Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/145

 THE PLAGUES OP EGYPT. 127

Gamaliel in the New Testament. The allusion to Joseph in verse 36 is found in a very dissimilar Jewish tradition, as follows ; 1 "If Joseph had not been, we should not be alive." Muhammad is not clear about the plagues. In some passages 2 he speaks of nine plagues. In another passage 3 he enumerates five, which stand in the following order : Flood, Locusts, Lice, Frogs and Blood. Although we cannot here find fault with the want of order in the plagues and with the omission of some of them since Mu- hammad here is not, any more than is the Psalmist, 4 to be considered as a strict historian, get the mistaken inclusion of a flood, which is not to be confounded with the overthrow in the sea, 5 may fairly be considered as a proof of the want of reliable information on the subject. The fear of the Israelites 6 at the approach of the Egyptians by the Eed sea is also mentioned by Muhammad. 7

Now we come to a circumstance, which is also taken from Jewish legend, but which has been almost entirely misun- derstood, from ignorance of its origin. The passage 8 may be translated as follows : " And we caused the children of Israel to pass through the sea, and Pharaoh and his army followed them in a violent and hostile manner, until when he was drowning, he said : ' I believe that there is no God but He on Whom the Children of Israel believe, and I am now one of the resigned ; ' on which God said, (or perhaps this is to be read in the first person, so that this verse too expresses Pharaoh's penitence, and the next verse begins the expression of God's answer) ; ' Thou haat been hitherto one of the rebellions and wicked doers. This

1 Midr. Rabba on Exodus, para. 1

2 Suras XVII. 103, XXVII. 12. 3 Sura VII. 130.


 * E. g. in Psalm, cv. 28 ff. 5 first mentioned in v. 132.

6 Exodua, xiv. 10 ff. 7 Sura XXVI. 61 ff.

8 Sura X. 90 ff.