Many modern Islamic scholars suggest that Waraqa ibn Nawfal was literate in Hebrew and familiar with Christian scriptures in Syriac or Aramaic. It is said that he used these texts to recognize and affirm Muhammad’s prophetic experience. According to these scholars, the gospel tradition Waraqa relied upon may have been connected to the Gospel of the Ebionites, a text associated with a Jewish-Christian sect that emphasized strict monotheism and rejected certain mainstream Christian doctrines. This connection is used to explain how Waraqa could identify Muhammad’s experience as consistent with earlier prophetic traditions.

The evidence suggesting that Waraqa ibn Nawfal possessed the Gospel of the Ebionites or the Gospel of the Hebrews lies in the linguistic context of the 7th century. In the 7th century, the main Christian Church of the Byzantine and Roman world used the New Testament in Greek (and Latin in the West). The only groups still using gospels in Hebrew or Aramaic were small Jewish-Christian sects, such as the Ebionites and the Nazarenes, who were considered heretical by the larger church. This makes it likely that Waraqa’s gospel came from one of these sects rather than the mainstream church.

Waraqa was associated with ascetic forms of Christianity rather than the dominant Byzantine orthodoxy. His interactions with Jewish communities may have given him access to their scriptures, particularly those of the Ebionites. This is significant since the main Jewish-Christian groups present in Mecca at the time included the Ebionites, Nazarenes, Elchasaites, Nestorians and Jacobites. Moreover, his engagement with their Hebrew literature might have contributed to his fluency in the Hebrew language, further deepening his understanding of these traditions.