From: ijaz@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Tahir Ijaz)
Subject: JESUS HAS DIED - Christianity Connection - Part IV
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 06:45:10 GMT



Part IV:        PROPHET JESUS HAS DIED:  CHRISTIANITY CONNECTION
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The death of Jesus in Islamic Christology is a complex and contr-
oversial subject.  In some Islamic circles,  the  crucifixion  of
Jesus  was  denied altogether.  Instead, according to some Muslim
scholars, Allah miraculously transformed a disciple of Jesus into
the physical image of Jesus, and the Jews crucified the disciple,
thinking him to be Jesus.  This concept may be called  the  "Sub-
stitution  theory."  Jesus, having been saved from such suffering
and death, ascended to God in Heaven.

As mentioned in my previous articles, the substitution theory and
eventual  physical ascension of Jesus is not substantiated by the
Quran and Hadith. Rather, the Quran  and  Hadith  is  clear  that
Jesus  died  a natural death. However, the theory of substitution
has figured prominently in Islamic tafsir literature.   The  pur-
pose of this final part is to explain how the substitution theory
was introduced into Islam.  I will show that the belief of  Jesus
not  being  nailed  to the cross and a Jesus-look-alike replacing
him was introduced into Islam from the teachings of certain Gnos-
tic  Christian  sects.   These  teachings were brought into Islam
through conversion of the "People of the Book."

1)  Different Versions of Substitution Story in  Islamic  Litera-
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ture.
~~~~ 


The belief that someone substituted for Jesus on  the  cross  has
been  mentioned  by various Muslim commentators of the Quran over
the past centuries. Most of the traditions relating  the  details
of  the story of Jesus are told on the authority of Jewish or un-
named Christian converts (reference: "Towards an  Islamic  Chris-
tology:   The  Death of Jesus, Reality or Delusion" in The Muslim
World vol 70, No. 2, page 96). The commentary of Tabari  (d.  923
A.D)  relates  on  the  authority of Wahb (a Jewish convert) that
when the Jews were seeking Jesus to crucify  him,  God  cast  the
likeness  of Jesus on seventeen disciples. The Jews threatened to
kill them all, but instead took just one in the group and  killed
him, believing him to be Jesus.

In the next stage of development of the substitution theory,  one
of the disciples of Jesus voluntarily accepts to die on the cross
for the purpose of saving his master.  Such a story may have ori-
ginated to avoid a major problem associated with the idea of sub-
stitution: WHY WOULD GOD FORCE AN INNOCENT PERSON TO  SUFFER  AND
DIE  TO SAVE ANOTHER?  Tabari relates on the authority of Qatada:
"It has been related to us that Jesus, son of Mary,  the  prophet
of  God,  said  to his companions, Who among you would consent to
have my likeness cast upon him,  and  be  killed?   One  of  them
answered,  I  would,  O Prophet of God.  Thus that man was killed
and God protected His Prophet and took  him  up  to  Himself."  A
similar account is mentioned in the traditions of Ibn Ishaq.  His
source was an unnamed Christian convert.  In this story, the per-
son  who offered to bear the likeness of Jesus was not one of the
twelve disciples, but a man named Sergus.

In other versions, the miracle of transforming a person into  the
likeness  of  Jesus was a form of Divine punishment for that per-
sons' persecution and betrayal of Jesus.   For  instance,  it  is
said  that the enemies of Jesus sent a man named Tityanus to kill
him. However, God foiled the plan by raising Jesus to Himself and
miraculously  causing  Tityanus  to  resemble Jesus. Tityanus was
subsequently put to death on the cross by the Jews. BUT, God cast
the  likeness  of  Jesus only on the man's face and not the body.
Thus the people were confused as  to  the  identity  of  the  man
killed.  This  is  added to explain the Quranic verse 4:158 which
states that those who differed concerning him followed only their
conjecture.  (reference,  The  Muslim  World same issue as quoted
above).



2)  Origin of Substitution Theory in Islamic Thought.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The substitution of Jesus on the cross for someone  else  has  no
basis in the Quran or Hadith, as mentioned earlier.  This concept
likely originated from the influence of Gnostic  Christianity  on
Islam.   Several  Gnostic  Christian sects were known to flourish
from the third to the ninth centuries A.D. They were regarded  as
heretical  by  the  Roman  Church.  These sects eventually disap-
peared, both as a result of persecution and gradual conversion of
their followers to the fastest growing faith at the time, namely,
Islam.  Most of the persecution was at the  hands  of  the  Roman
Church.  In the 1940s, documents and writings of these sects were
discovered in Egypt, and they became known as the Nag Hammadi do-
cuments.  These  documents  are valuable in understanding Gnostic
Christian theology.

It is not my purpose here to go into details of Gnosticism.  Only
the  philosophy of docetism will be discussed here.  Docetism was
a prominent feature of Gnosticism, which  held  that  matter  and
spirit  are  antagonistic; matter was considered evil, and spirit
considered good and holy.  Docetism  proposed  that  Christ  only
"appeared"  to  have a real human body, and that Christ only "ap-
peared" to suffer and die on the cross:  it was either  an  illu-
sion  or  someone else was substituted for him.  This tendency to
deny or at least diminish the reality of the humanity and suffer-
ing  of  Jesus  was  central to the docetic view.  It is believed
that docetism had its roots in the difficulties some felt in  the
notion of the Incarnation of God in the person of Christ - it was
difficult to associate a Divine-incarnate Son (spirit) with a hu-
man  being  (matter)  subject  to suffering and death (reference:
"Gnosis" by Geddes MacGregor).

A reference from the Nag Hammadi documents demonstrates  the  do-
cetic  view  of  Jesus.  The book "Apocalypse of Peter" relates a
vision of the disciple Peter.  He sees Jesus apparently nailed to
the  cross and another Jesus floating above the cross.  Jesus ex-
plains to Peter:  "He whom you see above the tree  (cross),  glad
and  laughing,  is the living Jesus.  But the one whose hands and
feet they drive the nails  is  his  fleshy  part,  which  is  the
substitute...one  made in his likeness." (Reference:  "The Laugh-
ing Savior", by John Dart, Page 107).

In summary, the death of Jesus in Islamic thought has  been  that
of controversy and debate.  It is clear that belief in the ascen-
sion of Jesus and death of a Jesus-look-alike did  not  exist  in
the  original  teachings of Islam. The existence of such specula-
tions in the Quranic exegesis appear to have  resulted  from  the
influence of certain Gnostic Christian philosophies such as doce-
tism.

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This concludes the Four Part series of the death of  Jesus.   The
emphasis  has  been in providing Quranic and Islamic evidence for
the death of Jesus. After Jesus survived the crucifixion, he con-
tinued  his  mission to the House of Israel.  At the time, ten of
the twelve tribes of Israel had migrated eastward.

To complete his mission, Jesus had to migrate to  the  East.  The
historical evidence for the migration of Jesus to the East as far
as India is a huge topic in itself, which can be presented  at  a
future time.

Any comments will be appreciated.  For those desiring more infor-
mation,   I   can   be   contacted   at  the  following  address:
ijaz@ccu.umanitoba.ca

Thank you.


Dr. Tahir Ijaz, M.D. 
Winnipeg, Canada



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