The Criterion for Religions — Page 14
14 Mi'yiirul Madhahib of attention than their own gilded lies, and are, with- out doubt, stronger than the so-called arguments of the Gospels, for they were simultaneously recorded in Bala's Janam Sakhz, whereas the Gospels were chronicled many years after the time of Jesus. Baba Nanak Sahib's episode has yet another advantage: The miraculous power attributed to Jesus seems an attempt by the disciples to hide the mortification they had to suffer before the Jews. After drawing Jesus on the cross, the Jews had wanted him to show a miracle by coming down alive from the cross; if he did so, they would believe him. But since Jesus could not get down from the cross, his disciples were greatly em- barrassed and cut a sorry figure before the Jews. In order to hide their shame they must, therefore, have had recourse to some subterfuge, which would help them escape the sarcasm, ridicule and laughter of the simple-minded. It is, therefore, quite reasonable to be- lieve that they may have played this trickery in order to wipe this stigma off their faces, and might have removed Jesus' body from one grave to another under the cover of night-as indeed they have been accused of doing-and then, being the only witnesses to their own claim, started propagating that Jesus has risen from the dead just as the Jews had demanded of him, and that he had forthwith gone to heaven. The Sikhs, on the other hand, didn't face any such difficulties on