Ask · Other Beliefs & Religions
What does the Qur'an say about Jesus' death?
The short answer
The Qur'an, at surah 4:157, denies that Jesus was killed or crucified, saying that it was made to appear so, and mainstream Muslim teaching holds that God raised Jesus to himself alive. The crucifixion is one of the best attested events of ancient history, recorded in all four Gospels, preached by Paul within living memory, and mentioned by Josephus and Tacitus, who had no Christian interest to serve. The gospel depends on it: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
The fuller answer
The key text is surah 4:157 to 158, summarised here by reference in the Saheeh International rendering's sense. The passage rebukes those who boast of killing the Messiah, saying they did not kill him nor crucify him, but that it was made to appear so to them, and that God raised him to himself. Muslim interpreters have explained the appearance in various ways across the centuries, including that another person was made to resemble Jesus. The mainstream position is settled, however: Jesus did not die on a Roman cross, and so, in Islamic teaching, he did not rise from the dead either.
For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:3 (BSB)
In plain words
Paul is handing on what was handed to him. This is not his private idea; it is the heart of the faith, and its first item is that Christ died for our sins, exactly as the Scriptures said he would.
Context · Received, and passed on
Paul uses the language of receiving and delivering something fixed, the same words he uses for the Lord's Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:23. Verses 3 to 8 read as a short summary the church already confessed: Christ died, he was buried, he was raised, he appeared. Paul is quoting the faith, not inventing it.
Paul hands on what he himself received: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. He writes within about twenty five years of the event, names witnesses in the verses that follow, and treats the death not as an embarrassment to explain away but as the centre of the message. The four Gospels, written independently in large part, agree on the crucifixion under Pontius Pilate in detail. An appearance theory must explain why Jesus' own followers, who expected no crucifixion, staked and lost their lives preaching one.
that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,
1 Corinthians 15:4 (BSB)
In plain words
Because he truly died, he was buried. And he truly rose, on the third day, as the Scriptures said he would.
See also · On the third day
Paul does not name the passages here. Jesus himself spoke of the three days by the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:40), and Hosea 6:2 speaks of being raised up on the third day.
The burial and the third day resurrection belong to the same received summary. A buried man whose tomb is known is a checkable claim in a way a substituted stranger is not, and Paul invites the check by pointing to living witnesses. The resurrection also explains why the Qur'an's raised alive Jesus and the Bible's raised from death Jesus cannot both be right about the same event. One account has a cross and an empty tomb. The other has neither. History, not only theology, has to choose between them, and the evidence runs one way.
But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:5 (BSB)
The cross was also promised. Isaiah, centuries earlier, wrote of one pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, by whose wounds we are healed. Josephus, a Jewish historian with no Christian faith, records that Pilate condemned Jesus to the cross, and Tacitus, a Roman historian who despised Christians, confirms that Christus suffered the extreme penalty under Pontius Pilate. When hostile and neutral sources agree with the Gospels on the fact, while a text six centuries later denies it, the fair conclusion is that the denial is theological, not historical.
Sources
- Berean Standard Bible (BSB)
- The Qur'an (Saheeh International translation)
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.3.3
- Tacitus, Annals 15.44
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