num_pages: 172
description: Islam denies the Crucifixion, claiming that someone took Christ’s form and was crucified in His stead (the Substitution Theory), while Christianity believes that Christ was truly crucified. This book confirms the Christian position and argues that the Islamic view was borrowed from the second century Gnostic/Docetic interpretation of the Crucifixion which was attributed to Basilides of Alexandria. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent to which the Islamic claim reflects the historical event. Methods used to achieve the conclusion are historical and systematic, as historical material in combination with theological concepts are examined. The Substitution Theory has many ethical and historical problems, and is not of an apostolic origin, dating later than the first century. These Docetic Christians inhabited Arabia in the seventh century, where Gnostic and apocryphal stories found their way into the Quran. The Substitution Theory poses a convenient solution to the problem of Jesus as Savior in the Quran, ignoring the historical evidence of the event.
language: English
title: Jesus: Crucified or Substituted? Between Gnostic Thought and Islamic Theology
publisher: Agora University Press