Note [original edition] : Is thy Lord able to
cause a table to descend unto us from heaven, &c.] This miracle is thus related by the commentators.
Jesus having, at
the request of his followers, asked it of God, a red table immediately
descended, in their sight, between two clouds, and was set before them;
whereupon he rose up, and having made the ablution, prayed, and then took off
the cloth which covered the table, saying,
In the name of God, the best
provider of food. What the provisions were with which this table was
furnished is a matter wherein the expositors are not agreed. One will have
them to be nine cakes of bread and nine fishes; another bread and flesh;
another, all sorts of food, except flesh; another all sorts of food, except
bread and flesh; another, all except bread and fish; another, one fish, which
had the taste of all manner of food; and another, fruits of paradise; but the
most received tradition is that when the table was uncovered, there appeared a
fish ready dressed, without scales or prickly fins, dropping with fat, having
salt placed at its head and vinegar at its tail, and round it all sorts of
herbs, except leeks, and five loaves of bread, on one of which there were
olives, on the second honey, on the third butter, on the fourth cheese, and on
the fifth dried flesh. They add that
Jesus, at the request of the apostles,
shewed them another miracle, by restoring the fish to life, and causing its
scales and fins to return to it, at which the standers-by being affrighted, he
caused it to become as it was before; that 1,300 men and women, all afflicted
with bodily infirmities or poverty, ate of these provisions, and were
satisfied, the fish remaining whole as it was at first; that then the table
flew up to heaven in the sight of all; and every one who had partaken of this
food were delivered from their infirmities and misfortunes; and that it
continued to descend for forty days together at dinner-time, and stood on the
ground till the sun declined, and was then taken up into the clouds. Some of
the
Mohammedan writers are of opinion that this table did not really descend,
but that it was only a parable; but most think the words of the
Korân are
plain to the contrary. A further tradition is, that several men were changed
into swine for disbelieving this miracle, and attributing it to magic art; or,
as others pretend, for stealing some of the victuals from off it
1.
Several
other fabulous circumstances are also told, which are scarce worth
transcribing
2.
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1
Idem, Al Thalabi.
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2
V. Marracc. in Alc. p. 238, &c.