World Blog by humble servant.JESUS’ DEATH

JESUS’ DEATH                                                                                                                                                It was now around midday, and darkness came over the whole

land until midafternoon with an eclipse of the sun. The curtain in

the sanctuary was torn in two. Jesus uttered a loud cry and said,

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” After he said

this, he expired. The centurion, upon seeing what had happened,

gave glory to God by saying, “Surely this was an innocent man.”

[Luke 23:44-47]

Almost all Christians believe that Jesus was tortured and then crucified to death. Still,

there is a great deal of conjecture and speculation about the last days of Jesus. As

mentioned before, some rather radical theories exist regarding the crucifixion, including

that someone else was crucified instead, or that Jesus did not die but was in a coma when

removed from the cross.

There are no reports of the event from neutral or even hostile sources. For Christians the

only source of information on this extremely important event has been the Bible. Even

the Gospels are full of contradictions regarding this event.

MATTHEW & MARK

The Gospel of Matthew gives the following account:

The procurator’s soldiers took Jesus inside the praetorium and

collected the whole cohort around him. They stripped off his

clothes and wrapped him in a scarlet military cloak. Weaving a

crown of thorns they fixed it on his head, and stuck a reed in his

right hand. Then they began to mock him by dropping to their

knees before him, saying, “All hail, king of the Jews!” They also

spat at him. Afterward they took hold of the reed and kept

striking him on the head. Finally, when they had finished making

a fool of him, they stripped him of the cloak, dressed him in his

own clothes, and led him off to crucifixion. On their way out,

they met a Cyrenian named Simon. This man they pressed into

service to carry the cross. Upon arriving at a site called

Golgotha (a name which means Skull Place), they gave him a

drink of wine flavored with gall, which he tasted but refused to

drink. When they had crucified him, they divided his clothes

among them by casting lots; then they sat down there and kept

watch over him. Above his head they put the charge against him

in writing: “THIS IS JESUS, KING OF THE JEWS.” Two

insurgents were crucified along with him, one at his right and

one at his left. People going by kept insulting him, tossing their

heads and saying: “So you are the one who was going to destroy

the temple and rebuild it in three days! Save yourself, why don’t

you? Come down off that cross if you are God’s Son!” The chief

priests, the scribes, and the elders, also joined in the jeering:

“He saved others but he cannot save himself! So he is the king of

Israel! Let’s see him come down from that cross and then we will

believe in him. He relied on God; let God rescue him now if he

wants to. After all, he claimed, ‘I am God’s Son.’ ” The

insurgents who had been crucified with him kept taunting him in

the same way. From noon onward there was darkness over the

whole land until midafternoon. Then toward midafternoon Jesus

cried out in a loud tone, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is,

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

[Matthew 27:27-46]

While the Gospel of John, like Matthew above, narrates that the procurator’s soldiers

were the ones who took Jesus inside to torture him and crucify him, the Gospel of Mark

states that “the chief priests, with the elders and scribes (that is, the whole Sanhedren)

bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.” Generally, however, Mark’s

account is similar to that given in Matthew’s Gospel.

LUKE

Luke’s narration of Jesus’ death is significantly different from that of Matthew and Mark.

According to Luke, Jesus was sent by Pilate to Herod, then back to Pilate, then he

narrates that Jesus delivered a short sermon on route to his crucifixion:

As they led him away, they laid hold of one Simon the Cyrenean

who was coming in from the fields. They put a crossbeam on

Simon’s shoulder for him to carry along behind Jesus. A great

crowd of people followed him, including women who beat their

breasts and lamented over him. Jesus turned to them and said:

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me. Weep for

yourselves and for your children. The days are coming when

they will say, ‘Happy are the sterile, the wombs that never bore

and the breasts that never nursed.’ Then they will begin saying

to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ If they

do these things in the green wood, what will happen in the dry?”

Two others who were criminals were led along with him to be

crucified. When they came to Skull Place, as it was called, they

crucified him there and the criminals as well, one on his right

and the other on his left. [Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; they

do not know what they are doing.”]                                                                                                                     [Luke 23:26-34]                                                                                                                                           JOHN’S ACCOUNT

Jesus was led away, and carrying the cross by himself, went out

to what is called the Place of the Skull (In Hebrew, Golgotha).

