Published by Jesus died on the cross, didn’t he?
Dr Simon Ross Valentine
For 2,000 years the Christian Church has taught that Jesus was crucified on the cross, that he died and then three days later rose from the dead before ascending into heaven. This has been the Church’s foundational doctrine, without it Christianity falls like a pack of cards. However, down through the ages other stories have been put forward describing the end of Jesus’ life.
As seen in the Quran Islam teaches that Jesus, although appearing to die on the cross, was taken physically alive up to heaven by God to return as a champion of Islam in the future. It is believed that someone else was mistaken for Jesus and was crucified in His place (Quran 4:157-8).
The Ahmadi jama’at , a reform group within Islam arising at the end of the 19th century, presents a different story. Although agreeing with mainstream Muslims that “Jesus had not died on the Cross”, the Ahmadi believe that Jesus passed “through a state of swoon”, was later revived, taken down from the cross and resuscitated by Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus. The Ahmadi argue that Jesus, having been resuscitated, instead of being taken up to Heaven as mainstream Muslims claim, became “the travelling prophet”, going first to Nasibus and Iran, then to the Punjab from where “he had no difficulty in wandering through the important places of Hindustan before going to Kashmir where he died at the age of one hundred and twenty.(1)
In 2004, whilst visiting Kashmir, and researching for a book on the Ahmadi, I visited Roza bal, a building in Srinigar [the capital city], which, according to the Ahmadi, contains the tomb of prophet Isa, the Jesus of the Gospels. As the attached photographs reveal Roza bal, is an unimpressive, makeshift structure. Failing to gain the necessary permission to enter the building my companions and I could only stand and look through the narrow windows. In the gloomy interior could be seen a tomb which, according to the Ahmadi contains the remains of one of the most influential men in history.
The idea of Jesus as “the travelling prophet’ was not original to the Ahmadi.
The idea of Jesus as “the travelling prophet” was not original to the Ahmadi. I had first come across this idea in various books while studying theology at Manchester University in the early 1980’s. One book in particular, The Unknown life of Christ by Nicholas Notovitch, told of a Russian nobleman who had travelled extensively in the East during the nineteenth century researching this subject. Notovitch states how, while in Ladakh, a region lying between Tibet and Kashmir, he had been given access to certain ancient Buddhist scrolls which told of Jesus’ wanderings in the East during the period when the
Roza Bal, the building containing what is alleged to be the
grave of Jesus, Srinigar, Kashmir
Photograph; S. R. Valentine
Gospels are silent about his life, from the time of his dispute with the Elders in the Temple at Jerusalem when he was twelve to the beginning of his teaching ministry, aged about thirty. According to Notovitch these Buddhist scrolls claimed that Jesus had travelled to the East in order to study Buddhist and Hindu teaching, before returning to Palestine, where he was crucified as the Christian Gospels narrate.(2) The original scrolls which Notovitch claimed to have read and partially copied have proven to elude all attempts at discovery. Notovich later published what he claimed were copies of large parts of the scrolls.(3)
The entrance of Roza Bal, Srinigar, Kashmir
Photograph: S. R. Valentine
What is the evidence to support the claim that Jesus died in Kashmir?
What is the evidence used by the Ahmadi to support the claim that Jesus, instead of dying on the cross, travelled to Kashmir, where he died in old age? Mirza Ghulam Ahmad [1835-1908], the founder of the Ahmadi sect, in his book Jesus in India, put forward, what in his opinion was “powerful evidence” from the gospels, the Quran and the hadith [reports of the words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad].
Such “illuminating evidence”, as Ahmad called it, included reference to Matthew’s gospel where Jesus remarked: “For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth”.(4) Applying a literal interpretation to every aspect of this simile, forgetting that Jesus was apparently drawing an analogy between Jonah’s three days inside a fish with the time he was to spend in the grave, and ignoring other references in the gospels which directly referred to the death of the Son of Man, Ahmad reasoned that just as Jonah wasn’t dead while in the fish, Jesus was not dead in the tomb. “Like the prophet Jonah”, opined Ahmad, “[Jesus] would only pass through a state of swoon”, and would be revived later by the disciples.(5)
On reading this argument my mind turned to other statements made by Jesus: “I am the door”, “I am the true vine”, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”, words surely meant to be taken figuratively, as symbols, picture language often exaggerated so as to convey spiritual rather than literal truth.(6) I thought of the dangers, if not absurdities, of understanding such words literally.
