The Myth of the “Gospel” of Barnabas 1 ..!
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 situation in Jerusalem, it contains grave errors…
Professor Muhammad Shafiq Gharbal
(Concise Encyclopedia)
The forged “Gospel” of Barnabas says that God loves Israel like a lover!!
And that He is jealous of every love that a person shows toward anyone else, and punishes for it!!
He is even jealous of a father’s love for his children, and a mother’s love for her only son!!
God punishes the Virgin Mary because of her love for her son Jesus!!
And He punishes the prophets Abraham, David, and Job because of their love for their children!!
God is even jealous of people’s love for the Temple and the Holy City!!
In previous issues, we spoke about some of the many myths contained in that work called the “Gospel” of Barnabas, and we mentioned examples of the strange exaggerations in its chapters that the mind cannot believe, and some of the irrationality in that “gospel.” Here we continue mentioning some of those myths which revolve around distorted theological ideas that can never come from divine revelation…!
Myths the mind cannot accept!
Among the theological myths is its discussion of the jealousy of God…
For in the Gospel of Barnabas, God erupts in unreasonable anger because of any love directed toward anyone other than Himself, even if it is holy love and natural love such as a father’s love for his son.
Apparently, the writer of this “gospel” was originally Jewish before embracing Christianity, because he speaks about God’s love for Israel in the style of passionate romantic love filled with jealousy, and compares it to the love of women!! He says in chapter 99: “Verily I say unto you that God is jealous for His honor, and loves Israel as a lover…”
“And you know that when a young man becomes enamored of a woman who does not love him, but loves another, he becomes enraged and kills his rival. Verily I say unto you: thus does God do!!”
Can anyone accept such speech about God? If He finds someone loving another, He kills him!! Is He not the One who said, “YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF” (Matt. 22:39), and also “LOVE ONE ANOTHER; AS I HAVE LOVED YOU” (John 13:34)? And what does it mean that He loves Israel “as a lover”? Is there racism with God? Or favoritism among those who believe in Him?
1- God is jealous of the holy Temple!!
Barnabas continues his idea, saying: “What is dearer to God here on earth than the priesthood and the holy Temple?” Yet Barnabas says that when the people loved the Temple and boasted in it, “God stirred up His wrath through Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and enabled him and his army against the Holy City, so that he burned it and burned its Temple. Even the sacred objects, which the prophets of God trembled to touch, were trampled under the feet of sinful unbelievers!!” (Chapter 99).
2- God is jealous of a father’s love for his son!!
Barnabas gives another example of God’s jealousy, saying: “And Abraham loved his son Ishmael somewhat more than was right. Therefore God commanded Abraham to slay his son, in order to kill the sinful love in his heart, and he would have done it had the knife cut” (Chapter 99).
Regardless of the fact that Christianity believes the intended sacrifice was Isaac and not Ishmael, we ask:
Is a father’s love for his son sinful love in Abraham’s heart?! And was the purpose of Abraham’s trial to uproot the love of a son from his father’s heart?
This is speech that distorts all noble human relationships, and gives a poor concept of God, portraying Him as a selfish deity who hates every love not directed toward Himself. Moreover, a father’s love for his son is not against the love of God, but rather obedience to God who commanded love between parents and children.
Barnabas continues in the same vein in the same chapter (99), saying: “And David loved his son Absalom greatly, therefore God permitted the son to rebel against his father, and his hair became entangled and Joab killed him. How terrible is the judgment of God, that Absalom loved his hair more than anything else, and it became a rope by which he was hanged”!!
“And righteous Job nearly exceeded proper measure in loving his seven sons and three daughters, so God delivered him into the hand of Satan, who not only took away his children and wealth in one day, but also struck him with grievous disease, so that worms came out of his body for seven years!!!”
“And our father Jacob loved his son Joseph more than his other sons, therefore God decreed that he be sold, and Jacob was deceived by those very sons until he believed that a wild beast had devoured his son, and he remained mourning for ten years.”
