Christianity - A Journey from Facts to Fiction — Page 79
Crucifixion 79 used is recorded in many classical books such as the famous medical textbook Al-Q a n u n by B u ‘Ali Sin a (see Appendix I for a list of such books). So what was the need of applying ointment to a dead body? This could only make sense if the disciples had strong reasons to believe that Jesus as would be delivered alive from the cross and not dead. St John is the only apostle who has ventured to offer an explanation justifying the act of preparing and applying an ointment to Jesus’ as body. This further supports the fact that the act of applying ointment to a dead body was considered extremely odd behaviour, inexplicable to those who believed that Jesus as was dead when ointment was applied. It is for this reason that St John had to offer an explanation. He suggests that it was done merely because it was a Jewish practice to apply some sort of balm or ointment to the bodies of their dead. Now it is a very important fact to note that all modern scholars who have researched into this are in agreement that St John was not of Jewish origin, and he proved it by this statement of his. It is known for certain that Jews or the Children of Israel have never applied any ointments whatsoever to the bodies of their dead. As such the scholars contend that St John must have been of non- Jewish origin otherwise he could not have been so ignorant of Jewish customs. So there has to be another reason for this. The ointment was applied to save Jesus as from near death. The only explanation lies in the fact that Jesus as was neither expected to die by his disciples nor did he actually die upon the cross. The body which was taken down must have shown positive signs of life before the application of the ointment; otherwise, it turns out to be an extremely stupid, unwarranted and futile exercise on the