[88.] According to the Koran, it was the Jews who said, "'Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, an apostle of God.' Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him not, but they had only his likeness.... No sure knowledge had they about him, but followed an opinion, and they did not really slay him, but God took him up to Himself."--Sura iv. 150. See also Sura iii. 40. The Rev. J.M. Rodwell, in his translation of the Koran, observes in a footnote to the latter passage: "Muhammad probably believed that God took the dead body of Jesus to Heaven--for three hours, according to some--while the Jews crucified a man who resembled him."
[89.] Sura iii. 30, 40.
[90.] Sura xxi. 90.
[91.] Sura iv. 150.
[92.] Sura ii. 89, 250; v. 100.
[93.] Sura v. 50.
[94.] In the masonic periodical Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. XXIV, a Freemason (Bro. Sydney T. Klein) observes: "It is not generally known that one of the reasons why the Mohammedans removed their Kiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca was that they quarrelled with the Jews over Jesus Christ, and the proof of this may still be seen in the Golden Gate leading into the sacred area of the Temple, which was bricked up by the Mohammedans, and is bricked up to this day, because they declared that nobody should enter through that portal until Jesus Christ comes to judge the world, and this is stated in the Koran." I cannot trace this passage in the Koran, but much the same idea is conveyed by the Rev. J.M. Rodwell, who in the note above quoted adds: "The Muhammadans believe that Jesus on His return to earth at the end of the world will slay the Antichrist, die, and be raised again. A vacant place is reserved for His body in the Prophet's tomb at Medina."
[95.] Graetz, Geschichte der Juden, III. 216-52.
[96.] The Essenes: their History and Doctrines, an essay by Christian D. Ginsburg, LL.D. (Longmans, Green & Co., 1864).
[97.] Ibid., p. 24.