Cross & salvation

Crucifixion & Resurrection

The cross and the empty tomb are the centre of Christianity. One verse in the Qur’an, 4:157, says Jesus was not killed or crucified, but raised up by God. This topic sets the two beliefs side by side, reads that verse and the verses around it, and looks at what the texts, the historians and Muslim scholars say.

1The question

Was Jesus crucified and raised from the dead, or did God save him from the cross?

2What Christians believe

Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world, was buried, and rose bodily on the third day. Paul says he delivered this “first of all” (1 Corinthians 15:3–4), and says that if Christ is not raised, the Christian faith is empty (1 Corinthians 15:14).

Christians argue that the crucifixion is one of the best-attested facts about Jesus, recorded not only in the Gospels but by the Roman historian Tacitus, and that the first disciples were ready to suffer for their claim that they had seen the risen Jesus. A denial written six centuries later, they say, needs very strong evidence.

3What the texts say

Jesus asks to be spared

And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.
Mark 14:36 · KJVRead in context →
Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
Hebrews 5:7 · KJVRead in context →

The sign of Jonah

For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
Matthew 12:40 · KJVRead in context →

God’s promise to protect the righteous

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
Psalm 91:11 · KJVRead in context →
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Psalm 91:12 · KJVRead in context →

Times Jesus escaped those who wanted to kill him

And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
Luke 4:29 · KJVRead in context →
But he passing through the midst of them went his way,
Luke 4:30 · KJVRead in context →
Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.
John 8:59 · KJVRead in context →

The resurrection as Paul teaches it

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:3 · KJVRead in context →
And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
1 Corinthians 15:4 · KJVRead in context →
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
1 Corinthians 15:6 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Most historians accept that Jesus was crucified under Pontius Pilate. Tacitus (Annals 15.44), writing around 115, says “Christus” was executed by Pilate. Josephus also mentions Jesus (Antiquities 18.63), though scholars agree that this passage was later added to by Christian copyists. Raymond E. Brown (The Death of the Messiah, 1994) remains the standard study of the Gospel accounts.

On the resurrection, scholars differ widely. N. T. Wright (The Resurrection of the Son of God, 2003) argues that a bodily resurrection best explains the empty tomb and the appearances. Gerd Lüdemann (The Resurrection of Jesus, 1994) argues that the appearances were visions.

Some early Christian groups also denied that Jesus died on the cross. Irenaeus (Against Heresies 1.24.4), writing around 180, reports that the teacher Basilides said Simon of Cyrene was crucified in Jesus’s place.

Todd Lawson (The Crucifixion and the Qur’an, 2009) surveys how Muslim scholars have read 4:157 over the centuries. The most common reading is that God made someone else look like Jesus, and that person was crucified, while Jesus was raised alive. Mahmoud Ayoub (“The Death of Jesus, Reality or Delusion”, The Muslim World, 1980) and Gabriel Said Reynolds (“The Muslim Jesus: Dead or Alive?”, Bulletin of SOAS, 2009) discuss whether the Qur’an denies only that the Jews killed Jesus, or denies his death altogether. Scholars agree that the great majority of Muslims, past and present, believe Jesus was not crucified, was raised to God alive, and will return before the end of time.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an answers the claim “We slew the Messiah” directly. They did not kill him or crucify him; it was made to appear so to them; God raised him up to himself. Elsewhere God tells Jesus that he will take him up and clear him of those who disbelieve:

And because of their saying: We slew the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, Allah's messenger - they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them; and lo! those who disagree concerning it are in doubt thereof; they have no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture; they slew him not for certain.
Qur’an 4:157 · PickthallRead in context →
But Allah took him up unto Himself. Allah was ever Mighty, Wise.
Qur’an 4:158 · PickthallRead in context →
(And remember) when Allah said: O Jesus! Lo! I am gathering thee and causing thee to ascend unto Me, and am cleansing thee of those who disbelieve and am setting those who follow thee above those who disbelieve until the Day of Resurrection. Then unto Me ye will (all) return, and I shall judge between you as to that wherein ye used to differ.
Qur’an 3:55 · PickthallRead in context →

For Muslims this is God honouring his messenger, not defeating him. They see God answering the prayer Jesus offered in Gethsemane, which Hebrews says “was heard”, and keeping his promise to protect the righteous. The Gospels themselves record times when crowds tried to kill Jesus and he passed through the midst of them unharmed (Luke 4:29–30; John 8:59), and Jesus gave the sign of Jonah, who was alive in the belly of the fish for three days and nights.

6Objections and responses

“Almost all historians agree that Jesus was crucified.”

Response: Muslims accept that this is the majority view among historians, who work from the sources that survive: Christian accounts written decades later and brief Roman notes that repeat what Christians believed. Muslims accept the Qur’an as revelation from God about what really happened. Even in the second century, some Christians held that Jesus did not die on the cross.

“In 3:55 the word mutawaffika means ‘I will cause you to die’.”

Response: The Arabic word means to take something in full, and the Qur’an uses it for sleep as well as death (6:60; 39:42). Pickthall translates it “gathering thee”. Most Muslim scholars read the verse as God taking Jesus up, in line with 4:157–158, which says plainly that he was not killed.

“If God made someone look like Jesus, he deceived people.”

Response: The Qur’an does not say God deceived anyone. It says those who claimed to have killed him had “no knowledge thereof save pursuit of a conjecture”. God saving a righteous messenger from his enemies is a mercy, and the Bible itself praises God for such rescues (Psalm 91).

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that Jesus faced death at the hands of his enemies, that he prayed to be saved, and that God raised him up, and that the Qur’an’s denial of the crucifixion is the deepest point of disagreement between the two faiths. Christians believe he died on the cross and rose bodily on the third day. Muslims believe God saved him from the cross and raised him alive to himself.

Read Mark 14:32–42, Hebrews 5:7, Qur’an 4:155–159 and 1 Corinthians 15:1–8, and compare what each says God did.

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