An Islamic Critique of the Passion Prediction

The Crucifixion Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Christians and Muslims disagree about whether or not Jesus Christ died on a Roman cross.  One thing that Christians like to quote are the passion predictions found in the synoptic gospels.  Here is an example of one such prediction:

For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him, and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”

– Mark 9:31

This is one of three passion predictions in the Gospel of Mark.  We have the same prediction in chapter 8 and chapter 10.  It’s clearly not a mistake.  We also have this prediction in the two other synoptic gospels.

At this point the Muslim will say that this is an obvious fabrication put into the mouth of Jesus by the gospel author.  The Muslim apologist who’s more well read and articulate will say that they’re inserted because it contradicts how his disciples were surprised when they saw the risen Lord according to the narrative in Luke.  This will normally be followed by a quote from an extremely liberal “scholar”.

I think that this is a fair objection from the Muslim.  I want my Christian readers to ask themselves how they would answer this.  It’s not an easy answer but there is certainly a good response.

Yes, the disciples were surprised at the end of Luke.  Why were they surprised to learn about this when Jesus himself gave them explicit detail about what was going to happen to Him.

The reason is simple.  Although the disciples of Jesus Christ followed Him around for three years, they were still brainwashed by their upbringing.  They followed Him for three years but probably would have had fifteen to twenty years of Pharisee propaganda.  They would have grown up thinking that the promised Messiah King is a mighty warrior instead of a suffering servant.  Old habits die hard and so do old beliefs.

When we take this into account, it is no mystery why some of the disciples were originally surprised.  In fact, we can draw a similar account in the life of Muhammad.

When Muhammad first heard a voice, he got troubled and tried to commit suicide.  This episode is a little embarrassing for Muslims but most apologists give a slick answer.  They say that Muhammad was from Mecca which was a centre of polytheism and superstition and therefore it would have been hard to identify his prophet hood.  They then say that if he would have been born in an Abrahamic monotheistic environment, he would have had the resources to be identified.  In other words, if he had grown up around Jewish or Christian communities he would have been identified about this phenomenon.  I don’t agree with this but that is what Muslims typically say.

The same is true with the disciples and the passion predictions.  They had grown up in an environment where the teaching of Christ didn’t agree with the doctrine being promoted in the synagogues and would therefore cause confusion and doubt.  One thing is for sure, we know that all of the disciples ended up believing in the death and resurrection of our Lord.  I will end with the words of St. Peter in Acts 3:15:

You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this.

The “We” used by St. Peter shows the beliefs of the disciples.  The same beliefs that I hope our Muslim friends will adopt.