Jonathan Brown on Ezra as the Son of God

A couple weeks ago, Islamic apologist Paul Williams posted an article from American Islamic convert Jonathan Brown.  It deals with the extremely awkward claim in Surah 9:30 that Uzayr(usually translated as Ezra) is the Son of God.  A lot of converts like to listen to lectures by Jonathan Brown since he’s a really good speaker, and is completely Western in look and dress.  He’s also pretty clever in a lot of his explanations.  However, in his article he’s really grasping at straws.

Here’s the article:

https://almadinainstitute.org/blog/the-quran-the-jews-and-ezra-as-the-son-of-god/

Brown quotes Islamic authorities who claim that a group of Jews in Arabia at the time of Muhammad believed this.  Brown can’t find any data on Jews who believe this.  He points out Jewish groups in the Middle East who had other idolatrous beliefs such as worshipping angels or Metatron but nothing to do with Ezra.

The statement from Surah 9:30 is as follows:

The Jews said, “Ezra is the son of God,” and the Christians said, “The Messiah is the son of God.” These are their statements, out of their mouths. They emulate the statements of those who blasphemed before. May God assail them! How deceived they are!

Regarding the statement that this is about a fringe sect of Jews in Arabia that doesn’t exist anymore is quite a stretch.  First of all, it’s mentioned right next to a condemnation of Christianity.  It condemns Christians for saying the Messiah is the Son of God.  Every Christian believes this.  In the 7th century you had Chalcedonians, monophysites, Nestorians and many heretical groups.  They all claimed that the messiah was the Son of God.  In the 7th century it would be really easy to find a Christian who believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God.  Just talk to any Christian.  So all Christians are guilty of this charge of assigning a Son to Allah but the Jews are condemned and it’s only some super small group that conveniently leaves no trace in history?

How do we know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?  What evidence was there in the 7th century?  We had scripture, creeds, writings of the church fathers, writings of the popes, prayers, liturgies, and iconography all claiming this central belief of the Christian faith.  If only the Muslims had any of that for this mythical group of Jews.

Also, Muslims essentially more or less have shown by their history that this was meant as all Jews.  In the preceding Surah we read:

Fight those who do not believe in God, nor in the Last Day, nor forbid what God and His Messenger have forbidden, nor abide by the religion of truth—from among those who received the Scripture—until they pay the due tax, willingly or unwillingly.

– Surah 9:29

Those who received the Scripture will pay this tax because they haven’t believed.  Verse 30 gives the specific belief.  Christians are to be taxed because they believe the messiah to be the Son of God.  Obviously Jews have always paid the Jizya when living under Islamic law.  Their belief in Ezra as the Son of God has earned them this fate.  If I were a Jew I’d be pretty mad about paying a tax for a bogus reason.  At least the Christians got taxed for their true beliefs.