Home > Surah 3 - The Family of Imran
1. The Miriam Conflation:
There is explicit confusion between Mary, the mother of Jesus, and Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron. The text calls Mary the "sister of Aaron" (Chapter 19:28) and the "daughter of 'Imran" (Chapter 66:12). The author clearly confused the two because they share the same Semitic name (Maryam), completely missing the 1,500-year historical gap between them.
2. The Genealogical Error:
This verse identifies the mother of Mary as the "wife of 'Imran." In scriptural reality (Numbers 26:59), Amram (ʿImrān) is the father of the Torah-era siblings Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, not the virgin Mary.
3. Folklore as Revelation:
This glaring anachronism proves the text is a product of human error rather than divine revelation, showing that the author absorbed and codified confused historical folklore circulating in 7th-century Arabia.
The Quran Verse:
Surah 3:35:
When the wife of 'Imran said, "My Lord, indeed I have pledged to You what is in my womb, consecrated, so accept this from me. Indeed, You are the Hearing, the Knowing.
The Bible Verse:
Numbers 26:59:
The name of Amram's wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi, who was born to Levi in Egypt; and she bore to Amram: Aaron and Moses and their sister Miriam.
The Quran misidentifies Mary's father as Imran (Amram), who was actually the father of Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, living roughly 1,500 years before Mary.