Roy Weinberg's doubt
Reader comment on item: More on the North Carolina Jihadi, Mohammed Taheri-azar
in response to reader comment: The Quran a Divine Miracle?

Submitted by Mac (India), Jul 1, 2009 at 22:17

Well, I got this blog entry on Google and thought I must write a reply. About Maryam being Moses' sister; Qur'an never calls Maryam 'sister of Moses'. She is called 'sister of Aaron'. In ancient Semitic usage, a person's name was often linked with that of a renowned ancestor or founder of the tribal line. Thus, for instance, a man of the tribe of Banu Tamim was sometimes addressed as "son of Tamim" or "brother of Tamim". Since Mary belonged to the priestly caste descended from Aaron, the brother of Moses, she was called a "sister of Aaron". See how in the Bible, Luke 1:5 Maryam's cousin Elisabeth, the wife of Zachariah, is spoken of as one "of the daughters of Aaron".

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