Ahmad found further “proof of Jesus” survival’ after the crucifixion in Jesus’ statement concerning his mission to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, and in Jesus’ declaration there are “other sheep, that are not of this fold” that must also be brought into the kingdom’ .(7)
In studying the relevant Christian commentaries on this biblical passage, I discovered that this, and other references to the “lost sheep of Israel” are usually understood as referring to the debate within the early Church as “to whether the message and powers of the Kingdom of God were open to Gentiles as well as Jews”, while Jesus’ comment about “other sheep” is interpreted as a reference to the “worldwide mission of Christianity” which “will include gentiles as well as Jews within the people of God”.(8) Ahmad however,
Roza Bal from another angle
Photograph: S. R. Valentine
applying a different interpretation, concluded that such words can only be understood in the light of Jesus’ mission to the East “to invite to the truth the lost Jews who had come to be known as Afghans”.(9)
Ahmad also referred to the Gospel of Barnabas, a work which although claiming to be a life of Christ written by Barnabas, a follower of Jesus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, is generally regarded as “a medieval forgery, a mediocre parody of the gospels”, which denies the death of Jesus on the cross.(10) Amongst other things this book claims, not only that Judas was changed by God “in speech and in face to look like Jesus” and crucified in Jesus’ place, but that “God, seeing the danger of his servant, commanded Gabriel, Michael, Rafeal, and Uriel, . . . to take Jesus out of the world” rather than die at the hands of the Romans. The historicity, and therefore the reliability, of the Gospel of Barnabas is seriously questioned by academia. As Ahmad himself readily acknowledges, “this book is not included in the gospels and has been rejected summarily”. On researching the details of the Gospel of Barnabas I discovered that the date and authorship of the book are unknown but due to the fact that the oldest copies are written in Italian and Spanish most academics, even some Muslim writers, would regard it as medieval in origin.
Historical and archaeological evidence
Concerning historical and archaeological evidence Ahmad referred to Marham-i-Isa, the “ointment of Jesus”, a medicine apparently prepared for, and applied with miraculous effect, to the wounds of Jesus after he had been saved from the cross. Mention of this ointment is found in a medical book written after the death of Jesus and used by physicians for hundreds of years.(11) Ignoring the possibility that the original medical book could have been spurious in its claims about the ointment, or written by those who knew they were onto a hagiographical [if not financial] winner in terms of producing something for the credulous and superstitious, Ahmad refers to the hundreds of other later medical books written by believers that refer to, and confirm the original. With this in mind he triumphantly concludes how the “ointment of Jesus” is not only “a very important piece of evidence”, but that it is “illuminating evidence”, “transparent proof” which “destroys the belief about the Cross”.
Other archaeological evidence presented by Ahmad includes reference to a coin found in India in the 19th century “on which is inscribed the name of Jesus in Pali characters”. Providing no evidence to support such a claim he asserts how “this coin belongs to the time of Jesus”, and on that assumption alone authoritatively states how “this shows that Jesus came to this land and received kingly honour”.
Ahmad refers to a second coin showing “the figure of an Israelite” and makes the astonishing claim: “it seems that this too is the figure of Jesus”. Further astounding claims are made by other Ahmadi. For example, a statue of a man was found at Taxila, an ancient site, near Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Because this statue has a distinctive beard and garb, and resembles the image of Jesus painted by European artists, one Ahmadi writer asserts: “it is hardly open to doubt that this figure is that of Jesus . . .”.(12)
As well as biblical, Quranic and archaeological evidence Ahmad makes reference to “evidence from books on Buddhism” for Jesus’ travels in the East. Significance is seen in the fact that “titles given to the Buddha are similar to the
titles given to Jesus” and “the events of the life of Buddha resemble those of the life of Jesus”. Nineteenth century teachers of comparative religion were amazed at the striking similarities between Christianity and Buddhism. Apart from anything else the Buddha taught the perfecting of such qualities as generosity, patience, wisdom, loving kindness and, most importantly, pacifism.(13)
However, although similarities do exist between the life and teaching of Christ and that of the Buddha, there are also great differences. Buddhism for example “does not involve belief in one omnipotent, personal God, unlike Christianity the “Buddhist understanding of the world is non-theistic’.(14) The Buddhist beliefs in reincarnation and the transmigration of souls are but two examples of how the teaching of the two faiths differ.
