And if you say, “We have inferred his divinity from the fact that he was not begotten by human beings; had he been a creature he would have been born of human parents,” then—if this argument were valid—Adam would be the god of the Messiah and more entitled to divinity than he, for Adam had neither mother nor father, whereas the Messiah has a mother. Make Eve as well a fifth deity, for she had no mother, and her creation is still more remarkable than that of the Messiah!

God, exalted be He, diversified the creation of Adam(1) and his offspring to display His power and to show that He does whatever He wills: He created Adam from neither male nor female; He created Adam’s wife Eve from a male without a female; He created His servant the Messiah from a female without a male; and He created the rest of humankind(2) from male and female.

And if you say, “We concluded his divinity from the fact that he raised the dead, and none revives the dead except God,” then make Moses another god, for he produced in this matter something the Messiah neither equaled nor even approached: he turned an inert staff into a living creature(3)—a great serpent(4). That is far more impressive and wondrous than restoring life to a body that once possessed it.

If you object, “That is not really raising the dead,” then look to the prophet Elisha: he raised the dead, and they(5) concede this. Likewise the prophet Elijah(6) revived a boy by God’s permission, and Moses, by God’s permission, revived the seventy who had died among his people. Your own scriptures contain many such accounts regarding