184 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND

to the Qur'an, which asserts that Jesus, though a Prophet and Apostle, was a merely human person, possessed of a human body, born of a human mother, and destined to die at some time or other. We see therefore that Muhammad opposed the principle from which Basilides deduced a certain result, and yet accepted that result and recorded it in the Qur'an. This is such an utterly illogical proceeding that it cannot be attributed to anything but a very natural ignorance.

But this view regarding Christ's dying only in appearance and not in reality was not confined to Basilides. Photius (820-91 circa) in his Bibliotheca (Cod. 114) mentions the fact that in an apocryphal book called the "Travels 1 of the Apostles" it was asserted "that Christ had not been crucified, but another in His stead." Manes or Mani, the celebrated false prophet who at one time obtained so much influence in Persia, in a similar way held that "The 2 prince of darkness therefore was
1 Περίοδοι Αποστόλων (quoted by Rodwell, Koran, p. 471, note): και τον Χριστον μη σταυρωθηναι, αλλ ετερον αντ αυτου.
2 Manes, Ep. Fund. ap. Evodium: "Princeps itaque tenebrarum cruci est affixus, idemque coronam spineam portavit." It is unnecessary here to appeal to the statement in the "Gospel of Barnabas" that Judas was crucified instead of Christ, as that work was written long after Muhammad's time. The various and somewhat contradictory Traditions of the Muslims regarding the question whether Christ died or not; if so, how long He remained dead, and who was crucified in His place, will be found treated of in my Religion of the Crescent, Appendix A.
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fastened to the cross, and the same person bore the crown of thorns." It cannot be said that Muhammad denies Christ's death on good authority, or that in doing so he is in good company.

Yet in several places in the Qur'an mention is made of the fact that Jesus was to die, like the rest of mankind. For example, in Surah III., Al 'Imran, 48, it is written:—

"When God said, ‘O Jesus, verily it is I that cause Thee to expire and that exalt Thee unto Myself and purify Thee from those that have disbelieved.’"

So also in Surah XIX., Maryam, 34, Jesus in the cradle is represented as saying:—

"And peace upon Me the day I was born and the day I shall die and the day I shall be raised up alive."

Commentators are not perfectly agreed as to the exact meaning of these passages. Some hold that when the Jews wished to crucify Christ, they seized and imprisoned Him and His Apostles on the evening preceding the Paschal feast, intending to slay Him the next morning. But in the night God sent Him the message, "Thou must through Me undergo death, but immediately afterwards Thou shalt be taken up to Me and freed from the power of the unbelievers." Accordingly Jesus expired and remained dead for three hours. Others mention a longer period. Finally, however, Gabriel appeared and carried Him off through the window