The Holy Quran with Five Volume Commentary (Vol 4) — Page 301
PT. 18 AL-MU'MINŪN CH. 23 Jews themselves in Jesus' time commissioned as a Prophet, to save believed that the lost tribes of Israel his life. The trial of Jesus took place had become dispersed in different on Friday, Pilate having purposely lands (John 7:34, 35). prolonged it knowing that the next day being the Sabbath Day the condemned persons would not be left on the cross after sunset. 5. Jesus had remained hung on the cross only for about three hours (John 9:14) while persons of normal constitutions, had remained on the cross for as many as three to six days and then died from exhaustion, hunger and exposure 6. Immediately after he had been taken down from the cross Jesus' side was pierced and blood and water flowed out of it which was a certain sign of life (John 19:34). 7. The Jews themselves were not sure of Jesus' death because they had asked Pilate to have a guard posted at his sepulchre "lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people, 'He is risen from the dead' (Matt. 27:64). 8. There is not to be found in all the Gospels a single recorded statement of an eye-witness to the effect that Jesus had died on the cross or that he was dead when he was taken down from the cross or when he was placed in the tomb. The Jews had their own doubts and none of the disciples was present at the scene of crucifixion, all having fled when Jesus was taken to Calvary. When at last he found himself compelled to condemn Jesus, Pilate gave his judgement only three hours before sunset, thus making himself sure that no person of normal health could die in such a short time by remaining on the cross. He took additional care to see that Jesus was given wine or vinegar mingled with myrrh to render him less sensitive to pain. When after three hours' suspension Jesus was taken down from the cross in an unconscious state (probably under the influence of vinegar which was administered to him) Pilate readily granted Joseph of Arimaethia's request and handed over Jesus's body to him. Unlike those of the two malefactors who were hung along with him, his bones were not broken and Joseph had him placed in a spacious room hewn in the side of a rock. There was no medical autopsy, no stethoscopic test, no inquest with the aid of the evidence of those who were last with him ("Mystical life of Jesus" by H. Spencer Lewis). The fact of the case seems to be 9. "The Crucifixion by an Eye- that, presumably due to the dream of Witness," a book which was at first his wife "to have nothing to do with published in 1873 in U. S. A. and that just man," Pilate had believed which is an English translation of an Jesus to be innocent and had ancient Latin copy of a letter written therefore conspired with Joseph of seven years after the Crucifixion by Arimaethia, a respectable member of an Essene brother in Jerusalem to a the Essene Order to which Jesus member of this brotherhood in himself belonged before he was Alexandria lends further support to 2215