Lesson video

Hello, my name is Mr. Robertson.

I'm really excited to be learning with you today as we start our new unit of work.

Our unit question is this, Prophethood, how are Abrahamic faiths connected through prophets? I'm really excited about this unit because we're gonna be asking some really deep and interesting question about the ways in which Christianity, Judaism, Islam are connected and what's similar and what's different about them.

In this lesson, we're going to be looking at the whole idea of prophethood in Abrahamic religions.

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to describe the nature and significance of prophethood in Abrahamic faiths.

We have three keywords in our lesson today.

Abrahamic, prophets, and nature.

Abrahamic.

Can I hear you say it? Brilliant.

It's quite tricky, isn't it? Is a group of monotheistic religions such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Prophets are a people regarded as an inspired leader who share the will of God.

And nature means the basic qualities of something.

Our lesson on Prophethood in Abrahamic religions is made up of two parts.

In the first part, we're going to look at Prophets in Judaism and Christianity.

And in the second part we're going to examine the role of Prophets in Islam.

So let's make a start with the first part of our lesson.

Now, look very carefully at the image on your screen.

You can see here a painting.

And the artist is depicting the person of Abraham.

Have you heard of Abraham before? Do you know any stories connected with him or why he might be important? I'm sure you've heard some of those stories before and they might be connected with the knife that he's holding in his hand.

Now, the word Abraham is very closely linked to the idea of Abrahamic religions and the Abrahamic religions are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

But why are they called Abrahamic? Well, it's because these religions are connected and they're connected through beliefs such as the belief in one God.

This God is known as Allah in Islam.

This idea of one God was first described by the prophet Abraham.

In the Torah and in the Bible we hear stories about Abraham and how he came to accept the belief in one God and created a covenant with God.

And beyond Abraham, there are many other prophets in the Abrahamic traditions which are shared by all three of these religions.

And so the word Abrahamic comes from the idea of Abraham, and it helps us understand the connections between these three great religious traditions.

What about the word prophet? What does that mean? Well, let's do some etymology.

Let's try and work out the unpicking of this word.

The word prophet comes to us from ancient Greek and it comes from two word stems. We have the word pro meaning before or toward.

And we have the word phet, which comes from the Greek meaning phetes, phetes meaning speak.

And so if we put these words together before or towards and speaking, we have the idea of someone who speaks on behalf of God and conveys messages from God.

But it's important to remember that these messages are not necessarily about the future.

Sometimes in films and books that you might have seen or read you might have seen about prophets or prophecies describing exactly what's going to happen in the future.

But the word prophet has a slightly different understanding within the Abrahamic traditions.

It may be that some prophets talk about their future, but the most important thing is that they are talking on behalf of God and carrying messages from God and that's really what we mean by the word prophet.

So let's think about that and we're gonna have a quick check of our understanding.

How do we define a prophet? I want you to select two correct answers.

Is it A, someone who speaks on behalf of God.

Is it B, someone who can always tell the future.

Or is it C, an inspire leader who shares the will of God? Let's pause the programme and we'll see what answer we have.

Good thinking, theologians.

The answers were A, someone who speaks on behalf of God, and C, an inspired leader who shares the will of God.

B is not correct because prophets do not always tell the future in the Abrahamic traditions.

Well done if you got that right.

I want you to look at this photograph now.

This photograph shows part of Strasbourg Cathedral, which is a huge cathedral in France.

What can you see here? And how might this link to prophets? Have a think about this or maybe talk to your talk partner.

What do you notice when you look at these figures? Can you see a connection with something you might have seen in this lesson already? Or does it make any further connections to things that you already know? Well, as I've said, this is part of Strasbourg Cathedral in France.

Strasbourg Cathedral is built in the Middle Ages, and I think this is incredible, but up until 1874, it was the world's tallest building.

Now that's really important because actually what we are looking at here is an expression of belief.

These figures are carved from stone.

You can see that a lot of them have beards.

And they represent prophets.

So you can see at the far end the prophet Moses who's holding up something of the commandments, which is one of the stories in Exodus in the Torah and the Bible.

So it tells us these statues are really important because people have invested time and money to create these beautiful carvings.

And that in turn suggests that prophets are really important in the Christian tradition.

It shows that there's shared tradition of prophets between Jews and Christians.

And it shows that these prophets are important to Christianity as they've been carved on the cathedral.

These same prophets that are found in the Christian Old Testament are also found in the Torah.

So in the Torah we have stories of Moses, and in the Christian Bible we have the same stories of Moses so there's a shared tradition between both religions.

Now many of the prophets that are described in Judaism and Christianity share a similar nature or qualities, and this means that they can be excellent role models for believers.

