As he was invited on various channels to explain his work on the Quran and the origins of Islam (based on his collaboration with Édouard-Marie Gallez, the author of the groundbreaking thesis Le Messie et son prophète, Éditions de Paris, 2005-2010), Odon Lafontaine had the opportunity to give four main thematic presentations of his quranic studies. The supporting documents of these presentations have been gathered in the following one :

It can be read as a standalone document, but its explanation is to be found in the videos of the four presentations.

The first ones were recorded with Mel, the host of the former YouTube channel “Sneaker’s Corner” channel, dedicated to the study of Islam’s origins (its contents have been saved here on Odysee: https://odysee.com/@SneakersCorner:0) – see also his new channel, “Origins”: https://www.youtube.com/c/OriginsofIslam/videos

The last ones were recorded with Jay Smith on his PfanderFilms YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@pfanderfilms).

Part I: “the People of the Book”

There is some very strong quranic evidence that proves the existence of a small Jewish community in the 7th century who had a crucial influence on the beginning of islam. It was composed of ethnic Jewish people:

• who abided by Moses Law
• who recognised Jesus as Israel’s messiah (hence they were opposed to other Jews)
• who refused Jesus’divinity (hence they were opposed to Christians)
• who believed that Jesus’return was imminent and that it would trigger the apocalypse, leading to the establishment of God’s reign
• who taught their beliefs to some Christian Arabs

All of this is has been proved using the Quran only. In the next parts of the presentation, we will see that this community was actually the quranic Nazarenes (or was part of the group that the Quran calls Nazarenes), and we will see that they enjoined their audience (the Christian Arabs) to a grand venture : to emigrate in God’s path, to take Jerusalem, to rebuild its Temple. We will then be able to form new historical hypotheses to explain Islam’origins.

Part II: “the Quranic Nazarenes”

Who were the quranic Nazarenes ? What does the literal text of the Quran tells about them ?

• they were not Christians.
• they belonged to the “people of the Book”, namely the Jews.
• they were once friends of the Arab believers, and a covenant existed between them.
• they became enemies of the Arab believers, to the point that the writers of the Standard Islamic Narrative erased their memory and even their very name (which now designates Christians, according to this narrative).

Part III: “Jerusalem & Mecca”

What does the Quran really mean? In the previous presentations, we discovered that the quranic text tells about small Jewish group, the “Nazarenes”, who taught the Arab believers their religion and urged them to a grand venture. What was this venture? What really happened during the first decades of the 7th century? The Quran holds all the answers, hidden in plain sight.

Part IV: “What is the Quran”?

Odon did then another video series with Jay Smith, from Pfanderfilms, about the “quran” word in the Quranic text.
A thorough Quranic study on the word “quran” explains the actual meaning of this word in the Quranic text: it does not mean “Islamic Quran”, the “Quran of Islam”, as Muslims think, but it refers to another book, an Arabic lectionary. This Arabic lectionary was a selection of verses and texts from the “sacred scriptures” (i.e. the Torah, the gospels, and other texts) that had been translated from Aramaic and Hebrew for the first time into an Arabic book. Hence the insistence of the Qur’anic text on the “Arabicness” of the “quran” that it mentions so much.

We can then understand what is the Quran: it is mostly a collection of proclamations, exhortations, discourses that were uttered to an Arab audience in order to present them this Arabic Lectionary. Because this lectionary was made from verses of the “sacred scriptures”, it was then presented as the word of God, which led most readers of the Quran to confusions: confusing the “sacred scriptures” (i.e. the word of God) with the Arabic lectionary, confusing the Arabic lectionary with the Quran of Islam, and then, confusing the Quran of Islam with the word of God.

Which leads then to major issues: who was the preacher who “speaks” in the Quran? How did he get the Arabic lectionary? Who taught him? Who made the Arabic lectionary?

Pdf file of the part IV presentation