Where was Jesus
Crucified?
By Abdullah Smith
The Gospels record that Jesus was crucified on the Passover, and
supposedly rose from the dead. Yet nobody witnessed the resurrection of Jesus, the stone
was moved away, it was not a
supernatural rising. Obviously, the stone was removed by one of Jesus’
closest followers (Luke 10:1). The witnesses to Jesus’ crucifixion were mostly his
enemies. The disciples Mary Magdalene and Mary watched the crucifixion afar off.
And many women were there beholding afar
off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto him: Among which was Mary
Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedees
children. (Matthew 27:55-56)
This passage has led scholars to believe that the crucifixion was a
privatized event, only witnessed by a few people.
It is also curious that Jesus just happens
to have been crucified next to a garden and a tomb, the latter at least owned by Joseph of
Arimathea. This
is all rather convenient to say the least. Could it be that the crucifixion itself was
private? Perhaps in order to control witnesses to what was occurring? Luke (23:49) informs
us that the crowds watching were standing at a distance. Perhaps they were kept at a distance? (Michael Baigent,
The Jesus Papers, p. 130)
The Gospels record that the 12 apostles “forsook him and
fled” at Gethsemane (Matt. 26:56), they disappeared from the Gospel story and did not
witness the crucifixion. None of the disciples believed that Jesus rose from the dead
(Mark 16:14, Luke 24:11). This means the early Christians did not believe Jesus had to die
for their sins (Ps. 20:6, Matt. 16:22).
IF the disciples knew that Jesus had to rise, why didn’t they
return to Jerusalem to see the resurrection? Yet the Gospels are clear that nobody
witnessed the resurrection of Jesus. The concept of dying-rising Messiah was unknown to
Judaism:
Jesus could not have foreseen his
rejection, death, and resurrection, as the idea of a suffering, dying, and rising Messiah
or son of Man was unknown to Judaism. (Israel Knohl,
The Messiah before Jesus, The Suffering Servant of the Dead Sea Scrolls, p. 2)
Furthermore, the crucifixion did not even take place in Jerusalem!
According to the book of Revelations, Jesus was crucified in Rome:
And their dead bodies shall lie in the
street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord
was crucified. (Revelations 11:8, KJV)
The Christians would probably argue that the “great city”
refers to Jerusalem, yet the renowned Bible scholar John Gill disagrees:
And their dead bodies
[shall lie] in the street of the great city,.... Not Jerusalem,
which was destroyed when John had this vision, and which will; not be rebuilt at the time
it refers to; nor is it ever called the great city, though the city of the great King;
however, not in this book, though the new Jerusalem is so called, Revelation 21:10;
but that can never be designed here; but the city of Rome, or the Roman jurisdiction, the whole empire of
the Romish antichrist, which is often called the great city in
this book; see Revelation 16:19. (online Source)
Here is what Biblical scholar Tom Harper says:
In Revelation 11:8, there is a most
puzzling passage in which two “witnesses” are to be killed. “And their dead
bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually pneumatikos is called Sodom
and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified”,
reads the text [my emphasis]. Once again, it must be stressed that the author is clearly
concerned not with historical events…but with symbolism and allegory. (The Pagan
Christ, p. 212)
The only explanation to this dilemma is that Jesus Christ was not
crucified at all.
Let us expose the following facts:
Jesus made it clear that crucifixion was not his purpose (Matt. 9:13,
12:7, Mark 1:38, Luke 4:43, 19:10)
The apostles did not believe Jesus rose from the dead (Matt. 28:17,
Mark 16:14, Luke 24:11).
The apostles did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead (Matt. 16:22,
Mark 9:30-32)
Jesus never foretold his crucifixion (Psalms 20:6, 18:50, Matt.
26:39)
Jesus did not want to die, he was unwilling (Mark 14:26, Luke
22:42-43)
God promised to save the Messiah (1 Chron.16:22, 2Chron. 6:42, Psalms 28:8)
Christians believe the exact opposite of the Bible (Proverbs 21:18)
The Bible rejects human sacrifice (Deu.
12:31, 2 Kings 17:17)
The Jews wanted to kill Jesus to prove he was a false Messiah; they
expected the Messiah to be victorious, and liberate Palestine from Roman rule. The Jews
rejected Jesus because he was purely a spiritual teacher (John 1:11, 18:36), and not a
political leader, as “foretold” in the Old Testament. The Gospels record that
Jesus was crucified for false political charges, yet the Pharisees had charges of
blasphemy (claiming to be God’s son, working on the Sabbath). The Romans considered
Jesus a threat to the occupation; they assumed he was a political leader disguised as
spiritual teacher.
The Holy Quran absolves Jesus of all these charges:
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:- (Al-Quran 4:157)
Secondly, if Jesus was crucified he couldn’t have been the
Messiah. The Psalms clearly describe the Messiah as victorious (Ps. 18:50, 20:6, 28:8,
84:9). The Prophet David was the Anointed (Christ), a politico-religious leader, yet he
was victorious over his enemies (2 Sam. 8:6, Ps. 144:10). The Prophet David himself
slaughtered thousands of his enemies (1 Sam 27:9), so how can Jesus be any different? The
Jews expected another Messiah like David to descend from his lineage. The Gospels deny the
Jewish Messiah by teaching the crucifixion, the Bible says God would save the Messiah
(Psalms. 20:6).
