The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas 4..!
The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas 4..!
The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas…! -3-
A forged gospel, written by a European in the fifteenth century. In its description of the political and religious environment in Jerusalem, it contains grave errors…
Muhammad Shafiq Ghorbal
(Encyclopedia of Simplified Knowledge)
Lice are evidence of man’s love for God, and the louse turns in heaven into a pearl…!!
The dog is better than the uncircumcised person, and whoever does not pray is more evil than the devil…!!
The sun groans on the last day, and the plants and grass weep blood…!!
A fish ate a complete banquet that Solomon the Wise had prepared for all creation…!!
Whoever does not wash before prayer commits a sin equal to idol worship…!!
In the previous issues, we spoke about the myths crowded into that work called the “Gospel” of Barnabas, and the exaggerations in it that reason cannot accept.
We explained one aspect of the exaggerations concerning numbers. We continue this subject in our current article…
The Absurdities in the “Gospel” of Barnabas
1- It appears that the monk Fra Marino, who is thought to have written this forged “gospel,” was of the type that considered filth a kind of asceticism practiced by man out of love for God, such that if he bathed, for example, he would have committed a “mortal sin”!! But if he remained in his filth to the point that insects wandered through his body, then his reward before God would be exceedingly great!! In speaking about the judgment, he says on the tongue of Christ:
“Verily I say to you that the hair-shirt shall shine like the sun. And every louse that was upon a man for love of God shall be turned into a pearl… verily I say to you that if the world knew this, it would prefer the hair-shirt to purple, and lice to gold…” (Chapter 57:14-19).
These passages support the idea that the one who wrote this gospel was a monk who abandoned Christianity and wanted to impose a certain type of asceticism on all people, but it was a distorted asceticism… Can all believers wear hair-shirts (sackcloth garments)?! And is filth set before them as the ideal? And must lice crawl in a person’s body for him to become an ideal human being?!
Then what does it mean that the louse turns into a pearl? Will the louse remain attached to the person until the Day of Resurrection?! And rise with him on the last day?! Then turn into a pearl?! And what benefit is a pearl in heaven?
There is no doubt that this lice was not known in Christian spiritual life, but rather it was something that grew in Fra Marino’s head.
2- Among the exaggerations of this forged “gospel” in its discussion of prayer is its statement:
“And I say to you also that no one offers a prayer pleasing to God unless he washes himself, but he bears upon himself a sin like unto the worship of idols” (Chapter 38:11-12).
Is it reasonable that divine revelation would make failure to wash equivalent to idol worship?!
It is unreasonable that this speech could be inspired by God. For every deed has with God a precise weight. There is an evaluation of utmost precision for every sin or righteousness. But this is the absurdity by which this “gospel” was distinguished.
It contains errors unknown even to a Jew acquainted with the books of his people. No Christian believer in the Gospels repeats them, nor does a Muslim who understands the contradictions between the Gospel of Barnabas and the texts of the Qur’an fall into them.
Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad
3- Among the examples of this absurdity is also its statement:
“Verily I say to you that whoever does not pray is more evil than the devil” (Chapter 36:2).
The devil by nature does not pray. Added to that are his unbelief, stubbornness, evil, corruption of people, and defiance of God. So how can a person who does not pray, yet is innocent of all that unbelief, evil, defiance, and stubbornness, be more evil than the devil?!
4- Similar to these unreasonable exaggerations is also its statement:
“Verily I say to you that the dog is better than an uncircumcised man” (Chapter 22:2).
Who can believe such words and consider them to come from God and to be part of Holy Scripture… It is the same style of exaggeration followed by the author, leading him into absurdity…!
5- This absurdity also appears in the story of Solomon the Wise, for it narrates concerning him in this “gospel” the following:
“And Solomon sinned because he thought to invite all the creatures of God to a banquet. So a fish corrected his error, for it ate all that he had prepared” (Chapter 74:4).
How can the mind conceive that Solomon the Wise invited all the creatures of God to a banquet: all human beings in every country, together with all animals, beasts, birds, insects, and creeping things of the earth… and perhaps all fish also, since they too are among God’s creatures?!
How could he invite all these millions—those hidden and those visible—to one banquet?! And how could they all gather together while some devour others?! And what place could contain them? And what banquet could suffice for them? And how could this immense imaginary banquet be eaten entirely by one fish alone?!?!
Words that reason cannot accept even in the fables of Aesop, or the stories of Kalila wa Dimna, or the adventures of Sinbad the Sailor… So how could they be written by divine inspiration?! And how could they be believed concerning a wise man like Solomon?!
6- As for the signs of the last day, they fall into these unreasonable myths, as it says in Chapter 53 (14-19):
“And after this, when that day draws near, every day for fifteen days a fearful sign shall come upon the inhabitants of the earth…”
And it says that on the first day, “the sun shall groan as a father groans over a son near death”… “And on the fifth day every plant and herb shall weep blood.”
And in the remaining days there are other absurd myths which it is better—for mercy toward the reader—that we leave for another article… But now we examine these two examples: How does the sun groan? Will it be given a soul, reason, and sensation?
And how do plants and grass weep? Will they also be given a soul, reason, and sensation? And why do all these weep, when there is no judgment upon the sun, plants, or grass because they are irrational creatures?!
But it is the absurdity by which “Barnabas” was distinguished…
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