Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 5. The Crucifixion
Was the crucifixion foretold in the Old Testament?
Handle with care. Do not claim Isaiah 53 'cannot possibly' refer to a suffering messiah — some Jewish and Christian readers have read it messianically for centuries. The strong points are the explicit identification of the servant as Israel and the offspring in verse 10; stay on those.
In short
- 1.Isaiah 53 sits within the Servant Songs, where the servant is explicitly identified as Israel four times [41:8, 44:1, 44:21, 49:3].
- 2.The servant is said to 'see his offspring and prolong his days' [53:10] — difficult to apply to a man crucified childless at 33.
- 3.Psalm 22 is a lament of David (PBUH) in the first person, describing distress and deliverance, not a prediction.
- 4.The 'sign of Jonah (PBUH)' points the other way: Jonah (PBUH) went into the fish alive and came out alive [Matthew 12:40].
The claim being examined
Passages such as Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22 are presented as prophecies of the crucifixion written centuries in advance.
The Islamic position
Islam holds that these texts, read in context, address Israel or the psalmist and are applied to Jesus (PBUH) retrospectively.
Analysis
Christian reading of these texts is typological — the events of Jesus (PBUH)' life are seen as fulfilling patterns in the Hebrew scriptures. As a theological method that is internally consistent, but it is not the same as prediction, and Jewish readers have never accepted the messianic-suffering reading of Isaiah 53. The sign of Jonah (PBUH) is the sharpest internal problem: Jesus (PBUH) offers it as the only sign to be given, and the point of comparison in Jonah's (PBUH) case is survival.
From the Qur'an
وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَـٰكِن شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ۚ
wamā qatalūhu wamā ṣalabūhu walākin shubbiha lahum
They did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them.
بَل رَّفَعَهُ ٱللَّهُ إِلَيْهِ ۚ وَكَانَ ٱللَّهُ عَزِيزًا حَكِيمًۭا
bal rafaʿahu l-lahu ilayhi wakāna l-lahu ʿazīzan ḥakīman
Rather, God raised him to Himself. And God is Exalted in Might and Wise.
From the Bible
עַבְדִּי־אָתָּה יִשְׂרָאֵל אֲשֶׁר־בְּךָ אֶתְפָּאָר
You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour.
Read it in their Bibleὥσπερ γὰρ ἦν Ἰωνᾶς ἐν τῇ κοιλίᾳ τοῦ κήτους
As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish.
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