The Qur'an does not give an accurate picture of the Historical Jesus

I would like to first point out that PRO has not yet compared the historical Jesus with the Qur’anic Jesus; he has compared the Biblical Jesus to the Qur’anic Jesus. I will demonstrate why the bible is not acceptable as a source to establish a historical picture of Jesus. Then, I will paint a picture of the historical Jesus using non-biblical sources, after which I will show that PRO cannot make the claim which titles this debate. The Bible The Bible cannot be accepted as a source without extra-biblical verification of its claims. The bible contains both scientific absurdities (such as the order of creation [1], an absurd cure for leprosy [2], or Jesus claiming that stars can fall from heaven [3]), and historical inaccuracies (such as Herod’s slaughter of the innocents, and the lack of a census throughout the Roman Empire [4]). Of course some will say that these “alleged” inaccuracies are simply the result of misunderstood parables, symbolism, or poetic writing; if this is the case, there is no way to determine what is actually true, and we need to look for external verification anyway. Also, the Gospels, which are the main accounts of Jesus’ earthly life, are known to have been written at least decades after Jesus’ alleged death [5], by anonymous authors [6], who borrowed heavily from previous writings [5][7][8]. Also, it is likely that none of the authors ever met Jesus [9][10][11][12]. This makes their accounts no more than hearsay, again requiring extra-biblical verification. Historical Jesus While there are several extra biblical references to Jesus, they give us only the smallest glimpse into the life of the historical Jesus. Pliny the Younger and Tranquillus went no further than to report that there were people who followed and worshiped a Christ [13][14]. Celcius wrote that Jesus was born in a Jewish village, and spent some part of his life in Egypt [15]. One of the most well-known extra-biblical accounts is from Josephus. One of Josephus’ references is if a man named Jesus who was a wise man and had a brother named James [16]. The other mention of Jesus by Josephus is recognized as having been altered, and perhaps totally forged [17][18][19]. Therefore it is of no interest here. By these accounts, we know that Jesus was born in a Jewish village, had a brother named James, and spent some time in Egypt. We also know that there were people who worshiped a Christ. It should be noted that Pliny the Younger began writing in 75 AD [20], Tranquillus in 117 AD [21], Celcius in the second century [22], and Josephus in about 93 AD [23]. None of these authors could have met Jesus, and as their accounts were written at least decades after Jesus’ alleged death, further complicating our modern day ability to verify any of the alleged history. There is one other non-biblical account of Jesus, written by the Roman historian Tacitus, which will be discussed in the next section. The Qur’anic Jesus Given the purpose of this debate, and the little that is known about the historical person of Jesus, I am going to focus only on one potential area of disagreement: the alleged crucifixion. The aforementioned Tacitus wrote about Christ suffering “the extreme penalty” [24], which is widely believed to be confirming that Jesus was killed by crucifixion. While this would seem to contradict the Qur'an when it states that Jesus was not crucified [25], this is not necessarily so. Indeed, it is important to note that Tacitus was writing about 80 years after the alleged event [26], and that the Qur'an states that, while Jesus was not crucified, it was made to appear as if he had been [25]. Since Tacitus was not writing something he saw, it is not necessarily in conflict with the Qur'anic interpretation which admits that it appeared as if Jesus was crucified. Wrapping Up I have demonstrated that we know very little about the historical person of Jesus. I have also shown that, the Qur'anic interpretation of the alleged crucifixion of Jesus is not necessarily in conflict with what we know. Therefore, PRO's initial claim is without merit. Sources [1]. http://www.biblicalnonsense.com... [2]. https://www.biblegateway.com... [3]. https://www.biblegateway.com... [4]. http://www.answering-christianity.com... [5]. http://www.bc.edu... [6]Erhman, B. D. (2009). Jesus. interrupted. New York, NY: Harper Collins. [7]. http://www.ichthus.info... [8]. http://www.hypotyposeis.org... [9]. http://www.holybooks.info... [10]. http://www.holybooks.info... [11]. http://www.holybooks.info... [12] . http://www.holybooks.info... [13]. http://www.pbs.org... [14]. http://www.earlychristianwritings.com... [15]. http://www.bluffton.edu... [16]. http://www.gutenberg.org... [17]. http://www.truthbeknown.com... [18]. http://www.strongatheism.net... [19]. http://historical-jesus.info... [20]. http://en.wikipedia.org... [21]. http://www.britannica.com... [22]. http://en.wikipedia.org... [23]. http://www.josephus.org... [24]. http://classics.mit.edu... [25]. http://quran.com... [26]. http://en.wikipedia.org...(Tacitus)