Explanation of Quran 4:157 Christians usually have an issue with this verse regarding Jesus’s alleged crucifixion “and for boasting, “We killed the Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.” But they neither killed nor crucified him—it was only made to appear so. Even those who argue for this ˹crucifixion˺ are in doubt. They have no knowledge whatsoever—only making assumptions. They certainly did not kill him.” (Quran 4:157) They present four main arguments which are: Why would the Jews acknowledge Jesus as the messiah? The crucifixion is historical so why is the Quran denying history? Since Allah saved Jesus from crucifixion that means that Jesus is special and better than other prophets, and that Jesus is divine Why did Allah deceive people into thinking the crucifixion was real? It’s Allah’s fault that Christianity spread I will now address these four arguments —— Debunking the argument of “Why would the Jews acknowledge Jesus as the messiah?” The answer to this is very simple. The Jews weren’t acknowledging him as the messiah, they were mocking him. The verse literally says at the beginning “and for boasting”. This implies that the Jews were making fun of Jesus because according to their religion, the messiah cannot die. Even according to the New Testament, the Jews were calling Jesus the messiah in a mocking way 👇 “Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.” (Mark 15:32) —— Debunking the argument of the Quran supposedly denying history The Quran is not denying history. All the verse says is that it appeared as if Jesus was crucified. There being historical reports of people saying Jesus was crucified doesn’t debunk the Quranic verse. The verse literally says that the people that believe in the crucifixion are just believing in assumptions, hearsay, and conjecture. We would expect that there would be people believing in the crucifixion at that time. Quran 4:157 is a miracle claim just like how Moses peace be upon him splitting the sea is a miracle claim. A miracle by definition cannot be disproven. If the Christian argues back, “Non-Christian historians and scholars also affirm that Jesus was crucified” then the simple response to this is that Non-Christian historians and scholars also say that the exodus never happened, they also say that people like Abraham and Noah never existed, but don’t Christians believe that the exodus happened, and that Abraham and Noah existed despite the words of these same Non-Christian historians and scholars. My point is that God is omniscient and only he knows what truly happened in history, and you would believe him over any historian. Plus when it comes to historical critical method, the historians do not use miracles or supernatural claims within their methodology. No secular historian would say Jesus rising from the dead is historical because it’s a miracle claim and history runs on the philosophy of naturalism. —— Debunking the argument that Jesus is special because he was saved from the crucifixion, and thus is divine, and better than other prophets What kind of dumb argument is this? Only Allah gets to decide which prophet is better. It’s not our job as Muslims to make distinctions like that. The reason that Allah saved Jesus pbuh from crucifixion is because he has other plans for him. It was not Jesus pbuh’s destiny to die at that specific time. Each prophet is unique with their own miracles, struggles, and destinies. Allah can decree whatever he wants for his prophets, it’s not our place to judge. Also how in the world does being saved from crucifixion somehow make you divine? According to the Bible, Daniel was saved from the lions den, and Jonah was saved from the belly of the whale. Are Daniel and Jonah divine now? According to the Quran, Allah saved Abraham pbuh when he was thrown into a fire. Is Abraham pbuh divine? Debunking the argument that Allah “deceived” people into thinking that the crucifixion was real, and that it was his fault that Christianity spread There are several problems with this argument. First of all there is nothing wrong Allah deceiving evil people by foiling their plans. As theists we believe in Divine Command Theory. Since Allah is the ultimate decider on morality, nothing he does can be classified as evil. If an undercover cop pretends to be a drug dealer to spy on some criminals, and foil their plans, would you call the undercover cop “evil”, or “deceitful”? By the way the Biblical God also deceives people as well (Jeremiah 4:10, 1 Kings 22:20-22, 2 Thessalonians 2:11, etc). —— Second of all, when Christians argue “It’s Allah’s fault Christianity became a thing in the first place” they are actually imitating atheist type arguments against theism without even realizing it. Atheists will argue “If one religion is true, why did your God allow other religions to exist?” or “Why did your God create Satan, and evil in general?” Are these arguments any different from “It’s Allah’s fault for Christianity’s existence”? Allah says in the Quran that this world is a test, and that if he wanted he could have made everyone believe in him, but he wanted us to have free will instead which is why he allowed the existence of other religions in the first place(Quran 5:48) —— Thirdly just because some people at that time may have thought that Jesus was crucified, that doesn’t give them an excuse to go start worshiping Jesus, and start a religion around him. Let me give you a few analogies to illustrate my point. Suppose one day I looked outside my house, and there was a guy hanging from a tree with a noose on his neck. Should I start worshiping that guy? Should I start a religion around him? Obviously no, whether or not the guy hanging from a noose was real or just meant to appear that way doesn’t matter. I shouldn’t have been worshiping him at all either way. I’ll give another analogy, suppose on judgment day a Greek pagan is trying to explain to God why he worshipped Zeus. Imagine he says this on Judgment day. “God you are evil, and you deceived me. You created thunder and lightning, and I saw it in the sky. You were the one that made it clear and evident to me that I should deify nature. You made it evident to me, and everyone around me that because of the lightning that you created, Zeus was real. That’s why I worshipped him.” Do you think this would be a good argument? Obviously no. Just because you saw thunder and lightning, it doesn’t give you the excuse to worship Zeus, and create a religion around him, and just because you saw Jesus being crucified, that doesn’t mean you should start worshipping him, and create a religion around him.