Clinton Chisholm, ContributorThe notion that Jesus Christ died and was raised from death, for the sins of humanity, remains the central scandal of Christianity.
From the first century AD to now it remains, for most of Christendom, the cornerstone of the Christian faith and a major section of the Achilles heel of Christianity.
In the university city of Athens, Paul the Apostle proudly declared the scandal, and his audience of seasoned philosophers, for the most part, politely dismissed him (Acts 17.16-34).
German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche detested Christianity and loathed Paul's emphasis on the resurrection. In his book, 'The Anti-Christ' (written in 1888, the year before Nietzsche went mad) he said, "Paul, with that rabbinical insolence which characterises him in every respect, rationalised this interpretation, this indecency of an interpretation, thus: 'If Christ is not resurrected from the dead, our faith is vain.' All at once the Evangel became the most contemptible of all unfulfillable promises..." (p.154)
The Qur'an, calling Jesus, Isa, speaks highly of him but reveals a fundamental problem with the idea of Christ's death, and substitutionary death at that.
In at least three sections, the Qur'an rejects, by implication, the idea of a substitutionary death (Suras 6.164; 17.15; 39.7).
In Sura 4.157-158, we read, "And their saying: Surely we have killed the Messiah, Isa son of Marium, the apostle of Allah; and they did not kill him nor did they crucify him, but it appeared to them so (like Isa) and most surely those who differ therein are only in doubt about it; They have no knowledge respecting it, but only follow a conjecture, and they killed him not for sure. Nay! Allah took him up Himself; and Allah is Mighty, Wise."
If the Qur'an here is denying that Jesus Christ was crucified, it, like Nietzsche, would have problems with Paul.
For Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus were historical facts with theological significance.
From being a murdering anti-Christian Jew, Paul converted to Christianity and even while on trial before Agrippa and Festus maintained and defended belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus (Acts 26).
Paul dared even to challenge the sitting judge on the basis of the historical facts thus, "The King is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner." (Acts 26.26)
The Qur'an, a 7th century AD document, if denying the crucifixion of Jesus, runs contrary to the historical weight of several much older documents: the 1st century AD New Testament documents (including Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 1 Corinthians), The Antiquities of the Jews by the Jewish historian Josephus, also 1st century AD, and The Annals of Imperial Rome, by the Roman historian, Tacitus who wrote between AD 100 and 120.
Tacitus, speaking of Christians with disdain, said in his Roman Annals, "Their originator, Christ, had been executed in Tiberius' reign by the governor of Judaea, Pontius Pilate." (15.44)
Josephus says, "when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst 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" (18.3.3)
An Arabic version of this passage reads, "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 three days after his crucifixion and that he was alive."
The New Testament Gospels uniformly record the death of Jesus (Matthew 27.50-61: Mark 15.37-47: Luke 23.44-56: John 19.28-42) and the account in John concerning Jesus being pierced with a spear and blood and water flowing from his side is conclusive of death for some researchers.
A team composed of a physician, a medical technician and a pastor explored the issues and concluded, "Accordingly, interpretations based on the assumption that Jesus did not die on the cross appear to be at odds with modern medical knowledge." (William Edwards, Wesley Gabel, Floyd Hosmer, "On the Physical Death of Jesus Christ," Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 255, no. 11 (March 21, 1986).
It is interesting, if strange, that some Christian preachers find the death-resurrection of Jesus an offensive scandal. Hence they attempt to argue away the literal interpretation that the New Testament documents seem to demand, by invoking the ideas of 'myth' and 'supra-history'.
Yet, listen to the Apostle Peter, "We do not follow cleverly invented stories [Greek: mythoi] when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty". (2 Peter 1.16)
If there is no historical legitimacy for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, then the sensible option, according to Paul, is not theological liberalism but unbridled hedonism!
"If the dead are not raised let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die", urges Paul with commendable realism in 1 Corinthians 15.32.
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