The Meaning of "Book" and "Wisdom"

The seventh attribute of Jesus (a.s.) mentioned in these verses is that God is the teacher and Jesus (a.s.) is the student, and the focus of his education is the Book, wisdom, Torah, and Gospel.

ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, since he refers the object pronoun to “people” (nās - which would make the verse signify that Jesus will teach the people the Book and wisdom), considers the definite article in “the Book” (al-kitāb) and “the wisdom” (al-ḥikma) to indicate genus rather than comprehensiveness, because Jesus said: “And I will make clear to you some of what you differ about.” Also, he considers the “Book” to be divine revelation which, due to containing laws of judgment, resolves people’s disputes, and wisdom to be beneficial knowledge related to belief and practice. However, as previously mentioned, the object pronoun refers back to Jesus (a.s.), not to “people” (nās), therefore the definite article can indicate comprehensiveness.

However, the word kitāb in the sense of “the thing written” (not writing in general) may be preferable, since in the Qur’an, kitāb is most often used in this sense; and what is meant here is the divine Book, and teaching the Book means explaining divine verses:(378) “It is He who sent to the unlettered [people] a messenger from among themselves, to recite to them His signs, to purify them, and to teach them the Book and wisdom, and earlier they had indeed been in manifest error”(379)

The Book in Qur’anic terminology is not any written text, but rather it is that writing which, in addition to doctrinal knowledge and moral advice, also contains jurisprudential and legal laws. Therefore, the Psalms of David and the scriptures of previous prophets (a.s.) are not considered Books in the Qur’anic technical sense, and only the legacy of the prophets who were Messengers of Firm Resolve (ulū l-ʿazm) (a.s.) is called a Book in the technical sense.

In summary, firstly, kitāb means “the written”; secondly, divine writing is meant, not human writing; thirdly, it is a writing containing doctrinal, moral, political, social and similar laws; fourthly, the teacher of this Book is God Himself.

Since the verse under discussion refers to the genus of Book, it includes both the Torah and Gospel. Therefore, mentioning the Torah and Gospel is citing the specific after the general for emphasis, like “Be watchful of your prayers, and [especially] the middle prayer”(380) and like mentioning the names of Gabriel and Michael after mentioning the angels, which is for emphasis: “[Say,] ’Whoever is an enemy of God, His angels and His messengers, and Gabriel and Michael, [let him know that] God is indeed the enemy of the faithless’”(381)

Mentioning the specific after the general can have many implications. In the verse under discussion, since the Torah and Gospel contained the collection of governing laws of that time, they are mentioned specifically after the general, just as the mention of wisdom after the Book: “And He will teach him the Book and wisdom, the Torah and the Evangel” is also for emphasizing that special part which the divine Book contains, and its placement between the Book and the Torah and Gospel is not of the nature of an unrelated interpolation.

Some have considered wisdom to mean all the fundamental teachings of religion and have included the Torah and Gospel under the heading of wisdom, and have considered the mention of these two after wisdom to be like the mention of Gabriel and Michael after the mention of angels.(382)