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CONGRUITIES AND INCONGRUITIES BETWEEN THE BIBLE AND THE QUR'AN |
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RESURRECTION ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
Pharisees and Sadducees, fanatical Judiastic sects were indulged in heresy and codified their traditions. Jesus revealed the true faces of certain Jewish scholars, gaining thus their hostile feelings. They had declared Jesus as a false prophet and were successful in their slanders. They filed a complaint to Pilate, the Roman governor, and obtained a decree for his crucifixion.
DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO PAUL
« Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: »(Romans 5/12) « Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; (»Romans 3/25)
According to this teaching preached by Paul, Adam, the first man had rebelled against god and committed a sin. This sin was transmitted from father to son and every new born was born with this sin. God, the Just One, devised a plan of salvation because of his love for man. He sent his Son, the Messiah, to the world, to atone for the sins of mankind. The blood he shed on the cross was the expiation of the said sins. This conviction forms the basis of a great majority of the Christian world.
The crucifixion of the Son of God had reviled Jesus Christ. This had to be redressed. The Jews and other communities tried to find out a solution to the problem.
But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; (1 Corinthians 1/23) It occurred to Paul to concoct the story of resurrection.
Paul's teaching was expressed as follows: « And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: »(Romans 1/4). The believers in Jesus Christ were pardoned their sins. « For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: »(1 Corinthians 15/3,4)
« Paul's Christology develops around the Resurrection: that event reveals the nature of Christ: he is the Son of God, the Redeemer. The christological drama is reminiscent of a soteriological scenario well known at the time but whose earliest expressions are far older: the Savior comes down from heaven to earth for the good of men and then returns to heaven after accompolishing his mission. »(Eliade, Ibid. p 351)
« ...that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas (disciple Peter) then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James (Jesus's brother) then to all the apostles, last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. » (1 Corinthians 15/3,8)
« But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: »(1 Corinthians 5/13)
According to Paul, Jesus resurrected after dying; his apparition had been witnessed by the apostles and last but not least by himself. He bore witness that he had seen Messiah that God had resurrected.
As we have seen. Paul was converted into Christianity after two or three years pursuing the death of Christ. (See. The present book, Baptism of Saul. See also Mircea Eliade A History of Religious Ideas, Vol.2, pp. 330-331) At the time, Saul, alias Paul, was tyrannizing Christians. (But Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged out men and women and committed them to prison.) Acts, 8/3. Can one think it possible that Jesus Christ had appeared to someone not yet converted into Christianity and an enemy of that community?
Moreover, Paul said that he had also appeared to James (Jesus's brother). Yet, in his epistle had not deified his brother Jesus and mentioned nothing about his resurrection and apparition.
DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST IN THE NEW TESTAMENT
Death
« Let Christ the King of Israel descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they that were crucified with him reviled him. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost.» (Mark 32,37)
« And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:… he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.» (John 19/30)
Jesus Christ had been crucified to atone for the sin of Adam, say all the Gospels like in the teaching of Paul. He was resurrected on the third day of his death to ascend heaven and sit on the right of God: « Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.» (Matthew 26/64)
The gospels were written after 70 A.D. under the Roman rule when the Jewish State had been razed to the ground. The period was the period in which two conflicting beliefs confronted; when the Nazarene yielded its sway to Pauline Christianity. The letters of Paul, had gained the upper hand after the war and been rapidly collected. Paul who died circa 62-64 A.D. had gained ascendancy over the Mazarene Christianity. The four gospels approved by the Church were those opted for by the Pauline Christianity.
Resurrection of Jesus Christ
« And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you. »(Matthew 28/5,7)
« And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee»(Luke 25.5,6)
« Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.» (John 20/17)
Today the majority of the Christians believe that Jesus to atone for the sins of humanity had died in the cross only to be resurrected to ascend to heaven. Jesus shall, according to God's prescience, descend from heaven, in the company of angels. The Christians commemorate the resurrection in Easter.
CONTRADICTIONS IN THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST
There are contradictions in the Gospels regarding the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The arrestation and crucifixion of Christ had taken place in the presence of a mass of people. As the gospels were written long after Christ's death by those who had not been a witness to the incident, the contradictions in different gospels were inevitable. God's words could not possibly be paradoxical.
Some examples illustrating contradictions regarding crucifixion:
RESURRECTION ACCORDING TO THE QUR'AN