1 And the chief priests and all the council sought evidence against Jesus to put him to death; and found none.
2 For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together.
3 And the high priest stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these witness against thee?
4 But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, Art thou the Messiah?
5 And Jesus said, Thou sayest it. Nevertheless, the One Living God has anointed me to be His messenger to the children of Israel. If they would have received me, He would have given to them a kingdom like He gave unto David.
6 But ye had indeed rejected faith: so pursue your plans, and God will execute His plan; and He is the best of planners.
7 Then some of those in the council rose up, and said, What need we any further evidence?
8 Ye have heard that he setteth himself up as a King and the Messiah, and he did earlier enter into Jerusalem on the back of a colt, pretending to be the King of the Jews.
9 Deliver him therefore to Pilate that he may crucify him for setting himself up as a King besides Caesar.1
10 And in the morning they brought him before Pontius Pilate, the governor, and said, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is the Messiah, a king.
11 And Pilate asked him, Knowest thou what thy people witness against thee? Art thou the King of the Jews.2
12 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not like thy kingdom: if my kingdom was like thine, then would I have soldiers to fight that I should not be delivered to thee by my people: but my kingdom is not like thine.
13 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king of thy people then?
14 And Jesus answering said unto him, How wouldst thou call a messenger to his people from the King of kings?
15 Then the Jews who brought Jesus to Pilate said unto him, He hath said it; and thou knowest that whosoever maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
16 Then Pilate brought Jesus forth, and sat down in the judgement seat in a place that is called the Pavement, but in the Hebrew, Gabbatha.3
17 And he pronounced, I sentence thee: thou shall go upon the cross. Lictor, bind his hands. Let him be flogged!
18 And when he had been flogged, they took him away that they might crucify him at some time.4
19 Now at that feast Pilate wanted to release one prisoner from among the Jews5 that he might be more popular with them.
20 And he chose Jesus Barabbas (meaning Jesus, son of a rabbi),6 a notable prisoner7 who had made an insurrection.
21 And Pilate sent an order, that Jesus Barabbas be released. But the officers who received the order did make an error, and released Jesus of Nazareth, and crucified Jesus Barabbas.8
22 And when he was released, he departed for Galilee, and he met two travellers who were going to Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlong.9
23 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
24 And Jesus went with them, but their eyes were holden that they should not recognize him.
25 And he said unto them, What words are these that ye exchange with each other walking?
26 And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answering said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass there in these days?
27 And he said unto them, What things? And they said unto him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people:
28 And how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be crucified.
29 And Jesus said unto them, Exchange ye words about him, or would ye have done aught for him? And they said, What could we have done?
30 And Jesus answering said unto them, Lo, Jesus of Nazareth is not crucified nor dead, but he liveth. Go back to Jerusalem tomorrow and tell his disciples that he goeth to Galilee, and there he shall see them.
31 And then they came to the village, wither they went: and he made as though he would have gone further.
32 But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent, and thou doest not look well. And he went in to tarry with them.
33 And the next day he departed from thence and went further.
The Qur’anic text
The passages of the Qur’an that this chapter follows. All the passages are gathered on The Qur’an on Jesus.
Conspiracy Against Jesus
3:54 And the disbelievers made a plan ˹against Jesus˺, but God also planned—and God is the best of planners.
3:55 ˹Remember˺ when God said, “O Jesus! I will take you10 and raise you up to Myself. I will deliver you from those who disbelieve, and elevate your followers above the disbelievers until the Day of Judgment. Then to Me you will ˹all˺ return, and I will settle all your disputes.
3:56 As for those who disbelieve, I will subject them to a severe punishment in this life and the Hereafter, and they will have no helpers.
3:57 And as for those who believe and do good, they will be rewarded in full. And God does not like the wrongdoers.”
3:58 We recite ˹all˺ this to you ˹O Prophet˺ as one of the signs11 and ˹as˺ a wise reminder.
Jesus Was Neither Killed nor Crucified
4:157 And for boasting, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of God.” But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so.12 Even those who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever— only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him.
4:158 Rather, God raised him up to Himself. And God is Almighty, All-Wise.
From the Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Thomas has no account of an arrest, a trial or a crucifixion, so it neither confirms nor contradicts Qur’an 4:157.
Sayings of Thomas that are not used are listed, each with its reason, on the page of sayings set aside.
