Was Jesus Crucified?
by Ghulam Muhammad
The Light (Pakistan), 1st March 1922 Issue (Vol. 1, No. 6, p. 4)
Question:
Was Jesus really crucified? A Padri [Priest] Professor, while proving the death of Jesus, recited the following from the Quran (3:55):
“When Allah said: O Jesus! I will cause you to die and exalt you in My presence and clear you of those who disbelieve.”
Will you please bring the facts to light?
Answer:
Jesus was undoubtedly nailed to the cross with two thieves on either side of him, but he did not die on it. The very Gospels abound in facts which clearly prove that he escaped death on the cross. A few are as follows:
1. He remained on the cross only for a few hours, while death by crucifixion was always slow.
2. The two thieves taken down with him were still alive.
3. When the side of Jesus was lanced, blood gushed out, and it was a sure sign of life.
4. Even Pilate marvelled if he were already dead (Mark 15:44).
5. Unlike the two criminals, Jesus was not buried but given over to Joseph of Arimathea, who took all possible care of him.
6. After Jesus had risen from the dead, he always appeared in disguise to his disciples, which was quite unnecessary if he was in spirit. In fact, he was fleeing for his life and dreaded being recognised even by his own disciples, who had proved totally untrustworthy, except in some safe quarter.
7. He was still a mortal with hands, feet, flesh and bones. And to convince his disciples, who always lacked in faith, said,
“Handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke, 24:39).
He felt hungry and asked for meat and was given broiled fish and honeycomb by the disciples, which he ate in their very presence.
8. If he was raised to heaven there was no necessity of his going thither [towards a place] via Galilee. He ought to have risen straight to heaven from the sepulchre [tomb], without taking the trouble of removing the heavy stone from its month, in face of his enemies. But all through there is a veil of secrecy upon his disappearance, which clearly shows that some human agency and not divine was at work, and its only purpose was to elude the enemies of Christ.
9. Before crucifixion, Jesus prayed with strong crying and tears unto Him Who was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared (Hebrews 5:7).
10. Jesus, when asked for a sign by the Pharisees, said that no sign shall be given to them but that of the Prophet Jonas. But as Jonas remained alive in the whale’s belly, so should Jesus be in the bowels of the earth, otherwise the sign remains unfulfilled in Jesus.
The verse recited by your reverend gentleman certainly proves the death of Christ, but clearly contradicts the Christian belief of his death on the cross. The words,
“O Jesus! I will cause you to die” in the above verse (The Holy Quran, 3:55),
allude to the frustration of the designs of the Jews on his life and further pronounce that he died a natural death. In the phrase,
“and exalt you in My presence,”
the exaltation is after his death, just in the same fashion as the righteous are exalted after theirs.