[Footnote A: The word for "Spirit" is of the feminine gender in the
Semitic languages.]
Muhammed must also have denied the divinity of Christ: this is an
obvious result of the course of mental development which we have
described and of his characteristically Semitic theory of the nature
of God. To him, God is one, never begetting and never begotten.
Denying the divinity of Jesus, Muhammed naturally denies the
redemption through the Cross and also the fact of the Crucifixion.
Yet, strangely enough he accepted the miraculous birth; nor did he
hesitate to provide this purely human Jesus with all miraculous
attributes; these were a proof of his divine commission, and
marvellous details of this nature aroused the interest of his hearers.
Mary the sister of Ahron--an obvious confusion with the Old Testament
Miriam--had been devoted to the service of God by her mother's vow, and
lives in the temple under the guardianship of Zacharias, to whom a
later heir is born in answer to his prayers, namely John, the
forerunner of the Holy Ghost. The birth is announced to Mary and she
brings forth Jesus under a palm-tree, near which is a running spring
and by the dates of which she is fed. On her return home she is
received with reproaches by her family but merely points in reply to
the new-born babe, who suddenly speaks from his cradle, asserting that
he is the prophet of God. Afterwards Jesus performs all kinds of
miracles, forms birds out of clay and makes them fly, heals the blind
and lepers, raises the dead, etc.
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