Gospel of Barnabas and the first centuries
Gospel of Barnabas and the first centuries
:
Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the most honorable of messengers and the Seal of the Prophets, the master of all creation, the call of Abraham, the prophecy of the one who spoke to God, and the good news of Christ, the Imam of the pious and the one sent as a mercy to the worlds, the truthful and trustworthy Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. And after that...,,,
- This is not the first time I have written a research paper on the Gospel of Barnabas. After my first reading of the Gospel of Barnabas nearly seventeen years ago, I prepared a topic called (The Gospel of Barnabas, why do Christians reject it)
It is also worth noting the many important researches of the honorable brothers here in the forum, including, for example,
Is the Gospel of Barnabas the True Gospel of Christ? -
I also refer the honorable reader interested in this topic to many important books that presented valuable research and studies on the Gospel of Barnabas:
1- The Gospel of Barnabas (translated by Dr. Khalil Saada and defined by Dr. Ahmed Hegazy Al-Saqa and commented by Sheikh Muhammad Rashid Rida)..
2- The Gospel of Barnabas - A field documentary study Dr. Ahmed Ghanem (two parts)
3- The importance of the Gospel of Barnabas, Nabil Al-Karkhi
4- The differences and agreements between the Gospel of Barnabas and the four Gospels - Muhammad Abd al-Rahman Awad
5- The Gospels, a comparative study - Ahmed Tahir
6- The Gospel of Barnabas, Dr. Ahmed Ibish
7- Spiritual culture in the Gospel of Barnabas - Mahmoud Ali Qara’a.
- The writer Mahmoud Ali Qara’a says in the introduction to his book:
“The reader should not think that talking about the Gospel of Barnabas is easy, because in order to grasp what I want from it, I read it several times. The first reading was to comprehend what was in it, the second to limit my purposes from it, the third to leave out the historical matters that are not related to my research that are known to everyone, and the fourth to collect the beads of the necklace.”
Indeed, I imagine that every time you read this Gospel, you will discover new things that did not cross your mind in previous readings.
Now, back to the subject of the research (Is there evidence that confirms that the content of this Gospel is not a product of the Middle Ages.. And is there evidence and indications that confirm the independence and authenticity of the material of this Gospel, and even its historical antiquity?
Its antiquity and its return to the time before the emergence of Islam..
to the time of the first centuries!!
This ebook was translated by Faiz Mustafa into English
Contents of the research: -
1- Barnabas's uniqueness and additions to the four gospels that confirm the authenticity of its source.
2- Quotations of the Apostolic Fathers (the early ones) from Barnabas.. from the second to the fourth century AD.
3- Evidence from the narrators of the Israelites in the first centuries of Islam, sayings attributed to Christ similar to those found in Barnabas and not found in the four gospels.
4- Some texts in Barnabas similar to the texts of some ancient apocryphal gospels and not found in the four gospels.
5- In response to some nonsense (the theory of the lost Agnostic Gospel as an example)
6- In what language was the version from which the Italian version was translated?
7- What do you smell when reading the Gospel of Barnabas.... The scent of the Middle Ages or the fragrance of the first centuries??
8- Barnabas, the disciple of Christ..
9- Surprise!! Quotations or the influence of Christian scholars on the content of the Gospel of Barnabas throughout history (from the second century AD to the twenty-first century)
1- Barnabas's uniqueness and additions to the four gospels that confirm the authenticity of its source.
2- Quotations of the Apostolic Fathers (the early ones) from Barnabas.. from the second to the fourth century AD.
3- Evidence from the narrators of the Israelites in the first centuries of Islam, sayings attributed to Christ similar to those found in Barnabas and not found in the four gospels.
4- Some texts in Barnabas similar to the texts of some ancient apocryphal gospels and not found in the four gospels.
5- In response to some nonsense (the theory of the lost Agnostic Gospel as an example)
6- In what language was the version from which the Italian version was translated?
7- What do you smell when reading the Gospel of Barnabas.... The scent of the Middle Ages or the fragrance of the first centuries??
8- Barnabas, the disciple of Christ..
9- Surprise!! Quotations or the influence of Christian scholars on the content of the Gospel of Barnabas throughout history (from the second century AD to the twenty-first century)
The first section: Barnabas’s additions and uniqueness to the four Gospels that confirm the authenticity of its source.
- Dr. Khalil Saadeh (the Christian translator of the Gospel of Barnabas) says in his commentary on the Gospel of Barnabas:
- The strange thing is that Dr. Saadeh, while trying to defend his belief and prove that the Gospel is forged and similar to Dante, found no alternative but to admit that many of Barnabas’ additions and uniqueness to the four Gospels are additions that have an antiquity!!
- So why is Dr. Saadeh forced to make this dangerous admission instead of being led by his followers and their baseless accusations that this Gospel is an Islamic work that was forged in the Middle Ages and... the writer is ignorant of the history and geography of Palestine and... and...??
Amidst dozens of Christian writings that did not take into account the methodology and integrity of research and were driven by fanaticism rather than the search for truth in their attack on this book, we must not forget the Irish Christian philosopher John Toland (1670-1722 AD), who was the first to study this Gospel when he said, rejecting the fanaticism of his sect:
Let us take
examples of the uniqueness and additions of the Gospel of Barnabas to the approved Gospels (which have the character of antiquity)... And to be continued, God willing.
- Dr. Khalil Saadeh (the Christian translator of the Gospel of Barnabas) says in his commentary on the Gospel of Barnabas:
- The strange thing is that Dr. Saadeh, while trying to defend his belief and prove that the Gospel is forged and similar to Dante, found no alternative but to admit that many of Barnabas’ additions and uniqueness to the four Gospels are additions that have an antiquity!!
- So why is Dr. Saadeh forced to make this dangerous admission instead of being led by his followers and their baseless accusations that this Gospel is an Islamic work that was forged in the Middle Ages and... the writer is ignorant of the history and geography of Palestine and... and...??
Amidst dozens of Christian writings that did not take into account the methodology and integrity of research and were driven by fanaticism rather than the search for truth in their attack on this book, we must not forget the Irish Christian philosopher John Toland (1670-1722 AD), who was the first to study this Gospel when he said, rejecting the fanaticism of his sect:
examples of the uniqueness and additions of the Gospel of Barnabas to the approved Gospels (which have the character of antiquity)... And to be continued, God willing.
1- Jesus in Capernaum heals the centurion’s servant or his son?
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant:
Matthew 8:5-6
(( And when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, grievously tormented.))
Al-Kanz Al-Jalil fi Tafsir Al-Injil : Most likely that the servant was his servant (*)
Al-Durr Al-Farid fi Tafsir Al-Testament Al-Tawhid Al-Tajdeed: His servant. (*)
Luke confirms that the paralytic was the centurion’s servant, saying:
Luke 7:2
“And a certain centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death.”
With Matthew’s interpretations and Luke’s confirmations, we find that Barnabas explicitly disagrees with this and confirms that the paralytic was the centurion’s son and not his servant . We read in Barnabas:
“And a centurion came up and said, ‘Lord, my son is sick; have mercy on my old age.’” Barnabas 31.
The question that comes to mind here is: Would the Roman centurion go to ask someone who was not of his religion to heal his servant or to heal his son?
Indeed, if you know that it was not the custom of the Romans at that time to care for the health of their slaves, but rather if they were sick, they would sell them or neglect them (*), then was the sick man really his slave or his son? Aristotle
wrote about the possible friendships in life at that time, saying:
“We cannot think of feelings of friendship and justice towards inanimate objects, nor towards horses and bulls, nor towards slaves as slaves, for there is nothing in common between master and slave, and the slave is nothing but a moving, living machine , just as the machine is an inanimate slave.”
This was the Roman view of slaves at that time, as slaves had no rights at all, and the master had the right to kill the slave if he wanted .
The Roman writer Varro divided agricultural tools into three categories:
the interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew - William Barclay
“This attitude was completely contrary to the natural attitude of the master towards his slave at that time, as in the Roman state slaves were something that did not deserve attention at all, and no one cared about them if they suffered, were sick or died”
The Great Treasure in Interpreting the Bible - William Oddy
“Although it was rare at that time for masters to care about the health and comfort of their slaves”
What does the text say in the oldest manuscripts:
Therefore, the New Life translation of the text in Matthew confirms that it can also be translated as “my child” (if translated literally and not interpretatively). Now, can the Coptic Orthodox priest, Antonius Fahmy, give us a convincing explanation, which is why he neglected and stopped reading his book and supported the text in the Gospel of Barnabas that the paralytic is the son of the centurion and not his servant , in his sermon (Faith of the Centurion)?? Faith of the Centurion (frantoniosfahmy.com) To be continued , God willing
The Gospel of Matthew tells us that the centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant:
Matthew 8:5-6
(( And when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, beseeching him, and saying, Lord, my servant lies at home paralyzed, grievously tormented.))
Al-Kanz Al-Jalil fi Tafsir Al-Injil : Most likely that the servant was his servant (*)
Al-Durr Al-Farid fi Tafsir Al-Testament Al-Tawhid Al-Tajdeed: His servant. (*)
Luke confirms that the paralytic was the centurion’s servant, saying:
Luke 7:2
“And a certain centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death.”
With Matthew’s interpretations and Luke’s confirmations, we find that Barnabas explicitly disagrees with this and confirms that the paralytic was the centurion’s son and not his servant . We read in Barnabas:
“And a centurion came up and said, ‘Lord, my son is sick; have mercy on my old age.’” Barnabas 31.
The question that comes to mind here is: Would the Roman centurion go to ask someone who was not of his religion to heal his servant or to heal his son?
Indeed, if you know that it was not the custom of the Romans at that time to care for the health of their slaves, but rather if they were sick, they would sell them or neglect them (*), then was the sick man really his slave or his son? Aristotle
wrote about the possible friendships in life at that time, saying:
“We cannot think of feelings of friendship and justice towards inanimate objects, nor towards horses and bulls, nor towards slaves as slaves, for there is nothing in common between master and slave, and the slave is nothing but a moving, living machine , just as the machine is an inanimate slave.”
This was the Roman view of slaves at that time, as slaves had no rights at all, and the master had the right to kill the slave if he wanted .
The Roman writer Varro divided agricultural tools into three categories:
- Speaking tools: slaves
- Non-speaking tools: they are animals.
- Inanimate tools: machines.
the interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew - William Barclay
“This attitude was completely contrary to the natural attitude of the master towards his slave at that time, as in the Roman state slaves were something that did not deserve attention at all, and no one cared about them if they suffered, were sick or died”
The Great Treasure in Interpreting the Bible - William Oddy
“Although it was rare at that time for masters to care about the health and comfort of their slaves”
What does the text say in the oldest manuscripts:
- The word in the Greek manuscript of Matthew is “Pais ”
which means son or child while the word in Luke is “doulos”
which means slave.
Therefore, the New Life translation of the text in Matthew confirms that it can also be translated as “my child” (if translated literally and not interpretatively). Now, can the Coptic Orthodox priest, Antonius Fahmy, give us a convincing explanation, which is why he neglected and stopped reading his book and supported the text in the Gospel of Barnabas that the paralytic is the son of the centurion and not his servant , in his sermon (Faith of the Centurion)?? Faith of the Centurion (frantoniosfahmy.com) To be continued , God willing
2 - Judas sold Christ for thirty pieces of gold or silver:
Mark 14:10-11
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray him to them . And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money .
Luke 22:4-5
Then he went and talked with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them . And they were glad and agreed to give him money .
The high priest answered: How much do you want? Judas said: Thirty pieces of gold . Then the high priest immediately counted out the money for him.
And when we know that Judas was responsible for keeping the community treasury and was embezzling from it (John 12:7), that is, he was in fact a thief who loved money greedily, so when he sold his teacher, would he sell him for thirty pieces of silver or gold?
And when we read in the book Al-Durr Al-Fareed fi Tafsir Al-Ahd Al-Jadeed (Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew) by the scholar, the argument of theologians, the pillar of the imams of interpreters (as the people describe him), Dionysius Ibn Al-Salibi Al-Suryani,
we find him saying in a commentary on the text in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15:
And his saying thirty pieces of silver means thirty dinars, because silver sometimes refers to gold and sometimes to silver, dirhams, and dinars .
Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew - Department of Syriac Studies (dss-syriacpatriarchate.org)
Is the scholar’s contradiction of the text and the common interpretations an effort on his part, or does his interpretation have an ancient origin or tradition?
A tradition that may date back to the time of Christ himself...
History records for us a tradition that goes back to Joseph of Arimathea (of Arimathea) , the disciple of Christ , that he gave Judas thirty pieces of gold, not silver .
- Barnabas surprises us with one of his amazing revelations, boldly contradicting the three Gospels combined (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), which confirmed that Judas the traitor betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver.
- Matthew 26:15
Mark 14:10-11
Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray him to them . And when they heard it, they were glad and promised to give him money .
Luke 22:4-5
Then he went and talked with the chief priests and captains how he might betray him to them . And they were glad and agreed to give him money .
- While we read in Barnabas that Judas asked for thirty pieces of gold, not silver!
The high priest answered: How much do you want? Judas said: Thirty pieces of gold . Then the high priest immediately counted out the money for him.
And when we know that Judas was responsible for keeping the community treasury and was embezzling from it (John 12:7), that is, he was in fact a thief who loved money greedily, so when he sold his teacher, would he sell him for thirty pieces of silver or gold?
And when we read in the book Al-Durr Al-Fareed fi Tafsir Al-Ahd Al-Jadeed (Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew) by the scholar, the argument of theologians, the pillar of the imams of interpreters (as the people describe him), Dionysius Ibn Al-Salibi Al-Suryani,
we find him saying in a commentary on the text in the Gospel of Matthew 26:15:
And his saying thirty pieces of silver means thirty dinars, because silver sometimes refers to gold and sometimes to silver, dirhams, and dinars .
Interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew - Department of Syriac Studies (dss-syriacpatriarchate.org)
Is the scholar’s contradiction of the text and the common interpretations an effort on his part, or does his interpretation have an ancient origin or tradition?
A tradition that may date back to the time of Christ himself...
History records for us a tradition that goes back to Joseph of Arimathea (of Arimathea) , the disciple of Christ , that he gave Judas thirty pieces of gold, not silver .
The extracanonical Narrative of Joseph of Arimathea records that Judas was paid 30 pieces of gold , not silver .(1)
- Ehrman, Bart ; Please, Zlatko (2011). The Apocryphal Gospels: Texts and Translations . New York: Oxford University Press . p. 553 . ISBN 9780199732104 . exchange for thirty pieces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_pieces_of_silver\ https://silverhalloffame.com/thirty-pieces-of-silver/
Age of Christ when he returned from Egypt to Palestine again : - The Gospel of Matthew (2: 19-21) mentions that after the death of Herod, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph the carpenter, telling him to take the child and his mother and return to Israel because Herod had died.19Now when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt,20saying, “Arise, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.”21, took the child and his mother,and came to the land of Israel.The same words are found in Barnabas, chapter nine, with a sudden addition : Now when Herod was dead, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying: Return to Judea, for those who wanted the child dead are dead. So Joseph took the child and Mary ( and the child was seven years old ).•Why would the writer of Barnabas risk this addition, when it would have been better to put the text as it is in Matthew without this addition?!OhGod, if this addition has a basis..- Now let us check whether there is actually evidence that Christ was seven years old when he returned from Egypt?The answer is yes.. and with evidence:1-Ezzat Andraos mentions under the title (The duration of the family's stay in Egypt) that some estimated the duration of the family's stay in Egypt at seven years, citing an article by Father Jacob Moser "The Entry of the Lord into Egypt" by Father Jacob Moser - Al-Salah Magazine - May 1933 p. 233.It is known according to the Gospels that Joseph took Christ and his mother to Egypt immediately after his birth.. so Christ's age upon his return would have been seven years.2-Father Boulos Al-Feghali mentions in a comment on this addition: We read this detail in the Diatessaron of Venice .. Studi e testi 81 p30.The Gospel of Barnabas, translated by Father Boulos Al-Feghali, analysis study p.3-The Life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, published in London in 1739 AD and translated from the Works of St. Bonaventure (thirteenth century AD) p. 91The Life of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Translated from the Works of St. Bonaventure.4-booksof the Bible & forgotten books of Eden,published in 1926:5- In 2016, a film was made entitledThe young Messiah,which depicts Christ returning from Egypt to Nazareth at the age of seven.
