On October 29th, 2020, Mohammad Hijab posted a video regarding Jesus' crucifixion. Today we will examine the claims of the video regarding biblical prophecy and the teaching of the Qur'an on this subject before putting our own case for the historicity of the crucifixion. The crucifixion of Jesus is one of the most difficult things Muslims have to deal with in defending their worldview because its attestation is far and wide from a whole host of sources and this was unprecedented to Muhammad and the Muslims of the 7th century who dispute the claim.
Biblical Prophecy. The video begins by citing the Gospel of Matthew. 5. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” 7. Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Matthew 4:5-7 (NIV) Then the claim is made that as Jesus does not rebuke Satan for twisting scripture, he affirms that what Satan said was true, that Jesus is the one referred to here and he cannot be afflicted, in accordance with Psalm 91 which the video shows us. It does not necessarily follow that Jesus affirms that what Satan is saying is true just because he says "it is also written." Whether what Satan says applies to Him or not, it is an objective fact that it is also written in His word that you do not put the Lord your God to the test. 10. no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12. they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13. You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent. 14. “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.” Psalm 91:10-16 (NIV) The only time Psalm 91 is applied to Jesus in the Bible is by Satan, unlike other prophecies where they are clearly applied to Jesus by Jesus Himself and the writers but for argument's sake, I will absolutely agree this entire prophecy is pertaining to Jesus. Even if we grant this, the objection is mute because this affliction is palpably not the same as the atonement on the cross. The objective of Jesus at the atonement is not simply to be hurt or afflicted; it is to atone for the sins of mankind by taking on their deserved afflictions. If Jesus was suffering for Himself, then this may be different but He is undertaking the suffering to cover for other people's sin. Psalm 91 easily reconciles with Jesus' crucifixion without any twisting of the prophecy, unlike the video claims. Aside from making a mistake on the spelling of Yeshua in Hebrew, using צ rather than ע, Yeshua also does not mean salvation, it means “Yahweh saves”. The video adds an extra ץ, “h”, for Yeshuah, which means salvation. Qur'anic Teaching. Surah 4:157-158 dictates; "And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. Rather, Allah raised him to Himself. And ever is Allah Exalted in Might and Wise." Here, Jesus is raised up alive and unharmed and according to Hijab's video, this "perfectly mirrors" the prophecy in Psalm 91. "Did not kill him" = "No harm will overtake you". "Raised him to Himself" = "they will lift you up in their hands". There isn't the remarkable correlation here that Hijab is seeking and it is far from perfect. Harm overtaking Jesus does not relate to the atonement and Allah raising Jesus up to avoid His fate at the cross certainly doesn't match to being lifted up by angels; this is not about God saving Him from the cross. That, ladies and gentleman, is all they offer in support of the idea that Jesus wasn't crucified! That's it! Now, let's look at some real evidence... you're probably longing for some. The Historicity Of The Resurrection. The consensus among scholars that Jesus died by crucifixion is absolute due to the huge amount of even hostile attestation that we can survey. The greatest Roman historian, Tacitus, documented: “Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius”. Tacitus’ explains the means by which Jesus was put to death was “the most extreme penalty”, which was crucifixion. [1] Tacitus is a very reliable source. One of the most prominent Tacitus scholars, Ronald Syme, tells us: “the prime quality of Cornelius Tacitus is distrust. It was needed if a man were to write about the Caesars.” [2] Michael Grant writes that Tacitus “was careful to contrast what had been handed down orally with the literary tradition… There is no doubt that (Tacitus) took a great deal of care in selecting his material.” [3] Herbert Benario tells us that Tacitus “chose judiciously among his sources, totally dependent upon none, and very often, at crucial points, ignored the consensus of his predecessors to impose his own viewpoint and his own judgment.” [4] All the major Tacitean scholars support Tacitus’ reliability and integrity. Our second example of secular historical attestation of Jesus’ death by crucifixion is Josephus, who wrote: “Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day.” [5] Josephus was not a Christian, so it is accepted among scholars that this passage has been interpolated. [6] However, this doesn’t mean the entire passage is fraudulent and the vast majority of scholars concur that it is simply doctored. All scholars of note think much of the passage is an original because there are many internal consistencies in this passage, including particular phrases such as “those that loved him” that match