Qur'an, Sura 5 (al-Ma'ida): the Table and 'me and my mother as two gods'
c. c. 628 – c. 632
Place: medina
24.468, 39.611 · On the map
The text is attested. The source of 5:116 — Collyridians, Marian piety, or rhetorical exaggeration — is a hypothesis (see collyridians).
Sura 5 is late Medinan. The disciples ask Jesus for a table spread from heaven (5:112–115), which echoes Eucharistic and Gospel feeding stories. In 5:116 God asks Jesus whether he told people to take him and his mother as two gods besides God, and Jesus denies it.
People named here
- Jesus
- Mary
- the disciples (hawariyyun)
Where scholars disagree
For
- Sidney H. Griffith — 2007 (on 5:73)
Against
No names on this side.
Links
Text and wording
Out
Qur'an 4:171 and 5:73: 'Do not say Three' / 'God is the third of three'
5:73 ('third of three') sits in Sura 5 with 5:116.
same_sura
attestedIn
Zellentin compares Qur'anic food laws (e.g., 5:3) with the Didascalia's rules.
text_parallel
scholarly hypothesisIn
Clay birds again in Q 5:110.
text_parallel
attestedIn
Collyridians: Marian devotion in Arabia (per Epiphanius)
Proposed background for Q 5:116 ('me and my mother as two gods'); no named advocate verified.
idea_parallel
scholarly hypothesis
Context
In
Council of Ephesus (431): Mary as Theotokos
Theotokos piety as a broader background to the Qur'an's denial in 5:116.
context
scholarly hypothesis
Sources
- Qur'an, Surat al-Ma'ida (5)
Quran.com. Accessed 2026-11-11.
- Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qur'an and the Bible: Text and Commentary (2018)
Yale University Press. Accessed 2026-11-11.