Tells the story of Jesus Christ at the age of seven as he and his family depart Egypt to return home to Nazareth. Born from his childhood perspective, it follows young Jesus as he grows into his religious identity.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1002563/
4. Was it Darius or Cyrus who decreed that Daniel be food for the lions?
We continue
with the uniqueness of the Gospel of Barnabas and its bold and challenging contradictions, but this time to what is mentioned in the Book of Daniel that Darius the Mede decreed that Daniel be food for the lions (Daniel 6:16). Barnabas confirms that it was King Cyrus who decreed this , not Darius, in a clear contradiction and challenge to the current books of the Bible.
( And Cyrus decreed that Daniel should be food for the lions ) Barnabas 50
As for King Cyrus, when we searched for his historical existence outside the Bible, we found that he is a real historical figure, while when we searched for Darius even in Christian references, we found an amazing surprise:
((Darius is an unknown person and perhaps a fictional character))
St-Takla.org website https://st-takla.org/pub_Bible-Inter...pter-06.html#1 *Watchtower website of Jehovah's Witnesses
https://wol.jw.org/ar/wol/d/r39/lp-a/1200001124
*The surprises do not stop at the belief that Darius may have been a fictional character, but the matter goes beyond that when we learn that
the late investigators in the twentieth century believe that the material Darius mentioned in Daniel is none other than Cyrus !
To be continued,
God willing...,,,
with the uniqueness of the Gospel of Barnabas and its bold and challenging contradictions, but this time to what is mentioned in the Book of Daniel that Darius the Mede decreed that Daniel be food for the lions (Daniel 6:16). Barnabas confirms that it was King Cyrus who decreed this , not Darius, in a clear contradiction and challenge to the current books of the Bible.
( And Cyrus decreed that Daniel should be food for the lions ) Barnabas 50
As for King Cyrus, when we searched for his historical existence outside the Bible, we found that he is a real historical figure, while when we searched for Darius even in Christian references, we found an amazing surprise:
((Darius is an unknown person and perhaps a fictional character))
St-Takla.org website https://st-takla.org/pub_Bible-Inter...pter-06.html#1 *Watchtower website of Jehovah's Witnesses
https://wol.jw.org/ar/wol/d/r39/lp-a/1200001124
*The surprises do not stop at the belief that Darius may have been a fictional character, but the matter goes beyond that when we learn that
the late investigators in the twentieth century believe that the material Darius mentioned in Daniel is none other than Cyrus !
God willing...,,,
Attached files
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We were the scholars and teachers... when they were living in the darkness of the Middle Ages and paying the price for the Church’s abolition of the role of reason... while we were the opposite... for the mosque in our civilization was both a mosque and a university...
5 - The number of apostles is 72 and not 70 : (1)
- The copies have continued to record the number of apostles mentioned in Luke as 70 apostles throughout history and even until now.. However, the recently published translation of the Book of Life has adjusted the number to 72 based on referring to the oldest manuscripts.. which is the same number mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas discovered in the sixteenth century!
The question is: How does the writer of the apocryphal Gospel attributed to Barnabas dare to contradict all the versions of his time (supposedly according to their claims the sixteenth century) and be unique in stating that the number of apostles is 72 and not 70?!Then
, after several centuries, the translation of the Book of Life comes out and confirms the claim of the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas?
- Isn't it really confusing?!AnArabic manuscript of the Gospel of Luke dates back to the sixteenth century.. It is noted that the number of apostles in it is 70 and not 72.Father Matta El Meskeen confirms the authenticity of the number 72 in his interpretation of the Gospel of Luke, where he says on page 437:
It is read in some manuscripts, such as the Vatican and some Coptic and Syriac versions as seventy-two, and scholars confirm, according to most manuscripts, that it was originally seventy-two
- The copies have continued to record the number of apostles mentioned in Luke as 70 apostles throughout history and even until now.. However, the recently published translation of the Book of Life has adjusted the number to 72 based on referring to the oldest manuscripts.. which is the same number mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas discovered in the sixteenth century!
The question is: How does the writer of the apocryphal Gospel attributed to Barnabas dare to contradict all the versions of his time (supposedly according to their claims the sixteenth century) and be unique in stating that the number of apostles is 72 and not 70?!Then
, after several centuries, the translation of the Book of Life comes out and confirms the claim of the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas?
- Isn't it really confusing?!AnArabic manuscript of the Gospel of Luke dates back to the sixteenth century.. It is noted that the number of apostles in it is 70 and not 72.Father Matta El Meskeen confirms the authenticity of the number 72 in his interpretation of the Gospel of Luke, where he says on page 437:
It is read in some manuscripts, such as the Vatican and some Coptic and Syriac versions as seventy-two, and scholars confirm, according to most manuscripts, that it was originally seventy-two
Section Two: Quotations by the Apostolic Fathers (the early ones) from Barnabas (from the second to the fourth century AD):
- This method is used by Christian scholars to prove the authenticity of a text by using it on the tongues of the early Apostolic Fathers of the Church. If one of the church fathers approved in the second century AD cited or quoted a certain text, this indicates that the date of the text will not be after the second century AD, and so on...
- Of course, the four gospels approved by Christians (Matthew - Mark - Luke - John) you will find quotations on the tongues of the church fathers during the period from the second to the fourth century, and this will not necessarily mean that their contents are correct, but it will mean that their contents are old and date back to the second century AD and perhaps before it.
Now we will apply the same standard to the Gospel of Barnabas, which is supposed, according to the opinion of Christian scholars, to be a apocryphal gospel written in the Middle Ages. But before applying it to the Gospel of Barnabas, we will apply it to an apocryphal gospel from the unapproved gospels, let it be the Gospel of Thomas.
- The Gospel of Thomas was discovered in its entirety for the first time near Nag Hammadi in 1945 AD (before that, only three pieces of its content were available in ancient Greek). The text is written in Coptic and consists of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus Christ, some of which are shared with the four Gospels and some of which are unique to them. They are independent sayings on the tongue of Christ and not the narrative style of the life of Christ as in the four Gospels or the Gospel of Barnabas.
Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) -
Is there any mention of the Gospel of Thomas in the first centuries of Christianity?
The Gospel of Thomas is mentioned as one of the banned books according to the decision of Pope Gelasius (492 AD to 496 AD) and despite the quotations from it by the early fathers, it was not referred to as a source of the quotation.
The question is: Are there quotations from the early fathers from texts found only in the Gospel of Thomas?
Answer: Yes, with evidence
1- Clement of Rome (end of the first century to the second century AD): (c. 35 AD – 101 AD) Clement of Rome
SECOND LETTE
For this reason, we must await the Kingdom of God with love and justice every hour because we do not know the day on which God will appear. 2. For when someone asked the Lord himself when his kingdom would come, he said: If the two are one, and the outside is like the inside, and the male with the female is neither male nor female.”
The text here is classified by scholars as Agrapha (which are the oral sayings of Christ that are not mentioned in the New Testament.)
And the text
in its entirety will not be found in any of the other gospels except in the Gospel of Thomas, specifically the saying (twenty-second).
2-
Hippolytus of Rome (170 AD: 235 AD) wrote in his book Refutation of All Heresies 5:7:20 in his response to the sect of theNaassenes
The Hanshitans believe in a hidden and at the same time inspired nature which they call the kingdom of thought for the heavens which is in man. They quote a tradition regarding this in the Gospel entitled “According to Thomas,” which explicitly states that “He who seeks me will find me among children from seven years old. In them I am hidden and appear at fourteen.”
CHURCH
FATHERS: Refutation of All Heresies, Book V (Hippolytus) (newadvent.org) —Jack
Finegan has suggested that the text referred to is the fourth paragraph of the Gospel of Thomas ( Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus , p. 246).
The two texts are not identical, as in the first example.
* Based on this and other evidence, Christian scholars have suggested a date for the Gospel of Thomas that is most likely between the first and second centuries (60:140 AD). Robert Van Voorst, professor of New Testament studies at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan, says:
“Most commentators believe it was written in the second century AD, although they believe that many of its oral accounts are much older.”
Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) *
So The content of the Gospel of Thomas was written between the first and second centuries AD.. So what about the Gospel of Barnabas if we apply the same standard (the early church fathers quoted it exclusively)?
- This method is used by Christian scholars to prove the authenticity of a text by using it on the tongues of the early Apostolic Fathers of the Church. If one of the church fathers approved in the second century AD cited or quoted a certain text, this indicates that the date of the text will not be after the second century AD, and so on...
- Of course, the four gospels approved by Christians (Matthew - Mark - Luke - John) you will find quotations on the tongues of the church fathers during the period from the second to the fourth century, and this will not necessarily mean that their contents are correct, but it will mean that their contents are old and date back to the second century AD and perhaps before it.
Now we will apply the same standard to the Gospel of Barnabas, which is supposed, according to the opinion of Christian scholars, to be a apocryphal gospel written in the Middle Ages. But before applying it to the Gospel of Barnabas, we will apply it to an apocryphal gospel from the unapproved gospels, let it be the Gospel of Thomas.
- The Gospel of Thomas was discovered in its entirety for the first time near Nag Hammadi in 1945 AD (before that, only three pieces of its content were available in ancient Greek). The text is written in Coptic and consists of 114 sayings attributed to Jesus Christ, some of which are shared with the four Gospels and some of which are unique to them. They are independent sayings on the tongue of Christ and not the narrative style of the life of Christ as in the four Gospels or the Gospel of Barnabas.
Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) -
Is there any mention of the Gospel of Thomas in the first centuries of Christianity?
The Gospel of Thomas is mentioned as one of the banned books according to the decision of Pope Gelasius (492 AD to 496 AD) and despite the quotations from it by the early fathers, it was not referred to as a source of the quotation.
The question is: Are there quotations from the early fathers from texts found only in the Gospel of Thomas?
Answer: Yes, with evidence
1- Clement of Rome (end of the first century to the second century AD): (c. 35 AD – 101 AD) Clement of Rome
SECOND LETTE
For this reason, we must await the Kingdom of God with love and justice every hour because we do not know the day on which God will appear. 2. For when someone asked the Lord himself when his kingdom would come, he said: If the two are one, and the outside is like the inside, and the male with the female is neither male nor female.”
The text here is classified by scholars as Agrapha (which are the oral sayings of Christ that are not mentioned in the New Testament.)
And the textin its entirety will not be found in any of the other gospels except in the Gospel of Thomas, specifically the saying (twenty-second).
2-Hippolytus of Rome (170 AD: 235 AD) wrote in his book Refutation of All Heresies 5:7:20 in his response to the sect of theNaassenes
The Hanshitans believe in a hidden and at the same time inspired nature which they call the kingdom of thought for the heavens which is in man. They quote a tradition regarding this in the Gospel entitled “According to Thomas,” which explicitly states that “He who seeks me will find me among children from seven years old. In them I am hidden and appear at fourteen.”
FATHERS: Refutation of All Heresies, Book V (Hippolytus) (newadvent.org) —Jack
Finegan has suggested that the text referred to is the fourth paragraph of the Gospel of Thomas ( Hidden Records of the Life of Jesus , p. 246).
The two texts are not identical, as in the first example.
* Based on this and other evidence, Christian scholars have suggested a date for the Gospel of Thomas that is most likely between the first and second centuries (60:140 AD). Robert Van Voorst, professor of New Testament studies at Western Theological Seminary in Michigan, says:
“Most commentators believe it was written in the second century AD, although they believe that many of its oral accounts are much older.”
Gospel of Thomas - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) *
So The content of the Gospel of Thomas was written between the first and second centuries AD.. So what about the Gospel of Barnabas if we apply the same standard (the early church fathers quoted it exclusively)?
Quotations of the Apostolic Fathers (early) from Barnabas (from the second to the fourth century AD): Quotations of the early fathers can 1- Saint Clement of Alexandria (150: 215 AD): Be like a skilled banker
The book urges us to be like these logical people: Be skilful money changers , rejecting some things while keeping what is good.
Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata - Book 1 (gnosis.org) -
The truth is that this text is not found at all, neither in the approved gospels nor even the apocryphal ones , but only in the Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 74:
Truly I say to you, a man ought to imitate the example of the money changer who examines the money, examining his thoughts so that he does not sin against his Creator.
2- Clement of Rome: (c. 35 AD – 101 AD) Clement of Rome : Be merciful, that you may obtain mercy.
Pay attention The question is, did he say these words verbatim in the Gospels? The answer: No... The closest expression to these words is in the Gospel of Luke 6:36 6:36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful . But in Barnabas 88 the text is stated thus: Every time you correct your brother with mercy, you will receive God’s mercy. 3- The tempter is the wicked one: The translation : And for those who claim that the Lord tempts, the book actually says: The tempter is the wicked one . Now, if we go back to the Bible in both its testaments, you will not find the term the tempter is the wicked one , but you may find the meaning.. and the wicked one is Satan or the devil.. 38 Bible verses about Satan, As Tempter (knowing-jesus.com) As for the exact quote of Christ’s saying (the graph), you will not find it except in the Gospel of Barnabas: John answered, “Teacher! Tell us how the ancient tempter stands in ambush for man.” Jesus answered, “That evil one tempts in four ways and follows, with God’s permission,,,
the Scripture, in its desire to make us such dialecticians, exhorts us: “ Be ye skilful money-changers” [3] rejecting some things, but retaining what is good.
The book urges us to be like these logical people: Be skilful money changers , rejecting some things while keeping what is good.
Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata - Book 1 (gnosis.org) -
The truth is that this text is not found at all, neither in the approved gospels nor even the apocryphal ones , but only in the Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 74:
Truly I say to you, a man ought to imitate the example of the money changer who examines the money, examining his thoughts so that he does not sin against his Creator.
2- Clement of Rome: (c. 35 AD – 101 AD) Clement of Rome : Be merciful, that you may obtain mercy.
T. Quotations from the Apostolic Fathers (the early ones) from Barnabas (from the second to the fourth century AD): We follow
together the Agrapha, which are the verbal sayings of Christ that are not found in the Gospels and that were mentioned by the Apostles and the early Fathers, and the extent of the similarity of some of these sayings with what is mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas on the tongue of Christ..
4- Acts 20:35
In all things I showed you that thus you ought to labor and support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said : “It is more blessed to give than to receive .”
Now
this saying, even in its meaning (loving to give more than to receive), is not found in the Gospels. Whether legal or apocryphal.. Rather, this saying is similar to what was mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas (Parable of the Two Apple Sellers) Chapter 132:
The other apple seller is “the one who loved to give much and take little ” .. even if people despised him.. And Christ explains in Barnabas 134 saying:
As for the two apple sellers, one of them is the one who preaches for the love of God , so he does not flatter anyone, but preaches the truth, seeking only a poor living! By the life of God, in whose presence my soul stands, the world does not accept such a man, but despises him.
5- Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215)
says that Christ said:
"Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake; for they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted ."
(Blessed are those who are persecuted for my sake, for they will be in a place where they will not be persecuted .)
There is nothing like this speech in reality except in Barnabas
Barnabas 64
((That, O man, for as often as you are reproached and persecuted in this life for your sins, that will be said against you in the day of judgment ))
together the Agrapha, which are the verbal sayings of Christ that are not found in the Gospels and that were mentioned by the Apostles and the early Fathers, and the extent of the similarity of some of these sayings with what is mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas on the tongue of Christ..
4- Acts 20:35
In all things I showed you that thus you ought to labor and support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said : “It is more blessed to give than to receive .”
Now
this saying, even in its meaning (loving to give more than to receive), is not found in the Gospels. Whether legal or apocryphal.. Rather, this saying is similar to what was mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas (Parable of the Two Apple Sellers) Chapter 132:
The other apple seller is “the one who loved to give much and take little ” .. even if people despised him.. And Christ explains in Barnabas 134 saying:
As for the two apple sellers, one of them is the one who preaches for the love of God , so he does not flatter anyone, but preaches the truth, seeking only a poor living! By the life of God, in whose presence my soul stands, the world does not accept such a man, but despises him.
5- Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215)
says that Christ said:
"Blessed are they who are persecuted for my sake; for they shall have a place where they shall not be persecuted ."
(Blessed are those who are persecuted for my sake, for they will be in a place where they will not be persecuted .)
