—upon disbelief and misguidance even after witnessing the manifest signs; so the worshippers of the cross merely follow the example of their brethren among the idol-worshippers and the misguided!

Section
On their reliance, in matters of religion, upon the members of the councils who excommunicated one another (and anathematised one another) (1), and on their reception of the fundamentals of their creed from them.

We shall now recount the affair from its beginning, through its middle stages, to its end, until it is as though you were seeing it with your very eyes (2).

God—glorified be He—had given glad tidings of the Messiah upon the tongues of His prophets, from Moses up to the era of David (3) and those prophets who followed him. The prophet who proclaimed those tidings most frequently was David. The Jews long awaited him and believed in him prior to his mission; yet when he was sent, they disbelieved in him out of envy and aggression. They drove him from place to place, expelled him, imprisoned him (4), and repeatedly plotted to kill him, until they eventually resolved to seize and execute him. God, however, safeguarded him, rescued him from their hands, and did not allow them to harm him. It was merely made to appear to them that they had crucified him, though they had not, just as the Most High says: “And because of their disbelief and their monstrous slander against Mary (156), and their saying, ‘We killed the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, the Messenger of God.’ Yet they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; it was only made to appear so to them, and those who differ about it are surely in doubt…”