the writing of Josephus. It is self explanatory that for interpolation to occur, there needed to be an original and when reading the text, it appears as if the scribe interacted with Josephus, such as the original “there was about this time Jesus, a wise man” and the scribe’s “if it be lawful to call him a man”. This theory was confirmed by further evidence discovered in 1971, as an Arabic version of this passage was discovered as a quote in the 10th century writings of Agapius: “At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and he was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon his discipleship. They reported that he had appeared to them after his crucifixion and that he was alive; accordingly, he was perhaps the Messiah concerning whom the prophets have recounted wonders.” [7] Scholars agree unanimously that this is what the original text was in Josephus' work. In addition to the main examples of Tacitus and Josephus, Mara bar-Serapion, Lucian and Celsus also either directly report or presuppose the crucifixion in their writings. This wealth of evidence is what has lead to the definite consensus among scholars who teach in the field of teaches classics, ancient history, New Testament, early Christianity or other such areas, including all the most prominent non-Christian scholars. Gerd Lüdemann says: “The fact of the death of Jesus as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.” [8] E. P. Sanders includes Jesus’ crucifixion as one of the “almost indisputable facts” about Jesus’ life. [9] Skeptic John Dominic Crossan of the Jesus seminar holds that there is not the “slightest doubt about the fact of Jesus’ crucifixion under Pontius Pilate.” Crossan adds that “That he (Jesus) was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.” [10] Another member of the Jesus seminar, Marcus Borg, says that Jesus’ execution is the “most certain fact about the historical Jesus.” [11] Jewish historian Pinchas Lapide says that Jesus’ death by crucifixion is “historically certain.” [12] Jewish convert Paula Fredriksen writes: “The single most solid fact about Jesus’ life is his death: he was executed by the Roman prefect Pilate, on or around Passover in the manner Rome reserved particularly for political insurrectionists, namely, crucifixion.” [13] Bart Ehrman, the most renowned scholar in related fields and the most recognisable and authoritative skeptical New Testament scholar in the world at present, writes: “One of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate.” [14] In his work, Ehrman presents 11 independent sources for the crucifixion of Jesus, which is exemplary for ancient history. We can also see accounts of what happened following the crucifixion. The account of the death blow in the gospels sheds further light on what happened because the medical literature tells us how blood leaves the body with water, from the sack around the heart called the pericardium, when stabbed through the heart through the side in such a scenario, as described in the New Testament accounts such as John 19:34. 34. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. John 19:34 (NKJV) Cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. Antony de Bono writes: “Jesus had a haemothorax, which in the stillness of the dead body, had separated out as they do into two layers: the heavier red cells below and the light watery plasma above. The haemothorax was the result of the savage flagellation. The withdrawal of the spear would have been followed first by the red cells (blood), then by the lighter plasma (water). The body of Jesus had been hanging on the cross, dead, for some time. Obviously the fluid must have accumulated during life by a bleeding into the chest cavity, almost certainly due to the savage flagellation. It is well known that blood in these circumstances in a still dead body starts to separate out, to sediment, the heavier red cells sinking to the bottom leaving a much lighter, straw colored fluid, the plasma above. When a hole is made by the spear, the red cells, which John describes as blood, gushes out first, followed by the plasma, which John saw as water.” [15] Jesus could not have survived this process. The account in accurate in describing the science behind the death blow and is also consistent in transcribing the torture involved in Roman crucifixion with other ancient sources such as Dionysius of Halicarnassus, [16] Livy, [17] Philo [18] and Josephus. [19] We also know that given Jesus was on the cross for an extended period of time, around 6 hours, He would have certainly succumbed to asphyxiation. When someone hangs with their arms above their head, even without nails, the weight of the body pulls down on the muscles surrounding the lungs; the intercostal, pectoral and deltoid muscles. This constricts the lungs and the subject begins asphyxiating. As a man loses consciousness when hanging this way in twelve minutes, the only way to relieve this and avoid a very quick death is to push up, possible if the feet are tied or nailed. You still cannot do this for long though without serious effort to counteract gravity pulling you down. The accuracy and consistency of the accounts with the medical literature and