things were created, and especially Christ, who was born without a father;
"the word Be was in the beginning before all creation, and the word was
God," that is, by an ellipse, "was the word of God"; and
"the word became flesh," that is, was the cause of Christ's birth!1
To the catholic interpretation of this passage he opposes the dictates of
reason regarding the impossibility of the incarnation of God; and he asserts
that Pfander has mistranslated the words "dwelt among us"[John 1:14]the
Arabic version having in this place, "he entered into us" (halla fî
nâ), which involves the doctrine of transmigration or communication of the
Divine essence to another (hullûl), a tenet regarded by orthodox Mussulmans
with peculiar horror. Had the Maulavi consulted the original, he would
have found that the words
έσκήνωσεν έν
ήμίν [eskeénoosen en heemín,
dwelt among us] were most
aptly rendered as above. Indeed, the Maulavi is too much in the
habit of throwing grave suspicions on the integrity of Pfander's views and
translations, merely on the authority of Arabic