Fathers of the Second Century: Hermas, Tatian, Athenagoras, Theophilus, and Clement of Alexandria.. by Philip Schaff p 684
There is nothing like this speech in reality except in Barnabas
Barnabas 64
((That, O man, for as often as you are reproached and persecuted in this life for your sins, that will be said against you in the day of judgment ))
T. Quotations from the Apostolic Fathers (early) from Barnabas (from the second to the fourth century AD): 6-
The Apostolic Constitutions 375 AD: ( Apostolic Constitutions 2:63)
" If anyone does not work, let him not eat, just as he has not worked . Therefore the Lord our God hates the lazy person ."
Although there are many passages in the Bible that speak of laziness, especially in the Book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the closest to this phrase is found in the Gospel of Barnabas.
We read in Barnabas 59 (For truly I say to you, rest in this world is the poison of godliness, and the fire that consumes all that is good. You have forgotten, then, how Solomon, the prophet of God, and the rest of the prophets, denounced laziness. It is true what he says: " The lazy person who does not plow for fear of the cold (in the winter), therefore he begs in the summer. " Therefore he said: "Whatever your hand can do, do without rest." And what does Job, the most righteous of God's friends, say: "Just as the bird is born to fly, so man is born to work." Truly I say to you, I hate rest (laziness) more than anything else .)
7- Ephrem the Syrian (306 - 373 AD): S. Ephrem the Syrian (You do not own anything in this world)
Do Not Be Weighed Down by Possessions
Translation: Do not burden yourself with possessions , as Christ said, "You do not possess anything in this world."
You will not find these phrases with this correspondence, whether in meaning or in text, except in Barnabas , where Christ says in Barnabas 16:
"You are travelers as pilgrim; does a pilgrim take for himself on the road palaces and fields and other worldly debris? No, no! But he carries light things that are useful and beneficial on the road."
What is also strange is that in the Gospel of Thomas there is a very brief commandment from Christ where he says: (Be passers by) and it is not found anywhere, literally or in meaning, in the Gospels except in the text above in the Gospel of Barnabas.
- This is in terms of correspondence in meaning. As for the textual correspondence, it was repeated more than once in the Gospel of Barnabas, whether on Christ's tongue about himself or as a commandment to others where he says:
Barnabas 206 (Believe me, I seek nothing in this world )
Barnabas 25 (Believe me, if the world had a sound mind , no one would accumulate anything for himself )
The Apostolic Constitutions 375 AD: ( Apostolic Constitutions 2:63)
“If any one does not work, let not such an one eat , for the Lord our God hateth the slothful .”
" If anyone does not work, let him not eat, just as he has not worked . Therefore the Lord our God hates the lazy person ."
Although there are many passages in the Bible that speak of laziness, especially in the Book of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, the closest to this phrase is found in the Gospel of Barnabas.
We read in Barnabas 59 (For truly I say to you, rest in this world is the poison of godliness, and the fire that consumes all that is good. You have forgotten, then, how Solomon, the prophet of God, and the rest of the prophets, denounced laziness. It is true what he says: " The lazy person who does not plow for fear of the cold (in the winter), therefore he begs in the summer. " Therefore he said: "Whatever your hand can do, do without rest." And what does Job, the most righteous of God's friends, say: "Just as the bird is born to fly, so man is born to work." Truly I say to you, I hate rest (laziness) more than anything else .)
7- Ephrem the Syrian (306 - 373 AD): S. Ephrem the Syrian (You do not own anything in this world)
Do Not Be Weighed Down by Possessions
Jesus said, “Possess not anything in this world.”
Translation: Do not burden yourself with possessions , as Christ said, "You do not possess anything in this world."
You will not find these phrases with this correspondence, whether in meaning or in text, except in Barnabas , where Christ says in Barnabas 16:
"You are travelers as pilgrim; does a pilgrim take for himself on the road palaces and fields and other worldly debris? No, no! But he carries light things that are useful and beneficial on the road."
What is also strange is that in the Gospel of Thomas there is a very brief commandment from Christ where he says: (Be passers by) and it is not found anywhere, literally or in meaning, in the Gospels except in the text above in the Gospel of Barnabas.
- This is in terms of correspondence in meaning. As for the textual correspondence, it was repeated more than once in the Gospel of Barnabas, whether on Christ's tongue about himself or as a commandment to others where he says:
Barnabas 206 (Believe me, I seek nothing in this world )
Barnabas 25 (Believe me, if the world had a sound mind , no one would accumulate anything for himself )
8- John Chrysostom (347-407 AD) St. John Chrysostom : (Fire is not quenched by fire but by water)
We read in Matthew 5: 38-39
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
39 But I say to you, do not resist evil. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
But in Barnabas 18 you find him explaining what he meant by the wonderful example that he put in its place:
Do not repay evil for evil, for that is what all the evil of the animals do, but repay evil for good, and pray to God for those who hate you, fire is not quenched by fire but by water . Therefore I say to you, do not overcome evil with evil, but with good
- and since the sentence of Barnabas added to Matthew was wonderful , Father Paul Al-Feghali was confused (in his study of Barnabas’ addition) and tried to find the source of Barnabas’ addition, so he attributed it to Jesus, son of Sirach 3:33 (Water quenches a blazing fire, and almsgiving expiates sins.)
And the two examples are not identical, as we notice... The truth is that the same text was used by John Chrysostom in his commentary on the same text (Do not resist evil) as if he was quoting from Barnabas!!
For one fire is not quenched by another, but fire by water
Chapter
5 - Patristic Bible Commentary (google.com )
9- Augustine (354-430 AD): Attachment to the manufactured and abandoning its maker (adultery):
St. Augustine says in his sermon (Love of the World and Love of God):
Woe to you if you love the manufactured and abandon the maker, you see it beautiful, but more beautiful than its maker. God does not forbid you to love this beautiful thing, provided that you do not love it in pursuit of your happiness and in search of it, but out of love for the Creator and glorification of Him .
If a fiancé made a ring for his bride and she accepted it and then preferred it over him, would she not be an adulteress against her fiancé? The reason for that gift?
Love of the world and love of God - St. Augustine | Writings of the Holy Fathers (wordpress.com) ...
In fact, this idea was mentioned in Barnabas 115: ((Believe me, when a person loves something, not because God gave it to him, he is an adulterer , because he made the soul united with the creature, which must remain united with God, its Creator...)) All these quotations, with their diverse sources, confirm that there is material for an ancient and authentic heritage from which they were drawing. The important question is why the Gospel of Barnabas was not widely spread among the public in the first centuries. This question is answered by the great follower Wahb ibn Munabbih, may God be pleased with him (34 AH - 114 AH), the one with knowledge and experience in the books of the ancients, where he says:
((I have read more than ninety books of God, seventy of which are apparent in churches, and twenty of which are known only to a few ))
Answer: What prevents that? We have several reasons
. The first reason: We notice the absence of any mention or reference to the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of the Hebrews, whether in the Gelasian Decree or the list of the sixty books, as one of the apocryphal books. This is simply because the name of the Gospel of Barnabas is present. If the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew were another gospel, it would have been mentioned, because it is impossible for people not to know about it in light of the many citations to it from the early fathers (such as: Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, the scholar Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril the Great, Saint Jerome, etc.).
The second reason: The “list of the sixty books” actually mentioned gospels by their uncommon name instead of the common name that people knew at the time. A clear example of this is that the Protevangelium of James was referred to as an apocryphal gospel, but under an uncommon name, which is the Gospel of the History of James.
* All these are just clues.. Okay, let's leave the clues and present the evidence, thanks to God.
The first evidence: Barnabas confirms in his Gospel that he was not the only one who wrote, but Matthew the tax collector wrote this with him!
I invite those who love reading between the lines to read Barnabas Chapter 14 carefully to confirm this dangerous information:
So
Barnabas participated with Matthew in writing his Gospel or vice versa...
The second evidence: The monk Marino mentioned that he found letters by Irenaeus in which he denounced Paul based on what was stated in the Gospel of Barnabas. Of course, we do not need to confirm that the Gospel of Barnabas denounces the teachings of Paul and mentions him by name in the introduction and conclusion... But we found objections from Christian scholars and skepticism about the entire story of the monk Marino by saying that history has never mentioned that Irenaeus referred to this denunciation of Paul based on the Gospel of Barnabas... And this statement is true... But what if the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is the same as the Gospel of Barnabas? Will history remain mute? Or will it speak the truth this time? Let's see...
Why would they describe Paul as an apostate?
Certainly based on what is mentioned in Matthew..
They do not use any other gospel!!
The third evidence: Barnabas receives the gospel from Matthew and edits it to teach it to the Jews (Acts of Barnabas)
The Journal of Saints 1698 AD (1698 - Acta sanctorum JunII)
confirms the discovery of the body of Saint Barnabas in Cyprus buried with the Gospel of Matthew on his chest (which Barnabas wrote in his own handwriting!) during the reign of Emperor Zeno in 478 AD.
We read in Matthew 5: 38-39
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
39 But I say to you, do not resist evil. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
But in Barnabas 18 you find him explaining what he meant by the wonderful example that he put in its place:
Do not repay evil for evil, for that is what all the evil of the animals do, but repay evil for good, and pray to God for those who hate you, fire is not quenched by fire but by water . Therefore I say to you, do not overcome evil with evil, but with good
- and since the sentence of Barnabas added to Matthew was wonderful , Father Paul Al-Feghali was confused (in his study of Barnabas’ addition) and tried to find the source of Barnabas’ addition, so he attributed it to Jesus, son of Sirach 3:33 (Water quenches a blazing fire, and almsgiving expiates sins.)
And the two examples are not identical, as we notice... The truth is that the same text was used by John Chrysostom in his commentary on the same text (Do not resist evil) as if he was quoting from Barnabas!!
For one fire is not quenched by another, but fire by water
Chapter
5 - Patristic Bible Commentary (google.com )
9- Augustine (354-430 AD): Attachment to the manufactured and abandoning its maker (adultery):
St. Augustine says in his sermon (Love of the World and Love of God):
Woe to you if you love the manufactured and abandon the maker, you see it beautiful, but more beautiful than its maker. God does not forbid you to love this beautiful thing, provided that you do not love it in pursuit of your happiness and in search of it, but out of love for the Creator and glorification of Him .
If a fiancé made a ring for his bride and she accepted it and then preferred it over him, would she not be an adulteress against her fiancé? The reason for that gift?
Love of the world and love of God - St. Augustine | Writings of the Holy Fathers (wordpress.com) ...
In fact, this idea was mentioned in Barnabas 115: ((Believe me, when a person loves something, not because God gave it to him, he is an adulterer , because he made the soul united with the creature, which must remain united with God, its Creator...)) All these quotations, with their diverse sources, confirm that there is material for an ancient and authentic heritage from which they were drawing. The important question is why the Gospel of Barnabas was not widely spread among the public in the first centuries. This question is answered by the great follower Wahb ibn Munabbih, may God be pleased with him (34 AH - 114 AH), the one with knowledge and experience in the books of the ancients, where he says:
((I have read more than ninety books of God, seventy of which are apparent in churches, and twenty of which are known only to a few ))
Section Three : Evidence from the narrators of the Israelite stories in the first centuries of Islam, sayings attributed to Christ that are identical to those found in Barnabas and are not found in the four Gospels.
They are the narrations of the followers in the first century AH (seventh to eighth century AD) who had knowledge of the sayings of Christ in the books of the ancients or transmitted his sayings orally. If their narrations are found in a book, this indicates the existence of that book before the seventh century AD or, let us say, before the emergence of Islam.
Let us take an example of this:
1- The Gospel of Matthew: If there are narrations that we only find in the Gospel of Matthew, this indicates the existence of the Gospel of Matthew before Islam. As an example of this, as in the following table:
*
Since these narratives are not found in any of the Gospels except in the Gospel of Matthew only.. then the Gospel of Matthew is before this period or let us say before the emergence of Islam.
2- The Gospel of Luke: Narrations of the followers of Christ are not found except in the Gospel of Luke:
*
Since these narratives are not found in any of the Gospels except in the Gospel of Luke only... then the Gospel of Luke is prior to this period or let's say before the emergence of Islam. So
what about the Gospel of Barnabas?
Are there narratives of the followers on the tongue of Christ that you do not find anything similar or identical to them except on the tongue of Christ in the Gospel of Barnabas?
They are the narrations of the followers in the first century AH (seventh to eighth century AD) who had knowledge of the sayings of Christ in the books of the ancients or transmitted his sayings orally. If their narrations are found in a book, this indicates the existence of that book before the seventh century AD or, let us say, before the emergence of Islam.
Let us take an example of this:
1- The Gospel of Matthew: If there are narrations that we only find in the Gospel of Matthew, this indicates the existence of the Gospel of Matthew before Islam. As an example of this, as in the following table:
| Witness in the Gospel of Matthew | The novel | Date of death of the narrator | |
| Matthew 6: 17-18 Butwhen you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,so thatyou do not appear to people to be fasting. | On the authority of Hilal bin Yasaaf , he said: Jesus, son of Mary, used to say: “When it is a day of fasting for one of you, let him oil his beard and wipe his lips until he goes out to the people, and they say: He is not fasting.” | 91 AH | 710 AD |
| Matthew 7:26-27 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was its fall. | On the authority of Makhul, he said: “Jesus, son of Mary, said: O group of disciples, which of you can build a house on the waves of the sea ? They said: O Spirit of Allah, who is able to do that? He said: Beware of the world, and do not make it your home. ” | 113 AH | 731 AD |
| Matthew 7:6 And do not cast your pearls before swine. | On the authority of Wahb, he said: The Messiah, peace be upon him, said: Do not throw pearls to pigs , for they will do nothing with them. And do not give wisdom to someone who does not want it, for wisdom is better than pearls, and someone who does not want it is worse than pigs. | 114 AH | 732 AD |
| Matthew 6:20-21 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in nor steal.For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. | On the authority of Ibrahim al-Taymi , that Jesus, peace be upon him, said: “Place your treasures in the heavens, for a person’s heart is with his treasure .” | 92 AH | 711 AD |
Since these narratives are not found in any of the Gospels except in the Gospel of Matthew only.. then the Gospel of Matthew is before this period or let us say before the emergence of Islam.
2- The Gospel of Luke: Narrations of the followers of Christ are not found except in the Gospel of Luke:
| 52 Woe to you, lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and those who were entering you have hindered. (Luke 11:52 ) | Wahb said: Jesus said: O evil scholars, you sit at the gates of Paradise, and you do not enter it, nor do you allow the poor to enter it. | 114 AH | 732 AD |
| Luke 11:27-28 While he was still speaking these things, a woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed . ” But he said, “ Rather, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it .” | Qatada said: It was mentioned to us that a woman saw the son of Mary bringing the dead back to life and healing the blind and the leper, in signs that God had given him authority over and permission to do. She said: Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breast that breastfed you . The Prophet of God, Jesus, peace be upon him, said in response to her: Blessed is he who recites the words of God and follows what is in them. | 118 AH | 736 AD |
Since these narratives are not found in any of the Gospels except in the Gospel of Luke only... then the Gospel of Luke is prior to this period or let's say before the emergence of Islam. So
what about the Gospel of Barnabas?
Are there narratives of the followers on the tongue of Christ that you do not find anything similar or identical to them except on the tongue of Christ in the Gospel of Barnabas?
The question then: Are there narrations of the followers on the tongue of Christ that you can only find what resembles or matches them on the tongue of Christ in the Gospel of Barnabas?
The answer: Indeed, we found narrations mentioned by the followers as sayings of Christ that we can only find a counterpart to on the tongue of Christ in Barnabas. Examples of this include:
1- Evil scholars are like a poisonous tree with beautiful leaves.
On the authority of Isa al-Muradi, may God be pleased with him, he said: Isa said: O evil scholars, your example is like the oleander tree ( a poisonous tree ) that amazes whoever looks at it and kills whoever eats it.
Source: The Life of Christ by Ibn Asakir al-Dimashqi, p. 194
Barnabas 132 (The Parable)
Some people went out to sell figs, and when they reached the market, they did not ask for good figs, but for beautiful leaves . So the people were unable to sell their figs. When one of the wicked men saw this, he said, “I am able to become rich.” So he called his two sons and said, “Go and gather a large quantity of leaves with bad figs.” So they sold them for their weight in gold, because the people were very pleased with the leaves. But when the people ate, they became seriously ill.
Barnabas 134 (Interpretation of the Parable)
But the world that walks in lies asks the teachers for leaves of polished words and flattery. When the devil sees this, he adds himself to the body and senses, and brings an abundant quantity of leaves , that is, an quantity of earthly things that give sin. When a person takes them, he becomes ill and is on the verge of eternal death!
