The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas..!
The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas..!
The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas..! A forged gospel, composed by a European in the fifteenth century. In its description of the political and religious environment in Jerusalem, it contains grave errors… Professor Muhammad Shafiq Ghorbal (Simplified Encyclopedia)
Historical Introduction:
A forged and fabricated book, with no chain of transmission and no origin. The world first knew it at the beginning of the eighteenth century, in a copy found in the Italian language, and Italian is certainly not the language of Barnabas.
The discovery of this Italian copy is surrounded by a story stating that a monk named (Fra Marino) saw it in the library of Pope Sixtus V (at the end of the sixteenth century). Pope Sixtus was asleep, so the monk stole it… Then it passed to one of the advisers of the King of Prussia, then to one of the princes… then it was translated into Spanish.
Then Dr. Khalil Saadeh translated it into Arabic in the year 1908 and wrote an introduction for it. In it he said: “The trustworthy scholars unanimously agree that the Gospel of Barnabas was written in the Middle Ages…”
The type of script in which this forged “gospel” was written, and the style of its Italian language, indicate that it was written after Dante. It also contains quotations from Dante’s famous book (The Divine Comedy).
There is no mention of it in all Christian, Islamic, or Jewish writings and books before the sixteenth century. No one ever quoted from it.
Nor was it mentioned in the catalogs of ancient books prepared by Arabs or Westerners, nor in the catalogs prepared by famous orientalists concerning ancient and modern books…
Among the proofs that it was also written after the fourteenth century:
Its statement concerning the burial wrapping of the Lord Christ that they “anointed Him with one hundred pounds of spices” (217:88), whereas the pound was among the measures established by the Ottomans. And its statement: “The year of Jubilee, which now comes every hundred years, the Messiah will make every year” (82:18), whereas the Jubilee was not celebrated as a centennial feast before Boniface VIII (Pope of Rome in the year 1300). Likewise, its discussion of knights and wars (69:4-10) carries the style of the Middle Ages, and the same situation applies to its ascetic speech and many of its philosophical discussions…
Nothing about it was mentioned in the Qur’an, nor in the books of Hadith and jurisprudence, nor in the books of the ancient commentators and their imams, nor in the old books of Islamic history, nor in all the debates with Christianity, especially those raised by the Arians, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and the like. Nor was it mentioned in any books of civil or ecclesiastical history.
An Idea About This “Gospel”:
This forged “gospel” is attributed to Barnabas, and Barnabas was not one of the twelve apostles. Perhaps this particular name was intended in order to attack the Apostle Paul, assuming that Paul and Barnabas differed in theology, as was mentioned in the introduction!!
The name “gospel” itself arouses suspicion and carries a polemical appearance!!
For the title of this gospel is: “The True Gospel of Jesus Called Christ”… It is unreasonable that a book from divine revelation would have the title “The True Gospel”!! Likewise, the phrase “called Christ” bears a controversial and aggressive tone…!
It is noticed that this forged “gospel” is full of various errors…
Historical errors, geographical errors, religious errors that are accepted neither by Christians nor Muslims nor Jews, and theological errors that no believer in any religion would accept… It bears the character of debate, argument, and philosophical dialogue distinguished by lengthy discourses. It is highly complicated and devoid of simplicity.
It is a book full of insults and rebukes, with expressions of swearing (oaths), crying, and tears. It is full of contradictions and myths.
In it Christ insults His disciples, insults the priests, insults the people, insults those seeking healing, slaps, strikes His head against the ground, cries, and tries to convince people that He is not the Messiah… and He multiplies prayers on appropriate and inappropriate occasions in order to prove that He is a human being like the rest of mankind.
How many exaggerations and absurdities are in this “gospel”!!
In a style that could never come from divine revelation. Sometimes it speaks in a primitive way or in a manner completely contrary to science. Its discussion of the afterlife is influenced by Dante’s writings. In its speech about asceticism, it considers filth in its ugliest forms as a kind of spiritual elevation.
This “forged gospel” was accepted by no one, and many wrote against it.
Muslim scholars and famous Muslim writers rejected it, and Christian writers rejected it. Many books were published against it, including the books of Tawfiq Haddad, Awad Samaan, and Issa Mansour. Professor Muhammad Jibril wrote an article against it in Al-Masaa newspaper, explaining a huge number of errors contained in this false “gospel”!!
Myths in the Story of Creation..
