Q 4:157 and the Crucifixion: The Verse, the Tafsir, and the Christian Accounts

A Single Sentence That Divides Two Faiths

Few sentences in scripture carry as much weight as the handful of Arabic words in Surah al-Nisa, verse 157. Christianity is built on a cross: the death and resurrection of Jesus stand at the center of its creed, its liturgy, and its art. Yet the Qur'an, in one clause, says that the killing and the crucifixion did not happen as people believed — "wa-lakin shubbiha lahum," but it was made to appear so to them.

What did the earliest Muslim commentators make of that clause? What did the Christian sources — the four Gospels, and the Roman and Jewish historians — record about the same event? This article does not resolve the question. It opens the books.