2- The impossibility of loving this world and the hereafter in the heart of the believer, for that is like combining opposites.
Barnabas
16
3- Knowledge without action is of no benefit
Barnabas
80
Truly I say to you, a person should not spend his life on how to speak, read, or learn, but on how to work..
4- Be in this world as passersby, and you will not have homes in it: Christ says
"You are travelers as tourists. Does a tourist take for himself on the road palaces and fields and other worldly ruins? No, no! But he carries light things that are useful and beneficial on the road."
5- Watching the tongue:
It is
similar to what Christ said in the Gospel of Barnabas:
(( If a person wants to receive mercy, let him watch what his tongue says )) Barnabas 121
6- Little talk and much work:
It is
almost identical to what was mentioned in Barnabas on the tongue of Christ:
((Portomalius answered: Teacher, how can we think a little so that we do not fall into temptation? Jesus answered: You need two things:
"To practice “ A lot and to speak little .” Barnabas 75
- There are more examples, but we will suffice with the examples mentioned, which confirm that the content of the Gospel of Barnabas existed before Islam, as did Matthew and Luke. We announce the challenge to everyone to bring sources for what Christ said in the previous accounts of the followers in other Gospels (whether approved or not) with the exception of Barnabas.We are almost certain that the content of the Gospel of Barnabas was the exclusive source for it...
The answer: Indeed, we found narrations mentioned by the followers as sayings of Christ that we can only find a counterpart to on the tongue of Christ in Barnabas. Examples of this include:
1- Evil scholars are like a poisonous tree with beautiful leaves.
On the authority of Isa al-Muradi, may God be pleased with him, he said: Isa said: O evil scholars, your example is like the oleander tree ( a poisonous tree ) that amazes whoever looks at it and kills whoever eats it.
Source: The Life of Christ by Ibn Asakir al-Dimashqi, p. 194
Barnabas 132 (The Parable)
Some people went out to sell figs, and when they reached the market, they did not ask for good figs, but for beautiful leaves . So the people were unable to sell their figs. When one of the wicked men saw this, he said, “I am able to become rich.” So he called his two sons and said, “Go and gather a large quantity of leaves with bad figs.” So they sold them for their weight in gold, because the people were very pleased with the leaves. But when the people ate, they became seriously ill.
Barnabas 134 (Interpretation of the Parable)
But the world that walks in lies asks the teachers for leaves of polished words and flattery. When the devil sees this, he adds himself to the body and senses, and brings an abundant quantity of leaves , that is, an quantity of earthly things that give sin. When a person takes them, he becomes ill and is on the verge of eternal death!
2- The impossibility of loving this world and the hereafter in the heart of the believer, for that is like combining opposites.
16
3- Knowledge without action is of no benefit
80
Truly I say to you, a person should not spend his life on how to speak, read, or learn, but on how to work..
4- Be in this world as passersby, and you will not have homes in it: Christ says
5- Watching the tongue:
similar to what Christ said in the Gospel of Barnabas:
(( If a person wants to receive mercy, let him watch what his tongue says )) Barnabas 121
6- Little talk and much work:
almost identical to what was mentioned in Barnabas on the tongue of Christ:
((Portomalius answered: Teacher, how can we think a little so that we do not fall into temptation? Jesus answered: You need two things:
"To practice “ A lot and to speak little .” Barnabas 75
- There are more examples, but we will suffice with the examples mentioned, which confirm that the content of the Gospel of Barnabas existed before Islam, as did Matthew and Luke. We announce the challenge to everyone to bring sources for what Christ said in the previous accounts of the followers in other Gospels (whether approved or not) with the exception of Barnabas.We are almost certain that the content of the Gospel of Barnabas was the exclusive source for it...
Section Four: Some texts in Barnabas that are similar to texts in some ancient apocryphal gospels and are not found in the four gospels.
- There are many paragraphs in Barnabas that are similar to the content of some of the apocryphal gospels, including, for example:
1- The Gospel of Thomas:
In the Gospel of Thomas, there is a very brief commandment from Christ where he says: (Be passers by) and it is not found anywhere, literally or in meaning, in the gospels except in the Gospel of Barnabas.
Christ says in Barnabas 16:
"You are travelers as tourists. Does a traveler take for himself on the road palaces and fields and other worldly ruins? No, no! But he carries light things that are useful and beneficial on the road.
2- The Preliminary Gospel of James:
The Preliminary Gospel of James confirms that Salome was next to the Virgin Mary at the time of birth and that she was the first to carry the child, and it was confirmed that she was still a virgin after birth. This reinforces the opinion that Salome was indeed the sister of Mary, the mother of Christ. This agrees with Barnabas, who confirms that Salome is the sister of Mary, while the four gospels did not prove this information. Accordingly, the majority of Christian interpreters know Salome as Mary's cousin, and few mention the possibility that Mary's sister.
3- The Israeli Gospel of Thomas:
The story tells that Christ, at the age of twelve, went with his mother Mary and Joseph the carpenter to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. When they returned with their relatives after the celebration, they discovered on the way that the boy Jesus was not with them. They began to search for him everywhere until they found him in Jerusalem after three days in the Temple Square. He began to discuss with the teachers of the law and amazed them with his questions and answers. Although the same incident is found in Luke, Chapter Two, the teachers of the law's comments expressing their amazement at the extent of the boy's knowledge at this age are only found in Barnabas and in the Israeli Gospel of Thomas. We read together:
- After reading the texts carefully, we will notice a uniqueness in Barnabas from Luke and Thomas... We notice that the text in Luke and Thomas makes their going to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover as usual to celebrate there, like our going to parks and gardens on holidays... a habit!
But Barnabas confirms that going to Jerusalem on Passover is in compliance with the Lord's command and not a custom . Was Barnabas right?
We must first know that the Jews celebrated Passover annually to commemorate their exodus from Egypt and their liberation from slavery. Can they celebrate and sacrifice anywhere or must they celebrate in the place that the Lord will specify for them, which is Jerusalem? Let us read together:
Deuteronomy 16:5-6
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover sacrifice in any city you wish among the cities that the LORD your God gives you. 6 But you shall do it in the place which the LORD your God chooses to put his name there.
The second point
2:48And when they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you dealt thus with us? Behold, your father and I have been seeking you, tormented.
” 2:49 And he said to them, “Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
2:50 But they did not understand the statement that he said to them
. The first observation is that his answer to the question was incomprehensible, so they did not understand the statement, and even the translations did not understand it! We notice the multiple translations of the same sentence
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 49
He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? “ [ a ] Read full chapter Footnotes
Luke 2:49 Or be about my Father's interest ?
to be getting involved with my father's work
lit in the things of My Father (
this translation agrees with Thomas) or be among my Father's people
The DLNT translator then notes that the text in this form contains a contradiction with number 48.* Far from the lack of clarity of meaning and contradictions, and moving to Barnabas, “where one can find light,” as Al-Tabili says... the text in Barnabas presents the clear meaning, which is that serving God is given priority over serving one’s father and mother...
- There are many paragraphs in Barnabas that are similar to the content of some of the apocryphal gospels, including, for example:
1- The Gospel of Thomas:
In the Gospel of Thomas, there is a very brief commandment from Christ where he says: (Be passers by) and it is not found anywhere, literally or in meaning, in the gospels except in the Gospel of Barnabas.
Christ says in Barnabas 16:
"You are travelers as tourists. Does a traveler take for himself on the road palaces and fields and other worldly ruins? No, no! But he carries light things that are useful and beneficial on the road.
2- The Preliminary Gospel of James:
The Preliminary Gospel of James confirms that Salome was next to the Virgin Mary at the time of birth and that she was the first to carry the child, and it was confirmed that she was still a virgin after birth. This reinforces the opinion that Salome was indeed the sister of Mary, the mother of Christ. This agrees with Barnabas, who confirms that Salome is the sister of Mary, while the four gospels did not prove this information. Accordingly, the majority of Christian interpreters know Salome as Mary's cousin, and few mention the possibility that Mary's sister.
3- The Israeli Gospel of Thomas:
The story tells that Christ, at the age of twelve, went with his mother Mary and Joseph the carpenter to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. When they returned with their relatives after the celebration, they discovered on the way that the boy Jesus was not with them. They began to search for him everywhere until they found him in Jerusalem after three days in the Temple Square. He began to discuss with the teachers of the law and amazed them with his questions and answers. Although the same incident is found in Luke, Chapter Two, the teachers of the law's comments expressing their amazement at the extent of the boy's knowledge at this age are only found in Barnabas and in the Israeli Gospel of Thomas. We read together:
But Barnabas confirms that going to Jerusalem on Passover is in compliance with the Lord's command and not a custom . Was Barnabas right?
We must first know that the Jews celebrated Passover annually to commemorate their exodus from Egypt and their liberation from slavery. Can they celebrate and sacrifice anywhere or must they celebrate in the place that the Lord will specify for them, which is Jerusalem? Let us read together:
Deuteronomy 16:5-6
5 You may not sacrifice the Passover sacrifice in any city you wish among the cities that the LORD your God gives you. 6 But you shall do it in the place which the LORD your God chooses to put his name there.
The second point
2:48And when they saw him, they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Son, why have you dealt thus with us? Behold, your father and I have been seeking you, tormented.
” 2:49 And he said to them, “Why were you seeking me? Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
2:50 But they did not understand the statement that he said to them
. The first observation is that his answer to the question was incomprehensible, so they did not understand the statement, and even the translations did not understand it! We notice the multiple translations of the same sentence
New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 49
He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house? “ [ a ] Read full chapter Footnotes
Luke 2:49 Or be about my Father's interest ?
to be getting involved with my father's work
lit in the things of My Father (
this translation agrees with Thomas) or be among my Father's people
The DLNT translator then notes that the text in this form contains a contradiction with number 48.* Far from the lack of clarity of meaning and contradictions, and moving to Barnabas, “where one can find light,” as Al-Tabili says... the text in Barnabas presents the clear meaning, which is that serving God is given priority over serving one’s father and mother...
Fifth Section: The Lost Gnostic Gospel Theory and the Response to It
- It is worth mentioning that after many individual texts in Barnabas were discovered and it was confirmed that they were of antiquity and authenticity, the theory that this book was a product of the Middle Ages was no longer a useful theory. A new theory was put forward, which is that the writer in the Middle Ages had used ancient Gospel material that had been obliterated and no longer exists today, then he added to it some Muslim beliefs, such as that Christ is a servant of God and not his son, that Christ was not crucified but was a look-alike, and the good news of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. This Gospel material is what they call the lost Gnostic Gospel. So you can contemplate, dear reader, to what extent they have delved into the labyrinths of conjecture with their imagination?! For no reason other than simply denying the authenticity of the Gospel of Barnabas!!
- And when we answer that history has indeed mentioned the Gospel of Barnabas in the Gelasian Decree of the fifth century AD and also in the list of sixty books where it was counted in the list of apocryphal books in the seventh century AD.. However, Christian scholars have a very valid question, which is
(( If the Gospel of Barnabas is so ancient, why do we not find a mention of its content with a reference to it in the writings of the early fathers??))
In fact, this observation and this question.. is like decoding this puzzle ( Was the Gospel of Barnabas present in the first centuries)
- Evidence confirms that it existed but under another, more common name .. The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of the Hebrews , which was mentioned by the early fathers and some of them quoted texts from it, but its content was lost.. You can read this wonderful topic that explains the importance of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew among the fathers of the early church by our honorable professor Dr. Amir Abdullah...,,, The Hebrew Gospel - The original Gospel that was distorted by the name of Matthew - Guardians of the Faith (hurras.org) And now, by the grace of God, we review twelve of Evidence and proof confirm that the Gospel of Barnabas was the synonym for the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew!!
- It is worth mentioning that after many individual texts in Barnabas were discovered and it was confirmed that they were of antiquity and authenticity, the theory that this book was a product of the Middle Ages was no longer a useful theory. A new theory was put forward, which is that the writer in the Middle Ages had used ancient Gospel material that had been obliterated and no longer exists today, then he added to it some Muslim beliefs, such as that Christ is a servant of God and not his son, that Christ was not crucified but was a look-alike, and the good news of the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, may God bless him and grant him peace. This Gospel material is what they call the lost Gnostic Gospel. So you can contemplate, dear reader, to what extent they have delved into the labyrinths of conjecture with their imagination?! For no reason other than simply denying the authenticity of the Gospel of Barnabas!!
- And when we answer that history has indeed mentioned the Gospel of Barnabas in the Gelasian Decree of the fifth century AD and also in the list of sixty books where it was counted in the list of apocryphal books in the seventh century AD.. However, Christian scholars have a very valid question, which is
(( If the Gospel of Barnabas is so ancient, why do we not find a mention of its content with a reference to it in the writings of the early fathers??))
In fact, this observation and this question.. is like decoding this puzzle ( Was the Gospel of Barnabas present in the first centuries)
- Evidence confirms that it existed but under another, more common name .. The Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of the Hebrews , which was mentioned by the early fathers and some of them quoted texts from it, but its content was lost.. You can read this wonderful topic that explains the importance of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew among the fathers of the early church by our honorable professor Dr. Amir Abdullah...,,, The Hebrew Gospel - The original Gospel that was distorted by the name of Matthew - Guardians of the Faith (hurras.org) And now, by the grace of God, we review twelve of Evidence and proof confirm that the Gospel of Barnabas was the synonym for the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew!!
Evidence confirms that the Gospel of Barnabas is the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew
- We start from where we left off with the previous question: Couldn’t the name of the Gospel of Barnabas in the Gelasian decree and in the list of sixty books be the uncommon name of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew??Answer: What prevents that? We have several reasons
. The first reason: We notice the absence of any mention or reference to the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or the Gospel of the Hebrews, whether in the Gelasian Decree or the list of the sixty books, as one of the apocryphal books. This is simply because the name of the Gospel of Barnabas is present. If the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew were another gospel, it would have been mentioned, because it is impossible for people not to know about it in light of the many citations to it from the early fathers (such as: Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, the scholar Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril the Great, Saint Jerome, etc.).
The second reason: The “list of the sixty books” actually mentioned gospels by their uncommon name instead of the common name that people knew at the time. A clear example of this is that the Protevangelium of James was referred to as an apocryphal gospel, but under an uncommon name, which is the Gospel of the History of James.
(The history of James)
Source:* All these are just clues.. Okay, let's leave the clues and present the evidence, thanks to God.
The first evidence: Barnabas confirms in his Gospel that he was not the only one who wrote, but Matthew the tax collector wrote this with him!
I invite those who love reading between the lines to read Barnabas Chapter 14 carefully to confirm this dangerous information:
Barnabas participated with Matthew in writing his Gospel or vice versa...
The second evidence: The monk Marino mentioned that he found letters by Irenaeus in which he denounced Paul based on what was stated in the Gospel of Barnabas. Of course, we do not need to confirm that the Gospel of Barnabas denounces the teachings of Paul and mentions him by name in the introduction and conclusion... But we found objections from Christian scholars and skepticism about the entire story of the monk Marino by saying that history has never mentioned that Irenaeus referred to this denunciation of Paul based on the Gospel of Barnabas... And this statement is true... But what if the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is the same as the Gospel of Barnabas? Will history remain mute? Or will it speak the truth this time? Let's see...
Irenaeus, in the last quarter of the 2nd century, says the Ebionites use only the “Gospel according to Matthew” and reject the a postle Paul, calling him an apostate from the law. (Adv. Haer., i. 26, 2 )
Irenaeus, in the last quarter of the second century, says use only the “Gospel according to Matthew” and reject the Apostle Paul, calling him an apostate from the law.
Why would they describe Paul as an apostate?
Certainly based on what is mentioned in Matthew..
They do not use any other gospel!!
The third evidence: Barnabas receives the gospel from Matthew and edits it to teach it to the Jews (Acts of Barnabas)
Barnabas, having unrolled the Gospel which he had received from Matthew his fellow-labourer, began to teach the Jews
After Barnabas had written the Gospel he had received from his colleague Matthew, he began to teach it to the Jews....
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0817.htm
The fourth evidence Barnabas was buried in his grave with the Gospel of Matthew on his chest (which he wrote in his own handwriting)!https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0817.htm
The Journal of Saints 1698 AD (1698 - Acta sanctorum JunII)
confirms the discovery of the body of Saint Barnabas in Cyprus buried with the Gospel of Matthew on his chest (which Barnabas wrote in his own handwriting!) during the reign of Emperor Zeno in 478 AD.
