Can you spot the difference between these two passages? If you can, I’ll buy you a beer.
Both are from The Western Heritage, by Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment, and Frank M. Turner. Ninth edition, Prentice Hall, 2007. It’s an advanced high school world history text.
Passage #1:
The authors of the Gospels believed Jesus was the son of God and that he has come into the world to redeem humanity and to bring immortality to those who believed in him and followed his way. To the Gospel writers, Jesus’ resurrection was striking proof of his teachings. At the same time, the Gospels regard Jesus as a figure in history, and they recount events in his life as well as his sayings. (p. 161)
Passage #2:
At about age forty, [Muhammad] began to receive revelations from the angel Gabriel, who recited God’s word to him at irregular intervals. These revelations were collected after his death into the Islamic holy book, the Qur’an [literally, a “reciting”], which his followers compiled between 650 and 651. The basic message Muhammad received was a summons to all Arabs to submit to God’s will. (p. 200)
Wait a minute. Does this have anything to do with the jihad? Oh yes it does.