While normally Seed refers to pater-lineal ancestry being most literally a Hebrew word for Semen/Sperm. The very beginning of Messianic Prophecy from the Christian POV at least is Genesis 3:15 making a very abnormal reference to "The Seed of the Woman".
I could also say the Koran does call Jesus the Messiah (Al-Maish) of Israel, and He couldn't have been that without being of the Seed of David. So he is not actually helping the Muslim case.
Zakir Hussain did make one comment during the debate about the Y-Chromosome, implying he could accept that as an acceptable literal interpretation of what Seed refers to.
Which leads me to bring up something I thought about a long time ago, but was hesitant to go public with it precisely because a statement in the Koran played a role in my coming up with it. But since a Muslim broached the issue.
Sura 3 verse 36.
And when she was delivered she said: My Lord! Lo! I am delivered of a female - Allah knew best of what she was delivered - the male is not as the female; and lo! I have named her Mary, and lo! I crave Thy protection for her and for her offspring from Satan the outcast.The Koran defines Mary the mother of Jesus as inter-sex. Well, the terminology it uses is actually exactly the modern politically correct terminology for a Trans Man, saying she was mistakenly labeled the wrong gender at birth based on how she looked. But the intent was to say Mary internally has some biological maleness to her and that is how she could give birth as a Virgin. This is the Islamic explanation for how the Virgin Birth was possible without Jesus being Divine.
There are examples of women being born with a Y-Chromosome. Often these women aren't able to reproduce but there is at least one documented exception to that.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2190741/
[Report of Fertility in a Woman with a Predominantly 46,XY Karyotype in a Family with Multiple Disorders of Sexual Development]
Since the discovery of modern DNA and how the Y-Chromosome works, the traditional Christian view of how Jesus could be male even though his only Biological parent was a Female has been that God supernaturally gave Jesus a distinct Y-Chromosome. Especially with the idea related to genetic memory theory that the Y-Chromosome carries a memory of the first Man, naturally it became popular to see that as scientific confirmation of Original Sin.
But I do not hold the Catholic or Calvinist view of original Sin which both derive from Augustine. To me it is just a genetic Pre-Disposition to Sin. Paul said in Hebrews 2:18 that Jesus was tempted by all the same Temptations we are. So I don't think Jesus was born without that pre-disposition, he simply was alone in being able to overcome it.
So I'm very open to the possibility that Mary was inter-sex and Jesus was able to through her carry the Y-Chromosome of David and Abraham and Adam. And maybe that is the full explanation of what the Seed of The Woman means.
But regardless of my willingness to think the Koran might have been onto something there. I firmly believe Jesus was The Son of God, The Word made Flesh. And I have before argued for the Deity of The Messiah from The TNAK.
The Biblical basis for this theory is the doctrine of the Seed of the Woman.
This same debate also mentioned Isaiah 53. Zakir Hussain objected to the Christian view of this being Jesus since it refers to him having Seed in verse 10. David Wood responded that Christians are spiritually of Jesus Seed. And the Zakir said in the Hebrew it's Zerah so can only mean physical.
A word having a literal meaning does not mean a spiritual or symbolic application is impossible. If you're gonna take that logic there is no need to cite the Hebrew, the literal meaning of Seed is more strict then Zerah, we are being figurative when we use it of Sperm in modern English, literally it refers only to plant seeds.
The plain reading is that people become His seed after His Resurrection. If Muslims believe (like I do) biological reproduction will go on after the Resurrection then they can't rule out that Jesus could literally fulfill that. It is an error BTW that the Koran teaches Jesus didn't die, it actually clearly says Jesus did die.
If you're going to agree with the common view of Rabbinic Jews that the Servant is not an individual then you're not taking it literally at all and can't object to a non-literal interpretation of the Seed.
For the record there are a few things in that debate I'm willing to agree with Zakir Hussain over David on. I plan to do a post or two on Ishmael and Firstborn Inheritance in the near future.
But his insistence that begotten can be read into Genesis 22:2 is not supported by any Hebrew text I know. And the abuse of what Genesis 21 says to make it sound like Hagar carried Ishmael not her luggage on her shoulder just made me laugh.
And the Genealogies of Jesus came up. I have addressed Luke being Mary's genealogy before.
And the Genealogies of Jesus came up. I have addressed Luke being Mary's genealogy before.
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