Session 7
| Today we will continue our study from the book of Mark chapter 14 and verse 44 with Dr. Nagy Youssef. After arresting the Lord Jesus Christ, we read in verse 44, "now His betrayer had given them a signal, saying, "Whomever I kiss, He is the One; seize Him and lead Him away safely." The question here is about the soldiers coming to arrest the Lord Jesus. Could they recognize Him personally? Why was a sign "Whomever I kiss" needed? What happened afterwards? |
| I want to ask you before I answer this question. What do you mean by this question and what is the following question you have? |
| I know that you know quite well that some people say the ones who came to arrest the Lord Jesus missed Him and arrested someone else. Some other people said that they arrested Judas himself instead because God cast Jesus likeness on him, and this is why I am asking you. The second question did the people know that this was Jesus, the one that they are coming to arrest? Or not? And if they did, why was it necessary for Judas to kiss Him? |
| The
people who came to arrest the Lord Jesus knew Him quite well for the following
reasons: 1. Jesus was well known and by that time He has been for three years in the ministry going around doing miracles publicly. So it is not reasonable that someone in Jerusalem did not know him. 2. The Lord Jesus Himself said, "I was daily with you in the temple teaching." So He was addressing people who knew Him quite well. The reason why it was necessary for Judas to lead them to the place where Jesus was and to give them a sign that this was Jesus is because Judas knew where to find his Master in this time of the night. He knew that his Master was going to the Mount of Olives after supper and that He used to do that. As for the kiss, we know very well that the crowds that came with Judas had one ultimate objective and that was to arrest the Lord Jesus, Blessed is His name. And if it was necessary to subdue the disciples in a case they try to defend Him. In this situation, the Lord Jesus was one of eleven persons. They wanted to accomplish their task as quick as possible lest the crowds start to show up and start defending Jesus, which would make the task of arresting Jesus impossible. So they planned that one of the disciples would draw the Master from His disciples and hug Him. This way they would recognize the one they were coming to arrest without any effort and in the easiest and fastest possible way and it eventually took place. So have you got the answer of the second question now? Was it possible by any means for the crowd to miss the Lord Jesus, all Glory belongs to Him? |
| Of course not, it was impossible for them to miss Him by following this plan. But I would also like to add one more thing. If we imagine the scene where the Lord Jesus was hugging Judas, and at this particular moment God cast Christ resemblance on Judas and Judas became exactly like Jesus. Then the soldiers would rush into the scene and arrest Judas instead of Jesus. Wouldn't this be possible? |
| In our last session we discussed the argument that said, "But they killed Him not, nor crucified Him. Only a likeness of that was shown to them." You keep pushing me to comment on this argument! I would like to comment to our beloved Imams and Muslim scientists who disagreed about the person who was crucified. This was due to a valid reason because of the text they have and they refer to. They cannot afford to reject the text they have, and they faced a problem with every single person they assumed to have taken the place of Jesus on the cross. I will give two answers, one is mine and one belongs to the Imam El Razi who is one of the most respectful Muslim scientists. |
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Can you please explain to us the foundation of the argument you are using concerning this specific issue? |
| The only solid and steadfast foundation I can lay for this truth is the prophetic word the word of God Himself in the Holy Bible. The truth is we do not need to prove what the Lord said in His book where it is written, " that Jesus Christ was crucified for the world. That any one, who believes in Him, would not perish but have eternal life." So the Lord Jesus was crucified and died. Had the Christians modified and altered what was written in the Bible than they should have changed this scene of the cross that portrays their Lord in a position of weakness. And they would have made a hero out of Him who was able to overcome the one who betrayed Him and the ones who arrested him? In the fact that this story was kept in the Bible, is the greatest proof for the authenticity of the Bible and that it was preserved from and alteration or change. |
| Is there any evidence that the one who was crucified could never be Judas? |
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There are many logical evidences and some of them are: 1 - Why wouldn't Judas cry that he was innocent or try to convince the ones who arrested him that he was not Jesus, but he is Judas, the one who agreed with them to deliver Jesus? He did not have a mirror, so he would have never known that he had Jesus likeness. And he would have definitely resisted if he discovered that they turned against him. But we do not find this in the Bible. 2 - Did Judas act like Jesus as speaking quietly to the people who came to arrest him, and before the false witnesses would he remain silent before the chief priests when they asked him to defend himself until they took him to the cross? Did he act like Jesus as he was talking to his mother on the cross? 3 - If God cast the resemblance of Christ on Judas, did he cast the resemblance of Judas on Jesus because there were two persons in the scene? One came to kiss the other. One was Judas and one was Jesus. Did both of them become like Jesus or did they exchange likeness? If Judas was the one who was crucified, then who was the one who gave the silver back to the Jews? Who was the one who went and hanged himself? Was it Jesus, all Glory to Him, or a third person that God cast the resemblance of Judas? Where did Jesus go according to this version of the story of the cross? If Judas was the one crucified, was he the one who looked to peter when he disowned him before the servants? And who was the one who rose from the dead in the third day? Did the likeness of Jesus stay on Him or did it leave? Did Judas show himself to the disciples acting as if he was Jesus and assuming that his role ended with the cross? Why did he rise again in the third day and showed himself to Mary and to the disciples? If we say it was Jesus, who visited them? We will face this problem that the one who was crucified was the one who rose again because He had the marks of the nails in His hands obvious and feet and the place of the arrow scar in His side. If it was the Lord Jesus who appeared again to the disciples as the resurrected One, how could He get those scars in His side, hands and feet?
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