← Chapter 25 · Contents · Chapter 27 →
Notes
- Mark 14:53-65. ↩
- Luke 23:2-3. ↩
- John 18:36-37; 19:12-13. ↩
- Up to this point, the majority of scholars are more or less willing to accept the Gospel account of the events that took place after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem. What happens afterwards is, however, a subject of fundamental differences among various first-century Christian sects and modern scholars and among Muslims and Christians. The doubt that the events did not follow their natural course after Jesus was sentenced to die on the cross is raised by the Gospel reports that Jesus was seen alive after his “death” and that his tomb was found empty, as well as by the existence of the belief in New Testament times that Jesus did not die on the cross. One may explain some of these facts by assuming that Jesus miraculously rose to life after his crucifiction and burial or by attributing the origin of resurrection reports in the Gospels to hallucinations of some women. It has also been proposed by some scholars that Jesus was taken from the cross when he was not yet dead but only unconscious, and he later revived and was secretly taken away from the tomb. The view proposed in this book is that some namesake of Jesus was crucified in his place by mistake while Jesus himself was released. This is suggested by some Gospel passages and by Qur’an 4:157. ↩
- Cf. Mark 15:6-15; Matt. 27:15-26; Luke 23:16-25, John 18:39-40. This was not a normal practice of Roman governors but a special measure adopted recently by Pilate to improve his relations with his Jewish subjects. The governor felt the need for such improvement of relations since he had some trouble with Rome because of the disturbances resulting from his flouting of Jewish customs. ↩
- This is the name given in some of the oldest manuscripts of the canonical gospels known to Origen (Matt., Sermon 121). (See Marcello Craveri, The Life of Jesus, Evergreen Black Cat Books, 1970, pp. 404-405.) ↩
- Matt. 27:16. Barabbas was not a robber, as John makes him in order to emphasize the unfairness of the Jews who preferred a robber over Jesus, but a notable prisoner, like Jesus himself, who was accused of insurrectional activities. ↩
- Confusion between persons can occur even in modern times. Recently, a reporter was mistakenly named for a Pulitzer prize in appreciation of a photo taken by another reporter. (See the Press section in Time magazine, May 1, 1978.) An even more serious confusion took place in June 1978 in the land of the Bible. Newly born babies of two women were switched in a hospital in Haifa by immigrant nurses who had trouble reading the nametags in Hebrew. Although a supervisor returned the babies to their correct mothers, the women were convinced that the babies they were now given were not theirs. So there was a third switch. This time the hospital authorities were not satisfied, and they decided to order medical tests. When the results of the tests were ready after about six weeks, a fourth and final switch took place that was accepted by the women with some hesitation. (See Time magazine, August 28, 1978, p. 38.) But for modern medical science, the confusion may never have been removed. Such examples show that for Roman officials of Jesus’ time, administrating a population of aliens, confusion between persons having a common name would have been quite easy. ↩
- Luke 24:13-20. Jesus must have known or sensed that his release was the result of some confusion. He, therefore, felt that it was unsafe to stay near Jerusalem. Without wasting time to see any of his disciples or relatives, Jesus got out of the city from the northern Damascus gate and headed toward Galilee. He had planned to depart for Galilee alone before he was arrested (Note 1, Chapter 25), and the same plan still seemed to him to be the best. The village of Emmaus mentioned by Luke was known to Josephus, who says it was about four miles northwest of the city of Jerusalem. The two travelers Jesus met on the road to Emmaus do not seem to be among those who spent any length of time in his company. They had heard about him and might even have heard and seen him once or twice, but this was not sufficient for them to recognize him, especially because they believed that he had been crucified. According to later tradition, one traveler named Cleopas was Jesus’ uncle, but his failure to recognize Jesus makes this doubtful. ↩
- The popular Muslim belief is that a conspiracy was made to kill Jesus. God made the main culprit who betrayed Jesus look exactly like Jesus, while the culprit was crucified. Similar to Christians, Muslims believe in the second coming of Jesus (peace be on him) ↩
- As a testament to your prophethood. ↩
- The popular Muslim belief is that a conspiracy was made to kill Jesus. God made the main culprit who betrayed Jesus look exactly like Jesus, while the culprit was crucified. Similar to Christians, Muslims believe in the second coming of Jesus (peace be on him) ↩