Reliquiae Barnabae Apostoli inventae sunt in Cypro, sub arbore cerasea, habentes sub pectore evangelium Matthaei,
manu ipsius Barnabae scriptum. Evangelium autem illud Zenon sub alia corona condidit
manu ipsius Barnabae scriptum. Evangelium autem illud Zenon sub alia corona condidit
The relics of the apostle Barnabas were found in Cyprus, buried under a tree, having on his chest a gospel of Matthew written by Barnabas' own hand. But that Zeno established that gospel under another crown
The remains of the Apostle Barnabas were found in Cyprus, buried under a tree, and on his chest was the Gospel of Matthew written by Barnabas himself in his own hand . But Zeno transferred this Gospel under another wreath.
T. Evidence confirming that the Gospel of Barnabas is the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew Fifth evidence Papias confirms that the story of the sinful woman in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew is different from what is mentioned in the Gospel of John 8.. Likewise, the story in the Gospel of Barnabas is different from what is mentioned in John!
Translation: Papias gives another story (different from the one in John) about the woman who was accused of many sins (adultery) before Jesus Christ. This story is taken from the Gospel of the Hebrews .
So, Papias confirms that the story of the Gospel of the Hebrews differs from the Gospel of John in the story of the sinful woman.
So what does the Gospel of John 8 say about the sinful woman? The Gospel of
John, chapter 8, tells that when the scribes and Pharisees saw that Jesus cared more about sinners than about the righteous, they wanted to test Him. They brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery, and it is known that her punishment is stoning, otherwise Jesus would violate the law of Moses. So he bent down and made signs on the ground with his finger and said:
“ Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” As a result of this statement, the large crowd left very simply. Let us read
together: John 8:3-9
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him A woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst
, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us that such a woman should be stoned. What do you say then?”
6 They said this to test him, so that they might have something to accuse him of.
7 And when they continued to ask him, he lifted up himself and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8 Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground.
9 And when they heard it, and were convicted by their conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the elders and even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
But the story is different in Barnabas 201 : where it seems that Christ did something different that made this crowd leave in shame, throwing their stones. We read together:
And after Jesus had entered the temple, the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And they said among themselves, If he saves her, it is contrary to the law of Moses, and therefore he is guilty with us; but if he condemns her, it is contrary to his teaching, because he preaches mercy. So they came to Jesus and said, Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, and Moses commanded that (such a one) should be stoned. So what do you say? Then Jesus bent down and made a mirror with his finger on the ground, in which each of them saw his own sin . When they kept insisting on an answer, Jesus stood up and said, pointing with his finger to the mirror, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to stone her .” Then he bent down again and turned the mirror upside down. When the people saw this, they went out one by one, beginning with the elders, for they were ashamed to see their own filth. Jesus
did not write or draw with his finger on the ground in vain. Rather, he made a mirror for them so that they could see their sins in it. Then they would withdraw out of shame at seeing their filth.
So the story of the sinful woman in Barnabas came in a different form than what was mentioned in John.. And Papias confirms the same thing about the account of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew.
The sixth evidence: How many times do you forgive your brother?
St. Jerome quotes this text from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew ( Then Peter came to him and said, “Teacher, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, Up to seven times, but Up to seventy times seven.”) .. By the way, almost the entire text is also found in the current Gospel of Matthew.. (Matthew 18)
This is exactly what is stated in the Gospel of Barnabas 88 (Peter answered, “How many times shall I forgive my brother, Master?” Jesus answered, “As many times as you want to be forgiven?” Peter said, “Seven times a day?” Jesus answered, “I do not say only seven, but you will forgive him seventy seven times.”)
The seventh evidence: Mount Tabor .
The scholar Origen confirms that it is stated in the Gospel of the Hebrews that the Holy Spirit took Christ up to the great Mount Tabor .
The truth is that the name of this mountain was not mentioned at all in the four Gospels , and of course there is no mention of Christ’s ascension to the great Mount Tabor except in Barnabas, Chapter 42 ( where a great light shone above him and appeared to him and the prophets Moses and Elijah spoke to him )
. “And when Jesus had said this, he departed to Mount Tabor , and Peter and James and John his brother went up with him, with him who is writing this. And there a great light shone over them, and his clothes became white as snow, and his face shone like the sun. And behold, Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about what was to happen to our people and to the holy city.” The eighth
evidence (Painless birth)
It is mentioned in Barnabas, Chapter 3, about the birth of the Virgin Mary to Christ (And great light surrounded the Virgin, and she gave birth to her son without pain ).
The mention of the Virgin’s painless birth is not mentioned in any of the four Gospels or even the Apocryphal Gospels except in an ancient tradition attributed to Matthew in what is known as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew,
where the text is as follows:
Translation:But there was no blood at his birth nor pain at his birth ...
It is true that this saying did not reach us through the fragments of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (the few) that were transmitted by the early fathers, but ironically it is attributed to Matthew , and we should not forget that what is mentioned in Barnabas is that Barnabas was writing with Matthew, and we should not forget that there is a Hebrew Gospel in the name of Matthew that was with Barnabas and he wrote it as mentioned in the Acts of Barnabas and did not leave him until he was buried with him..
The ninth proof (Christ is an apostle to the children of Israel only) -
The scholar Origen confirms that the Ebionites (those who believe in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew only) actually believed that Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel , and therefore Origen describes them as Ebionites due to the poverty of their understanding.
When the Savior says, I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we do not understand the expression as the Ebionites do, who are poor in understanding (deriving their name from the poverty of their intellect— Ebion signifying poor in Hebrew)
CHURCH FATHERS: De Principiis, Book IV (Origen) (newadvent.org)
Barnabas confirmed
Evidence 10: (Surprise: The Gospel of Barnabas is called the Teaching of the Apostles!!) It is
indeed a surprise to me to find the third oldest mention of the Gospel of Barnabas - as it appears in the Book of Guidance, which is the constitution of the Maronite sect and was later translated from Syriac into Arabic by Bishop Dawoud al-Marouni in 1059 AD, where the author lists the books that are not accepted in the church, including the Gospel of Barnabas..
We notice
that he calls Paul (Paul the Strong), and the Strong is originally Syriac word (Shliha... ܫܠܝܚܳܐ) means the apostle, meaning Paul the apostle, i.e. Volos Shliha ( ܦܘܠܘܣ ܫܠܝܚܳܐ) .
Verse 48: What is eternal life? (ortmtlb.org.lb) And
he mentioned (the scroll of Jacob), i.e. the Gospel of James, then he mentioned the Gospel of Barnabas under the name ( the scroll of Barnabas ), which is called the teaching of the two apostles!
So if the name of the first apostle is the author of the Gospel (Barnabas) .. who is the second apostle??
Yes .. he is (Matthew the tax collector who wrote with this Barnabas) !!
And to be continued
And he (Papias) also gives another story of a woman who was accused of many sins before the Lord, which is to be fount in the Gospel according to the Hebrews
Papias (Roberts-Donaldson) (earlychristianwritings.com)
Papias (Roberts-Donaldson) (earlychristianwritings.com)
Translation: Papias gives another story (different from the one in John) about the woman who was accused of many sins (adultery) before Jesus Christ. This story is taken from the Gospel of the Hebrews .
So, Papias confirms that the story of the Gospel of the Hebrews differs from the Gospel of John in the story of the sinful woman.
So what does the Gospel of John 8 say about the sinful woman? The Gospel of
John, chapter 8, tells that when the scribes and Pharisees saw that Jesus cared more about sinners than about the righteous, they wanted to test Him. They brought to Him a woman who had been caught in adultery, and it is known that her punishment is stoning, otherwise Jesus would violate the law of Moses. So he bent down and made signs on the ground with his finger and said:
“ Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” As a result of this statement, the large crowd left very simply. Let us read
together: John 8:3-9
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him A woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst
, 4 they said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us that such a woman should be stoned. What do you say then?”
6 They said this to test him, so that they might have something to accuse him of.
7 And when they continued to ask him, he lifted up himself and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
8 Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground.
9 And when they heard it, and were convicted by their conscience, they went out one by one, beginning at the elders and even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
But the story is different in Barnabas 201 : where it seems that Christ did something different that made this crowd leave in shame, throwing their stones. We read together:
And after Jesus had entered the temple, the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman caught in adultery. And they said among themselves, If he saves her, it is contrary to the law of Moses, and therefore he is guilty with us; but if he condemns her, it is contrary to his teaching, because he preaches mercy. So they came to Jesus and said, Teacher, we found this woman in adultery, and Moses commanded that (such a one) should be stoned. So what do you say? Then Jesus bent down and made a mirror with his finger on the ground, in which each of them saw his own sin . When they kept insisting on an answer, Jesus stood up and said, pointing with his finger to the mirror, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to stone her .” Then he bent down again and turned the mirror upside down. When the people saw this, they went out one by one, beginning with the elders, for they were ashamed to see their own filth. Jesus
did not write or draw with his finger on the ground in vain. Rather, he made a mirror for them so that they could see their sins in it. Then they would withdraw out of shame at seeing their filth.
So the story of the sinful woman in Barnabas came in a different form than what was mentioned in John.. And Papias confirms the same thing about the account of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew.
The sixth evidence: How many times do you forgive your brother?
St. Jerome quotes this text from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew ( Then Peter came to him and said, “Teacher, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, Up to seven times, but Up to seventy times seven.”) .. By the way, almost the entire text is also found in the current Gospel of Matthew.. (Matthew 18)
This is exactly what is stated in the Gospel of Barnabas 88 (Peter answered, “How many times shall I forgive my brother, Master?” Jesus answered, “As many times as you want to be forgiven?” Peter said, “Seven times a day?” Jesus answered, “I do not say only seven, but you will forgive him seventy seven times.”)
The seventh evidence: Mount Tabor .
The scholar Origen confirms that it is stated in the Gospel of the Hebrews that the Holy Spirit took Christ up to the great Mount Tabor .
The Holy Spirit took me and carried me up unto the great mountain Thabor '
The Gospel of the Hebrews (earlychristianwritings.com )
The Gospel of the Hebrews (earlychristianwritings.com )
The truth is that the name of this mountain was not mentioned at all in the four Gospels , and of course there is no mention of Christ’s ascension to the great Mount Tabor except in Barnabas, Chapter 42 ( where a great light shone above him and appeared to him and the prophets Moses and Elijah spoke to him )
. “And when Jesus had said this, he departed to Mount Tabor , and Peter and James and John his brother went up with him, with him who is writing this. And there a great light shone over them, and his clothes became white as snow, and his face shone like the sun. And behold, Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about what was to happen to our people and to the holy city.” The eighth
evidence (Painless birth)
It is mentioned in Barnabas, Chapter 3, about the birth of the Virgin Mary to Christ (And great light surrounded the Virgin, and she gave birth to her son without pain ).
The mention of the Virgin’s painless birth is not mentioned in any of the four Gospels or even the Apocryphal Gospels except in an ancient tradition attributed to Matthew in what is known as the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew,
where the text is as follows:
But there has been no spilling of blood in his birth, no pain in bringing him forth
Translation:But there was no blood at his birth nor pain at his birth ...
It is true that this saying did not reach us through the fragments of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (the few) that were transmitted by the early fathers, but ironically it is attributed to Matthew , and we should not forget that what is mentioned in Barnabas is that Barnabas was writing with Matthew, and we should not forget that there is a Hebrew Gospel in the name of Matthew that was with Barnabas and he wrote it as mentioned in the Acts of Barnabas and did not leave him until he was buried with him..
The ninth proof (Christ is an apostle to the children of Israel only) -
The scholar Origen confirms that the Ebionites (those who believe in the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew only) actually believed that Christ was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel , and therefore Origen describes them as Ebionites due to the poverty of their understanding.
When the Savior says, I was not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we do not understand the expression as the Ebionites do, who are poor in understanding (deriving their name from the poverty of their intellect— Ebion signifying poor in Hebrew)
CHURCH FATHERS: De Principiis, Book IV (Origen) (newadvent.org)
Barnabas confirmed
Evidence 10: (Surprise: The Gospel of Barnabas is called the Teaching of the Apostles!!) It is
indeed a surprise to me to find the third oldest mention of the Gospel of Barnabas - as it appears in the Book of Guidance, which is the constitution of the Maronite sect and was later translated from Syriac into Arabic by Bishop Dawoud al-Marouni in 1059 AD, where the author lists the books that are not accepted in the church, including the Gospel of Barnabas..
that he calls Paul (Paul the Strong), and the Strong is originally Syriac word (Shliha... ܫܠܝܚܳܐ) means the apostle, meaning Paul the apostle, i.e. Volos Shliha ( ܦܘܠܘܣ ܫܠܝܚܳܐ) .
Verse 48: What is eternal life? (ortmtlb.org.lb) And
he mentioned (the scroll of Jacob), i.e. the Gospel of James, then he mentioned the Gospel of Barnabas under the name ( the scroll of Barnabas ), which is called the teaching of the two apostles!
So if the name of the first apostle is the author of the Gospel (Barnabas) .. who is the second apostle??
Yes .. he is (Matthew the tax collector who wrote with this Barnabas) !!
T. Evidence confirming that the Gospel of Barnabas is the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew Eighth
proof Christ was not born of God Saint Epiphanius confirms that the Ebionites believed that the Hebrew Gospel, which they called the Gospel of Matthew, was the only Gospel from which their teachings were derived, and one of their most important teachings, as stated by the saint, was that they considered Christ not to be born of God but to have been created as one of the great angels...
We say that this is exactly what is in Barnabas .. We read in Barnabas 53 on the tongue of Christ, peace be upon him,
“Cursed is everyone who interjects into my sayings that I am the Son of God.” The twelfth proof
Christ was not crucified or suffered. The Orthodox website confirms that the Gospel of the Hebrews first appeared in Egypt in the community of converted Jews between the first and second centuries AD, and the Church Fathers quoted from it throughout the first centuries after Christ, such as: Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, the scholar Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril the Great, and Saint Jerome...
The Gospel of the Hebrews | ✠ OrSoZoX | Orthodox ✠ Now
we would like to remind you of these early fathers in some detail in the quotes and chronological order:
1- Papias, first to second century AD
(We have cited his quote from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, in which he confirms that the story of the sinful woman is different from what was mentioned in John.. and the truth is that the story came differently in Barnabas as well.
2- Saint Irenaeus, second century AD
(We have cited his reference to the Ebionite sect that uses the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and based on it they reject Paul.. and we do not find before us an apparent Gospel that denounces Paul except the Gospel of Barnabas in the introduction and the end).
3- Clement of Alexandria, second to third century AD
(He has many quotes on the tongue of Christ (unknown source) that are not found except in the Gospel of Barnabas, such as his saying, “Be like the skillful money changers”)
4- The scholar Origen, second to third century AD
(He confirms that in the Gospel of the Hebrews the Holy Spirit ascended Christ to the great Mount Tabor, and the truth is that the name of this mountain was not mentioned Originally in the four Gospels, and of course there is no mention of Christ’s ascension on the great Mount Tabor except in Barnabas 42, where a great light shone above him and appeared to him, and the prophets Moses and Elijah spoke to him.
When Jesus said this, he departed to Mount Tabor, and Peter, James, and his brother John went up with him, along with the one who writes this. A great light shone above them there, and his clothes became white as snow, and his face shone like the sun. And behold, Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about what would happen to our people and to the Holy City .
5- Eusebius of Caesarea, third to fourth century AD
(talks about Papias’ quotation from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, in which he confirms that the story of the sinful woman is different from what is stated in John.. and the truth is that the story came differently in Barnabas as well)
6- Cyril of Jerusalem - fourth century AD
7- Saint Epiphanius - fourth century AD
( Saint Epiphanius confirms that the Ebionites believed that the Hebrew Gospel, which they call the Gospel of Matthew, is the only Gospel from which their teachings were derived, and one of their most important teachings is on the tongue of The saint is their belief that Christ was not born of God, but rather he is considered one of the great angels... and this is exactly what happened in Barnabas)
8- Saint Jerome - the fourth to fifth centuries AD
(St. Jerome quotes this text from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (Peter answered, “How many times shall I forgive my brother, Master?” Jesus answered, “As many times as you want to be forgiven?” Peter said, “Seven times a day?” Jesus answered, “ I do not say only seven, but you forgive him seventy times a day.”) It is actually found in the Gospel of Barnabas 88.
