The Christians state that "Paraclete" is from the Greek "Paracletos" which they say that it means counselor, and advocate/intercessor; then some how "consoler" (which is spelled similar to "counselor") and means "comforter" was added. It must be said that the word "Paraclete" has entered English vocabulary; if English dictionaries under "Paraclete" are checked, the meanings of advocate/intercessor, and also comforter, are usually found.

Muslims, at least since the middle of the second century A.H., have charged that the word "Paracletos" was changed from the original "Periklutos", meaning "Praised One" (New Encyclopedia of Islam); I.e. in translations and transliterations -it seems that indeed very conveniently- the word " Periklutos" was taken out, and a very similar word "Paracletos" replaced it, and in this manner they have hoped that "the Praised one" or "Ahmad" can be hidden behind the dark clouds of translation and transliteration distortions.

It is also noteworthy to mention that the first to third centuries A.H. were the time when the infallible Imams (PBUT) -the Divinely Chosen Successors of the Holy Prophet (PBUH&HP)- taught people the heart of the Word of Allah using their inherited and bestowed Divine Knowledge, and even had debates and discussions with the leaders of the different creeds such as the Yahood (Jews) and the Nasraani (Nazarenes, Christians) in which names such as "Farqelit or Farqelita or Faraqlit" … were disclosed; and as one direct result of those debates, the Muslims began to learn more about the prophecies of previous Prophets, and also the many distortions which occurred after the Prophets (PBUT); i.e. the infallible Imams were they who opened the eyes of the Believers in this regard too. The aforementioned Hadith from Imam Reza (PBUH) was also from the same time period.

In addition, very interestingly, certain scholars believe that the words Periklutos and Paracletos and … in the Greek language are names which have actually originated from Hebrew, and when gospels were being written in Greek in the first century C.E. and even before, these words entered the Greek language, and are actually forms of transliterations from Hebrew but later adopted a Greek identity; many names when being transliterated to other languages, adopt certain changes based on the new language, for instance the Hebrew names of Matta, Luqa, Marqos and Yoohanna (the names of the four persons who are said to be the writers of the four gospels in the current New Testament) when being transliterated to Greek and other Latin languages and English, changed to Matthew, Luke, Mark and John and adopted the identity of the host language.

The Greek language has been vastly influenced by Hebrew; for instance, in the Webster dictionary's description of "Alphabet" mentioned before, it is confirmed that many things have entered the Greek language from Semitic languages, which the Hebrew language is considered as one.

Another significant matter is that in ancient Hebrew vowels were not marked, later vowel points were marked in the form of pointing in or around the letters. Then, Hebrew grammarians -based on the work of the grammarians of Classical Arabic and in Arabic quantitative meters - did lots of work in explaining the grammar and vocabulary of Biblical Hebrew. Hebrew and Arabic are both considered as Semitic languages, therefore having many similarities … . (From the Wikipedia encyclopedia; using references such as: William M. Schniedewind, "Prolegomena for the Sociolinguistics of Classical Hebrew", The Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, M. Segal, A Grammar of Mishnaic Hebrew (Oxford: Clarendon Press), …)

In other words, Hebrew just like Arabic, has diacritical and phonetical marks which were not always placed, and are basically used for the pronunciation of vowels (A, E, O, I, U); I.e. without these diacritical marks, only the consonants are written. Let us look at the two words Paracletos and Periklutos without vowels, notice that Paracletos becomes "PRCLTS" and Periklutos becomes "PRKLTS"! And of course "C" and "K" both are usually pronounced as "K" and are interchangeable. Also "s" is usually added in Greek to the end of most names, as part of the Greek identity adoption; for instance, the name Moses which is the transliteration of the original Hebrew Moosa (Moose or Mooshe) to Greek and then into English, has that "s" added at the end.

Therefore, "PRCLT" and "PRKLT" are both the same "Paraclete" ("Paraclete" without vowels: "PRCLT") or "Faraqlit or Farqelit or Farqelita" (without vowels: "FRQLT", and of course "F" and "Q" were explained before to be interchangeable with "P" and "K").

Like Arabic grammar, in Hebrew also, different vowels for the same base word, some times may only change the grammatical positions; for instance certain vowel gives it a grammatically subjective position, while another vowel to the same word, gives it a grammatically objective position.

As another supporting document, let us look at Strong's Hebrew dictionary; although obviously the two words Periklutos and Paracletos can not be found in today's Hebrew Bible dictionaries, but in order to prove the point that words with the same consonants and different vowels are from the same basic roots, let us as an example, look at the Hebrew word "pereq", which this dictionary states that this word is from 'paraq'; such examples are plenty in the Hebrew language.

Therefore, the two words Periklutos and Paracletos, based on certain scholars are actually the same base word with perhaps certain different grammatical positions, whether considered Greek or Hebrew!

Still if Christians wish to insist that "Paraclete" means Advocate/Intercessor, as the Webster dictionary states:

1. an advocate or intercessor.

Let it be! But let us carefully re-read one of the Hadithes which we narrated from the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP) earlier in the second part of this writing in this site (kindfather.com), in which our most beloved Prophet stated:

"… and in Enjil (Gospel), He named me "Ahmad", because I am "Praised" in Heavens, …; in Qur'an, He named me "Mohammad", due to the fact that in Qiyaamat, all nations shall "Praise" me; (every one shall "Praise" me) because in Qiyaamat, no one will "Intercede" but with my permission … .”

I.e. the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH&HP) is the "Praised one" because he is the main "Intercessor" by whom other Intercessors such as his Ahl-Ol-Bait (PBUT), are given Permission to intercede.

Our hearts cry: O' Allah! we implore You to hasten the Ever-Anticipated Appearance of the last remaining Treasure of Mohammad and his Ahl-Ol-Bait (PBUT), our beloved Mahdi (PBUH), he who will disclose the real Torah and Enjil, and many other hidden secrets, and … .

To be continued …

Part I, Part II

Print