Jesus is central to Christianity and very important in Islam. The Bible’s depiction of his life, message, and ministry are vigorously contested by Muslims. They deny not only Jesus’ divinity, but also his defining act: his crucifixion and resurrection. Muslims have no choice, though. They must believe their highest authority—the Quran—because they claim it contains the literal words of Allah. Whatever the Quran affirms, Muslims must also affirm. It turns out, however, the Quran doesn’t just get Jesus’ crucifixion wrong. It gets all crucifixions wrong.
When the Quran was written in the seventh century, Christianity was the largest world religion. Yet, despite its being allegedly authored by an all-knowing god (Allah), the Quran makes anachronistic references to crucifixion and denies the most famous crucifixion in human history—that of Jesus of Nazareth. This is incriminating evidence that the Quran is not the word of God.
The Quran makes anachronistic references to crucifixion. In surah 7:120–123, the Quran references Pharaoh, Moses, and his brother Aaron. Then, in verse 124, Pharaoh says, “I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides; then I will surely crucify you all” (Saheeh International translation). The Quran has Pharaoh make a similar comment in surah 20:71: “I will surely cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you.” Finally, in surah 12:41, Joseph interprets a dream for a prisoner and says, “O two companions of prison, as for one of you, he will give drink to his master of wine; but as for the other, he will be crucified, and the birds will eat from his head.”
Here’s the problem. Pharaoh, Moses, and Aaron lived sometime around the 14th–12th century BC, and Joseph lived around the 18th century BC. Crucifixion, however, wasn’t invented until the sixth century BC by the Persians (records indicate that King Darius crucified his enemies in 519 BC). That means the Quran claims crucifixion was a method of execution 800 years before it was invented (or 1,200 years, in the case of Joesph). That’s a significant difference in time.
The Quran not only dates crucifixions to the wrong time, but it also rejects the most important crucifixion of all time.
The Quran denies the crucifixion of Jesus. Surah 4:157 says,
And [for] their saying, “Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.
According to the Quran, Jesus was not crucified. Instead, Allah allegedly performed a sleight of hand and made it appear as though they killed Jesus. This is the testimony of the Quran’s author, writing 600 years after Jesus.
Eyewitness testimony of Jesus as well as the historians and authors of the first and second centuries paint a different picture. They univocally affirm that Jesus was killed by crucifixion. All four Gospel authors record that Jesus was crucified (Matt. 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:33, John 19:18). Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian reports that “Pilate condemned [Jesus] to be crucified.” Tacitus, the first-century Roman historian, writes that Christ “suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.” Lucian of Samosata, a second-century Greek satirist, says that Christians worship a man who “was crucified.” The authors who wrote after Jesus’ ministry all attest to his crucifixion.
This ancient data has led modern thinkers to reach the same conclusion. The Journal of American Medical Association, a secular medical journal, studied the crucifixion details described in the Gospels and concluded, “Modern medical interpretation of the historical evidence indicates that Jesus was dead when taken down from the cross.”
Even radically liberal theologians and atheists affirm Jesus was crucified. John Dominic Crossan (a Jesus scholar who denies the resurrection) says, “That he was crucified is as sure as anything historical can ever be.” Atheist Bible scholar Bart Ehrman writes, “One of the most certain facts of history is that Jesus was crucified on orders of the Roman prefect of Judea, Pontius Pilate.” Gerd Lüdemann (atheist New Testament professor at Göttingen) affirms that “Jesus’ death as a consequence of crucifixion is indisputable.”
Virtually everyone who was an eyewitness of Jesus, his friend or enemy, a historian of Jesus’ day, or a scholar who has studied this question affirms the reality of this defining event: Jesus of Nazareth was crucified. The only one who denies it is the author of the Quran, who wrote about Jesus 600 years later.
This creates a twofold problem for Muslims. First, getting crucifixion wrong renders the Quran untrustworthy. How can a Muslim trust their highest authority when it anachronistically refers to crucifixion hundreds of years before it began and denies the most historically attested event of Jesus’ life?
Second, denying the crucifixion robs Muslims of the power of Christ’s atonement. Christ’s death and resurrection is an essential part of the gospel. Romans 10:9 teaches that “if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” By denying the crucifixion—and consequently the resurrection—Muslims deny the event that paves the way for their sins to be pardoned.
This is why J. Gresham Machen’s warning 100 years ago is still relevant today. He warned that false ideas are the greatest obstacles to the gospel. Sadly, billions of Muslims believe the false ideas presented by the Quran as fact. It’s our role as ambassadors for Christ to Muslims to present the truth of what Scripture affirms: Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected. His death can give us life. Muslims reject the very truth that can atone for their sins and save them from certain judgment.