There is significant evidence from Jesus that crucifixion was not his
purpose. Jesus is recorded to have said:
"Let us go somewhere else—to the
nearby villages—so I can preach there
also. That is
why I have come."
(Mark 1:38)
Now this is eternal life: that they may
know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the
work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I
had with you before the world began. (John 17:3-5)
Why did Jesus say “I have completed my mission” before he
was even arrested? Why didn’t he say these words after the crucifixion? This means
the crucifixion was not his purpose. Jesus’ mission was to preach the Torah, and the
Gospel, the idea of “dying for the sins of mankind” was added later.
The Gospels provide further evidence:
As
the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for
him; (Luke 9:51)
There is no reference to the crucifixion, Jesus ascended to Heaven
before the Jews could arrest him. The implication is that Jesus is not destined to be
crucified.
According to the Gospels, Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem:
As they were going out, they met a man from
Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross.
They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). (Matthew
27:32-33)
And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own
blood. (Hebrews 13:12)
Jesus denied the crucifixion by saying:
In any case, I must keep going today and
tomorrow and the next day—for surely no
prophet can die outside Jerusalem! (NIV)
Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to
morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.
(Luke 13:33, KJV)
The Messiah cannot die outside Jerusalem, therefore the Bible is
wrong.
The Bible rejects the
doctrine of Atonement:
The fathers shall not be put to death for
the children, neither shall the children be put to death for
the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. (Deutronomy
24:16)
The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the
righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall
be upon him. (Ezekiel 18:20)
But every one shall die for his own
iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth
shall be set on edge. (Jeremiah 31:30)
"The multitude of your
sacrifices— what are they to me?" says the LORD. "I have more than enough
of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the
blood of bulls and lambs and goats. (Isaiah 1:11)
Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but my ears you have pierced; burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.
(Psalms 40:6)
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would
bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. (Psalms 51:16)
To do justice and judgment [is] more acceptable to the LORD than sacrifice. (Proverbs 21:3)
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten
thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of
my body for the sin of my soul? He has
showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with
your God. (Micah 6:7-8)
Give them according to their deeds, and according
to the wickedness of their endeavours:
give them after the work of their hands; render to them their desert. (Psalms 28:4)
According to [their] deeds, accordingly
he will repay, fury to his adversaries, recompence
to his enemies; to the islands he will repay recompence.
(Isaiah 59:18)
"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to
reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds
deserve." (Jeremiah 17:10)
For many
nations and great kings shall serve themselves of them also: and I will recompense them according
to their deeds, and according to the works of their own hands. (Jeremiah 25:14)
The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish
Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. (Hosea 12:2)
When was Jesus crucified?
Christian scholars are in doubt concerning the exact date of
Jesus’ crucifixion. Here a few quotes to substantiate my claims:
How
long was Jesus on the cross before he died?
I do not think anyone knows. Remember, those who might have noticed and relayed that
information had all forsaken him and fled. he appearance
of Joseph of Arimathea, the darkness over the land, the split in the temple veil,
the ecstatic cry of faith from the centurion-all were elements of the developing legend.
The hasty burial before the Sabbath was but a part of the burial legend. Thus no
one knows how long Jesus lived on the cross, how he died, when he was taken down, or where
he was buried, "for they all forsook
him and fled." That means there was no first-day-of-the-week visit to the tomb by the
women to anoint him, since there was no tomb and no sense of when he died or of where he was buried. (John Shelby Spong, Resurrection: Myth or
Reality, p. 241)
The nativity was placed at the winter
solstice, thus coinciding with the birthday of the Sun-god. And the date for the
crucifixion was made to vary from year to year to conform to the astronomical principle
which fixed the Jewish Passover. (J.M. Robertson, Pagan
Christs, p. 68)
“It is impossible to give definite dates for all the
events of the New Testament” (The World Book Encyclopedia, by World Book
editors, p. 235)
The
Shocking Truth:
Did you know that a huge crowd witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus,
but nobody witnessed the resurrection of Jesus!
Did you know the symbol of Jesus’ crucified body was not used
until the 6th century?
Did you know the cross is a pagan symbol adored in Egypt thousands of
years before Jesus was born?
Did you know that Paul, the earliest Christian writer, never mentions
the ‘empty tomb’?
Did you know that Jesus’ resurrection accounts evolved over
time?
Did you know that Mark, the earliest Gospel, never mentions the
resurrection?
Did you know the early Christian sects rejected the crucifixion?
Did you know the disciples never witnessed the crucifixion?
Did you know that Pilate refused to believe Jesus was dead?
Did you know the ‘darkness’ and ‘earthquake’ are
later embellishments?
Did you know that Jesus’ resurrection is not mentioned by the
Jewish historian Philo (50 CE).
Did you know the early Christians identified Jesus as the Messiah and
not “God the Messiah”?
Did you know the Jews suspected that the resurrection was a hoax?
(Matt. 28:15)
Did you know the early Gnostics considered Jesus a symbolic
character?
Did you know the Gospels are full of discrepancies?
Did you know Rabbi Wise searched the records of Pilate’s court,
he found nothing about Jesus’ trial.
Did you know that you have no salvation?