There they crucified him, and two others with him: one on either

side, Jesus in the middle. Pilate had an inscription placed on the

cross which read, JESUS THE NAZARENE THE KING OF THE

JEWS.

[John 19:16-19]

John’s report of the events immediately preceding the crucifixion has Jesus carrying the

cross himself. The inscription on the cross is quite different here from that in the other

Gospels.

There are many other discrepancies among the narrations of Jesus’ death. From the Bible

alone it is impossible to know what really happened at that time.

Some of these discrepancies can be understood by the fact that Jesus’ contemporaries had

different understandings of his death. Willi Marx sen clearly points this out (see JESUS

AND EASTER, Abingdon Press, 1990. pp. 54-55):

It cannot be disputed that different circles in early Christianity held to different

understandings of the death of Jesus. In the material of the Synoptic tradition there is the

thought that the death of Jesus was a consequence of his activity. Jesus is portrayed there as

one who by his activities risked persecution, and even death. He is not, however, portrayed as

one who had wanted his own death, or even as one who had understood it as a vicarious or

atoning death. The idea of the death of Jesus as an “atonement” is foreign to the material of

the Synoptic tradition (although it was later inserted at two places, Mark 10:45 and 14:24).

Rather, Jesus dies because he hazarded death in the way he carried on his activity.

In the formulas and especially in Paul’s letters, the understanding of Jesus’ death as an

atonement is evident. Historically and theologically this idea has been of greater significance,

yet it is only one understanding of the death of Jesus.

The fact remains that from the Bible alone we can not get a clear picture of what actually

happened.                                                                                                                                                      QURAN’S MATHEMATICALLY CODED ACCOUNT                                                                           Fortunately, with the discovery of mathematically authenticated scripture, we have a

reliable reference that enables us to sift through the various narrations of this event.

The account of Jesus’ death in the Quran is startling. It states: “they never killed Jesus;

they never crucified him; they were only made to think that they did.” :

They claimed that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of

Mary, the messenger of God. In fact, they never killed him; they

never crucified him; they were only made to think that they did.

Indeed, those who speculate about him are full of doubt about

their own accounts; they are never sure. They only conjecture.

What is absolutely certain is: they never killed him. Instead,

God raised him to Him. God is Almighty, Most Wise.

[Quran 4:157-158]

Undoubtedly, this Quranic narration represents a new and profound account of the death

of Jesus. It is bound to shock most people, so some explanation is in order.

The Quran consistently talks about the ‘real person,’ i.e., the soul, when talking about

anyone. The Quran differentiates between two human entities: a temporary entity, the

body, and an eternal entity which is ‘the person.’ The temporary entity is considered a

shell or a garment worn by the lasting entity. The Quran does not regard this temporary

shell as ‘the person.’

The importance of the body, or the person’s outer shell, is in serving the real person by

effecting sufficient growth and development of the soul in preparation for the real, eternal

life (of the Hereafter). If we look upon one’s body as a wild horse, one attains the

required growth and development by taming and controlling the whims of this horse. At

the end of one’s predetermined interim in this life, one sheds the shell and moves on

towards the eternal Hereafter; the body’s role ends.

Thus, when the Quran states that “they never crucified Jesus; they never killed him,” the

word “him” here refers to the real Jesus, not his body.

The body may be present somewhere, but the person may or may not be present with it.

People who are familiar with ‘out-of-body experiences’ know that the body is nothing

more than a garment or a physical vehicle for the soul. In out-of-body experiences, the

intellect remains with the person, not with the body. Those who practice out-of-body (or

astral projection) experiments often describe the body as just laying there like an

inanimate object.

The Quran explains clearly that Jesus, the real person, was ‘raised to God’ prior to any

torture or crucifixion. Those who believed that they were torturing or crucifying Jesus

were in fact dealing with Jesus’ body, an empty shell devoid of feelings and knowledge.

Being ‘raised to God’ indicates another important fact—that the righteous go directly to

heaven, and do not wait for the Day of Resurrection to attain Paradise:

THE RIGHTEOUS DO NOT DIE; when their lives on this earth come to the predetermined

end, the angel of death simply invites them to leave their earthly bodies and move on to

Heaven, the same Paradise where Adam and Eve once lived. Heaven has been in existence

since Adam and Eve. We learn from 89:27-30 that God invites the believers’ souls: “Enter

My Paradise.”

