Ahmadiyya Movement — Page 27
27 whale, so shall the Son of Man remain three days and three nights in the tomb. He explained that the sign of the prophet Jonas was that he entered the belly of the whale alive, remained alive, there and came out alive. His remaining alive under such conditions was the real sign. Then how was it possible that Jesus should have entered the tomb dead, for had he died on the cross and entered the tomb dead, his prophecy concerning the sign of the prophet Jonas would have been falsified, for Jonas did not enter the belly of the whale dead, nor did he rise. up from the dead. He also pointed out that Pilate’s wife had had a dream concerning Jesus and she had interceded on his behalf with her husband, and that, although the latter might- have been afraid of the Jews, he must have had some sympathy with Jesus in his heart. Besides, Jesus was put on the cross about noon on Friday, he was given drugs to alleviate his suffering and next day was the day of the Passover feast. There was a dust storm towards the evening and the Jews, being afraid lest they should be guilty of permitting Jesus to remain on the cross on the day of the Pas- sover, hastily took Jesus down from the cross. His bones were not broken, and, when a spear was thrust into his side, blood came out of the wound, which is a conclusive proof of life being still extant. A perusal of the history of those times shows that people some- times remained on the cross for a whole week before death re- leased them from their sufferings, and that in no case did a man die on the cross within less than three days, unless his bones were broken. The cause of death was starvation and not being put upon the cross, and in some cases life did not become extinct even after the passing of a week, and the death was brought about by breaking the bones of the culprit Then how can we believe that Jesus had died as the result of a six-hours’ suspen- sion on the cross, especially as strong efforts were being made to save him ? If he did die on the cross, why did blood issue from his side when the spear was thrust, and if he had risen from the