Why does the Qur'an say that Jesus was not killed or crucified?

 

وَمَا قَتَلُوۡهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوۡهُ وَلٰـكِنۡ شُبِّهَ لَهُمۡ

 

"they did not slay him; nor did they crucify him, but it appeared so unto them." (Surah 4:157)

 

note: the verse does not say there was a substitute Yubaddil يُبَدِّل as some claim, rather it says شُبِّهَ appeared to them. One does not have to witness an incident for it to appear to them like it happened e.g., court case, a reconstruction of the scenario is presented to the jury to make it appear to them it happened that way. Dishonestly could convince the jury i.e., making it appear to them it’s the truth.  Another example is, reading a book whether its historical, factual, fictional or biography the character is made to appear regardless the subject being the antagonist or protagonist your reading will portray a different picture i.e., it will appear to you. Stories passed down through traditions could also make it appear to the listener, e.g., a rabbi reading an account from the Talmud and the Talmud narrates the name of the teacher who got it from his teacher, and he got it from his teacher going back several generations and so forth. Note, the reader is not the witness to the account rather it is only appearing to him through what he read and heard. Isa AS was not killed nor crucified.

by Ibn Anwar  

The crucifixion of Jesus is addressed in the Qur'an in 4:157 which reads as follows:

"That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-"

Central to the tenets of Christianity is the belief that Jesus was crucified at the behest of the Jews and the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate. By questioning the bedrock of Christianity, Islam sets itself apart from that religion which it deems as having gone astray from the original path that Jesus had taught his followers. Many have conjectured as to the meaning of the crucial part of the verse above that contains the negation to the crucifixion, namely "they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them." In previous articles, I have addressed the expression "shubbiha lahum" or "it was made to appear so," here, we shall briefly consider the section "ma qataluhu wa ma salabuhu" or "they killed him not and they did not crucify him." Although the verse is applicable to Christians and their conjectural beliefs regarding the crucifixion, contextually, the verse is addressing the Jews* and one might wonder why would the Qur'an be negating two things with regards to the alleged death of Jesus, namely the "killing" of Jesus and the "crucifixion" of Jesus. Perhaps to understand the reason behind it, we might turn to one of the primary extra-biblical material that Jewish tradition regards essential in their faith, i.e., the Talmud. In the Talmud, which predates the Qur'an, we come to know that the authors had put forward a particular claim concerning Jesus and what they supposedly did to Jesus. The text comes from the Sanhedrin Tractate 43a which reads as follows:

וכרוז יוצא לפניו לפניו אין מעיקרא לא והתניא בערב הפסח תלאוהו לישו והכרוז יוצא לפניו מ' יום ישו יוצא ליסקל על שכישף והסית והדיח את ישראל כל מי שיודע לו זכות יבא וילמד עליו ולא מצאו לו זכות ותלאוהו בערב הפסח

"The mishna teaches that a crier goes out before the condemned man. This indicates that it is only before him, i.e., while he is being led to his execution, that yes, the crier goes out, but from the outset, before the accused is convicted, he does not go out. The Gemara raises a difficulty: But isn’t it taught in a baraita: On Passover Eve they hung the corpse of Jesus the Nazarene after they killed him by way of stoning. And a crier went out before him for forty days, publicly proclaiming: Jesus the Nazarene is going out to be stoned because he practiced sorcery, incited people to idol worship, and led the Jewish people astray. Anyone who knows of a reason to acquit him should come forward and teach it on his behalf. And the court did not find a reason to acquit him, and so they stoned him and hung his corpse on Passover eve."

In the Talmudic text above, we see the allegation made: the Jews stoned (killed) Jesus and after that, they hung (crucified) his body on a tree which essentially corresponds to Deuteronomy 21:23 which states, "If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree." The sin mentioned in the Deuteronomic passage in question may pertain to a number of sins, but if the sin is that of idolatry, which is the sin supposedly committed by Jesus according to the Talmudic text above, then, the execution would take the form of stoning as per Deuteronomy 13:10 that states, "Stone him to death for trying to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery."

Commenting on the Talmudic text above, Peter Schäfer, who is a highly regarded German scholar of ancient religious studies, states:

"Now the death penalty and the execution. Here we have a major discrepancy between the New Testament and the Talmud: according to the New Testament, Jesus was crucified (obviously following Roman law), whereas according to the Talmud, he was stoned and subsequently hanged (following rabbinic law)." [1]

Granted that the Talmud speaks of Jesus being "hung on a tree," but this expression correlates to the crucifixion because to be hung on a tree, according to ancient Jewish law in the Deuteronomic texts cited above, essentially means to be crucified which is why in speaking of Jesus' crucifixion, Paul describes it as Jesus hanging on a tree as seen in Galatians 3:13:

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

In the above, Paul is recapitulating Deuteronomy 21:23 in which it is said, "...anyone who is hung on a tree is under God's curse."

Having full knowledge of the calumnies of the Jews that they levelled against Jesus, Allah in His final revelation refutes their Talmudic allegation in no uncertain terms.

Considering that the Prophet s.a.w. was unlettered and so were many of his companions, the fact that he had intimate knowledge of what the Jews believed regarding Jesus as found in their Talmud--which may not even have been accessible in the deserts of Arabia, one must wonder as to the origin of the Prophet's s.a.w. knowledge. As Muslims, we insist and rightly so that the source must be nothing but Almighty God.

Notes:

*Although a Qur'anic text may contextually refer to a particular situation or group of people, it may at the same time, simultaneously, refer to multiple other situations or groups of people that are relevant to the subject matter. That 4:157 is in reference to the Jews is evident from its immediate context, but at the same time, it is also applicable to Christians that put their faith upon what they allege the Jews to have done, namely putting Jesus to death.

[1] Schäfer, P. (2007). Jesus in the Talmud. New Jersey: Princeton. p. 71