Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? An Imam and Pastor's Perspective

Imam Zuber and Pastor Duncan are both friends of mine with whom I shared an event in 2019 organised by the Christian Union in association with the Islamic Society at Dundee University.

The significance of the pineapple is that it has been a universal symbol of hospitality and welcome for many centuries all over the world and a fitting symbol for conversation between Muslims and Christians in every context.

Imam Zuber's perspective

The commentators of the Noble Quran assert that he was uplifted. The question remains whether he died a natural death? Majority of Quranic exegetes believe that the following verse refers to the fact that either God placed Jesus on a sleeping mode before raising him up to the heavens or it means that God ascended him to the heavens and that he did not die and then rise, rather he rose whilst being alive,

“When Allah said: ‘O ʿĪsā (Jesus) , I am to take you in full and to raise you towards Myself, and to cleanse you of those who disbelieve, and to place those who follow you above those who disbelieve up to the Day of Doom. Then to Me is your return, whereupon I shall judge between you in that over which you have differed.” (3:55)

The reasons for the majority taking these two opinions, of Jesus being in sleeping mode before of his ascension or of it meaning that God will take him up complete, in one piece, to Him and cause him to ascend to the heavens are, first, the Arabic root word ‘wafāh’ can denote sleeping and the word ‘Tawaffā’ can meaning taking someone alive, hence, the translation is reflective of that.[1] Second, traditional Muslim sources maintain that Jesus will descend near the end of times as a just ruler and will live, marry and die a natural death. Hence, he will experience only one death and that is in the future after his descending. There is also a group of Muslim exegetes who maintain that the word ‘Tawaffā’ means to cause someone to die, however, the conjunction ‘and’ in Arabic does not always demand succession and order. In other words, he was first raised up and God states that ‘later’ he will make him to die after his descent to earth and after living on earth for a long while. Thus, these three opinions maintain that Jesus did not die and was raised up to the heavens alive.

However, only Wahab bin al-Munabbah stated that Jesus died for 3 hours before being raised up to God, while, Muhammad bin Ishaq quotes from the Christian sources stating that the Christians believe that Jesus died for only seven hours during the day and then was resurrected and taken up to the heavens alive. Wahab’s opinion is an isolated opinion, most likely to have originated from Christian sources, while Muhammad bin Ishaq only quotes from Christian sources. However, the proponents of this opinion believe like the majority that Jesus (peace be upon) did not die on the cross. In that case, that would be considered as a natural death, followed by his resurrection and ascension to the heavens. Nonetheless, the majority body of Quranic exegetes believe that the verse refers to the fact that either God placed Jesus on a sleeping mode before raising him up to the heavens or it means that God ascended him to the heavens and that he did not die and then rise, rather he rose and ascended whilst being alive.

[1] Arthur J. Arberry has translated the verse as, “When God said, ’Jesus, I will take thee to Me and will raise thee to Me and I will purify thee of those who believe not. I will set thy followers above the unbelievers till the Resurrection Day. Then unto Me shall you return, and I will decide between you, as to what you were at variance on.’” (3:55)

Pastor Duncan's perspective

Most Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in the resurrection of the dead. They believe that God can and will raise the dead at the end of this age. What is unique about the claim of the New Testament/ Injil is that God has already raised Jesus of Nazareth from death to life.

The four Gospel narratives give detailed independent accounts of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection. The accounts are presented as factual and historical, and based on the testimony of eye-witnesses.

The Empty Tomb of Jesus

Jesus’ body was placed in a cave-like tomb late on the Friday afternoon of the day he died. Early on the Sunday morning, his disciples discovered the tomb to be empty, with Jesus’ burial cloths lying where his body had been placed.

This is historically important. It means that when we read of the disciples later meeting Jesus, we can’t dismiss these accounts as a case of mistaken identity, a ghost or spirit appearance, or some sort of repeated mass hallucination – that wouldn’t explain the lack of a body in the tomb. No one ever produced a body. The Jewish leaders and Roman authorities would have been desperate to produce and display Jesus’ body. That would have stopped the Jesus movement in its tracks, but there was no body for them to produce.

Matthew provides an account of the Jewish leaders spreading the ‘fake news’ that the disciples stole the body. But after Jesus’ crucifixion, his disciples were scared and full of despair; what use was a corpse to them? If this account were true, it would also mean that the disciples’ whole teaching, which they willing to die for, was built on a lie.

Meeting the risen Jesus

The New testament/ Injil records a number of occasions when Jesus ‘presented himself to his disciples and gave them many convincing proofs that he was alive’[1]. Too many people on too many occasions saw Jesus after his death and burial for these meetings to be dismissed as some kind of mass-illusion or hallucination.

One striking feature of the Gospel narratives is that it was women disciples who were the first to discover the empty tomb of Jesus, and also the first to meet him after he had been raised from the dead[2]. In the Jewish culture of that time, women generally had low status in society and their testimony in law was often disqualified – ‘Let not the testimony of women be admitted’[3] was a widely-held view. The record of women being the first witnesses, points to the truthfulness of these accounts. If these accounts were fabricated stories, the writers, coming from that culture, would never have written that women were the first to witness the empty tomb and post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. The fact that it is recorded that way is powerful evidence that it happened that way.

Jesus chose twelve apostles whose primary function was to act as witnesses of his career as a prophet, and particularly of his resurrection from the dead[4]. These apostles travelled far and wide proclaiming that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, had been raised from the dead, and that “we are witnesses of this”[5]. These people all suffered greatly for this claim. In fact, according to early historical sources, almost all of them were martyred for their claim that they had witnessed Jesus raised from the dead. People may die for a falsehood, but only if they themselves believe it to be true. Who is going to die for a claim they know to be a lie?

If Jesus had been rescued just before his crucifixion and taken directly up to heaven before he could be put to death, it seems unbelievable that all his companions were so convinced that he was infact crucified and raised, and that they themselves had seen with their own eyes the empty tomb and the risen Jesus.

The Emergence of Early Christianity

Later Christianity gained political power, which it maintained and advanced with military might. But this was not so in the first 300 years of Christian history when the early Christians were a despised and often persecuted minority. It is extremely difficult to account for the emergence of the early Christian movement without the resurrection of Jesus. If Jesus had not been raised, his disciples would have scattered, and Jesus’ brief career would have been quickly forgotten as that of just another failed messianic pretender. The emergence and rapid spread of the movement of Jesus’ followers is another powerful pointer to the truthfulness of the accounts that we find in the New Testament/ Injil.

[1] Acts 1:3

[2] Matthew 28:9, John 20:14-16

[3] Josephus, Antiquities 4:219. This view was not based on the Torah, but was a widespread cultural assumption.

[4] Judas the betrayer was replaced by Matthias as the twelfth apostle, see Acts 1:15-26.

[5] Eg Acts 2:32, 3:15, 5:32, 10:39-41, 13:31. 1 Corinthians 15:1-19.