As far as people on earth are concerned, the righteous “die.” People do not realize that the

righteous simply leave their bodies, and move on to Paradise....The righteous go to Paradise,

while their friends and relatives are still living on earth. Like going to Hawaii and waiting for

us there.

He cites several verses which are well worth examining:

Give good news to those who believe and work righteousness

that they will have gardens with flowing streams. When provided

with provisions of fruits therein, they will say, “This is what was

given to us in the past.” They will be given similar provisions,

and they will have pure spouses therein. They abide therein

forever.

[Quran 2:25]

The indication in this verse is that the righteous are in a place similar to gardens of the

Hereafter, with similar provisions. This would certainly be the case if they had been

waiting in the Garden of Eden (also called Paradise), until the Day of Resurrection.

Coupled with the following verses, that is the clear conclusion:

Do not think that those who are killed in the cause of God are

dead; they are alive at their Lord, being provided for.

[Quran 3:169]

Do not say about those who are killed in the cause of God,

“They are dead.” For they are alive, but you do not perceive.

[Quran 2:154]

(At the time of his death) he was told, “Enter Paradise.” He

said, “I wish my people (on earth) knew that my Lord has

forgiven me and honored me.”

[Quran 36:26-27]

In the case of Jesus, all these mathematically coded verses show that God raised the real

person, Jesus’ soul, leaving his body for the torturers and crucifiers. Thus, they never

tortured Jesus. They never crucified him. He was gone long before any torture or

crucifixion of his body:

They plotted and schemed, but so did God; God is the best

schemer. Thus, God said, “O Jesus, I am putting you to death;

raising you to Me, and ridding you of the disbelievers. I will

make those who follow you high above those who disbelieve until

the Day of Resurrection. Then to Me is the ultimate destiny of all

of you. Then I will judge among you concerning your disputes.”

[Quran 3:54-55]

It is astonishing to find this phenomenon, the separation of the real person from the still

living body, indicated in the New Testament, and even more specifically stated in some

apocryphal literature. There is an especially straightforward reference to this

phenomenon reported by James Brashler in THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY (Harper &

Row, 1977).

The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of ancient documents unearthed at Nag

Hammadi, Egypt. They are described as containing “the sacred scriptures of the Gnostic

movement that emerged and rapidly grew in the cradle of civilization at the time of Jesus

and early Christianity. Its codices are a priceless periscope into the tumultuous world of

ideas brewing during one of civilization’s great turning points.”

James Brashler describes a vision seen by the apostle Peter, in his introduction to the

Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter (Ibid., p. 339):

The first visionary scene, is depicting the hostile priests and people about to kill Jesus (72,4-

9)....The second scene (81,3-14) describes Peter’s vision of the crucifixion of Jesus. The

accompanying interpretation by Jesus makes a distinction between the external physical form

and the living Jesus; the latter stands nearby laughing at his ignorant persecutors.

A clear distinction is thus made in this ancient literature, very close to the time of Jesus,

between “the external physical form,” i.e., the body of Jesus, and “the living Jesus.”

According to this narration, the real person of Jesus was unphased by the torturers and

persecutors of his soulless body.

Looking at the translation of the Apocalypse of Peter itself (Ibid., p. 344), we find the

startling vision of Peter:

When he had said those things, I saw him seemingly being seized

by them. And I said, “What do I see, O Lord, that it is you

yourself whom they take, and that you are grasping me? Or who

is this one, glad and laughing, on the tree? And is it another one

whose feet and hands they are striking?” The Savior said to me,

“He whom you saw on the tree, glad and laughing, this is the

living Jesus. But this one into whose hands and feet they drive

the nails is the fleshy part.”

[Apocalypse of Peter, VII, 3, 81]

A careful examination of the Gospels of Mark and Luke reveals that Jesus was in fact

gone prior to crucifixion. He did not respond to the surrounding chaos. This confirms the

apocryphal account reported in the Nag Hammadi Library, and agrees with the

mathematically authenticated account of the Quran:

The chief priests, meanwhile, brought many accusations against

Jesus. Pilate interrogated him again: “Surely you have some

answer? See how many accusations they are leveling against

you.” But greatly to Pilate’s surprise, Jesus made no further

response.