The Gospel of the Hebrews (earlychristianwritings.com)
All of these confirmed the existence of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (or Hebrews) and some of them even quoted texts from it (which we do not find in the current Matthew). As we have seen, the nucleus of the emergence and spread of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or Barnabas (the less common name) was in Egypt. If one of the most important features of this Gospel (Barnabas) is its confirmation that Christ was not crucified but was similar to the one who was hung on the cross.. then what would we expect if someone visited Egypt to describe the belief of most Egyptians (influenced by Ebionism) in the crucifixion of Christ during this period??
-
Some may argue that this belief is not necessarily due to the influence of the Ebionites and their Hebrew Gospel, as some other sects believed that the crucifixion did not occur. They are responded to by saying that the people actually acknowledge that the Ebionites believed that Christ was not crucified and did not suffer for a moment . Let us read together what Anba Gregory says about the Ebionites’ belief in the crucifixion of Christ.
( 1)
If the Ebionites’ belief was that Christ was not crucified and did not die, but rather someone else. And they do not acknowledge any book except the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. This indicates that the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew confirms this belief.
The same thing, of course, in the Gospel of Barnabas, that the one who was crucified was not Christ, but rather someone else who was similar to him: It is
also Barnabas went to Alexandria - Egypt for a period of his life: Subsequent church tradition finds Barnabas in Alexandria, Egypt Source:https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Barnabas Tradition has Barnabas preaching in Alexandria and Rome Source:https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=211* Finally, the word Ebionism ( in Greek : Ἐβιωναῖοι) (derived from the Hebrew word: אביונים; epionim , which means the poor, and they are the ones whom Christ blessed according to what was mentioned only in Matthew and not the rest of the Gospels (ironically) .. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” ( Matthew 5:3 ). In fact, the only book that contains this blessing and praise for the poor is the Gospel of Barnabas as well: “ Blessed are the poor who truly reject the pleasures of this world, for they will enjoy the pleasures of the kingdom of God!” (Barnabas 16) ( The poor who served God with true humility from the heart are blessed threefold and fourfold , who with detachment and poverty served God from the bottom of their hearts, for in this world they will be free from the concerns of life, so many sins will be erased from them, and on that day they will not have to give an account of how they spent the money of this world, but they will be rewarded for their patience and humility) Barnabas 57. And let us not forget in this regard to cite the narration of Saeed bin Abdul Aziz about Jesus, peace be upon him:So the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, which the Ebionites worshiped with alone, confirmed that Jesus is not the Son of God and that he was not crucified or suffered... The same is the case in the Gospel of Barnabas, but Barnabas preached the coming of Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam (may God bless him and grant him peace). And peace be upon him) ... Do the Ebionites have in their Gospel such good tidings as those in Barnabas? And to be continued, God willing ------------------ (1)
proof Christ was not born of God Saint Epiphanius confirms that the Ebionites believed that the Hebrew Gospel, which they called the Gospel of Matthew, was the only Gospel from which their teachings were derived, and one of their most important teachings, as stated by the saint, was that they considered Christ not to be born of God but to have been created as one of the great angels...
What we know of the Ebionites is from Epiphanius. He tells us: And they only accept the gospel of Matthew. This alone they use, as do also the followers of Cerinthus and Merinthus. They call it the gospel of the Hebrews .
Epiphanius, Hæres. XXX, 3.
They say that He is not created by God the Father , but created like one of the archangels, being greater than them.
Epiphan., Hæres. XXX, 16.
Epiphanius, Hæres. XXX, 3.
They say that He is not created by God the Father , but created like one of the archangels, being greater than them.
Epiphan., Hæres. XXX, 16.
We say that this is exactly what is in Barnabas .. We read in Barnabas 53 on the tongue of Christ, peace be upon him,
“Cursed is everyone who interjects into my sayings that I am the Son of God.” The twelfth proof
Christ was not crucified or suffered. The Orthodox website confirms that the Gospel of the Hebrews first appeared in Egypt in the community of converted Jews between the first and second centuries AD, and the Church Fathers quoted from it throughout the first centuries after Christ, such as: Papias, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, the scholar Origen, Eusebius of Caesarea, Cyril the Great, and Saint Jerome...
The Gospel of the Hebrews | ✠ OrSoZoX | Orthodox ✠ Now
we would like to remind you of these early fathers in some detail in the quotes and chronological order:
1- Papias, first to second century AD
(We have cited his quote from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, in which he confirms that the story of the sinful woman is different from what was mentioned in John.. and the truth is that the story came differently in Barnabas as well.
2- Saint Irenaeus, second century AD
(We have cited his reference to the Ebionite sect that uses the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew and based on it they reject Paul.. and we do not find before us an apparent Gospel that denounces Paul except the Gospel of Barnabas in the introduction and the end).
3- Clement of Alexandria, second to third century AD
(He has many quotes on the tongue of Christ (unknown source) that are not found except in the Gospel of Barnabas, such as his saying, “Be like the skillful money changers”)
4- The scholar Origen, second to third century AD
(He confirms that in the Gospel of the Hebrews the Holy Spirit ascended Christ to the great Mount Tabor, and the truth is that the name of this mountain was not mentioned Originally in the four Gospels, and of course there is no mention of Christ’s ascension on the great Mount Tabor except in Barnabas 42, where a great light shone above him and appeared to him, and the prophets Moses and Elijah spoke to him.
When Jesus said this, he departed to Mount Tabor, and Peter, James, and his brother John went up with him, along with the one who writes this. A great light shone above them there, and his clothes became white as snow, and his face shone like the sun. And behold, Moses and Elijah spoke to Jesus about what would happen to our people and to the Holy City .
5- Eusebius of Caesarea, third to fourth century AD
(talks about Papias’ quotation from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew, in which he confirms that the story of the sinful woman is different from what is stated in John.. and the truth is that the story came differently in Barnabas as well)
6- Cyril of Jerusalem - fourth century AD
7- Saint Epiphanius - fourth century AD
( Saint Epiphanius confirms that the Ebionites believed that the Hebrew Gospel, which they call the Gospel of Matthew, is the only Gospel from which their teachings were derived, and one of their most important teachings is on the tongue of The saint is their belief that Christ was not born of God, but rather he is considered one of the great angels... and this is exactly what happened in Barnabas)
8- Saint Jerome - the fourth to fifth centuries AD
(St. Jerome quotes this text from the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (Peter answered, “How many times shall I forgive my brother, Master?” Jesus answered, “As many times as you want to be forgiven?” Peter said, “Seven times a day?” Jesus answered, “ I do not say only seven, but you forgive him seventy times a day.”) It is actually found in the Gospel of Barnabas 88.
The Gospel of the Hebrews (earlychristianwritings.com)
All of these confirmed the existence of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew (or Hebrews) and some of them even quoted texts from it (which we do not find in the current Matthew). As we have seen, the nucleus of the emergence and spread of the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew or Barnabas (the less common name) was in Egypt. If one of the most important features of this Gospel (Barnabas) is its confirmation that Christ was not crucified but was similar to the one who was hung on the cross.. then what would we expect if someone visited Egypt to describe the belief of most Egyptians (influenced by Ebionism) in the crucifixion of Christ during this period??
- Let us see for ourselves.. How would Saint Severus of Antioch describe the Egyptians’ religion when he fled to Egypt:
Some may argue that this belief is not necessarily due to the influence of the Ebionites and their Hebrew Gospel, as some other sects believed that the crucifixion did not occur. They are responded to by saying that the people actually acknowledge that the Ebionites believed that Christ was not crucified and did not suffer for a moment . Let us read together what Anba Gregory says about the Ebionites’ belief in the crucifixion of Christ.
If the Ebionites’ belief was that Christ was not crucified and did not die, but rather someone else. And they do not acknowledge any book except the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew. This indicates that the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew confirms this belief.
The same thing, of course, in the Gospel of Barnabas, that the one who was crucified was not Christ, but rather someone else who was similar to him: It is
Section Six: What language was the Italian version translated from?
- It is known that Barnabas was a Jew from the tribe of Levi and was also a Hellenist from Cyprus, and Hellenic Jews are Jews born in Greek-speaking countries and bearers of their culture.. So, if he wrote his Gospel, it would not have departed from the Hebrew language for the Jews and the Greek language for his countrymen.. Some Greek words were found that remained as they were without translation in the Italian version to reveal to us the Greek original from which they were translated.. We mention, for example, but not limited to:
1- The Feast of Tabernacles: - σκηνοπηγία
Chapter 30 of the Gospel of Barnabas, translated into Arabic (Dr. Khalil Saadeh),
begins And Jesus went to Jerusalem near unto the Tabernacles , which is one of the feasts of our nation. When referring to the Italian text, we find it like this: And when referring to the English translation of the text: Jesus went to Jerusalem near unto the Senofegia, but the English translation of the Feast of Tabernacles is: Tabernacles, not Senofegia .... So where did this strange translation come from, which has no meaning? Neither in English, nor in Italian, nor in Latin?... The answer is simply that the word ( Esinophygia or Eskinopegia ) is nothing but the Greek meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles and is written in Greek as follows: σκηνοπηγία . It seems that the translator from the Greek version did not understand this word, so he transferred its pronunciation as it is to the Italian translation.
2- The four letters: τετραγράμματον
It is stated in Barnabas 91:
"So the high priest, to appease the people, was ordered to ride in a boat, wearing his priestly garments, and the name of God, the Tetragrammaton, was written on his forehead."
When referring to the Italian text, we find it as follows:
We notice
from the following text:
- The translator does not know the intended meaning of the Greek Tetragrammaton, which means the four letters, and this is a reference to the word (Yahweh), the name of God among the Jews, which consists of four letters.
- The translator into Italian could not translate the word literally, so he transferred the word as it is - and the evidence of his lack of knowledge of it is that he transferred it incorrectly, as he wrote it tetagramaton instead of Tetragramaton,
and it is written in Greek like this: τετραγράμματον
3- The drachma dragma- drachma
It was said by Christ in Barnabas 169
: “And the paradise, which is the house where God keeps his graces, is so great that the ground that the feet of the saints and the blessed tread on is so precious that one drachma of it is worth more than a thousand worlds
.” In fact, the word drachma was translated in the Italian version in more than one paragraph to soldi, and in English it was translated to pence, except in the text above, so when we refer to the Italian text we find it like this:
In the English translation we found that the word had changed to drachma as well instead of Pence
What is the drachma?
The drachma is the ancient Greek currency! From which the Arabic word dirham was derived, and this name was not used again as a currency for Greece until 1832 AD and was called the modern drachma.
Drachma - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) What is
the explanation for mentioning the ancient Greek currency except that it may have inadvertently crept from the original text into the Italian translation.
4- Anathema
It is stated in Barnabas 210
"Then the high priest commanded that no one should speak a word in defense of Jesus, otherwise he would be under penalty of excommunication.
Excommunication means excommunication and ostracism, which is equivalent in Italian to the word Scomunica and in English to the word Excommunication or disfellowshiping,
but the word here in Italian is Anatema and in the English translation
is Anathema
This word means curse or deprivation of God's mercy, but it is a Greek word!
- It is clear from all of the above that the Italian translation was translated from an older Greek original .. and some Greek words remained that were not translated either by mistake or due to the translator's ignorance of their meaning sometimes, so they crept into the Italian translation..
- Finally, John Toland mentions in his book "NAZARENUS" published in 1718 AD (which includes his studies on the Gospel of Barnabas) p. 8 that there is a part of an ancient Greek manuscript of the Gospel of Barnabas (found in the Athens Museum) which is manuscript number 39 of the (Baruchian) manuscripts and it contains a passage from (the Gospel of Barnabas) with the following words:
-Βαρνάβας
νικησας διοτι απερχεται πλεον εχων της αμαρτιας
"The apostle Barnabas says: He who wins the victory in disputes (competitions) wins the worst evil , because he thereby receives the greatest error . "
Although many researchers have searched for the phrase and did not find it, there is a consensus that the phrase is close to the style of the Italian version of the Gospel of Barnabas. However,
the Christian researcher John Toland had an important opinion, as he says in the same book, p. 20 :
But I may not forget what I promised above regarding the Barnabas fragment in the Baruch manuscript, for I found it in terms of terminology in this Gospel (meaning the Italian version) - and it is clear that the meaning is present in more than one place, which naturally leads me to believe that the Gospel may be old about Barnabas.
Toland's words Barnabas 102 (The world laughs, and what is worse than that is that the greatest sinner is he who laughs more than others) ... As we notice, the two sentences are similar except for the two words (wins * laughs) . Perhaps what is meant by the phrase laughs more is the one who wins the dispute or competition... We say: "He who laughs last laughs a lot" and what we mean by the saying is "the winner is the one who has the upper hand in the end." The famous Greek philosopher "Aristotle" says: "We laugh at those who are less than us, and joy comes to us from the feeling that we are a higher class than them." Whether what is meant by laughter is victory and triumph or not, the two phrases remain similar and close to each other.
- It is known that Barnabas was a Jew from the tribe of Levi and was also a Hellenist from Cyprus, and Hellenic Jews are Jews born in Greek-speaking countries and bearers of their culture.. So, if he wrote his Gospel, it would not have departed from the Hebrew language for the Jews and the Greek language for his countrymen.. Some Greek words were found that remained as they were without translation in the Italian version to reveal to us the Greek original from which they were translated.. We mention, for example, but not limited to:
1- The Feast of Tabernacles: - σκηνοπηγία
Chapter 30 of the Gospel of Barnabas, translated into Arabic (Dr. Khalil Saadeh),
begins And Jesus went to Jerusalem near unto the Tabernacles , which is one of the feasts of our nation. When referring to the Italian text, we find it like this: And when referring to the English translation of the text: Jesus went to Jerusalem near unto the Senofegia, but the English translation of the Feast of Tabernacles is: Tabernacles, not Senofegia .... So where did this strange translation come from, which has no meaning? Neither in English, nor in Italian, nor in Latin?... The answer is simply that the word ( Esinophygia or Eskinopegia ) is nothing but the Greek meaning of the Feast of Tabernacles and is written in Greek as follows: σκηνοπηγία . It seems that the translator from the Greek version did not understand this word, so he transferred its pronunciation as it is to the Italian translation.
2- The four letters: τετραγράμματον
It is stated in Barnabas 91:
"So the high priest, to appease the people, was ordered to ride in a boat, wearing his priestly garments, and the name of God, the Tetragrammaton, was written on his forehead."
When referring to the Italian text, we find it as follows:
from the following text:
- The translator does not know the intended meaning of the Greek Tetragrammaton, which means the four letters, and this is a reference to the word (Yahweh), the name of God among the Jews, which consists of four letters.
- The translator into Italian could not translate the word literally, so he transferred the word as it is - and the evidence of his lack of knowledge of it is that he transferred it incorrectly, as he wrote it tetagramaton instead of Tetragramaton,
and it is written in Greek like this: τετραγράμματον
3- The drachma dragma- drachma
It was said by Christ in Barnabas 169
: “And the paradise, which is the house where God keeps his graces, is so great that the ground that the feet of the saints and the blessed tread on is so precious that one drachma of it is worth more than a thousand worlds
.” In fact, the word drachma was translated in the Italian version in more than one paragraph to soldi, and in English it was translated to pence, except in the text above, so when we refer to the Italian text we find it like this:
In the English translation we found that the word had changed to drachma as well instead of Pence
'Paradise is the home where God stores his delights, which are so great that the ground which is trodden by the feet of the holy and blessed
ones is so precious that one drachma of it is more precious than a thousand worlds.
ones is so precious that one drachma of it is more precious than a thousand worlds.
What is the drachma?
The drachma is the ancient Greek currency! From which the Arabic word dirham was derived, and this name was not used again as a currency for Greece until 1832 AD and was called the modern drachma.
Drachma - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) What is
the explanation for mentioning the ancient Greek currency except that it may have inadvertently crept from the original text into the Italian translation.
4- Anathema
It is stated in Barnabas 210
"Then the high priest commanded that no one should speak a word in defense of Jesus, otherwise he would be under penalty of excommunication.
Excommunication means excommunication and ostracism, which is equivalent in Italian to the word Scomunica and in English to the word Excommunication or disfellowshiping,
but the word here in Italian is Anatema and in the English translation
The high priest therefore spoke that under pain of anathema none should speak a word in defense of Jesus
This word means curse or deprivation of God's mercy, but it is a Greek word!
- It is clear from all of the above that the Italian translation was translated from an older Greek original .. and some Greek words remained that were not translated either by mistake or due to the translator's ignorance of their meaning sometimes, so they crept into the Italian translation..
