Jesus In India — Page 36
26 JESUS IN INDIA is that in the Gospel of Barnabas, which should also be available in the London library, it is also written that Jesus, the Messiah, was not put on the cross, nor did he die upon the cross. Here we can indeed draw the conclusion that although this book is not included in the Gospels and has been rejected without any deci- sive verdict, yet there is no doubt that it is an ancient book, and belongs to the same period in which the other Gospels were writ- ten. Do we not then have the right to view this aged, ancient book as a historical book of the Old Testament and according it the station of a historic text draw benefit from it? And can we not conclude, at the very least, from reading this book that at the time of Jesus, may peace be on him, when the event of the cross took place, people were not unanimous as to Jesus, the Messiah, having died on the cross? Then, apart from this, in the four Gospels them- selves, there are present metaphors whereby it is said of a dead person that he is asleep and not dead. This being the case a per- son in a swoon being described as being dead is not too far from the realm of possibility. I have already mentioned, that a prophet never lies. Jesus, the Messiah, compared his three days' stay in the tomb to the three days Jonah spent in the belly of the whale. From this it can only be concluded that just as Jonah remained alive in the belly of the whale for three days, similarly, Jesus, the Messiah, must also have remained alive in the tomb for three days. And the Jewish tombs in those days were not like the present-day tombs; they were very spacious like a room and had an opening at one end covered with a big stone. I shall prove in due course and at the appropriate occasion that the tomb of Jesus, may peace be on him, which has been recently discovered in Srinagar, Kashmir, is