Home > Surah 23 - The Believers
1. Apocryphal Dependency:
It places Mary and Jesus on a "high ground with flowing water" (rabwah). This detail is entirely absent from the canonical Gospels but directly mirrors 2nd-century apocryphal legends, specifically the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and the Protoevangelium of James, where Mary rests on a hill and a miraculous spring appears.
2. Canonization of Rejected Myth:
By embedding these legendary elements, the text validates localized folklore that the early Church had already rejected as non-historical. It exposes a human author relying on widely circulated sectarian myths rather than authentic, canonical historical data.
The Quran Verse
Surah 23:50:
And We made the son of Mary and his mother a sign and sheltered them within a high ground [rabwah] having levelness and flowing water.
The Relevant Source Text (Christian Apocrypha)
The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew (Chapter 20) / Protoevangelium of James
These texts describe Mary during the flight to Egypt or her labor, seeking shelter under a palm tree on a hill, where a spring of water miraculously breaks out at her feet.
Again, the Quran ignores the canonical Gospel accounts (where Jesus is born in a stable/house in Bethlehem) and instead repeats a scene from 2nd and 3rd-century apocryphal legends.
By placing Mary and Jesus on a "high ground with flowing water," the Quran validates regional folklore that the early Church had already rejected as non-historical.