The historical evidence of the crucifixion
#1 Eyewitness’ Sources
There are many streams of evidence from which one can argue for the historicity of Christ’s death by crucifixion, of which I will use only a few. The first line of evidence for Jesus’ crucifixion is from the testimony of eyewitness sources. Many Muslims do not believe there is eyewitness’ material in the accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus. In fact, one Muslim claims that:
“Not a single one of the Christians was a witness with them [the Jews]. Rather the apostles kept a distance through fear, and not one of them witnessed the crucifixion.”
Matthew 26:56 which says, “Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled.” Though the disciples forsook Jesus, some of them were still witnesses from a distance (
Mark 14:54). Also, there was an anonymous disciple whom Jesus, while on the cross, commanded to take care of Mary, (
John 19:26-27). The Gospel of Luke reports that while Jesus was carrying the cross:
“…there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him,” (
Luke 23:27).
In addition to these people already mentioned, the Gospels also reference Jewish leaders (
Mt. 27:41;
Mk. 15:31), Roman centurion (
Mt. 27:54;
Mk. 15:39;
Lk. 23:47) and soldiers (
Mt. 27:35;
Mk. 15:24;
Lk. 23:35; and
John 19:18,
23) who all witnessed Jesus’ crucifixion. For Muslims to argue that the crucifixion is not historical simply does not square with the historical data because there were multitudes of witnesses to the fact that the Romans crucified Jesus.