So many prophets have qualities of loyalty.

Many prophets overcame personal challenges in their life.

Many prophets show an enormous strength of character.

They might be very courageous, or brave, or stubborn.

And many of these prophets are committed to the will of God.

They listen to the messages of God and they try and enact them.

Sam is reading a story about one of the prophets.

I wonder what nature's or you can see in this story.

So Sam says, "The prophet Moses was a Hebrew who was born at a time when his people were slaves in Egypt.

Moses was raised as a prince but fled his home after killing an Egyptian.

He answered God's call and returned to help free the Hebrew people, who later became the first Jews." Now, what nature or qualities can you see in this story? Can you think back to that model we looked at in the previous slide? Well, one thing we can see is that Moses has strength of character.

And he has strength of character because he was born at a time of slavery, but he had to flee his home.

He had personal challenges because he killed an Egyptian and that meant he had to leave.

And he was committed to the will of God because despite everything that had happened in his life, he answered God's call and returned to help free the Hebrew people.

So Moses is a great example of a prophet because he exhibits strength of character, overcoming personal challenges, and a commitment to the will of God.

Now I want you to think about everything we've learned.

Which of these is not part of the nature of Abrahamic prophets? A, strength of character.

B, overcoming personal challenges.

C, punishing people for wrongdoing.

Or D, being committed to the will of God.

Pause the video and have a think.

Yes, the answer is C, punishing people for wrongdoing.

That is not part of the nature of Abrahamic prophets.

Well done, theologians, if you got that correct.

Okay, let's return to Abraham.

Now, prophets can be significant because God gives them tasks or challenges to test either their faith or to impact on other people.

The story of Abraham which you might know, he was commanded to sacrifice his son, Isaac.

Now in the story, if you remember it, although he was committed and wanted to enact the word of God, actually at the last moment God provided a ram so he didn't have to sacrifice his son.

But the important thing about this story is that it's about a test of loyalty.

And so many believers, Jews, Christians describe that story about the importance of Abraham's complete faith in God.

And so as a prophet, he was given a significant challenge, but the important part of that challenge is that he showed the importance of his complete faith in God.

Okay, let's just check that true or false.

Abraham is a significant prophet because he led the Hebrew people to freedom from slavery.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Great thinking, theologians, its false, isn't it? Abraham did not lead the Hebrew people to freedom from slavery.

And why? Because as we said earlier, Abraham was tested by being commanded to sacrifice his son.

It was Moses who was a prophet who led the Hebrew people to freedom.

So well done if you got that correct.

Let's return to the image of Strasbourg Cathedral.

We have a different view of it this time.

Another extraordinary piece of carved stone in the Middle Ages.

What can you see this time? Look very carefully, particularly towards the centre of it and what might it represent? Give yourself a few moments to either pause the video, talk to the person next to you, and see what you notice there.

What might it represent and what inferences might you make? I wonder what you've noticed? I wonder if your eyes have been drawn to that central part of the carvings there.

If we look carefully, we can see that there is a figure there that we would recognise.

This is the central door of Strasbourg Cathedral so it's going to be a place where the eye is drawn really centrally and you can see the figure of Jesus being crucified and that is the main focus.

Now, of course, for Christians, Jesus is more than a prophet.

He is actually the son of God.

Now Judaism does not share that belief in Jesus with Christianity.

So there's a point of difference between the faiths here.

Many of the prophets are shared between Jews and Christians such as Abraham and Moses and other prophets that are found in the Tanakh and the Torah.

However, Jesus is not a shared prophet.

And in fact, he's not seen as a prophet by Christians.

He's seen as the son of God.

Let's see if we understand what we've just been thinking about.

True or false? Belief in Jesus is shared between Jews and Christians.

Pause the video, theologians, and have a think.

Excellent thinking.

It's false, isn't it? But why is it false? Well, it's false because Christians believe in the prophets of the Old Testament and that Jesus is the son of God.

However, Jews believe in the prophets found in the Tanakh but not in Jesus.

So that's a point of difference between the two faiths.

I'd like us to pull all this together and we're going to think about task here.

Using the following sentence stems. I'd like you to explain the nature and significance of prophets in Judaism and Christianity.

One, a profit can be defined as, can you continue that sentence? Secondly, some qualities of profits are.

Moses demonstrated these when.

Think back to that model, the diagram I showed you of the different types and qualities of profits.

Which ones can you remember? And which ones might Moses have demonstrated? And finally, Abraham is a significant prophet because.

What was it about the story of Abraham and what did that teach? And this is shown when.

So drawing on all of our learning, can you complete those sentences? Pause the video.

