I) INTRODUCTION
A) WAS JESUS CHRIST CRUCIFIED AND RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD?
1) THE TESTIMONY OF THE QUR'AN
Text, translation and commentary by Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Cairo, Egypt, 1938:
# S. IV 157-158:
157.
"That they [the Jews]said (in boast),
"We killed Christ Jesus
The son of Mary,
The Apostle of God";-
But they killed him not,
Nor crucified him,
But so it was made
To appear to them,
And those who differ
Therein are full of doubts,
With no (certain) knowledge,
But only conjecture to follow,
For of a surety
They killed him not:-
158.
Nay, God raised him up
Unto Himself; and God
Is exalted in power, Wise;-
2) THE TESTIMONY OF HISTORY
If Christ was not crucified dead and buried then it was the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on humanity - for billions have believed in this to their dying moments; millions have researched the accounts exhaustively and have affirmed the truth of Christ's death & resurrection; and millions have sought in innumerable ways to refute the historical accounts of Christ's crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection without success.
To say that it was all untrue is highly improbable - especially given the absolute lack of any historical testimony available to the contrary - after 2000 years of searching!
3) THE TESTIMONY OF THE BIBLE IS ACTUALLY A COLLECTION OF NUMEROUS EYE WITNESSES GIVING HISTORICAL TESTIMONY WHICH WAS WRITTEN DOWN
The 27 writings of the New Testament all testify in numerous ways by numerous different people especially as to more than a few absolutely harmonious EYE WITNESS accounts of the historical event of Christ's crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection.
4) THE WRITTEN HISTORICAL TESTIMONY OUTSIDE OF THE BIBLE
And there is even more evidence outside of the Bible itself which alone demands a verdict in favor of believing that these events did occur.
The following text is from the book "Evidence that Demands A Verdict" Vol 1 (Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tn., 1979, Campus Crusade for Christ), by Josh McDowell with page number references given in [brackets] after each section quoted.
a) CORNELIUS TACITUS (born A.D. 52-54)
A Roman historian, in 112 A.D., Governor of Asia, son-in-law of Julius Agricola who was the Governor of Britain A.D. 80-84. Writing of the reign of Nero, Tacitus alludes to the death of Christ and to the existence of Christians at Rome:
"But not all the relief could come from man, not all the bounties that the prince could bestow, nor all the atonements which could be presented to the gods, availed to relieve Nero from the infamy of being believed to have ordered the conflagration, the fire of Rome. Hence to suppress the rumor, he falsely charged with the guilt, and punished with the most exquisite tortures, the persons commonly called Christians, who were hated for their enormities. [atrocious offences - by worshipping God and denying the diety of the false gods].
Christus, the founder of the name, was put to death by Pontius Pilate, procurator of Judea in the reign of Tiberius: but the pernicious superstition, suppressed for a time broke out again, not only through Judea, where the mischief originated, but through the city of Rome also." Annals XV.44 [p.84].
b) "LUCIAN OF SAMOSATA
"A satirist of the second century, who spoke scornfully of Christ and the Christians. He connected them with the Synagogues of Palestine and alluded to Christ as: "...the man who was crucified in Palestine because he introduced this new cult into the world...Furthermore, their first lawgiver persuaded them that they were all brothers one of another after they have transgressed once for all by denying the Greek gods and by worshipping that crucified sophist himself and living under his laws."
The Passing Peregrinus.
c) FLAVIUS JOSEPHUS (born A.D. 37)
"A Jewish historian, became a Pharisee at age 19; in A.D. 66 he was the commander of Jewish forces in Galilee. After being captured, he was attached to the Roman headquarters..................
"Josephus, a Jewish historian, writing at the end of the first century A.D., had this fascinating passage in Antiquities, 18.3.3:
"Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles. He was the Christ, and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men among us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had fortold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians so named from him are not extinct at this day." Antiquities XViii.33. (Early Second century).
Attempts have been made to show that Josephus could not have written this...However, "this passage," writes Michael Green in Man Alive, "was in the text of Josephus used by Eusebius in the fourth century....
.....And it is all the more remarkable when we remember that, so far from being sympathetic to Christians, Josephus was a Jew writing to please the Romans. This story would not have pleased them in the slightest. He would hardly have included it if it were not true." [p.187].
The Arabic text of the passage is as follows: "At this time there was a wise man who was called Jesus. And his conduct was good, and (He) was known to be virtuous. And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon His discipleship. They reported that He had appeared to them three days after His crucifixion and that He was alive; accordingly, He was perhaps the Messiah concerning Whom the prophets have recounted wonders."
The above passage is found in the Arabic manuscript entitled: "Kitab Al-Unwan Al-Mukallal Bi-Fadail Al-Hikma Al-Mutawwaj Bi-Anwa Al-Falsafa Al-Manduh Bi-Haqaq Al-Marifa." The approximate translation would be:
"Book of History Guided by All the Virtues of Wisdom. Crowned with Various Philosophies and Blessed by the Truth of Knowledge."
