The New Testament version of the Christs death by crucifixion has always been a prickly subject for the theist. Was it him/Jesus on the cross? Did he really die did? Was it all staged and faked?
Islam has it that while they believe Jesus existed, that he was only a prophet and not gods son, and that his believed death on the cross was all faked:
ﭰ ﭱ ﭲ ﭳ ﭴ ﭵ ﭶ ﭷ ﭸ ﭹ ﭺ ﭻ ﭼ ﭽ ﭾ ﭿ ﮀﮁ ﮂ ﮃ ﮄ ﮅ ﮆ ﮇ ﮈﮉ ﮊ ﮋ ﮌ ﮍ ﮎ ﮏ ﮐ ﮑﮒ ﮓ ﮔ ﮕ
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
And [for] their saying, "Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah ." And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but [another] was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain. 4:157
https://quran.com/4/157-158Who was this other?
The Christian take on this subject is well known and believed by millions : Jesus was sentenced to death, another carried his cross, he was nailed up, didn't have his legs broken as did the two hanging with him and to the surprise of Pilate, he died unusually quickly. Then he came back from the dead three days later. As can be read here>> https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+27%3A32-56&version=NIV
Interesting that Islam has it that "another" took the place of the Christ while the bible has it that "another" carried the cross of Jesus, Simon of Cyrene. Matthew 27:32
It is also interesting that the Nag Hammadi library also known as the "Gnostic Gospels" a collection of early Christian and Gnostic texts discovered near the Upper Egyptian town after which these scrolls are named in 1945, also appear to agree with the Islamic account of the Christ's supposed crucifixion. 56.6 - 19 NHL 332. It has the Christ himself saying "it was not I".
And then there was the late 2nd-century Christian writer Irenaeus who wrote about the teachings of a Gnostic leader named Basilides, who claimed:
"He did not himself suffer death, but Simon, a certain man of Cyrene, being compelled, bore the cross in his stead; so that this latter being transfigured by him, that he might be thought to be Jesus, was crucified, through ignorance and error, while Jesus himself received the form of Simon, and, standing by, laughed at them. For since he was an incorporeal power, and the Nous (mind) of the unborn father, he transfigured himself as he pleased, and thus ascended to him who had sent him, deriding them, inasmuch as he could not be laid hold of, and was invisible to all," (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book I, Chapter 24, Section 4).
