I really wonder where the idea in the Quran that Jews believe Ezra was the son of God came from

People keep asking about it on Mi Yodeya

but no matter how hard I look, I can't find any record of anybody ever believing that

Is there perhaps some other interpretation of that verse in the Quran?

I don't really know how this could be true

If it's true that enough Jews really believed that for the Quran to make the statement about Jews in general, one would think that it would be recorded somewhere else

I would have thought that it would be recorded in the Talmud as a wrong belief that some people had

@Daniel There are theories that "Uzair" isn't actually "Ezra" as it's often translated.

@goldPseudo but who would it be?

i've heard enoch and metatron and abednego bandied about. no clue how strong the arguments are for them, or whether they'd fit the "(some) jews actually believe that he's the son of god" criteria any better.

@goldPseudo AFAIK "son of God" just doesn't make sense according to Judaism

at least in a literal sense

beyond that, the arabic text seems pretty clear: the same term ابن الله is used for the Jews and Uzair as for the Christians and the Messiah.

so the insinuation that they believe "son of God" in the same literal sense as the Christians do is definitely there.

@goldPseudo yeah agreed

but it seems strange that the Quran would record something that is blatantly not true

which is why I wonder if anybody else has found some other explanation

one of the strongest arguments against polemic of that verse is the fact that if it was "blatantly not true" there would be at least some records of people arguing against it at the time.

which is not my favorite argument. appeal to ignorance.

@goldPseudo Yeah

plus I imagine that Jews around then likely didn't care enough what Muslims thought about their beliefs to argue about it

Why risk provoking a powerful potential enemy?