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The crucifixion of Jesus is the cornerstone of Christian theology, but in Judaism it is an insignificant incident of the execution of a fraudster. Islam differs yet further from both presentations, claiming that Jesus was not crucified. The crucifixion is, thus, one of the most controversial differences between the three great Abrahamic religions. While it also deals with aspects of the Christian theology of the crucifixion and the Jewish view of Jesus, this book is mainly focused on examining the question of the historicity of the crucifixion. The book is divided into four parts. The first part analyses the various episodes of the crucifixion in the four Gospels, with reference to Paul's letters and the Book of Acts. The Gospel narratives are the earliest sources of the crucifixion and the foundations on which the historicity of the crucifixion is based. Yet these accounts of the arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection suffer from serious problems. There are internal discrepancies within each Gospel, contradictions between the different Gospels, and historical fallacies in these narratives. The second part of the book discusses the common claim that the historicity of the crucifixion is supported by early non-Christian writings. Yet, in addition to the fact that there are less than a handful of them that mention the crucifixion and that they do so only in passing and disinterest, such classical and Jewish sources are dependent on Christian tradition. They do not provide independent testimony to the historicity of the event. Given that the Gospels are uncorroborated by independent writings and, for other reasons that are also discussed, are unreliable historical sources, there is no reliable information that Jesus was crucified. Even if he was crucified, there is no dependable evidence. The belief in the crucifixion of Jesus is essentially a product of faith. This critical fact is the subject of part three of the book. Yet the Qur'an's denial of the crucifixion of Jesus, which is the subject of the fourth part of the book, has consistently been rejected as contradictory to available historical evidence. This common claim is misleading because the basis of the rejection of the Qur'an's alternative history of the crucifixion is the Gospel narratives. At best, this is a rejection of the claim of one book of faith in favour of another. This detailed study of the Qur'an's account, which considers classical and contemporary sources, goes even further. It demonstrates that the brief yet consistent narrative in the Qur'an has a stronger claim to history than the detailed yet discrepant narratives of the Gospels.

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9781906342272

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Louay Fatoohi was born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1961. He and his wife migrated to the UK in 1992. He lives in Birmingham, England. He obtained a BSc in physics from Baghdad University, Iraq, in 1984 and a PhD in astronomy from Durham University, UK, in 1998. Originally from a Christian family, Louay reverted to Islam in his early twenties. In addition to being his faith of choice and way of life, Islam is for him a subject of deep intellectual interest. He is interested in Qur'anic and Islamic studies in general, but his main areas of research are as follows: - The comparative study of history in the Qur'an, Jewish and Christian scriptures, and independent historical sources - Sufism - The history of the Qur'anic text and revelation - Qur'anic exegesis Louay is a prolific author who has published over twenty-five books in English and Arabic in Islamic studies. He has also published over twenty research papers in cosmology, applied historical astronomy, and the Islamic calendar.

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