other instances of ancient crucifixion as well as the abundant attestation makes it clear that Jesus was crucified. Concluding Remarks. One of the video's later claims is that the Jews reject Jesus because "the Messiah cannot be crucified according to Old Testament prophecies that we have seen. The Messiah is supposed to be someone who will be victorious so any claim He was whipped, tortured and died in humiliation is a contradiction." Following this, we hear that Islam opens the door for Jews to accept Jesus, solving the narrative issues. The video also throws a few sneaky remarks about New Testament reliability before concluding but authorship and dating of the Gospels is essentially irrelevant to whether Jesus was crucified or not, just as the Qur'an, written 600 years later, is too. The idea it is impossible for the Messiah to be crucified is just a claim and no Old Testament prophecies were cited in addition to what was already presented, which clearly does not show us that the Messiah couldn't be crucified. While the Messiah was to be victorious, they equivocate this with an inability to be whipped, tortured or killed. Jesus was victorious; He conquered death. It is absolutely true that this subverted Jewish expectation of the Messiah, who they thought would be a conqueror who would defeat Rome and restore the kingdom of Israel, but it is not contradictory; this interpretation or idea of the Messiah was simply error. Furthermore, Islam still teaches that Jesus is the Messiah and if Muslims are to appeal to this Jewish interpretation of Messiah, as a victorious conqueror, that interpretation invalidates what they teach about Jesus too anyway; in Islam, Jesus didn't crush the enemy and set up the kingdom of God, so I don't understand why they appeal to Jewish expectation here. This is a kind of intellectual murder suicide, just where the murder fails; either they are right in which case Islam is false anyway or they are wrong, in which case their ‘proof’ against Jesus’ crucifixion fails, He was crucified, and Islam is false. The video claims that if Muhammad had been a false prophet, he would have affirmed the crucifixion and went along with New Testament claims to gain more Christian converts but Islam is about the truth, not convenience. To this we can say that it is easily conceivable that Muhammad could have had a sufficient reason to deny the crucifixion while still being a deceiver. Furthermore, this has to be our conclusion as we know for certain that the reason Muhammad affirmed this was not because it was true, as the fact of Jesus' crucifixion is absolutely historically concrete. It is interesting that Muslims use the Bible, which Hijab and others frequently say is corrupted and unreliable, which was implied in this video, to prove Jesus wasn't crucified. Hypothetically, the Bible could be unreliable and Jesus was still crucified; the video completely neglects to interact with the vast historical and internal evidence that do not presuppose the Bible is inspired or reliable. What is also perplexing is why they are appealing to some parts of the Bible (i.e. Matthew 4:5-7) as reliable to show Jesus wasn't crucified but not to all the other parts of the Bible which clearly state Jesus was crucified outright. There are no justifications given for why certain parts are permissible to appeal to while others aren't. On their view, of biblical corruption, how do we know that part about Jesus' encounter with Satan wasn't corrupted? Hijab’s proof against Jesus’ resurrection, viewed over 82,000 times as of the 23rd of June 2021 and with good reception among his audience, is an awful attempt at invalidating the crucifixion of Jesus. The evidence is absolutely clear that He died by crucifixion and that the Islamic account is incorrect and the critiques offered fall completely flat. References. [1] Publius Cornelius Tacitus, ‘Annals’, 15.44. [2] Ronald Syme, ‘Tacitus: Volume One’, page 398. [3] Michael Grant, ‘Tacitus: The Annals of Imperial Rome’, pages 18-20. [4] Herbert W. Benario, ‘An Introduction to Tacitus’, page 87. [5] Titus Flavius Josephus, ‘Antiquities of the Jews’, 18.33. [6] Craig A. Evans, ‘The Historical Jesus: Volume 4’, pages 390-391; John Thackeray, ‘Josephus: The Man and Historian’, pages 136-149. [7] Agapius, ‘Kitab al-‘Unwan’. [8] Gerd Lüdemann, ‘What Really Happened To Jesus?’, page 17. [9] E. P. Sanders, ‘Jesus and Judaism’, page 11. [10] John Dominic Crossan, ‘Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography’, page 145. [11] Marcus J. Borg, ‘Jesus’, page 179. [12] Pinchas Lapide, ‘The Resurrection of Jesus: A Jewish Perspective’, page 32. [13] Paula Fredriksen, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews’, pages 7-8. [14] Bart D. Ehrman, ‘Misquoting Jesus’, page 162. [15] Kathleen N. Hattrup, ‘A doctor on why “blood and water” gushed from Jesus’ heart’, https://aleteia.org/2019/06/22/a-doctor-on-why-blood-and-water-gushed-from-jesus-heart/. [16] Dionysius of Halicarnassus, ‘Roman Antiquities’, 5.51.3. [17] Titus Livius, ‘The History Of Rome’, 22.13.9. [18] Philo of Alexandria, ‘Flaccus’, 65-85. [19] Titus Flavius Josephus, ‘The Jewish War’, 5.449.
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