The Quran

Preface

وَلَقَد آتَينا موسَى الكِتابَ وَقَفَّينا مِن بَعدِهِ بِالرُّسُلِ ۖ وَآتَينا عيسَى ابنَ مَريَمَ البَيِّناتِ وَأَيَّدناهُ بِروحِ القُدُسِ ۗ أَفَكُلَّما جاءَكُم رَسولٌ بِما لا تَهوىٰ أَنفُسُكُمُ استَكبَرتُم فَفَريقًا كَذَّبتُم وَفَريقًا تَقتُلونَ

Yusuf Ali

We gave Moses the Book and followed him up with a succession of messengers; We gave Jesus the son of Mary¹ Clear (Signs) and strengthened him with the holy spirit. Is it that whenever there comes to you a messenger with what ye yourselves desire not, ye are puffed up with pride?- Some ye called impostors, and others ye slay²!

As to the birth of Jesus, Cf. 19:16-34. Why is he called the “Son of Mary? What are his clear signs"? What is the “holy spirit” by which he was strengthened? We reserve to a later stage a discussion of the Qur-ānic teaching on these questions. See 3:62 n. 401. (Cf. 2:253).
Notice the sudden transition from the past tense in “some ye called imposters” to the present tense in “others ye slay.” There is a double significance. First, reviewing the long course of Jewish history, we have come to the time of Jesus: they have often given the lie to God’s Prophets, and even now they are trying to slay Jesus. Secondly, extending the review of that history to the time of Muḥammad, they are even now trying to take the life of that Prophet. This would be literally true at the time the words were promulgated to the people. And this transition leads on naturally to the next verse, which refer to the actual conditions before Muḥammad in Medīna in the second war of the Hijrat. (Cf. 5:70).
Sections 11-13 (2:87-121) refer to the People of the Book generally, Jews and Christians. Even when Moses and the Law of Sinai are referred to, those traditions are common to both Jews and Christians. The argument is about the people who ought to have learnt from previous Revelations and welcomed Muḥammad’s teaching, and yet they both took up an attitude of arrogant rejection.