It is almost undeniable that the New Testament teaches the...

It is almost undeniable that the New Testament teaches the death and resurrection of Jesus. A case has been made for the swoon theory, but it has to presume that the disciples and gospel writers were then ignorant of the true facts. There are several references to the death or removal of Jesus in the Qur'an, but all are subject to various interpre­tations. Q3:54 `Recall when God said: O Jesus, I will take thee away and lift thee up unto Me...' The margin reads `complete thy term'.

It is not at all clear what the Qur'an means to have happened to Jesus at the end of his life on earth and before his resurrection.

Q4:157 `And for their saying (in boast) "Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Apostle of God;" But they slew him not, and they crucified him not, but (it) became dubious unto them; and indeed those who differ therein are only in doubt about it, they have no knowledge about the (real) matter, pursuing (only) a conjecture; and certainly, they slew him not.' In Q19:33 Jesus is said to have prophesied of himself miraculously in the cradle, `And peace be on me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I am raised alive.' The Christian will immediately see Jesus' words about his birth, death, and ascension as completely in accordance with the Gospel birth, crucifixion, resurrection and ascen­sion, and wonder why the Muslim interprets them in terms of a disappearance without death and a return to die some millennia later.

The text on the crucifixion is generally interpreted to deny the death of Jesus, rather than to deny that it was the boasting Jews who killed him. Either interpretation is possible, and both have problems. The context of the verse is clearly within the discussion of Jewish ridicule of Christians, not in context of whether or not Jesus died.

On the other hand, the expressions against the crucifixion are strong, so that to interpret the meaning for Romans rather than Jews to have committed the act is also suspect. If the latter meaning is correct, it would have been more effective to state that the Romans killed Jesus, rather than to emphasize that the Jews were not in possession of the facts.

If the interpreter desires to reconcile the Qur'an and the Gospel narrative however, the only way of doing so is to under­stand that the Qur'anic text refers to the Romans having killed Jesus instead of the Jews.