The Most Famous Murder Case in History Unraveled

Last updated on: May 4, 2016 at 3:02 pm by Muslims Writers Guild of America

The Most Famous Murder Case in History Unraveled 2016-05-04T15:02:39-05:00 Muslims Writers Guild of America

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by Usama Awan

This murder case, one of a kind in history, is so emotionally charged and contentious that many people have made the victim a mythological figure, one that defies all laws of nature and biology. Some even re-enact the murder scene every year to commemorate his death. While on the other hand, many maintain that the execution didn’t even happen and that people are stuck in fables. Academics, throughout the years, have failed to give an intellectually and scientifically satisfying explanation of the crime. However, recently – in the last one hundred years – new evidence has surfaced necessitating another look at this unsolved mystery.

I am talking about Jesus of Nazareth. This may be a shock to some, but that’s because Jesus’s apparent execution is not normally perceived by Christians as a crime, but rather as a heroic act on the part of an innocent man/God to save all of humanity. But what evidence is there really for the execution of Jesus on the cross?

Let’s start with the perpetrators of the crime. The Jewish clergy were enraged by Jesus claiming to be the Messiah and demanding them to follow him. So they took him to Pilate (the Roman Governor) and tried to have him crucified. Pilate responded, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law” (John 18:31). Clearly Pilate did not want anything to do with Jesus but the Jews insisted, “But we have no right to execute anyone” (John 18:32). So, the Jews had already determined Jesus guilty of blasphemy punishable by death, but needed Roman approval to execute the punishment and so therefore they pressured Pilate into something he didn’t want to do. In many instances of the Bible, Pilate exclaims that he finds no fault in Jesus and believes him to be innocent (see Luke 23:14, 23 and John 19:4). However, the Jews are adamant and corner him by threatening to report him to Caesar (John 19:12). Helpless, Pilate finally hands over Jesus to the soldiers to crucify him. Essentially, Jesus was proven guilty before even a fair trial was conducted.

Now that we know who was responsible for the crucifixion let’s turn to the crime itself and the crime scene. After praying all night to have the cup of death removed from him in the garden of Gethsemane the Roman soldiers mock and beat Jesus before he is taken to the crucifixion site. There, they hang him on the cross along with two other thieves. Here is where things get interesting. After only been having put on the cross a mere four to six hours he is pronounced dead. Luke only declares him to be “dead” in passing, by saying that he “breathed his last” (Luke 23:46) after Jesus says, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” And in John it only says that he, “bowed his head and gave up his spirit” (19:30). So as far we can tell, there is only superficial evidence that Jesus had died.

But how can we be really sure that he had died and gave up the “spirit” as John records? After all, even with all our modern technologies recording heart rhythms and measuring oxygen saturations we still hear of stories of people who were pronounced dead but later wake up in the freezer of the morgue [see NY daily news story on German woman from July 29, 2015]. You must be saying this is only one rare case, but actually a study in the 1980’s showed the high likelihood of getting it wrong. Of the 78 near-death experiences studied, in 80% of these cases, medical personnel were present either at the scene or were there immediately after. 41% of these people were wrongly pronounced dead [The Phenomenology of Near-Death Experiences, by Bruce Greyson M.D. and Ian Stevenson. M.D., A.M. Psychiatry 137:10, October 1980].

Like all mystery cases, the most important piece of evidence is the victim’s body. So let’s to turn to that for more clues. Usually, one can verify the death of an individual by confirming the dead body. However in the case of Jesus, his body is taken to a tomb and he is not seen by anyone other than his closest disciples until three days later. Instead of seeing a corpse however, they see a living, breathing, and even hungry Jesus. His disciples had thought that he had been executed and that a ghost had appeared, but Jesus shows them his wounds to prove to them he is very much flesh and blood (Luke 24:37).

Now, in any other situation we would say case closed, the apparent execution was never fulfilled and the victim survived the crucifixion. For some reason, when it comes to Jesus we must throw away everything we know from our experiences and the physical laws and imagine a scenario where he was dead for three days and three nights and yet came back to life miraculously.

What if the miracle wasn’t coming back to life? But rather it was coming back from a near-death experience, such as the Prophet Jonah who spent three days and three nights in the belly of a whale. Actually, this was prophesized by Jesus a similar event would happen to him as had happened to Jonah (Matthew 12:39). The example only works if both survive a near death experience, not that one of them dies and comes back to life, whereas the other lives the whole time.

Many reading to this point will probably not be convinced, so to lay the matter to rest, here are three quick facts that point to the fact that Jesus was brought down alive from the cross and then healed in the tomb and then afterwards went onto preach to other sheep of Israel.

1) His legs weren’t broken:

After Jesus apparently “died” on the cross, the Roman soldier didn’t break his legs because he thought he was already dead. This is considered the fulfillment of an Old Testament prophecy that John mentions was fulfilled (19:36) as it predicts, “A bone of his shall not be broken” (Psalms 34:20). This prophecy only makes sense if Jesus is alive. What is the point of breaking the legs of a dead corpse? Medically speaking, breaking the tibia (the major bone of our lower legs) would lead to massive internal bleeding and hypovolemic shock thereby quickening death by crucifixion which could take days and reducing it to a few minutes.

2) Blood and water gush out when his side is pierced:

In John 19:34 it is recorded that when one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’s side with a spear, “blood and water gushed out.” Again medically speaking, the word “gush” (or rush forth according to some translations) points to the fact that the heart is still beating indicating that he was still alive, just in a swoon when he was about to be taken down from the cross.

3) Aloe and Myrrh is applied to his body in the tomb:

After Jesus’s body is taken to the tomb by Joseph Arimethia and Nicodemus, the Gospel of John records that Nicodemus brought with him 75 pounds of Aloe and Myrrh to apply on Jesus’s body (John 19:39). Now, it is not a Jewish tradition to embalm the body of dead people so what were these herbs used for? Interestingly, these herbs were used in those times to heal wounds and Avicennia even records it in his classical medical textbook under the name of “Marhame Isa” or Ointment of Jesus.

The above points are just a glimpse of the plethora of evidence that points to the fact that Jesus survived the crucifixion. Interestingly, many sources claim that he migrated eastward towards India preaching to the lost tribes of Israel along the way. For more information read the book called “Jesus in India” by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad.

Now what about the new evidence that surfaced? Well, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community discovered Jesus’ grave in Kashmir, India. Analyzing this last bit of evidence would lay the matter to rest once and for all. And so the most notorious mystery case has now largely been solved, it’s just now up to people to look at the evidence subjectively and not deem the victim a dead-man without giving the research a fair review. After all, Jesus was already once sentenced to death without having his case reviewed. The question is, will you repeat history?

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