- Finally, John Toland mentions in his book "NAZARENUS" published in 1718 AD (which includes his studies on the Gospel of Barnabas) p. 8 that there is a part of an ancient Greek manuscript of the Gospel of Barnabas (found in the Athens Museum) which is manuscript number 39 of the (Baruchian) manuscripts and it contains a passage from (the Gospel of Barnabas) with the following words:
νικησας διοτι απερχεται πλεον εχων της αμαρτιας
"The apostle Barnabas says: He who wins the victory in disputes (competitions) wins the worst evil , because he thereby receives the greatest error . "
Although many researchers have searched for the phrase and did not find it, there is a consensus that the phrase is close to the style of the Italian version of the Gospel of Barnabas. However,
the Christian researcher John Toland had an important opinion, as he says in the same book, p. 20 :
But I may not forget what I promised above regarding the Barnabas fragment in the Baruch manuscript, for I found it in terms of terminology in this Gospel (meaning the Italian version) - and it is clear that the meaning is present in more than one place, which naturally leads me to believe that the Gospel may be old about Barnabas.
Toland's words Barnabas 102 (The world laughs, and what is worse than that is that the greatest sinner is he who laughs more than others) ... As we notice, the two sentences are similar except for the two words (wins * laughs) . Perhaps what is meant by the phrase laughs more is the one who wins the dispute or competition... We say: "He who laughs last laughs a lot" and what we mean by the saying is "the winner is the one who has the upper hand in the end." The famous Greek philosopher "Aristotle" says: "We laugh at those who are less than us, and joy comes to us from the feeling that we are a higher class than them." Whether what is meant by laughter is victory and triumph or not, the two phrases remain similar and close to each other.
Chapter Seven: What do you smell when reading the Gospel of Barnabas... the scent of the Middle Ages or the fragrance of the first centuries?
- This question is very necessary to remove the rubble and dust that have been placed on this book for more than three hundred years to discourage and stifle the will to read it with a critical and fair eye at the same time.
- It is no secret to anyone that just as the Gospel of Barnabas was discovered in a purely Christian atmosphere... it was also studied in the same climate... and therefore it is not surprising that the death sentence was issued on this book from the beginning, as this book should not be authentic, because if this Gospel is true, then say goodbye to Christianity! These were the words of John Toland when he first saw this Gospel.
- So the claims were launched to prove the falsity of this book.. and one of the most important of these claims was to prove that this Gospel is a product of the Middle Ages.. so let us review these claims in some detail to see how well they stand up to examination, verification and criticism...
(1) European feudalism in the time of Christ:
It was said in (F3:194) that Lazarus and his sister owned the villages of Magdala and Bethany!! “He (Lazarus) was strong and had followers in Jerusalem and owned Magdala and Bethany with his two sisters ”!! The system of individuals owning entire villages, including those in them and those on them, was not prevalent in Palestine, but this system was known in Europe in the Middle Ages.
The translator Dr. Khalil Saadeh says in Ilhamish “This reference to individuals owning entire villages is one of the historical errors (of the writer) of Barnabas and it shows that we are in the Middle Ages of Europe and not in the first century of Palestine ”
The Gospel of Barnabas is mythical.. and fake! Fifty proofs of this - Father: Abdel-Masih Basit Abu Al-Khair
Response:
- Perhaps what is meant is that he had many properties in Magdala and Bethany, such that these two villages were attributed to him metaphorically. Let us not forget that Lazarus and his two sisters, as is clear from the context of the Gospel of Barnabas (and even in the Synoptic Gospels), were not simple people like the disciples (fishermen and farmers, etc.). Rather, it seems that they were from some of the elite tribes of the children of Israel who had large properties . This is certainly possible, and there is no evidence that the ownership of lands and properties was not known during this period.
Barnabas himself owned a field (Acts 4:37) (1),
and Segub the son of Jair the Gileadite (from the tribe of Issachar) owned twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead, and the rest of his brothers each owned at least one city! ( 1 Chronicles 2:22-23) (2)
22 And Segob begat Jair, and he had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.
23 And he took Geshur and Aram-havoth-jair from them, with Kenath and its villages, sixty cities. All these were the sons of Machir the father of Gilead. In
some of the biographies of notables and rabbis in the era of Christ and before him, such as (Seder Hadorot), we find news of very great wealth, for example, Rabbi Judah Hanasi, who was the head of the Sanhedrin in the era of Marcus Aurelius in the second century ADHe was one of the richest men of his time , and it was said that Rabbi Eliezer ben Azuriah owned a thousand forests and a thousand ships. (3)
Therefore, the analogy of the one who raises the doubt is invalid.. The fact that individuals owned cities in medieval Europe does not mean that this could not have happened in Palestine in the early centuries.. History repeats itself, as they said in the past...
And based on this same invalid analogy, we can conclude, for example, that the Book of Acts was written in the Middle Ages!
For example, Acts 13:6 mentions Barishoa the magician, Acts 8:9 mentions Simon the magician, and Acts 19:18 mentioned the burning of books of magic.. Aren't these actions reminiscent of the witch hunts and the Inquisition in the Middle Ages?!
- So, the point is that history repeats itself, nothing more..
(2) Wooden wine barrels:
(Barnabas) continues by saying that if the Jews made wine in wooden barrels in Chapter 152, while wooden barrels were not known until the Middle Ages, while in the days of Christ it was in clay vessels, like the story of the wedding at Cana in Galilee...
(The Myth of the Gospel of Barnabas - Pope Shenouda III - Lectures of the Clerical College 1988)
Response:
This is unfortunately a deception, as Barnabas did not mention at all that the Jews made wine in wooden barrels,
but rather he was describing the scene, saying:
“Then Jesus said, ‘Adonai Sabaoth,’ and immediately the soldiers rolled out of the temple as one rolls wooden barrels that have been washed to be filled with wine.”
So the description is of Barnabas the Cypriot , and Cyprus is one of the oldest countries in the manufacture and storage of wine, and there is no doubt that this scene was familiar to him in Cyprus.
As for the claim that wooden barrels were not known until the Middle Ages, this indicates a lack of knowledge, if we are to assume the best of our knowledge.
Wooden barrels were known in the ancient Celtic civilization, and wooden barrels dating back six hundred years before the birth of Christ were discovered, intended for storing water. Here
is the historian Herodotus (450 BC) describing the life of the Babylonians, saying: (After that, they line the boats with straw and with difficulty lower them into the river, which is full of goods. Most of the time, barrels (made of palm wood) filled with wine fall into these boats .)
and after that they stowed the whole boat with straw and suffered it to be carried down the stream full of cargo; and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood filled with wine
Wooden barrels dating back to 350 BC were also discovered. They were designed to withstand pressure and prevent water leakage and could be rolled and stacked.
The inscriptions of the ancient Roman Empire also record the transport of wooden wine barrels in ships in the first and second centuries AD. To be continued
, God willing...
-----------------
(1) The importance of the Gospel of Barnabas, Nabil Al-Karkhi, p. 31
(2) The Gospel of Barnabas, Studies on the Unity of Religion (Sayf Allah Ahmed Fadhel), p. 269
(3) The Gospel of Barnabas, Dr. Ahmed Ibish, p.
- This question is very necessary to remove the rubble and dust that have been placed on this book for more than three hundred years to discourage and stifle the will to read it with a critical and fair eye at the same time.
- It is no secret to anyone that just as the Gospel of Barnabas was discovered in a purely Christian atmosphere... it was also studied in the same climate... and therefore it is not surprising that the death sentence was issued on this book from the beginning, as this book should not be authentic, because if this Gospel is true, then say goodbye to Christianity! These were the words of John Toland when he first saw this Gospel.
- So the claims were launched to prove the falsity of this book.. and one of the most important of these claims was to prove that this Gospel is a product of the Middle Ages.. so let us review these claims in some detail to see how well they stand up to examination, verification and criticism...
(1) European feudalism in the time of Christ:
It was said in (F3:194) that Lazarus and his sister owned the villages of Magdala and Bethany!! “He (Lazarus) was strong and had followers in Jerusalem and owned Magdala and Bethany with his two sisters ”!! The system of individuals owning entire villages, including those in them and those on them, was not prevalent in Palestine, but this system was known in Europe in the Middle Ages.
The translator Dr. Khalil Saadeh says in Ilhamish “This reference to individuals owning entire villages is one of the historical errors (of the writer) of Barnabas and it shows that we are in the Middle Ages of Europe and not in the first century of Palestine ”
The Gospel of Barnabas is mythical.. and fake! Fifty proofs of this - Father: Abdel-Masih Basit Abu Al-Khair
Response:
- Perhaps what is meant is that he had many properties in Magdala and Bethany, such that these two villages were attributed to him metaphorically. Let us not forget that Lazarus and his two sisters, as is clear from the context of the Gospel of Barnabas (and even in the Synoptic Gospels), were not simple people like the disciples (fishermen and farmers, etc.). Rather, it seems that they were from some of the elite tribes of the children of Israel who had large properties . This is certainly possible, and there is no evidence that the ownership of lands and properties was not known during this period.
Barnabas himself owned a field (Acts 4:37) (1),
and Segub the son of Jair the Gileadite (from the tribe of Issachar) owned twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead, and the rest of his brothers each owned at least one city! ( 1 Chronicles 2:22-23) (2)
22 And Segob begat Jair, and he had twenty-three cities in the land of Gilead.
23 And he took Geshur and Aram-havoth-jair from them, with Kenath and its villages, sixty cities. All these were the sons of Machir the father of Gilead. In
some of the biographies of notables and rabbis in the era of Christ and before him, such as (Seder Hadorot), we find news of very great wealth, for example, Rabbi Judah Hanasi, who was the head of the Sanhedrin in the era of Marcus Aurelius in the second century ADHe was one of the richest men of his time , and it was said that Rabbi Eliezer ben Azuriah owned a thousand forests and a thousand ships. (3)
Therefore, the analogy of the one who raises the doubt is invalid.. The fact that individuals owned cities in medieval Europe does not mean that this could not have happened in Palestine in the early centuries.. History repeats itself, as they said in the past...
And based on this same invalid analogy, we can conclude, for example, that the Book of Acts was written in the Middle Ages!
For example, Acts 13:6 mentions Barishoa the magician, Acts 8:9 mentions Simon the magician, and Acts 19:18 mentioned the burning of books of magic.. Aren't these actions reminiscent of the witch hunts and the Inquisition in the Middle Ages?!
- So, the point is that history repeats itself, nothing more..
(2) Wooden wine barrels:
(Barnabas) continues by saying that if the Jews made wine in wooden barrels in Chapter 152, while wooden barrels were not known until the Middle Ages, while in the days of Christ it was in clay vessels, like the story of the wedding at Cana in Galilee...
(The Myth of the Gospel of Barnabas - Pope Shenouda III - Lectures of the Clerical College 1988)
Response:
This is unfortunately a deception, as Barnabas did not mention at all that the Jews made wine in wooden barrels,
but rather he was describing the scene, saying:
“Then Jesus said, ‘Adonai Sabaoth,’ and immediately the soldiers rolled out of the temple as one rolls wooden barrels that have been washed to be filled with wine.”
So the description is of Barnabas the Cypriot , and Cyprus is one of the oldest countries in the manufacture and storage of wine, and there is no doubt that this scene was familiar to him in Cyprus.
As for the claim that wooden barrels were not known until the Middle Ages, this indicates a lack of knowledge, if we are to assume the best of our knowledge.
Wooden barrels were known in the ancient Celtic civilization, and wooden barrels dating back six hundred years before the birth of Christ were discovered, intended for storing water. Here
is the historian Herodotus (450 BC) describing the life of the Babylonians, saying: (After that, they line the boats with straw and with difficulty lower them into the river, which is full of goods. Most of the time, barrels (made of palm wood) filled with wine fall into these boats .)
and after that they stowed the whole boat with straw and suffered it to be carried down the stream full of cargo; and for the most part these boats bring down casks of palm-wood filled with wine
Wooden barrels dating back to 350 BC were also discovered. They were designed to withstand pressure and prevent water leakage and could be rolled and stacked.
The inscriptions of the ancient Roman Empire also record the transport of wooden wine barrels in ships in the first and second centuries AD. To be continued
, God willing...
-----------------
(1) The importance of the Gospel of Barnabas, Nabil Al-Karkhi, p. 31
(2) The Gospel of Barnabas, Studies on the Unity of Religion (Sayf Allah Ahmed Fadhel), p. 269
(3) The Gospel of Barnabas, Dr. Ahmed Ibish, p.
(3) Barnabas and the quotation from Dante’s Divine Comedy: -
First, Dante Alighieri is known as the supreme poet and is also called the father of the Italian language. The Divine Comedy was his greatest work, which he wrote in the early fourteenth century. He divided it into three chapters (Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise). This work is classified as the greatest literary statement produced by Europe in the Middle Ages. However, investigators have proven that Dante quoted much of his material from the Islamic heritage, in addition to the canonical and non-canonical gospels, and even from some sermons of the Apostolic Fathers and even the late ones.
Among the Christian scholars who have proven that Dante was influenced by the Islamic heritage is Father Miguel Asin Palacios, who published a book in 1920 entitled “The Influence of Islam on the Divine Comedy,” in which he confirmed that Dante was influenced by:
1- The story of the Night Journey and Ascension
2- The Meccan Revelations of Ibn Arabi
3- The Epistle of Forgiveness by Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri.
In addition, some modern studies have proven that he was also influenced by Ibn Arabi and Ibn Shahid. Andalusian in addition to some of what came in the Holy Quran and the hadiths of the Prophet. (1)
- Regarding Dante's quotation from some of the unauthorized gospels, Father Abdel-Masih Basit Abu Al-Khair says about the Gospel of Nicodemus:
"This apocryphal book is the main inspiration for Dante Alighieri in writing the divine epic consisting of three parts: Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell.
The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus
- We will suffice with this much that confirms that much of Dante's literary material was inspired by a previous religious heritage, whether Islamic or Christian, and this basically invalidates the idea of quoting the Gospel of Barnabas from the Divine Comedy. Rather, we have the right to ask why the source of the similarity is not that Dante read the Gospel of Barnabas as he read some of the other apocryphal gospels?
- However, let us review the claims of quoting the Gospel of Barnabas from Dante and verify whether Dante was really the source of these quotations or not?
A- The expression “hunger in hell” when talking about the punishment of sinners in hell:
Barnabas 60:8 “How sick shall make them raging hunger.”
This hunger was described, as it came in the English translation, as “raging hunger” and in Italian as “rabbiasa fame.” This expression also came in the Divine Comedy in the third part of “Inferno.”
Here, one can ask several questions:
The first question: Dante's Divine Comedy consists of three parts (Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise) and consists of about 15,000 verses. If we assume that the Inferno Canticle represents a third of the content, i.e. 5,000 verses, and each verse consists of at least 15 words... Is it reasonable that Dante would talk about hell with no less than 75,000 words and that there would not be a single similarity with other works that talk about hell?
The second question: Was Dante the first to point out that hunger is one of the manifestations of the suffering of the people of hell or fire?
The answer is of course no... For example, the Holy Quran talks about the people of Hell and says:
(They will have no food except from Dharee' (a tree that neither nourishes nor satisfies hunger)
meaning that the people of Hell will continue to suffer from hunger because even the food designated for them (dharee') which is by the way a tree of dry thorns without leaves will not satisfy their hunger.
So if there is a quote, then Dante is the one who quoted from Islam , as he did not claim that it was a revelation from God. On the other hand, the similarity of the Gospel of Barnabas to the Holy Quran is like the rest of the Gospels, if there is something in them that resembles the Holy Quran, then this is from the revelation that God sent down to His prophets.
Therefore, this accusation becomes superficial and naive, as we did not find the Gospel of Barnabas stating a compound sentence taken from Dante such as (the people of hell suffer, but hunger was more powerful than pain). At that time, we will say that this sentence is one of the characteristics of Dante’s poetry that we will only find in Dante. This did not happen.
B- The punishment of the bitter cold in hell
. It is stated in the Gospel of Barnabas (60:8, 17): “How severe is the hunger, the stinging flames, the burning coals, the painful torment, with the bitter and intense crying. How severe is the bitter cold that does not abate their flames.”
Barnabas 106:15 “Truly I say to you, when God created him (the senses), he condemned him to hell, to unbearable snow and ice.”
