# What if Jesus had not been crucified? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 16, 2006, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915 "2006-04-16T22:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2006, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/21 "2006-04-18T11:36:16Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > But what about, “I am not come to bring peace but a sword”? Thanks for the cite. I wish I were more adept at finding specific passages. But Jesus continues: > [@](#): > > For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and one’s enemies will be those of his household. > > Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. My interpretation is that he isn’t refering to warfare, but rather he comes to overturn the status quo and he challenges us to put God before all things and the examples he cites show just how difficult that is. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/22 "2006-04-19T13:48:42Z")
Well, I know one thing, the well know crucifix image wouldn’t exist as it does today. [Here’s what I think we’d see instead of Christ on the cross.](http://www.gwindi.net/images/cl691850b.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/23 "2006-04-22T22:23:04Z")
This thread seems to place all the credit/blame for Christianity on Jesus. How about asking “What if Paul had stayed home and never gone to Damascus?” That would have meant the followers of Jesus would have only been some small Jewish sect that we probably would have no records of because it was extinguished during the Jewish rebellion. ;j ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/24 "2006-04-23T00:53:41Z")
-winces- I’m not sure “blame” is the most fair word to use. We are assuming that what we read is accurate. Assuming that it is, then many events and participants helped create the entire scenario. What if John wasn’t fond of bathing? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![irockyo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@irockyo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irockyo1)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/25 "2006-04-23T01:28:51Z")
How bout instead of typing this forum just read the “jesus papers” “angels & demons” “The Davinci code” READ EM ALL ---
**Author:** ![Rufus\_Xavier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@Rufus\_Xavier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rufus_Xavier)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/26 "2006-04-23T01:48:47Z")
I think if Jesus had not been crucified, the New Testament would end, not with the book of Revelation, but with the words “and they all lived happily ever after.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/27 "2006-04-23T04:06:58Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > [This](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/042518613X/sr=8-2/qid=1145305665/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-9575942-1158244?%5Fencoding=UTF8) book speculates on what would have happened if Pilate pardoned Jesus. > > Unfortuantely, it’s been quite a while since I read it. > > Zev Steinhardt I came in here to recommend that book. Really good reading. Let’s see what I remember: Jesus dies of old age on Easter Sunday. Christianity is still founded on his teachings, and there is a small sect that say Jesus rose from the dead three days after his death. They are subsequently stoned. ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2006, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/28 "2006-04-23T11:48:57Z")
As I understand it,Jesus was predestined to die as he supposedly did. John 17 verse 12,“Those whom thou hast given me I guarded:and not one of them perished except the son of Perdition(Judas) In order that the Scripture might be fulfilled” If one excepts this, then Judas was meant to betray Jesus so he could be crucified, as that was the main use of the death penality at that time. JOHN 19 v24 also refers to the things being done so the scriptures would be fulfilled. Monavis ---
**Author:** ![CrisLander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/22d042/32.png) [@CrisLander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrisLander)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/29 "2006-04-24T16:28:27Z")
I think that if Jesus hadn’t died in the cross, he would’ve continued his pacifist teachings, and his followers would’ve grown, something that would bother the romans. Eventually, since Jesus preached love and not war, some internal movement within his followers would’ve begun, led by some leader who preached to take Jesus’ word and be more proactive. This would’ve eventually led to a revolution against the romans and a lot of bloodshed. Evertually, when the dust settled, the romans would probably take this opportunity to kill Jesus, although not in such a public manner. He’s still be a martyr, though. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915/30 "2006-04-24T16:53:23Z")
> [@irockyo1](#): > > How bout instead of typing this forum just read the “jesus papers” “angels & demons” “The Davinci code” > > READ EM ALL These books are all, as are the posts in this thread, hypothetical works of fiction, and I like to read our Dopers’ posts as much as Dan Brown’s latest. Why can’t we speculate as well? Incidentally, _The Da Vinci Code_ is not about Jesus not dying; it’s about him siring children with Mary Magdalene and the possibility of a semi-divine bloodline interlinked with the history of the Holy Grail. IMHO, YMMV, etc etc: It’s interesting to note that Jesus’s sacrifice doesn’t make up the core tenet of Christianity. It certainly makes a very dramatic emphasis on the point, but I think the essential belief would’ve remained: we are all sinners, but faith in Jesus and his teachings, and that he is the son of God, will bring us to heaven. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-jesus-had-not-been-crucified/352915.md?page=1)