Off you go.

Oh, I can see some fantastic examples here.

Here are some of my examples.

"A prophet can be defined as an inspired leader who shares the will of God.

Some qualities of prophets are being committed to the will of God and the strength of character.

Moses demonstrated these when he was born as a slave and then led the Hebrew people to freedom.

Abraham is a significant prophet because his faith was tested by God.

This is shown when he was commanded to sacrifice his son." Fantastic work, theologians, and well done if you've managed to correctly write some sentences.

In the second part of our lesson, we are going to look at the role of prophets in Islam and relate that to Abrahamic religions more generally.

We're going to start with a timeline to show the foundations of the Abrahamic faiths so we can see the context in which we're working.

The furthest back point on our timeline is that of Moses.

So historians and archaeologists at this time we are dealing with very, very distant times so we don't have exact dates, but we think that the person of Moses lived around the time on 1,300 to 1,400 before the Common Era.

Next, we have the lifetime of Jesus.

We have a little bit more certainty there because we have different sources from Rome, ancient Rome, and we think that Jesus lived around the time of zero to 30 of the Common Era.

Finally, we have the lifetime of the prophet Muhammad.

Again, we don't have exact dates, but we think that is around the time of 570 to 650 in the Common Era.

Now, what does this timeline tell us? Well, it shows us that the Jewish prophets like Moses lived a very, very long time ago.

Approximately 2,000.

Oh, well over 2,000 years ago.

And that the time of Jesus was more recently and the time of Muhammad was more recently since.

So Judaism is the oldest tradition followed by Christianity, followed by Islam.

Although, of course, Muslims would see that Islam was founded right back at the time of Moses and beyond before as well.

For Muslims, Muhammad is seen as the final prophet in Islam.

To him was revealed the perfect word of God found in the Qur'an.

Most Muslims believe that Mohammed received revelations from Allah via the Abraham Jibril, and these revelations were later written down to form the Qur'an.

And the Qur'an is the perfect word of God.

Now, the Torah and the Bible are respected in Islam, but Muslims believe they contain inaccuracies.

It's only the Koran which is perfect.

And we can see some dissimilarity here.

For example, Islam teaches that Jesus was a prophet, but they don't accept that the way that Christianity teaches that Jesus is the son of God makes sense.

So that would be an example of an inaccuracy in the Gospels, whereas the Qur'an presents Jesus as a prophet.

And so from a Muslim perspective, Jesus is a prophet and not the son of God.

I want us to pause at this point.

I'd like you to choose a statement which is not true of Islamic teachings about prophets.

A, prophet Mohammed is the final prophet.

B, Jesus is the son of God.

C, the Torah and Gospels containing accuracies.

D, Jesus was a prophet, but not the son of God.

Which of those is not true of Islamic teachings? Pause the video, theologians, and have a think.

Great thinking.

Yes, the answer's B isn't it, that Jesus is the son of God.

Muslims do not accept this, but they see Jesus as a prophet.

So the nature of prophets, which we looked at in the first learning cycle is the same as in Judaism and Christianity so we have some points of connection here.

However, although prophets are seen to have the same qualities such as a commitment to the will of God, and bearing messages, they often have different names to those found in Judaism and Christianity.

And this is because Arabic script is written differently to the Roman alphabet used in English.

Let's look at some examples of this.

So here, we have some names of prophets in Islam and I'd like you to see if you could infer what their names might be in Judaism and Christianity.

Here we have the names, Nuh, Ibrahim, Musa and Isa.

I'd like you perhaps to pause video now or turn to the person next to you.

What might these names be? What prophets might they be that you might have seen in the Christian and Jewish tradition? I wonder what you managed to find out.

Well, Nuh, is actually the prophet, Noah.

Ibrahim is the Arabic for the prophet, Abraham.

Musa is Arabic for the prophet, Moses.

And Isa is Arabic for the prophet Jesus.

Now, as Laura says, "The names of the prophets are different, but they represent the same people." All of these prophets are found in the Qur'an, the Torah, and the Christian Old Testament.

There are very similar stories about them and there may be some differences of belief like there is over Jesus, but they represent the same people.

Only the prophet Muhammad is unique to Islam.

There is no mention of the prophet Muhammad in the Torah or the Gospels.

Let's just check what we've understood so far.

Why is Abraham called Ibraham in Islam? Is it A, because he's a different person.

B, because he delivered a different message.

Or C, because of translation between alphabets.

Pause the video and have a think.

Great thinking, theologians, it's C, isn't it? Abraham and Ibraham are called because of translations between the Roman and the Arabic alphabets, but they do refer to the same person and Muslims, Christians and Jews would believe that he carried a similar message.

