Tafasir on Q. 4:157-8

Found an excellent resource for classical Tafsir: the righteously-named Great Tafsirs. So: let's run down the list on lâkin shubbiha lahum (or shabbaha, the more-direct Mas'ûdî reading). I mean, before Zamakhsharî and Baydawi and Razi.

First up is the "Mujâhid bin Jabr" tafsir. He died 104 AH so, he'd have done his work in the middle Marwânid era - al-Walîd I, Sulaymân, 'Umar II, and Yazîd II. Mind, we don't actually have a book by him; this site uses Adam 'an Warqâ 'an Ibn Abî Najîh. Ibn Abî Hâtim, for his part, verifies Warqâ. Anyway what the Warqâ chain taught was - they crucified a man other than Jesus and they reckon that he appeared to them as Jesus.

Over in Basra, we have the famous 'Abd al-Razzâq from Ma'mar chain. This claims from Qatâda bin Di'âma. Jesus cast his appearance (shabaha-hu) upon a man of the disciples (hawarîs, per sura 3), and that one was killed. Jesus had earlier presented that [appearance] to them, and he said: upon which of you may be cast my appearance [such that] his is the Garden? One of them said: "upon me ('alî)". Tha'labî had a similar anecdote, also from Qatâda, except the "man from the people" just says "me (ana)"; and, when he is killed, he gets the Garden where he is radiantly reclothed. Note the wordplay in the former, which I much doubt was lost on an 'Abbâsid-era audience . . .

Muqâtil bin Sulaymân - I am very impressed that the Great Tafsirs sitemaster counts him by the way, not all Muslims do - says when the Jews took [the imposter] to kill him, he said to the Jews: I am not Jesus, I am so-and-so, and his name was Judah. But they called him a liar and told him: You are Jesus. So the Jews made the slain person watch over Jesus. Oof. Always look on the bright side of life.

Ibn Abî Hâtim, whose partial tafsir didn't make the cut because it's partial, has (in addition to some parallels noted above) al-A'mash from al-Minhâl bin 'Amr from Sa'îd bin Jubayr. This is a longer version of Qatâda's tale; in it, Jesus asks for a volunteer and someone steps up.

If we're to believe Arthur Jeffery, Ubay added وما قتله الذين أنهموا به wamâ qatalahu alladhîna attuhimû bihi. I make little sense of the singular / plural shift except as a rhetorical question: and who killed him; those who are accused of it?. If the singular verb assumes group-as-singular it falls into place, so, that must be what's going on: the people accused of it didn't kill him.

I am too lazy for a mere blogpost to draw up isnad-bundles for these. I'll probably not even find one for Muqâtil who, as noted, isn't in the best graces of the ahl al-sunna. However if I were to do such, I suspect I'll find Qatâda (at least) to be legit (in basics).

So, Iraq had a consistent doctrine that someone around Jesus got substituted. And this doctrine is tied with sura 4; this is especially clear with Muqâtil.