| | |  Entertainment | Books | November 2009 
New Crucifixion Theory Shakes Tradition
 Josh - NewsReportBuzz
November 08, 2009
A new book The Crucifixion: Mistaken Identity?s rattling the windows of orthodoxy with its assertion that we have gotten the Crucifixion of Jesus all wrong. Everybody knows that Jesus was put on the cross and crucified, right? Well, maybe not, according to the author Agron Belica, an American Muslim of Albanian ancestry.
It is well known that Muslims deny the death of Jesus on the cross. For centuries, theories have circulated among sects usually considered heretical by the religious establishment as to how Jesus may have evaded such a death, but Belica's theory trumps them all: the man nailed to the cross was not Jesus at all but rather his cousin John the Baptist!
Absurd? Perhaps not. Belica puts forth well-reasoned arguments for his proposition and has marshalled considerable circumstantial evidence to support his cause. His re-interpretation of some key words in the Quran causes anxiety in some Islamic scholarly circles, however some have already gained some acceptance. He does not state that his solution is definitive; only that it is a possible solution put before the reader for his consideration.
Belica dismisses the Biblical stories of Salome's dance and John's beheading that are also found in Islamic tradition as fiction. He replaces them with a more historically satisfying solution of the fate of John the Baptist. Belica has made the restoration of John the Baptist, known in the Islamic world as Yahya, to his rightful place among the prophets his life mission.
An essay, Rethinking John the Baptist, by Jay R. Crook, is appended to the book. It examines in detail the historical and chronological problems that Belica's theory had to overcome. With some help from the ancient Jewish historian Josephus among others, he concludes that such a theory cannot be dismissed out of hand simply because it conflicts with the Biblical accounts of John the Baptist. Writes Dr. Crook: "John the Baptist, this neglected and underestimated prophet has an enthusiastic advocate in Agron Belica."
The book is well researched, extensively annotated, indexed, and supplied with a bibliography. Book published by, www.islammattersnow.com |
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