Note [original edition] : But God devised a
stratagem against them;] This stratagem of
God’s was the taking of
Jesus up into heaven, and
stamping his likeness on another person, who was apprehended and crucified in
his stead. For it is the constant doctrine of the
Mohammedans that it was not
Jesus himself who underwent that ignominious death, but somebody else in his
shape and resemblance
4.
The person crucified some will have to be a spy that
was sent to entrap him; others, that it was one
Titian, who by the direction
of
Judas entered in at a window of the house where
Jesus was, to kill him; and
others that it was Judas himself, who agreed with the rulers of the
Jews to
betray him for thirty pieces of silver, and led those who were sent to take
him.
They add, that
Jesus after his crucifixion in
effigy, was sent down
again to the earth, to comfort his mother and disciples and acquaint them how
the
Jews were deceived; and was then taken up a second time into heaven
5.
It is supposed by several that this story was an original invention of
Mohammed’s; but they are certainly mistaken; for several sectaries held the
same opinion, long before his time. The
Basilidians
6,
in the very beginning
of Christianity, denied that
Christ himself suffered, but that
Simon the
Cyrenean was crucified in his place. The
Cerinthians before them, and the
Carpocratians next (to name no more of those who affirmed
Jesus to have been a
mere man), did believe the same thing; that it was not himself, but one of his
followers very like him that was crucified.
Photius tells us, that he read a
book intitled,
The Journeys of the Apostles, relating the acts of
Peter,
John, Andrew, Thomas and
Paul; and among other things contained therein, this
was one,
that Christ,
was not crucified but another in his stead, and that
therefore
he laughed at his crucifiers
7,
or those who thought they had
crucified him
8.
I have in another place
9
mentioned an apocryphal gospel of
Barnabas, a
forgery originally of some nominal
Christians, but interpolated since by
Mohammedans; which gives this part of the history of
Jesus with circumstances
too curious to be omitted. It is therein related, that the moment the
Jews
were going to apprehend
Jesus in the garden, he was snatched up into the third
heaven by the ministry of four angels,
Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and
Uriel;
that he will not die till the end of the world, and that it was
Judas who was
crucified in his stead;
God having permitted that traitor to appear so like
his master, in the eyes of the
Jews, that they took and delivered him to
Pilate. That this resemblance was so great, that it deceived the virgin
Mary
and the Apostles themselves; but that
Jesus Christ afterward obtained leave of
God to go and comfort them. That
Barnabas having then asked him, why the
divine goodness had suffered the mother and disciples of so holy a prophet to
believe even for one moment that he had died in so ignominious a manner?
Jesus returned the following answer. "O Barnabas, believe me that every sin,
how small soever, is punished by
God with great torment, because
God is
offended with sin. My mother therefore and faithful disciples, having loved
me with a mixture of earthly love, the just
God has been pleased to punish
this love with their present grief, that they might not be punished for it
hereafter in the flames of hell. And as for me, tho’ I have myself been
blameless in the world, yet other men having called me
God and the Son of God;
therefore
God, that I might not be mocked by the devils at the day of
judgment, has been pleased that in this world I should be mocked by men with
the death of Judas, making everybody believe that I died upon the cross. And
hence it is that this mocking is still to continue till the coming of
Mohammed, the messenger of
God; who, coming into the world, will undeceive
every one who shall believe in the law of
God from this mistake"
1.
-
4
See Korân, c. 4.
-
5
V. Marracc. in Alc. p. 113, &c. & in Prodr. part. 3. p. 63, &c.
-
6
Irenæus, l. 1, c. 23, &c. Epiphan. Hæres. 24, num. 3.
-
7
Photius,
Bibl. Cod. 114, col. 291.
-
8
Toland’s Nararenus, p 17, &c.
-
9
Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 74.
-
1
See the Menagiana, tom. 4. p. 326, &c.