| -Geisler, Norman L. Baker Encyclopedia of Christian
Apologetics. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1999), 713.
Swoon Theory. The swoon theory is the naturalistic (see
NATURALISM) view that Christ was not dead when taken from
the cross and placed in the tomb. Therefore, he was not raised from the dead
(see RESURRECTION, EVIDENCE FOR). It
was proposed by H.E.G. Paulus in The Life of Jesus (1828).
This theory has serious failings as an alternate explanation of the resurrection
(see RESURRECTION, ALTERNATE
THEORIES), since there is strong evidence that Jesus
experienced an actual physical death on the cross (see
CHRIST, DEATH OF), and hundreds of witnesses
who saw him in a fully whole and transformed resurrection body (see
RESURRECTION, EVIDENCE FOR). Even the naturalistic
work, A New Life of Jesus (1879) by David Strauss debunked the swoon
theory:
| It is impossible that a being who had stolen half-dead out of the sepulchre,
who crept about weak and ill, wanting medical treatment, who required bandaging,
strengthening and indulgence, and who still at last yielded to his sufferings,
could have given to his disciples the impression that he was a Conqueror
over death and the grave, the Prince of Life, an impression which lay at
the bottom of their future ministry....Such a resuscitation could only have
weakened the impression which he had made upon them in life and in death,
at the most could only given it an elegiac voice, but could by no possibility
have changed their sorrow into enthusiasm, have elevated their reverence
into worship. [Strauss, 1.412]1
1. Strauss, David Friedrich. A New Life of Jesus. 2nd ed. 2 vols.
London: Williams & Norgate, 1879. |
-Halverson, Dean C. The Compact Guide to World Religions.
(Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers, 1996), 116.
Muslims believe that the God of the Qur'an would not dishonor his
chosen prophet by allowing him to be crucified. One Iranian student said,
"Do we not honor [Jesus] more than you do when we refuse to believe that
God would permit Him to suffer death on the cross? Rather, we believe that
God took Him to heaven" (Woodberry, 164). Muslims, therefore, deny that Jesus
was crucified. They believe instead that He was caught up into heaven and
that someone (some say Judas) took His place on the cross.
The following is the primary passage that Muslims use to deny the crucifiction:
| 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 low, for of
surety they killed him not--nay, Allah raised him up unto Himself (Surah
4:157-158). |
A careful reading of the above passage, however, shows that it does not deny
that Jesus was crucified, but it instead denies that the Jews caused Jesus
to be crucified. In point of fact, the Jews did not crucify Jesus, but
the Romans did (John 18:31).
Even more importantly, God was ultimately responsible for Jesus' being crucified
(Romans 8:3-4; 1Peter 1:18-20). Even the Qur'an alludes to that fact
in the following verse:
| When Allah said: "O Jesus, I will cause thee to die and exalt thee
in My presence and clear thee of those who disbelieve and make those
who follow thee above those who disbelieve to the day of Resurrection" (Surah
3:54, Ali, emphasis added). |
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