The above manuscript composed by Bishop Apapius in the 10th century has a section commencing with: "We have found in many books of the philosophers that they refer to the day of the crucifixion of Christ." Then he gives a a list and quotes portions of the ancient works. Some of the works are familiar to modern scholars and others are not.
d) PHLEGON, A FIRST CENTURY HISTORIAN
[As quoted by Philopon]:
"And about this darkness...Phlegon recalls it in the Olympiads (the title of his history)." He says that "Phlegon mentioned the eclipse which took place during the crucifixion of the Lord Christ, and no other (eclipse), it is clear that he did not know from his sources about any (similar) eclipse in previous times...and this is shown by the historical account itself of Tiberius Caesar."
e) LETTER OF MARA BAR-SERAPION
FF Bruce records that there is:
"'... in the British Museum an interesting manuscript preserving the text of a letter written some time later than A.D. 73, but how much later we cannot be sure. This letter was sent by a Syrian named Mara Bar-Serpion to his son Serapion. Mara Bar-Serapion was in prison at the time, but he wrote to encourage his son in the pursuit of wisdom, and pointed out that those who persecuted wise men were overtaken by misfortune. He instances the deaths of Socrates, Pythagoras and Christ:
"'What advantage did the 'Athenians gain from putting Socrates to death? Famine and plague came upon them as a judgment for their crime. What advantage did the men of Samos gain from burning Pythagoras? In a moment their land was covered with sand. What advantage did the Jews gain from executing their wise King? It was just after that that their kingdom was abolished...the Jews, ruined and driven from their land, live in complete dispersion..."
f) JUSTIN MARTYR
About A.D. 150, Justin Martyr, addressing his Defence of Christianity to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, referred him to Pilate's report, which Justin supposed must be preserved in the imperial archives. But the words, "They pierced my hands and feet," he says, "are a description of the nails that were fixed in his hands and his feet on the cross; and after he was crucified, those who crucified him cast lots for his garments, and divided them among themselves; and that these things were so, you may learn from the 'Acts' which were recorded under Pontius Pilate."
g) THE JEWISH TALMUDS
Babylonian Talmud. "...and hanged him [Jesus] on the eve of the passover."
Comments in the Baraila are of great historical value:
"On the eve of the Passover they hanged Yeshu (of Nazareth) and the herald went before him for forty days saying (Yeshu of Nazareth) is going forth to be stoned in that he hath practiced sorcery and beguiled and led astray Israel. Let everyone knowing aught in his defence come and plead for him. But they found aught in his defence and hanged him on the eve of Passover." (Babylonia Sanhedrin 43a). - "Eve of Passover" [p. 81-81]
5) HISTORICAL TESTIMONY FOCUSING ON THE RESURRECTION AND NOT ON SOME PHILOSOPHY OR ETHIC IS SO UNIQUE AS TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE VALIDITY OF THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION
J. N. D. Anderson, citing Cambridge professor C.F.D. Moule, asserts, "From the very first the conviction that Jesus had been raised from death has been that by which their [the Christians] very existence has stood or fallen. There was no other motive to account for them, to explain them...At no point within the New Testament is there any evidence that the Christians stood for an original philosophy of life or an original ethic. Their sole function is to bear witness to what they claim as an event - the raising of Jesus from among the dead....The one really distinctive thing for which the Christians stood was their declaration that Jesus had been raised from the dead according to God's design, and the consequent estimate of Him as in a unique sense Son of God and representative man, and the resulting conception of the way to reconciliation."
"As a historic fact, it has been His resurrection which has enabled men to believe in His official exaltation over humanity. It is not a mere question of the moral influence of His character, example, and teaching. It is that their present surrender to Him as their Redeemer has been promoted by this belief, and could not be justified without it...." [pp. 188-189]
6) EYEWITNESSES AND THE ABSOLUTELY CONSISTENT ACCOUNTS AND THE COMPLETE LACK OF CREDIBLE REFUTATION OVER HUNDREDS OF YEARS VALIDATES THE CRUCIFIXION AND THE RESURRECTION AND THE WRITTEN ACCOUNTS OF THOSE EVENTS
When an event takes place in history and there are enough people alive who were eyewitnesses of it or had participated in the event, and when the information is published, one is able to verify the validity of an historical event ........ "No one could now issue a biography of Queen Victoria, who died thirty-one years ago, full of anecdotes which were quite untrue. They would be contradicted at once. They would certainly not be generally accepted and passed on as true.
[The writer refers to an event in his time to illustrate his point that writers within thirty years of the event of Jesus' death and resurrection had to be truthful or find their writings soon refuted - that did not happen]
Hence, there is a great improbability that the account of the resurrection given by Mark, which agrees substantially with that given in the other Gospels, is a pure invention.
