptism, maṣbūʿītā. Another recent, more radical approach regards ṣibgha as a product of the corrupting vicissitudes of the Qurʾān's textual transmission and, therefore, has proposed alternative, text-critical renderings of the Quranic ductus itself. This article offers a third — hopefully more compelling — reading, wherein the phrase ‘the dye of God’ is read in light of similar baptismal metaphors scattered throughout the Christian literature of Near Eastern Late Antiquity. |
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ISSN: | 1477-8556 |
Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of Semitic studies
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1093/jss/fgt037 |