Ahmad, dismissing the differences between Christianity and Buddhism, suggests that the similarities occur because Jesus, while travelling in the East, taught the Buddhists of India and Tibet thereby influencing the development of Eastern philosophy. He draws our attention to the belief held by Buddhists that another Buddha, being Bagwa [white] and Metteyya [a traveller], would appear in the East in the future. Ahmad, again dismissing the obvious problems that exist with such an idea [one of which is the fact that Jesus, being Jewish and living in the Middle East, would have had a dark, not white skin] sees the alleged travels of Jesus to the Himalayan region as fulfilment of this prophecy.
Conclusion:
Did Jesus then die on the cross as Christianity claims or are the Ahmadi right in saying that Jesus was resuscitated, and taken through the Middle East to live in Kashmir where he died at a ripe old age? I personally, although finding the story fascinating, was extremely sceptical about Ahmad’s claims, finding his evidence weak and unconvincing. To my mind he was trying too hard to disprove Christianity which was gaining large numbers of converts in India during his lifetime. However every story is worth investigating. I suppose the conclusive test would be the use of radio-carbon dating, or the analysis of DNA testing, on the remains of the body that lie in the tomb, but of course permission would have to be gained from the requisite authorities. Until then the debate continues.
[For the only comprehensive academic study of the Ahmadiyya Jama'at and its teaching see S. R. Valentine, Islam and the Ahmadiyya Jama'at, Hurst & Co, London, 2008].
Endnotes
1. M. G. Ahmad, Jesus in India, being an account of Jesus’ escape from
death on the cross and his journey to India, 1899, later translated,
London: Islam International Publications Ltd, 1989, pp. 46, 22, 66.
2. N. Notovitch, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, 1894, reprinted,
Joshua Tree, California: Tree of life Publications, 1990.
3. Other writers have since presented a similar thesis to that of Notovich.
See Andreas Kaiser, Jesus died in Kashmir, New York: Gordon and
Cremonesi, 1977; Holger Kersten, Jesus lived in India, London:
Penguin, 1981; P. C. Pappas, Jesus’ tomb in India; the debate on his
death and resurrection, Fremont, California: Jain publishing Co, 1991.
4. Matthew12:40, all quotations are taken from the New International
Version of the Bible, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1979.
5. Ahmad, Jesus in India, op. cit., p. 22.
6. John 10:9, John 15:1, Matthew 19:24.
7. Matthew 15:24; John 10:16.
8. See H. C. Kee, section on Matthew, in the Interpreter’s One Volume Commentary on the
Bible, Abingdon, Press, 1971, p. 628; and C. K. Barrett, Peake’s Commentary on the Bible,
London:Nelson,1981, p. 856 or any other standard biblical commentary.
9. Ahmad, Jesus in India, op.cit., p. 65.
10 Gospel of Barnabas, 216:2; 215:1, see R. Blackhirst, The Medieval
Gospel of Barnabas, full text of the Italian MS in English with notes,
Website, http://www.latrobe.edu.au/arts/barnabas/Entry.html.
- Ahmad, Jesus in India, op.cit., pp. 55-6.
- See K. N. Ahmad, Jesus in Heaven on Earth, Woking: Woking Muslim Mission & Literary Trust, 1952,, p.77.
13. J. R. Hinnells (ed.), Dictionary of Religion, London: Penguin, 1995, sv.,
Buddha.
14. Hinnells, op.cit., sv., Buddhism.