This mythical theory has had to be abandoned because it will not bear close scrutiny...." [pp. 189-190]
"The evidence for our Lord's life and death and resurrection may be, and often has been, shown to be satisfactory; it is good according to the common rules for distinguishing good evidence from bad."
[The same rules which would establish whether or not the Qur' an is authentic when applied to the Bible have established the Bible AS IT EXISTS TODAY AS ABSOLUTELY AUTHENTIC AND CREDIBLE].
"Thousands and tens of thousands of persons have gone through it piece by piece, as carefully as every judge summing up on a most important cause. I have myself [The writer: Wilbur M. Smith] done it many times over, not to persuade others but to satisfy myself. I have been used for many years to study the histories of other times, and to examine and weigh the evidence of those who have written about them, and I know of no one fact in history of mankind which is proved by better and fuller evidence of every sort, to the understanding of a fair inquirer, than the great sign which God hath given us that Christ died and rose again from the dead." [p. 191]
[The numerous writers and eyewitnesses which are responsible for the absolutely consistent account of Christ's crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection cannot simply be dismissed by saying that they were deceived en masse - the whole lot of them - and that then they all testified in absolutely perfect & consistent detail the account of the events to which they were deceived; or that their accounts were so contrived or altered later so to be so miraculously and perfectly consistent with one another as it now appears in Scripture - especially miraculous considering that their accounts whether deceived or not totally agree - IN DETAIL- with one another and with the Old Testament predictions of those events - those events also being fully supported by archaeological evidence. My question to those who doubt the authenticity and divine inspiration of what we have today as the bible is: "How much historical authentication, miraculous uniformity and miraculously perfect outcome of prophecy do you need to admit to yourself that the Bible indeed is the Word of God???
Contrary to popular belief there are thousands of copies of the original writings of the Bible which DO NOT vary in the details of ANY Scriptural teaching or event. Copies of what others say are the true writings of the Old and New Testaments simply have not surfaced as a reality for thousands of years].
As Michael Green points out, crucifixions were "not uncommon in Palestine."
Pilate required certification of Christ's death. Of this Green remarks: "Four executioners came to examine Him, before a friend, Joseph of Arimathea, was allowed to take away the body for burial". [p. 198]
[Scripture records this in a number of places. If this account of Pilate's verification were untrue, then other writings would long ago have refuted what Christians were saying about the Lord's death and Christianity would have been a religion of the past - based on a hoax.
For the Christians have nothing, not even a good religion, if Christ did not die on the cross and then come back to life. So instead of all the persecutions of Christians throughout history, why didn't everyone just refute the story of Christ's resurrection? Why has this story survived so many vicious attempts to quash it? Could it not be that the truth has prevailed with the supernatural preserving power of God Himself? Why would God Himself permit this story of Christ's death, burial and resurrection continue despite so much opposition if it were so false?]
[The Jews themselves could have refuted the story of Christ's death years ago if the story was false. They had every reason to do so because they did not want their authority disturbed by another prophet who started another religion by becoming a martyr. Why didn't they?]
Why did the Jews ask Pilate to place a guard at Christ's tomb, if no such sepulcher existed?
"Now on the next day, which is the one after the preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered together with Pilate, and said, 'Sir, we remember that when he was still alive that deceiver said, "After three days I am to rise again." Therefore give orders for the grave to be made secure until the third day, lest the disciples come and steal him away and say to the people, "He has risen from the dead," and the last deception will be worse than the first.' Pilate said to them, 'You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.' And they went and made the grave secure, and along with the guard they set a seal on the stone" (Matthew 27:62-66). [p. 203]
[The above account could simply have been refuted years ago by any number of people if it is untrue - by the Jewish authorities, the Roman historians, Pilate's historians etc., etc. Why does this story of guarding a tomb with the remains of Christ persist?] When Paul spoke to the Athenians about Christ, they had no answer for his claims:
"Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer" (Acts 17:32).
They merely laughed it off, because they could not understand how a man could rise from the dead. They did not even make an attempt to make a defence for their position. They, in essence said:
"Don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up."
Why did Paul see such unbelief in Greece unlike that in Jerusalem? Because while in Jerusalem the fact of the empty tomb was indisputable (it was right there for people to examine), in Athens the evidence was far away, so that the emptiness of the tomb was not common knowledge. Paul's hearers had not checked the story out for themselves, and rather than go to any trouble to investigate, they were satisfied to jest in ignorance. [p. 226]
[...much like people will do when they read this short study: they won't finish reading or verify what I have presented here to see if there is any truth in it].
The empty tomb is that silent testimony to the resurrection of Christ which has never been refuted. The Romans and Jews could not produce Christ's body or explain where it went, but nonetheless they refused to believe. Not because of the insufficiency of evidence but in spite of its sufficiency do men still reject the resurrection. [p. 226]
http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/quran.htm