The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas..!
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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 and scholar Muhammad Shafiq Ghorbal (Al-Maaref Al-Muyassara Encyclopedia) 70 thousand years of torment before going to heaven 28 thousand gods in the city of Rome alone… one million angels guarding the clothes of Christ Weeping from one eye more than the waters of the Jordan. “Paradise” is neither on earth nor in heaven.
Permit me to apologize for wasting some of your time in following that myth called the “Gospel” of Barnabas. In reality, this book is filled with myths, exaggerations, and absurdities in a way that it is impossible to believe that it came from divine revelation. We mentioned in the previous issue something of its myths concerning the story of creation. Among its myths are exaggerations. Among its obvious exaggerations are exaggerations in numbers and figures.
Strange Exaggerations
Among its exaggerations is the number of prophets, which it stated to be 144,000. As stated in chapter 17 verse 21, and chapter 35 verse 8, where it says: “For all the prophets, amounting to one hundred and forty-four thousand, whom God sent into the world, spoke obscurely in darkness. But after that will come the splendor of all the prophets…” No one in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam has said that the number of prophets was 144 thousand. Otherwise, what were their names? And what were their messages? Likewise, no one agrees that all the prophets in the Old Testament spoke in riddles, otherwise their messages would have been useless…!! And continuing its exaggeration in the number of prophets, it speaks about the persecution during the time of Jezebel the wife of King Ahab, saying that she killed ten thousand prophets. It is unreasonable that there were 10,000 prophets in the time of Jezebel, or that the slain prophets were of this number!
It says that one million angels were guarding the clothes of Christ!! A strange imaginary number used by the “Gospel” of Barnabas, as it mentions that the angel “Gabriel” said to Christ: “Do not fear, O Jesus, for a thousand thousand of those who dwell above heaven guard your garments. And you will not die until everything is fulfilled, and the world is on the verge of ending” (chapter 13: 9, 10). Unreasonable words. It also indicates a lack of understanding of the power of angels. One angel can do what hundreds of thousands of البشر cannot do. So guarding the clothes of Christ does not need one million angels!! Then what are these clothes that require one million angels to guard them?! And where are they now according to Barnabas? And the last phrase means that the Lord Christ remains alive and does not die until the end of the world approaches!
120 thousand whom God commands to be killed in one incident: The same exaggeration is used when the children of Israel worshiped the golden calf: It says: “Remember when our fathers made the golden calf and worshiped it… Joshua and the tribe of Levi took the sword. And God commanded, so they killed 120 thousand…” (chapter 33 verse 22) The Holy Bible mentions that the number of those who were killed was only three thousand (Exodus 32:28).
Adam and Eve weep for 100 years: Commenting on Adam’s sin, it says: “Truly I say to you: if a man knew his misery, he would weep here on earth continually. And he would count himself more contemptible than everything else. And there is no reason behind this except the weeping of the first man and his wife for one hundred years without interruption, asking mercy from God” (chapter 34: 14–16). It is clear that this issue of weeping is part of the monastic character that dominates most of the book. The Holy Bible mentioned nothing about Adam and Eve weeping.
It contains errors that no Jew familiar with the books of his people would ignore. Nor would a Christian believer in the Gospels repeat them, nor would a Muslim who understands what is in the Gospel of Barnabas of contradiction with the texts of the Qur’an become involved in them. Abbas Mahmoud Al-Aqqad
The punishment of Satan: the torment of one million hells: It said that the angel Michael will strike Satan on the Day of Judgment with one hundred thousand blows. And with every blow he will receive the torment of ten hells (chapter 51: 22, 23). Meaning that Satan’s punishment will be one million hells. It repeats this statement in chapter (57: 2, 3), saying: Then God calls the angel Michael, and he strikes him with the sword of God one hundred thousand blows. And every blow with which Satan is struck carries the weight of ten hells… If Satan is a spirit, then what would the nature of that beating be, and what would that sword be?
Weeping from one eye more than the waters of the Jordan!!! And in its words about judgment also it says: Truly I say to you that the devils and the rejected with Satan will weep then, until water will flow from the eye of each one of them more than what is in the Jordan. (chapter 55: 14). It is clear that this is unreasonable speech concerning humans.
It is also scientifically unacceptable concerning devils, because they do not have material bodies, so from where would the water come physiologically!! A human can weep, and his body contains a quantity of water. But Satan has no body containing water…!!! Then how can the volume of the waters of the Jordan River logically come down from one eye, and from the other eye the same.
Moses defeats 120 kings of the Canaanites… Among its exaggerations also is that the prophet Moses defeated 120 kings from the kings of the Canaanites and Midianites, and it is unreasonable that the Canaanites had 120 kings at one time.
They remain 70 thousand years in purgatory!! In its talk about purgatory in chapter 136: 17, 18 it says that those who have faith without works “will all remain in hell for seventy thousand years” then they will come out through intercession… Thus its writer was Catholic, believing in the idea of purgatory, and perhaps he was influenced by the book on purgatory composed by Dante. And a punishment of 70,000 years, I do not think any Catholic would accept it. Nor do I think any rational person would accept that the intercession of a prophet would be accepted on the condition that its owner be tormented for 70 thousand years, then after that go to “paradise”!!
28 thousand gods in the city of Rome: Among its exaggerations in numbers also is its statement: “For Rome alone has 28 thousand visible gods…” (chapter 152 verse 4). Of course, it never happened in the history of Roman pagan religions that there existed at any time 28 thousand gods in one city…!!
Exaggerations in the description of the heavens, the earth, and paradise… It says that there are nine heavens besides the heaven of heavens. Some of them are distant from one another as the first heaven is distant from the earth. And the first heaven is distant from the earth by a journey of 500 years, and accordingly the earth is distant from the highest heaven by a journey of 4500 years…!! (chapter 105: 3–8) Then it continues saying: “Accordingly I tell you that compared to the first heaven it is like the head of a needle. And likewise the first heaven compared to the second…” Then it says: “But the entire size of the earth with the size of all the heavens compared to paradise is like a point, rather like a grain of sand.” It remains to say whether this “paradise” is in the heavens or on earth. It is clear from his words that it is neither in the heavens nor on earth!! Because the earth and the heavens altogether would be like the tip of a needle compared to paradise, or like a grain of sand!! So where is that paradise according to the Gospel of Barnabas? And does he think that the believer is “neither reaching earth nor heaven”…
Adam’s Apple:
Barnabas mentions that the forbidden fruit was two fruits, namely apples and wheat. He says concerning God in the story of creation: And He established the two spouses as masters of paradise and said to them: “Look, I give you every fruit to eat from except the apple and the wheat.” Then He said: “Beware lest you eat anything from these fruits, for you will become unclean!!” (chapter 39: 35–38). Thus he considered eating apples and wheat to be uncleanness, and he also prohibited two fruits, not one fruit!! And Barnabas enters into the myth called “Adam’s apple”: He says concerning Adam’s sin: “And while the food was descending, he remembered the word of God. Therefore he wanted to stop the food. So he put his hand in his throat where every human has a mark” (chapter 40: 27, 28).
The critics are unanimous that the Gospel of Barnabas was written in the Middle Ages… And what I conclude is that the writer was an Andalusian Jew who embraced the Islamic religion after his conversion to Christianity and his study of the Gospels of the Christians, and in my view this solution is closer to correctness than others. Dr. Khalil Saada (Introduction to the Gospel of Barnabas)
How many myths and absurdities there are in the Gospel of Barnabas. We have presented some of them as examples, and the rest are very many indeed. We will attempt to present other examples of these myths in the coming issues, God willing.
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