Superstitions in the Gospel of Barnabas
Superstitions in the (Gospel of Barnabas)
How numerous are the superstitions contained in this false gospel, making it entirely impossible for it to be the Word of God. We shall present some of these myths and leave the reader to judge. Among the foremost of these are:
The Story of Creation: In chapter thirty-five of this book, it is written: “Jesus answered: When God created a lump of earth and left it for twenty-five thousand years without doing anything else, Satan, who was like a priest and chief of the angels, knowing from his great understanding that God would take from that lump one hundred and forty-four thousand marked with the sign of prophecy, and the messenger of God whose spirit God had created sixty thousand years before all things, became angry and enticed the angels, saying: ‘See, one day God will want us to worship this dust. Therefore consider that we are spirit, and it is not fitting for us to do this.’”
The story continues describing Satan’s rebellion against God and says: “And when Satan departed, he spat upon the lump of earth. Then Gabriel lifted up that spittle with some of the earth, and thus man came to have a navel in his belly.”
Our comment on these absurdities is as follows: We find no meaning in these strange numbers—25,000, 60,000, and 144,000. They are part of the many exaggerations in numbers, as we shall explain later, and have no mention in any of the Holy Scriptures.
What sense is there in God leaving a lump of earth for 25,000 years without doing anything? What divine wisdom is in that? Did He leave it to ferment? And what wisdom is there in God creating a spirit and then waiting 60,000 years before creating anything else? Who ever said there are 144,000 prophets? Who are they? What are their names? In which ages did they appear? What was their mission and message? Which faith declared such a thing? And who said that Satan was a priest? There could have been no priesthood before the creation of man, for the priestly ministry serves humanity spiritually and leads people to God. Before man’s creation, there was no humanity.
So what was Satan’s supposed function among the angels? Or does the phrase “Satan was a priest” serve as an insult to the priesthood by the author of the (Gospel of Barnabas), who had apostatized from Christianity?
Does this story imply that Satan knew the unseen? That he knew the number of prophets, the matter of worship, and that God would create man from the dust? Yet it is known that knowledge of the unseen belongs to God alone and to those to whom He reveals it. It cannot fall within personal understanding.
How could Satan have known the timing of creation and the purposes of God thousands of years in advance, and that God would ask the angels to worship the man formed from dust?
Also, the phrase “Satan spat on the lump” contains theological errors. Spittle is a material substance containing water, and Satan is a spirit—so from where did he obtain such material to spit? And how could God send the Archangel Gabriel to lift that spittle from the lump of earth, causing man to have a navel? It is known that the navel is the place of the umbilical cord, which connects a fetus to its mother’s womb. Surely neither Adam nor Eve had navels, since neither was born of a woman.
So what connection can there be between the human navel and the spittle removed from the lump of clay? Does this not demonstrate ignorance and superstition unworthy of a divinely inspired book?
Moreover, the story of creation in the (Gospel of Barnabas) includes blasphemy from the demons against God. It says that when God grew angry with Satan and his followers, He made their faces ugly. Then Satan said: “Lord, You have made me ugly unjustly, yet I am content, for I intend to destroy all You have made.” And the other demons said: “Call Him not Lord, O morning star, for You are the Lord.”
Then God said to Satan’s followers: “Repent and confess that I am God your Creator.” They replied: “We repent of worshiping You, for You are unjust, but Satan is just and pure, and he is our lord.”
Then God said: “Depart from Me, you accursed ones, for I have no mercy on you.”
Our comment on all this is: How could Satan dare, in the presence of God, to insult Him, calling Him unjust? How could Satan dare to threaten God, saying, “I intend to destroy all You have made”? And how could the demons dare to tell God, “You are not our Lord; we repent of worshiping You because You are unjust”?
And is it conceivable that God would ask the demons to repent? No rational mind could believe that Satan can repent!
There is also a continuation of the creation story in chapter thirty-nine of this false book, where it says: “Jesus answered: When God expelled Satan and Gabriel purified that lump of earth on which Satan had spat, God created every living creature that flies, crawls, and swims, and adorned the world with all that it contains. One day Satan approached the gates of paradise, and when he saw the horses eating grass, he told them that if that lump of earth were to gain breath, it would bring them harm. Therefore, it was in their interest to trample that piece of earth so it would become useless. The horses then began to run fiercely over that piece of earth that lay among the lilies and roses. Then God gave a soul to the part of the earth touched by Satan’s spittle, which Gabriel had taken from the lump, and thus created the dog, which began to bark at the horses, frightening them so they fled.”
Our remarks on this story include: It seems from this that when God created all the animals, He had not yet created the dog, reserving it for a special creation! It also seems that God had kept that unclean piece of earth—the one on which Satan spat! And it appears that God used that unclean piece of earth to create the dog! Far be it from God to use anything impure in creation.
The story is told in a naive style, unworthy of the power and wisdom of God. For God could easily have restrained the horses by His divine power without needing to create a barking dog to scare them! And God could have protected the lump of earth where Adam would be formed, preventing any animal from corrupting it. It is impossible to believe that God would create something impure from an unclean substance, as this story narrates!
God is good, and all His ways are good and wise. God is almighty, and His power is never completed by childish means such as those told in this story of the (Gospel of Barnabas).
And since this (Gospel of Barnabas) presents such absurdities even in this small portion of the creation story, which we have given merely as an example, then this book must contain many other examples of the irrational.
We shall continue this study in the following issues, if the grace of the Lord wills and we live.
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- Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on 29-8-1999.