For Muslims, that is a message of Islam and for Jews and Christians, it's a message of a covenant with God but he's seen as a similar prophet between all Abrahamic traditions.

Now, as we said in the first learning cycle, prophets are often seen as people who completed tests and learned lessons, and that's the same in Islam as well.

So Ibraham or Abraham was tested by Allah to sacrifice his son showing faith in God in exactly the same way as he was tested in the Torah and the Bible.

The only difference being that it the son is different.

Musa or Moses is believed to be the only prophet to have direct communication with Allah.

So that's a shared story between all three traditions.

Muhammad received the Qur'an, which is the basis of Islam.

And he is the final and most significant Islamic prophet, and he is not a point of connection for Christians, Muslims, and Jews.

I'd like to check our understanding again, which of these is not a reason prophets are important in Islam? Is it A, they have communicated with Allah.

B, they help Muslims understand Allah's nature.

C, they teach Muslims the importance of wealth.

Or D, they teach Muslims their religious ancestry.

Which of those is not a reason prophets are important? Excellent, theologians.

It's C, prophets are not important because they teach Muslims the importance of wealth.

Moses was believed to have communicated directly with Allah.

Prophets such as Muhammad helped Muslims to understand Allah's nature.

And D, the prophet Ibrahim helps teach Muslims their religious ancestry.

So well done if you've got that right.

So we've got two practise tasks now.

For our first task, I'd like you to work out if some statements are true or false.

I'm going to read you these statements and you'll go to need to decide if they're true or false.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are Abrahamic faiths.

Is that true or false? Prophets are people who can always tell the future.

Is that true or false? Judaism and Christianity share the same belief in Jesus.

Is that true or false? Islam regards Muhammad as the final prophet.

Is that true or false? Islam teaches that the Gospels and the Torah have inaccuracies in them.

Is that true or false? Pause the video and have a think.

Great thinking, theologians.

Let's have a look.

Yes, it's true that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are Abrahamic faiths.

It's false that prophets are people who can always tell the future.

If you remember, prophets are people who convey a message from God.

It's false that Judaism and Christianity share the same belief in Jesus.

Christians or most Christians regard Jesus as the son of God.

That is not a shared view by Jews.

It's true that Muslims regard Muhammad as the final prophet.

And it's true that Islam teaches the Gospels and the Torah have inaccuracies in them.

Only for Muslims, the Qur'an is the perfect and final word of God or Allah.

Well done, theologians, if you've got those correct.

Our second task is a little more stretching.

So we have Lucas, Alex, and Sofia, and they're trying to explain the relationship between prophets in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Who shows the correct understanding and who's wrong? Lucas says, "Jews, Christians and Muslims have the same beliefs about the nature and identity of prophets because they're all Abrahamic faiths." Alex says, "Although they share a common ancestor, there are differences in belief about the nature and identity of prophets." And Sofia says, "The Abrahamic faiths are all separate religions with no overlapping history or beliefs about the nature and identity of prophets." So of these three views, Lucas, Alex, or Sofia, who shows the correct understanding? Who's wrong? And most importantly, can you explain why? Now, theologians, I'd like you to put on your theological thinking caps.

Think about what we've learned and what we've learned from texts, and stories, and examples of prophets.

I look forward to hearing what you come up with.

Pauses the video.

Good luck.

Wow, I've heard some really interesting theological discussions going on there.

So Alex is correct.

He's correct because he shows that there are some similarities but also some important differences between the faiths.

So for example, Muslims see Jesus as a prophet but not the son of God.

Lucas was wrong because he thought all Abrahamic faiths believe the same and we know that that's not true because Jews and Christians do not see Muhammad as a prophet.

And Sofia is wrong because she thinks the Abrahamic faiths are entirely different from each other.

But that's not correct because as we've shown during that lesson, there are some important connections about beliefs of prophets, about beliefs in Abraham as a common ancestor and so they are not totally separate.

As the timeline shown, they interweave and have evolved and have close relationships to each other as well as important differences.

So well done if you understood that Alex was making the most correct statements there about the idea of prophets.

And fantastic work in this lesson, theologians.

Let's summarise what we've learned so far in this lesson.

So across the Abrahamic religions, the nature of prophethood is the same.

Prophets are chosen because of their outstanding moral character and their ability to perform tasks required by God.

They are often tested or have duties to fulfil as well as share in God's message and these often become holy books.

Prophets are incredibly important to Jews, Christians, and Muslims as a link between God and humanity but there is divergence in who they are and the names that are used.

I've really enjoyed this lesson with you.

And I look forward to meeting you all in a future lesson.

Thank you very much.