Jesus and Paul: The Struggle over the Message between Monotheism and Distortion

Introduction

At the heart of history, and within the pages of the Gospels and the Qur’an, the story of the message of Jesus, peace be upon him, unfolds as God intended it: a pure call to monotheism, self-reform, and righteous deeds. Yet the path was not without challenges; after Jesus, someone emerged who would shift the center of the message from the human heart to a doctrine concerning a human figure, turning religion into a means of power rather than self-reform and guidance.

This struggle between the original message and institutional doctrinal distortion reveals how ideas can become a material force that reshapes religion from within.

First: Jesus and the Message of Monotheism

The Gospels—Mark, Luke, and John—show that Jesus emphasized the principle of God’s oneness. When asked about the greatest commandments, he said: “The first of the commandments is: The Lord our God is one Lord.” This accords with what the Qur’an affirms about his message:

﴿مَّا الْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ إِلَّا رَسُولٌ﴾ (The Messiah, son of Mary, is nothing but a messenger.) [المائدة: ٧٥]

The image of Jesus presented by the Qur’an is thus that of a prophet calling to monotheism, an image whose roots we also find in his ethical teachings in the Gospels.

Second: The Path to Salvation in His Teaching

In the Gospels, Jesus links salvation to reform and righteous deeds. When asked about the path to life, he said: “If you wish to enter life, keep the commandments.” He also repeatedly calls for compassion toward the poor, charity, repentance, and purity of heart. The axis of the message is therefore the reform of the human being and human conduct, a meaning close to what the Qur’an affirms when it links salvation to faith and righteous deeds.

Third: His Position on the Law

In the Gospels, Jesus affirms respect for the Law rather than its abolition: “I have not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.” That is, he did not come to abolish the commandments but to revive their spirit and true meaning. This is consistent with the portrayal of the prophets in the Qur’an, who come to correct deviation.

Fourth: The Shift in Paul’s Epistles

Salvation through faith: Paul emphasizes that a person is justified by faith in Christ rather than by works of the Law. The concept of salvation thus shifted from deeds and commandments to faith in Christ as the redeemer of humanity.

Diminishing the role of the Law: Whereas Jesus affirmed respect for it, Paul regards faith as more important than observance of the Law and considered many of its rulings no longer binding.

Elevating Christ’s status: In his epistles, Christ is described as the savior, the Son of God, and the mediator of salvation. These concepts were not part of the teaching of Jesus, who emphasized worship of God alone, repentance and righteous deeds, and observance of the commandments.

The practical result was that the message changed from a practical call to piety and righteous deeds into a doctrinal religion linking salvation to faith in Christ alone. The elevation of his status to that of the Son of God and the emergence of the doctrine of the Trinity came closer to the worship of a person rather than the affirmation of God’s oneness.

The Strategic Objective

This distortion can be regarded as one of the methods of temptation and misguidance: transforming the message of monotheism into a doctrinal religion centered on a human figure, distancing human beings from understanding God’s original message and reforming themselves, and paving the way for the emergence of multiple schools and sects disputing doctrine far removed from the essence of the message.

Fifth: The Consequences of Distortion

What Paul did was not a minor modification but a shift in the center of the message. It led to the elevation of Christ’s status to that of the Son of God and the sole savior, the establishment of the doctrine of the Trinity, and the creation of a new worldwide creed that differs from the essence of the message of monotheism. The ultimate effect: disfiguring the essence of the message, transforming religion from a practical call to piety into a doctrine concerning the figure of Christ, paving the way for the centralized Church and subsequent doctrines, and opening the door to multiple sects.

Sixth: The Similarity to the Distortion of the Torah

In Judaism: Some rabbis interpreted the Torah and produced the Talmud in ways that nullified the original meaning of the commandments and distanced people from the essence of the message. In Christianity: Paul emphasized faith and redemption and diminished the role of the Law and righteous deeds, transforming the message into a doctrine centered on the figure of Christ and facilitating its spread among the nations.

In both cases, the focus came to rest on the form of doctrine or human interpretation rather than on the essence of monotheism and righteous deeds. The result was to separate human beings from a direct understanding of the divine message and to create a class that controls interpretation and application.

The Material Power behind Distortion

Paul alone could not have transformed Jesus’s message into a worldwide doctrinal religion on this scale. What happened was the outcome of a network of institutional, intellectual, and political support:

The preexisting intellectual structure: A complex system of interpretation served as a model that could later be exploited to steer the Christian religion away from the spirit of monotheism. Paul as a central instrument: He was the seed that overturned the center of the message, but he could not have achieved worldwide diffusion without a support network ensuring the entrenchment of his thought through the Church and emerging communities. The unseen dimension: The Qur’an refers to forces that seek to distort divine messages and lead human beings astray. Political and historical application: Doctrine did not remain an abstract idea but became a political and cultural instrument. With the emergence of modern Zionism, it found in certain Christian readings a religious justification for supporting the occupation of Palestine.

Distortion was therefore not confined to ideas but was backed by material institutional and political power to entrench deviation.

Final Conclusion

A comparison of the texts reveals a clear difference in the center of the message: Jesus’s teaching in the Gospels emphasizes monotheism, repentance, righteous deeds, and observance of the commandments—meanings that accord with his Qur’anic portrayal. Paul’s epistles, by contrast, emphasized redemption, salvation through faith, and Christ’s central role in salvation. From this arose the historical trajectory through which Christian doctrine took shape as it came to be known in later centuries.