[Mark 15:3-5]

Herod was extremely pleased to see Jesus. From the reports

about him he had wanted to see him, and he was hoping to see

him work some miracle. He questioned Jesus at considerable

length, but Jesus made no answer. The chief priests and scribes

were at hand to accuse him vehemently. Herod and his guards

then treated him with contempt and insult....

[Luke 23:8-11]

Putting all these accounts together, this possible picture emerges:

1. The human being consists of two main distinct entities:

a. the body, which serves as a mere shell or garment, and

b. the soul, which is the real person.

2. In accordance with a predetermined plan, the time came for Jesus to complete his

mission as God’s messenger to the Children of Israel and as the Messiah. This coincided

with the scheme of Jesus’ adversaries to crucify him. Just before executing their plot,

God’s plan was implemented, and Jesus the real person was summoned or “raised to

God.”

3. Jesus’ body was left for his persecutors to torture and crucify; they were dealing with

an empty shell devoid of all feelings or understanding.

4. Thus, the Quran’s mathematically coded statements that “they never killed Jesus, they

never crucified him; they were led to believe that they did,” are accurate and proven facts                     MODERN DEMONSTRATION

An interesting parallel between what he understands to be the case

in Jesus’ death, and that of a modern patient who underwent an historical surgical

procedure. ( QURAN THE FINAL TESTAMENT, Ibid. Appendix 22, p. 667)

On November 25, 1984, William J. Schroeder, from Jasper, Indiana, received an artificial

heart at Humana Heart Institute International of Louisville, Kentucky. The NEW YORK

TIMES of Monday, November 26, 1984 published the following news item:

SURGEONS IMPLANT MECHANICAL PUMP TO REPLACE HEART

LOUISVILLE, KY, Nov 25 -- A 17-member surgical team today removed the diseased heart

of a 52-year old man and replaced it with a plastic and metal pump....Dr. Devries leaned over

Mr. Schroeder and said, “Everything went well, perfectly.”

On Wednesday, December 12, 1984, the 18th day after receiving the artificial heart, Mr.

Schroeder was so normal and so alert that when President Reagan talked with him he

complained about a delay in sending his Social Security disability check. On the

nineteenth day, December 13, 1984, the world was told that Mr. Schroeder “suffered a

stroke.”

What really happened was that Mr. Schroeder, the real person, departed. William J.

Schroeder died. His body, the empty shell, continued to function through artificial means.

The artificial heart continued to pump, and all other life processes of Mr. Schroeder’s

body continued to work. Significantly, from that moment on, he never recognized the

date, the day or time. The WASHINGTON POST of Friday, December 14, 1984 published

the following news:

LOUISVILLE, Dec. 13---William J. Schroeder, who became the world’s second recipient

of an artificial heart 18 days ago, tonight suffered a stroke in his hospital bed as he ate dinner

with his wife, doctors reported.... (Dr. A. M.) Lansing replied, “unequivocally, no,” when

asked if the stroke could have been a result of Schroeder’s many activities recently. These

included a telephone conversation with President Reagan Wednesday and fast government

action earlier today to deliver a Social Security disability check that he had told Reagan was

overdue.

At Humana Hospital - Audubon, where the implant took place, Lansing said Schroeder was

talking to his wife when “she noticed suddenly he stopped feeding himself and was just

holding his food in his right hand.” He appeared “drowsy, his eyes rolled back, and he became

somewhat limp,” Lansing said.

The stroke was not “life threatening,” Lansing said. Shortly afterward, Schroeder was

somewhat “stuporous” and “not talking intelligently,” Lansing said.

In retrospect, it is obvious that William J. Schroeder actually left his body on the

nineteenth day (December 13, 1984) after receiving the artificial heart on November 25,

1984. Schroeder was raised to God about 600 days-19 months-before his body finally

ceased to function.

According to the Quran, this is precisely what happened to Jesus: he was raised to God

before the crucifixion of his empty body:

They claimed that they killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of

Mary, the messenger of God. In fact, they never killed him; they

never crucified him; they were led to believe that they did.... For

sure, they never killed him. Instead, God raised him to Him. God

is Almighty, Most Wise.

[Quran 4:157-158]