It is strange, and intellectually, spiritually, and theologically unacceptable, that God should punish a righteous prophet because he loved his children! Can any person imagine that God killed all the sons and daughters of Job as punishment for his love toward them? And as punishment for this natural, spiritual, holy, and sincere love, God commands that Job be afflicted with worms in his body for many years…
Of course, some details mentioned in the “Gospel” of Barnabas contradict Scripture, but we are speaking here about the spirit behind it. Here there is a misunderstanding of every trial, every incident, and God’s dealings with humanity.
The trial of Job had reasons completely unrelated to his love for his children. His love for his children was not a sin, nor will a father’s love for his children ever be a sin, as long as it does not conflict with the love of God.
What is written in Barnabas is a distortion of human relationships, a distortion of the relationship between God and man, and a portrayal of God as cruel without justification.
3- God punishes the Virgin Mary for her love for her son!!
Barnabas uses the same method in speaking about the love of the Virgin Lady for her son “Jesus,” and claims that God punished her for this love.
Could the Virgin have hated her son?! And if she had hated him, would she have been considered a righteous mother, or even a mother according to nature?
A lack of love by a father for his son, or by a mother for her child, is a kind of abnormality. As for this love, it is natural, placed by God Himself in human instinct, so how can He punish it?!
4- Desiring to see a prophet is a sin and idolatry:
Barnabas presents this situation in an inhuman way in many places, among them the story of the blind man to whom Elijah said that his blindness was because of his sin. The blind man said to the prophet, “If I had seen you, I would not have sinned.” It was a polite and beautiful expression. But Elijah makes a great issue out of this response and says to the blind man:
“May our God forgive you, brother… if you had seen me, your desire would have been extinguished, a desire not pleasing to God. For Elijah is not your Creator, but God.” Then Elijah said weeping, “I am the devil with respect to you, because I turn you away from your Creator”!! (Chapter 117).
What strange harshness in dealing with a blind man, and making him feel that his desire to see a prophet, for blessing and to keep him from sin, is a desire not pleasing to God, and a satanic act. As though the prophet had become a devil stealing God’s love from man!!
This speech caused the prophet to weep and ask forgiveness. And at the end of the chapter, he considered it better for people “for their salvation that they have no eyes,” “because everyone who delights in any creature, and does not seek delight in God, has made an idol in his heart and abandoned God.”
This blind man loved the prophet for God’s sake. He respected him and sought blessing from him because he was a man of God. His love for him did not conflict with love for God. Just as all people receive blessing from the places of saints and righteous men out of love for God, not distance from Him. Far be it that the prophet should become a rival to God in such a case!!
But Barnabas wants to make even love for the prophets a sin, and a diminishing of love for God, something requiring weeping and seeking forgiveness, and considers love for the prophets to be idolatry?! What greater distortion of spirituality than this?!
Who can consider such twisted teaching to be the word of God?! And who dares say that this distortion of all human and spiritual relationships comes from divine revelation?! Within our love for God, we are able to love all creation. Indeed, Holy Scripture says: “HE WHO DOES NOT LOVE HIS BROTHER WHOM HE HAS SEEN, HOW CAN HE LOVE GOD WHOM HE HAS NOT SEEN?!” (1 John 4:20).
Among the distorted religious ideas in the “Gospel” of Barnabas:
5- God accepts lying, because He is above the law!!
Barnabas says in chapter 161: “For as God accepts the killing of men as sacrifice, so also He accepted lying as praise. Verily I say unto you, just as a child errs who makes a shoe according to the measure of a giant’s foot, so errs he who makes God subject to the law”!!
Barnabas fell into a dilemma, namely:
How can God accept lying, while He commands people not to lie!!
His answer was that the law is for people, not for God. Therefore God is not required to submit to it. Because He is a giant, and the law is like a child’s shoe in comparison!! As though the law were merely for outward appearance.
[1] Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III in El-Keraza Magazine, Year Six, Issue Ten, March 7, 1975.
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