5.17 – Certainly they disbelieve who say, “Surely God – He is the Messiah, son of Mary.”
This is one of the Quran’s most important verses about the identity of the Messiah. At issue is the Christian confession of the deity of Jesus (the preceding context mentions “Christians” at v. 14). The Quran judges the Christian confession to be unbelief (kufr). The tone of these verses is polemical – they attack the foundations of another faith. And there is a surprising depth of feeling in the idea that Allah could destroy the Messiah, Mary, and “whoever is on the earth.” On the name “Messiah,” see the comment at 3.45.
In such verses “Allah” represents more than a generic concept of “God.” Here the Quran distinguishes Allah from a concept of God that understands the Messiah to be divine and indignantly insists that sovereignty belongs to Allah alone.
The judgment in 5.17 on the confession of the deity of the Messiah repeats in 5.72. See the analysis of the quranic denial of the deity of ‘Īsā at 43.59.