The Quran states the following:
“Waqawlihim inna qatlna al Massih Issa ibn Maryam rasul Allah, wama qataluhu wama salabuhu walaken shubbiha lahum”, Quran 4:158. Translated: ‘and his saying, we killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah; while they neither killed nor crucified him, but made to appear to them as the crucified one (translation by M. Sher Ali).
On this verse, the Muslim commentator Abdullah Yusuf Ali gives the following explanation:
‘The end of Jesus’ life on earth is as shrouded in mystery as his birth and, indeed, most of his private life except for the main three years of his ministry. It is not profitable to discuss the many doubts and conjectures among the early Christian sects and among Muslim theologians. The orthodox Christian Churches make a cardinal point of their doctrine that his life was taken on the cross, that he died and was buried, that on the third day he rose again in his body with his wounds intact, and that he talked, and ate with his disciples, and then he was taken up bodily into heaven. This is necessary for the theological doctrine of blood sacrifice and vicarious atonement for sins, which is rejected by Islam. But some of the early Christian sects did not believe that Christ was killed on the Cross. The Basilidans believed that someone else was replacing him. The Docetae held that Christ never had an actual physical or natural body, but only an apparent or phantom body, and that his Crucifixion was only apparent, not actual. The Marcionite gospel (circa AD 138) denies that Jesus was born and simply says that he appeared in human form. The Gospel of Saint Barnabas supported the theory of substitution on the Cross. The Koranic teaching is that Christ was not healed or killed by the Jews. Notwithstanding certain apparent circumstances which produced that illusion in the minds of some of his enemies; that disputes, doubts and conjectures on such matters are vain; and that he was brought to God.’ (Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s Commentary #663, Abdullah Yusuf Ali’s Text, Translation and Commentary, The Meaning of the Glorious Qur’an, 2 vols. Published by Dar Al-Kitab Al-Masri (Egypt) and Dar Al-Kita Allubnani (Lebanon) ) , 1934).
The crucifixion was first attested among the Persians. The Greeks and Carthaginians, from whom the Romans adapted the practice, employed it later. In the Old Testament, the corpses of blasphemers or idolaters punished by stoning could be hanged as additional humiliation (Deut. 21:23).
Crucifixion was introduced to Palestine during the Greek era. Josephus, the Jewish historian (AD 37-100), tells us that the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes crucified Jews who rejected Hellenization. The Emperor Constantine abolished the practice in deference to Christian belief in the death of Jesus.
The crucifixion of Jesus is told in Matt. 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, John 19, and many times mentioned in other parts of the New Testament. The influence of early Christian literature on this subject and others extends throughout the Qur’an. Ali’s commentary on Christian and Gnostic literature is just one example of that influence.
Crucifixion was a form of capital punishment. It involved public shaming of the person being crucified. The condemned had to be stripped of all his clothes; he was physically tortured and forced to carry his cross on public roads to the place of execution; then he was placed on the cross and was the object of ridicule and indignities by passers-by. Death by crucifixion publicly discredited the condemned.
The crucifixion was an obstacle in the later effort to convert the Jews to Christianity. The Jews were not prepared to accept the idea that the Messiah, whose coming is prescribed in the Old Testament, must be crucified. For many of them, such a thought was considered blasphemy. That was probably the thinking of the Muslim communities, which introduced the hadith tradition.
But contrary to the Hadith interpretation of the Qur’anic verse, and contrary to the translation mentioned above, and the misinterpretation given by Abdullah Yussuf Ali, the Qur’an does not deny the death and crucifixion of Jesus, the Messiah. In fact, the Aramaic language of the Qur’an is identical to the story of the Crucifixion mentioned in the New Testament.
The Qur’anic conjugation “w” in the word “[w]ama” is similar to the Aramaic “w” meaning ‘thus, then, and’; Akkadian “u”. The Qur’anic word “wama” has been misinterpreted as “not”. The Syriac “wmo, or “wma” is a interrogative pronoun means ‘what’. Syriac “wmo li wlokh” or “wma li wlokh” means ‘and what have I to do with you’. The Quranic verse, “wama qataluhu” is identical to the Aramaic “wm qtlhu”, the Syriac “wmo qatluuy, or wma qatluuy” means ‘what they killed’. The Qur’anic verse “wama salabuuhu” is identical to the Syriac “wmo salbuuy or wma salbuuy” which means “what they crucified”. In other words, the Qur’an is saying: ‘what they killed and what they crucified’, a confirmation of the death and crucifixion of Jesus, the Messiah.
The Qur’anic word “walaaken” has been misinterpreted as “but”. Aramaic “lkn”. The initial “l” is a preposition, it means ‘to, by, with respect to’. When suffixes are added, it is pronounced ‘li (mine), lokh or lakh (his, sing.), leh (his), loh (his), lan (bear), lkhuun (his, plural), lkhen (your, fem. Plu.). When the vowel sign /a/ is added to Syriac “lkhen”, it becomes “lakhen”, Arabic “laken”, meaning ‘his’. It is important to note that early Qur’anic manuscripts did not use vowel signs. Thus, the original word used in the Qur’an was “lkn” as in Syriac “lken, or lkhen” meaning (your, fem. plu), which is found in Syriac Peshito (Ezekiel 13:18) and Biblia Hebraica “lknh” (Ezekiel 13:18). The reference to the feminine plural in the Qur’anic verse is compatible with the Biblical facts, which are mentioned in Matthew 27:55, which says the following: “There were many women there, looking from afar, who had followed Jesus from Galilee and helped him Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the wife of Zebede.”
The Qur’anic word “shubbiha” has been misinterpreted as “they were made to appear like the crucified one”. Syriac “shabah” means ‘blessed’. The Qur’anic preposition “lahum” is equivalent to the Aramaic “lhmh” which means ‘with respect to’ (Jeremiah 14:16).
The correct interpretation is: ‘and they say, we killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah, what they killed and what they crucified, and you (the women who followed Jesus at the Crucifixion) he is in pain and they (his followers) too.
This and other Aramaic interpretations of the Qur’an is the subject of a new book titled The Qur’an: Misunderstood, Mistranslated and Misread. The Aramaic language of the Qur’an. Available for sale on Amazon.com and on our website at http://www.syriacaramaicquran.com