Among the myths contained in this forged book is the story of creation. We shall attempt to mention some of these myths as they were presented in that “gospel,” so that the reader may realize the nature of this book and whether it can be included among the books of revelation…!
In chapter thirty-five it says:
1- Jesus said: “And when God created a mass of clay, He left it for twenty-five thousand years without doing anything else. Satan, who was in the position of a priest and chief of the angels because of his great understanding, knew that God would take from that mass one hundred and forty-four thousand marked with the seal of prophecy, and the Messenger of God whose spirit God had created before everything else by sixty thousand years. Therefore Satan became angry and incited the angels saying: ‘Look, one day God will want us to bow down to this clay…’”
(A) We find no meaning for these strange numbers: 25 thousand, 60 thousand, 144 thousand… They are mentioned neither in the Torah nor the Gospel nor the Qur’an… And what does it mean that God leaves a mass of clay for 25,000 years without doing anything?! What divine wisdom is in this?! And what does it mean that God creates a spirit and then waits 60,000 years creating nothing?!
(B) And who said there are 144 thousand prophets?!
Who are they? What are their names? In what ages did they appear? What was their divine mission? And what religion said this?!
(C) Then who said that Satan was a priest?!
Was there a priesthood before all creation by 85 thousand years? And what was the function of priesthood among the angels where there were no humans? In what religion was this opinion found?!
(D) And did Satan know the unseen, while the unseen belongs to the knowledge of God, so that he would realize that God would create from this clay human beings, and among those humans there would be 144 thousand prophets, as he also knew the timing of the process of creation… And how did he know the purposes of God after tens of thousands of years (according to the narration) that He would ask the angels to bow to the human emerging from this clay?!
2- After this, in the story of creation according to his narration, God commanded the angels to bow down, and Satan and his soldiers refused, and God changed the form of Satan and his soldiers from beauty to ugliness, and Satan spoke to God with boldness and insolence…
We shall present here what came in the “Gospel” of Barnabas:
“Then Satan said: O Lord, You have made me ugly unjustly. But I am content with that because I desire to nullify everything You have done. And the other demons said: ‘Do not call Him lord, O morning star, for you are the lord.’”
“Then God said to the followers of Satan: ‘Repent and confess that I am God your Creator.’ They answered: ‘We repent of bowing down to You, because You are not just. But Satan is just and innocent, and he is our lord.’”
“Then God said: ‘Depart from Me, you accursed ones, for I have no mercy for you…’”
How can the mind accept that Satan’s boldness would reach the point of addressing God in this manner?! And accusing Him of oppression and injustice?! And challenging Him that he would nullify every deed?! And how can the demons say to Him that He is not their lord, and that their lord is Satan?! And ask Satan before God not to call Him lord?!
And what does it mean that the demons say about their chief that he is Satan and that he is their lord? Is there not a contradiction in this?! And is it possible that God would ask demons to repent? And is it possible for Satan to repent?!
3- The author concludes his story with another myth, saying…
“And Satan spat while departing upon the mass of clay. Gabriel lifted that spit together with some of the clay. Because of this, man had a navel in his belly.”
Can any human being believe that the navel is due to this mythical reason?! Science says that the navel is the place of the umbilical cord that connected the fetus to its mother’s womb…
So what is this spit of Satan upon the clay, the lifting of this spit by Gabriel, and the occurrence of the navel as a result of that?! Is this divine revelation?!
Moreover, Adam and Eve themselves had no navel in their bellies, because neither of them was born of a woman, but God created them directly…
Rather, the navel existed in their children…
4- The “Gospel” of Barnabas continues its myths concerning creation in its thirty-ninth chapter. It says that God created the animals and birds, but had not yet created man. Satan came to the gates of Paradise and saw the horses grazing, and informed them “that if that mass of clay were to receive a soul, distress would come upon them,” because man would ride horses and use them for his needs… Here the “Gospel” of Barnabas continues the story regarding the horses:
“Therefore it was in their interest to trample that piece of clay in such a way that it would afterward be fit for nothing. So the horses rose up and began to run violently over that piece of clay which was among the lilies and roses.”
“Then God gave a spirit to that unclean portion of clay upon which Satan’s spit had fallen, which Gabriel had taken from the mass, and He created the dog. The dog began barking, and the horses became frightened and fled.”
“Then God gave Himself to man. And all the angels were singing: O Lord our God, blessed be Your holy name…”
How shall we comment on the story of the spit, the dog, the horses, and the
