The Testimony of Jacob, the Prophet Muhammad, and the Keys of Paradise

Saint Peter by Peter Paul Rubens (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

I finally got around to reading Muhammad and the Empires of Faith: The Making of the Prophet of Islam by Sean W. Anthony, and it was an enlightening experience. For anyone interested in learning about the development of the biographical (sira-maghazi) tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, I highly recommend it. Nevertheless, as always, I was looking for bits and pieces about where the Islamic and Christian traditions meet, and in my quest, one part of the book really struck me: the discussion in chapter 2 about a seventh-century Byzantine Christian apologetic tract entitled, The Testimony of Jacob, the Recently Baptized.

The Testimony of Jacob, known in Latin as the Doctrina Iacobi nuper baptizati, was composed in Greek by a Palestinian Jew by the name of (you guessed it) Jacob. Unfortunately, Jacob had fallen victim to Emperor Heraclius’s decree that the Jews of the Byzantine Empire be baptized against their will. Heraclius had been inspired to implement such a policy because of his recent military successes, which included reclaiming the True Cross from the Persians after the Byzantine victory at the Battle of Nineveh—a victory Muslims believe to have been predicted by Qurʾan 30:1-5. Of course, Heraclius’s belief that one should brutally force people of another faith, Jews in this case, to be baptized demonstrates how far from the teachings of Jesus those in power often were/are. Nevertheless, despite having been forced baptized, Jacob became a devout believer in Jesus, and his tract is essentially an attempt to demonstrate that Christianity is indeed the true faith. What is most interesting to me, however, is that Jacob also writes in it about the Prophet Muhammad. Moreover, while the exact date of The Testimony of Jacob’s composition is debated, Anthony informs us that a good deal of scholars believe it to have been composed as early as 634 (two years after Muhammad’s death).

In the tract, Jacob, who was living in Carthage at the time, speaks with a fellow Palestinian Jew named Justus who tells him that his brother Abraham had been keeping him informed of what was going on in Palestine, including the arrival on the scene of a Saracen (Arab) prophet—a clear reference to Muhammad, even if, as we will see, its polemical nature portrays him in a distorted light. While Abraham says that this Saracen prophet, who is never named, proclaims the coming of the Messiah, he understands him to be a “deceiver,” as prophets do not come “with sword and chariot.” It is apparent that the tract is attempting to discredit Muhammad, and by extension Islam, by failing to differentiate in any way between him and the Arabs who had waged war on Palestine. Nevertheless, we further read, “So I, Abraham, inquired and heard from those who had met him that there was no truth to be found in the so-called prophet, only the shedding of men’s blood. He also says that he has the keys of Paradise, which is incredible.” 

Now I may have just brushed aside the statement that Muhammad claims to hold the keys of Paradise as simply intended to mean that he had taught his followers that Islam is the path to salvation. However, Anthony provides some fascinating insights into this statement, clearly demonstrating why he gets paid the big bucks (or at least should). He does this in part by contextualizing the concept of the keys of Paradise in late antique Christianity. For Christians, of course, when thinking of keys which have the power to unlock Paradise, the first image that comes to mind is Jesus giving the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven to the Apostle Peter following his confession of faith in Jesus as the Christ and the Son of God (Matt. 16:13-20). In this vein, Anthony says that the ecclesiastical nature of the keys of Heaven was a popular theme in patristic literature. For instance, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, another Palestinian, calls Peter the one “who carries the keys of heaven.” So in this sense, according to Anthony, The Testimony of Jacob may simply be attempting to portray Muhammad as holding the keys of Paradise as a parody of the Petrine tradition. 

However, Anthony decides to dig a little deeper. While it may seem like splitting hairs, he notes that The Testimony of Jacob does not say that Muhammad holds the keys of Heaven but of Paradise. Anthony demonstrates that a difference between the keys of Heaven and the keys of Paradise exists in the Syriac Christian tradition, such as in the hymns of St. Ephraim the Syrian. For while the keys of Heaven have a specifically apostolic character and are therefore associated with ecclesiology, i.e., the bishops as inheritors of the authority given to Peter and the other apostles, the keys of Paradise, on the other hand, have an eschatological dimension. Anthony also provides some telling excerpts from Ephraim’s writings. For instance, we read,

In Enoch Adam saw
a prefiguring of our Savior
Who opened and granted entrance to
A symbol of the Gardener
by whom He concealed Mercy [bearing]
the key to Paradise

Here Ephraim is not referring to the authority given to Peter, and subsequently to the hierarchy of the Church, but to an eschatological reality. 

Eleventh-century Orthodox mosaic of St. Ephraim the Syrian in Nea Moni, Chios, Greece (Image credit: Wikimedia Commons)

According to Anthony, an eschatological view of Paradise can also be found in the Qurʾan. We read, “Truly, for those who disbelieve and spurn our signs, the doors of heaven will not be opened for them nor will they enter Paradise until the camel passes through the eye of the needle” (Q 7:40)  Further, Anthony argues that while the keys of Heaven in Islam are clearly the property of God, the keys of Paradise in the hadith are often associated with the Prophet Muhammad in relation to ritual prayer (salah) and the confession of faith (shahada). Moreover, in the Shiʿi tradition, we even read of how the guardians of Paradise and hell gave Muhammad their keys, who in turn gave them to ʿAli. On the other hand, given the context in which The Testimony of Jacob mentions the keys of Paradise, Anthony believes that they may be a reference to holy war, or jihad, and it seems to me that he strongly leans towards this being the accurate interpretation. He points to later Umayyads who taught that waging jihad was the key to Paradise. He gives the example of General Yazid ibn Shajara’s famous dictum, “swords are the keys to Paradise.” 

What can we learn from The Testimony of Jacob and Anthony’s analysis of it? For one, despite The Testimony of Jacob’s polemical tone, it may actually be reporting accurately that Muslims believed Muhammad to have held the keys of Paradise, even at this early stage. However, what these keys of Paradise meant exactly is open to interpretation. As can be seen by the example of Yazid, it may be that Muslim warriors associated the keys of Paradise with waging jihad. Yet, this does not mean that Muhammad also believed or taught this. If fact, it is important to note that Muhammad himself had not been involved in the conquest of Palestine, having died before its commencement, nor was he involved in any attacks on Byzantine land. Therefore, Muhammad’s teachings may be more authentically reflected in the hadith tradition that associates the keys of Paradise with more spiritual activities, such as prayer and the confession of faith, rather than Umayyad views on jihad. Nevertheless, it seems that The Testimony of Jacob may indeed provide insight not only into how Christians who came face to face with early Islam saw it, but even how early Muslims may have seen and interpreted their own faith, and this makes it, despite its polemical nature, an invaluable document.