Barnabas 135:43-44 “In this accursed place there will be a general punishment that will include all the depths, like a mixture of many grains that make a loaf, for in God’s justice fire and frost, thunderbolts and lightning, brimstone, heat and cold, wind, madness and terror will be united in such a way that neither the cold will alleviate the heat nor the fire and ice, but will torment both of them.”
“This description of hell was common in medieval Europe in the visionary writings that were widespread in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Let us come to what Dante wrote:
- “I am in the third ring, the ring of eternal rain, accursed, cold, heavy… Much hail and black waters, snow falling through the dark air” (Canto 6:7-10).
- “When I turned and saw before me and under my feet a lake that had the appearance of glass, not water, from the freezing… It was The two tormented ghosts are immersed in the snow... and their color has turned blue (Song 32: 22-26).
The response:
This also does not need Barnabas to quote from Dante’s poetry, as God Almighty mentioned the freezing cold in Hell ... God Almighty says:
(They will see therein neither sun nor freezing cold)
Al-Tabari’s interpretation: God Almighty says: They will not see therein the sun, so that its heat would harm them, nor the intense cold, so that its cold would harm them.
Al-Zamharir was also mentioned in the prophetic hadiths as the intense cold in Hell:
Ibn Abd al-A’la told us: Ibn Thawr told us, on the authority of Muammar, on the authority of al-Zuhri, on the authority of Abu Salamah, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, on the authority of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, who said: “The Fire complained to its Lord and said: ‘O Lord, some parts of me have consumed the other, so give me some relief.’ So He permitted it to take two breaths every year. The most intense cold you will find is from the cold of Hell, and the most intense heat you will find is from the heat of Hell.” Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their Sahihs on the authority of Abu Hurairah,
may God be pleased with him, that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “The fire complained to its Lord and said: ‘O Lord!’ Some of them ate each other, so He gave her permission to have two breaths: a breath in the winter, and a breath in the summer, and it is the most intense heat you find, and the most intense cold you find .” So,
as we mentioned before, if there is a quote, then Dante is the one who quoted from Islam , as he did not claim that it was a revelation from God. On the other hand, the similarity of the Gospel of Barnabas to the Holy Quran is like the rest of the Gospels, if there is something similar to the Holy Quran in them, then this is from the revelation that God sent down to His prophets. C
- The heavens are nine:
Barnabas 105: 3 “I tell you
, then, that the heavens are nine”
The number of heavens according to Christian thought is three, the sky of birds or the atmosphere (Gen. 1:2), the sky of stars (Job 22:12-14), the sky of heavens or the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4)
and according to the Quranic text seven heavens (Al-Isra 17, Al-Mu'minun 23, Fussilat 41, At-Talaq 65, Noah 71...)
So where did the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas get that the number of heavens is nine?
This is what is stated in the Divine Comedy where the number of heavens is nine and the tenth is Paradise.
Response:
This doubt contains a number of fallacies:
The first fallacy: The number of heavens is three according to Christian thought
since the number of heavens is not specified in the Bible but the number three is a late opinion and some late Christian scholars said that the number is four and not three.
The second fallacy: Christ in the Gospel of Barnabas did not confirm that the number of heavens is nine. As we mentioned earlier, the number of heavens was not known in the Old Testament. Rather, the reader who examines the text will find that Christ is presenting a suggestion (as an example) to demonstrate to the disciples that God is beyond measure. He says:
God is beyond measure to the point that I tremble at His description. But I must suggest something to you . I tell you then that the heavens are nine and that they are as far apart as the first heaven is from the earth, which is five hundred years away from the earth. Accordingly, the earth is four thousand five hundred years away from the highest heaven. Based on that, I tell you that it is in relation to the first heaven.
Like the head of a needle, and likewise the first heaven in relation to the second, and in this manner all the heavens are lower than the one following it, but the entire size of the earth with the size of all the heavens in relation to heaven is like the head of a needle, or rather like a grain of sand. Is not this greatness immeasurable? The disciples answered: Yes, yes.
Then Jesus said: By the life of God, in whose presence my soul stands, the universe before God is as small as a grain of sand, and God is greater than that by the amount of grains of sand needed to fill all the heavens and heaven, or even more. So now see if there is a relationship between God and man, who is nothing but a small lump
of clay standing on the earth, then be careful to take the meaning and not the mere words if you want to attain eternal life.
Anyone who reads the text carefully will find that the number of heavens is a suggested hypothesis and an example, and the distances between the heavens are common hypotheses and not based on reality. The meaning of the statement is clear: if, by assumption, the number of heavens is nine and the distance between each heaven is a travel distance of five hundred years, then this entire universe does not represent the head of a needle or a grain of sand in comparison to heaven, and God Almighty is greater than all of that.
So the problem was in Khalil Saadeh’s translation, which distorted the text, as his translation of Christ’s saying in Barnabas was: But I must mention to you a case,
and the sentence in Italian came as follows:
So the numbers are just a suggestion or an example... as stated in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 (And he spoke to them in parables)..
And he emphasizes once again that what is meant by what was mentioned is the meaning and not the letter, so he says:
So be careful to take the meaning and not the abstract words.
Also, the words of Christ in Barnabas express the language of his time, so the estimation of the distance of one heaven from the other by a distance of 500 years is found in the Jerusalem Talmud (2)... and it has no relation at all to the nine rings of heaven that Dante mentioned to compare them to the nine rings of hell that he mentioned in Inferno (the first part of the Divine Comedy). Rather, Dante is closer in quoting the nine rings of hell to the legends of the Aztec civilization, which say that Tezcatlipoca (the god of divine providence and darkness) after creating the earth and the heavens, then formed the nine layers of hell for the underworld known as Mictlan... and the nine layers of hell are located at the end of Capactli..
However, the detailed planning of the degrees of Hell mentioned by Dante is completely consistent with what Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) mentioned in Al-Futuhat Al-Malikiyya, Part 6, p. 191!
Finally: If this statement in the Gospel of Barnabas was fabricated and the author intended to actually mention the number of heavens... he would have made them seven heavens to conform to Islamic belief! This did not happen.
Rather, as we explained above, Christ was speaking about a hypothesis using the language of his time to give the disciples an example that God is beyond comparison ... and nothing more.
D - The levels of Hell and their association with the types of sins:
He said in (F3:135-29) “Know therefore that Hell is one and yet it has seven levels , one below the other. Just as sin has seven types if Satan created it, similar to the seven gates of Hell , so there are seven types of torment in it.”
The description of Hell in terms of levels, types of sins and types of punishment is taken from the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, where Dante’s Hell consists of nine levels or rings of
response:
Raising this doubt is a clear example that the death sentence was prepared in advance for the Gospel of Barnabas and all they lack is fabricating accusations!
- Let us assume that the Gospel of Barnabas is a complete forgery and that its author is a fabricator... Would the author have needed Dante in the fourteenth century to quote that Hell has levels corresponding to types of sin and that the number of levels is seven?!
Why would he quote from Dante when Dante confirms that their number is nine and not seven?!
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for him to quote from Ibn Arabi, since he says the same thing and agrees on the number seven?
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for him to quote from the Holy Quran or the Sunnah of the Prophet or from the words of the commentators? Al-Qurtubi
said in (Al-Tadhkira): God Almighty said: {Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire}. So Hell has seven levels : meaning levels and stations... So the hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire, which is the abyss; Because of the severity of their disbelief and the abundance of their evils, and their ability to harm the believers . End quote. Ibn Rajab said in (Al-Takhīf min Al-Nār): Allah the Almighty said after mentioning the people of Paradise and the people of Hell: {And for each are degrees according to what they have done}, and He said: {Is he who pursues the pleasure of Allah like he who draws down upon himself the wrath of Allah and whose refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination? * They are degrees with Allah}. Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam said: “The degrees of Paradise go up, and the degrees of Hell go down.” Ibn Abi Al-Dunya narrated with his chain of transmission on the authority of Ikrimah regarding the words of Allah the Almighty: {It has seven gates}, he said: “It has seven levels.” And on the authority of Qatadah: {For each of their gates is a portion allotted}, he said: By Allah, they are stations according to their deeds . End quote. Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir said in his interpretation: {And the Hereafter is greater in degrees and greater in distinction}, meaning: And because their differences in the Hereafter are greater than in this world; Some of them will be in the lowest levels of Hell, with its chains and shackles, and some of them will be in the highest levels, with its bliss and joy . Then the people of the lowest levels will vary in what they are in , just as the people of the levels will vary . End quote. Al-Saadi said in his interpretation of the Almighty’s statement: “ They have degrees with Allah” (Al Imran: 163):
Meaning: All of these vary in their degrees and stations according to the variation in their deeds. Those who seek the pleasure of Allah strive to attain the highest degrees, stations and chambers, so Allah gives them from His grace and generosity according to their deeds. Those who seek what displeases Allah strive to descend to the lowest depths, each according to his deeds . End quote. And
Allah knows best.
Rather, we will add another verse to the priest’s poem and say: Hasn’t he seen what is stated in the Gospel of Luke 12, which confirms that punishment has degrees according to the type of sin?
47 But that servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself nor do according to his will will be beaten with many blows.
48 But he who did not know, and does things deserving of stripes, will be stripped with few stripes. For everyone to whom much has been given, of him much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, of him they will ask the more .
The phrase "false gods"
appears in the Gospel of Barnabas four times.
* Barnabas 23:26-28 Jesus says: "For all the saints and prophets were enemies of their own flesh to serve God. Therefore they willingly ran to their death, that they might not transgress the law of God given to Moses his servant, and serve the false and lying gods."
* Barnabas 78:15-17 Jesus says to his disciples: "Truly I say to you, when our God created man, he did not create him righteous only, but he also put a light in his heart to show him that he was worthy of serving God. And even if this light is darkened after sin, it will not be extinguished, because every nation has this desire to serve God, even though they have lost God and served false and lying gods."
*Barnabas 128:2-3: “ I say to you, brothers, that Satan has led you astray through the Roman soldiers when you said, ‘I am God.’ Beware that you do not believe them, for they are under the curse of God and serve false and lying gods.”
*Barnabas 217:59-61: “ So they led Judas to Herod, who had long desired that Jesus would come to his house. But Jesus would not come to his house, because Herod was a Gentile
and adored the false and lying gods
. This expression, “false gods,” is not found in the Bible, but it is found literally in the Divine Comedy in Inferno 1:72, in Italian, from which the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas quotes it.
Response:
In fact, the term false gods is found in the Bible:
priests of false gods (Zephaniah 1: 4).
Also, the term false gods and idols was mentioned
(Deuteronomy 32:21) “They have enticed me with their false idols.”
I do not see any problem in the translator using a standard, common and widespread term in Italian culture (false gods) in his translation of the phrase! .. And more than that, the phrase is not exclusive to Dante, but the mind tends to use the phrase in more than one time and place by different people without that representing a quote, due to the prevalence of words and their frequent use!
The clearest example of this is the term Anti Christ, which literally translates into Arabic as Against Christ , but many Arabic translations of the Bible translate it as “ the false Messiah ,” which is a purely Islamic term . However, it is the most appropriate term because it is the common term in Arabic . In the Arabic translation of the First Epistle of John, Chapter Two: Has anyone said that the Epistle of John is taken from the Sunnah of the Prophet? To be continued, God willing -------------------------
The answer: Yes, most definitely... and we have many examples of this:
1- The precious purple
(Truly I say to you, if the people of the world knew all this, they would prefer a hair shirt to purple ) Barnabas 57.
The example of purple here indicates that the writer belonged to the era of Christ, peace be upon him, in the first century AD , as the people of the eastern Mediterranean at that time knew that this precious dye that the Canaanites of the coast (the Phoenicians) extracted from seashells known as Murex was one of the most valuable commercial treasures. The most valuable robes were those dyed with this dye, and only emperors, kings, and those of their rank would wear them.
We read in Daniel 5:7 , “Whoever reads this writing and tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold around his neck.”
The most valuable type of purple was
2- Boiling filth
(As for the fourth level, the lustful descend to it, where they have changed the path that God gave them, they are like wheat boiled in the filth of the devil burnt ) Barnabas 135.
The expression “the filth of the devil burnt” is an old Haggadic expression that appears in the Midrash as well as the Talmud (Messikhet Arabin 21):
“Everyone who disobeys the Khammim deserves death, and in hell he will be boiled in boiling filth ”
3- Converting clay into sugar:
(If a person is able to convert dung into gold or clay into sugar, what does he do? ) Barnabas 119
- I stopped a lot at the word (sugar), astonished because the people did not mention it as evidence that the writing of the Gospel of Barnabas was in the Middle Ages, when Arab businessmen adopted sugar production techniques from India and expanded the industry in Europe in the Middle Ages. And Andalusia was also an important center for sugar production starting from the tenth century.
- But my confusion and astonishment disappeared when I looked at the text again... I noticed something strange... namely, the mention of sugar came in conjunction with the mention of gold as something valuable and rare.
- But when was sugar something valuable and rare??
There are records among the ancient Greeks and Romans that mentioned sugar only as an imported medicine , and it was not known as a food. For example, the Greek physician Dioscorides wrote in the first century (AD) : “There is a kind of mixed honey called saccharone [i.e. sugar] found in the reeds of India and Eudaemon Arabia [i.e. Yemen ] that resembles saltIn consistency and brittle enough to be ground between the teeth like salt. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and as food, and can be taken as a drink to help relieve bladder and kidney pains.” Pliny the Elder , a Roman from the first century AD, described sugar as medicinal : “Sugar is also made in Arabia , but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in sugar cane, white as gum, and is ground between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. It is used only for medicinal purposes .”
History of Sugar - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) So
the answer is: Sugar was a valuable and rare thing when the Greeks and Romans used it as an imported medicine for various medical purposes in the first century AD and before.
4- Written expressions that smell of the first century AD:
Here are some of them, by way of example, that clearly illustrate the environment and era of this book:
A. You do not walk in the law of God
Barnabas 67 (And all this will happen because you do not walk in His law )
* A purely biblical expression from the language of the Torah, which smells of the first century AD.
B. The High Priest
Barnabas 68 * Then Jesus said: O priests and scribes and Pharisees, and you, O high priest , who hear my voice "
High Priest: The title in Hebrew כהן גדול (Kohen HaGdol) is a very common term in the Jewish religious heritage.
C. The repetition of the addressee
Barnabas 88 " (But beware of considering yourself better than him, but you should say thus: Peter, Peter , if God had not helped you, you would have been worse than him)
This method of repeating the addressee twice strongly indicates the Western Semitic languages: Canaanite and Hebrew, for in Hebrew it is very common שלום שלום "Shalom Shalom" and in the remnants of the Canaanite language in the dialect of the Syrian coastal mountains "Winak, wainak, Ein Ein!" And in the Gospel of Barnabas there are many examples, see for example Chapter 194 "Martha, Martha".
D. By the living God
Barnabas 96 (Jesus answered: By the living God, in whose presence my soul stands)
This standard phrase that is repeatedly mentioned in the Torah and also on the tongue of Jesus in the Gospels, was translated by Khalil Saadeh: By God! Which is an Islamic expression without commitment to the content of the text, so the reader thinks that the writer of Barnabas is influenced by Islamic culture, while the expression is purely biblical.
H. Dust and Ashes
Barnabas 125 “Tell me, do you want to receive something bad from God? Certainly not, you dust and ashes !” Dust and Ashes: עָפָר וָאֵפֶר (Efar and Ipher) which is a purely biblical expression and is also mentioned in Barnabas 129. W. Barnabas opened his mouth 139 (Therefore he opened his mouth and said, “He who walks without knowing where he is going is certainly miserable”)
A standard expression that occurs repeatedly in the Synoptic Gospels, in Greek (άνοιξε το στόμα). Here the question is repeated: Was this Gospel composed in Italian by a European in the sixteenth century, fluent in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Italian, and all the sciences of the first century AD and its spatial and temporal circumstances, along with the Torah, Midrash, the Gospel, and the Qur’an as well?!! It is the duty of a person to judge matters by their circumstances and data - as they were originally stated - not to mold them and dress them in a garment that is not part of them, in the service of a predetermined result that he aims for.
Z. Grace in the eyes of God
Barnabas 191 (Remember me, a servant of God, that I may find grace in the eyes of God )
is a very old expression from the vocabulary of the Torah (חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְהוָֽה) that cannot be a subject in the sixteenth century.
To be continued, God willing...,,,
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(1) The notes on the purple, the boiling malice, and the biblical expressions are taken from the wonderful book (The Gospel of Barnabas) by Dr. Ahmed Ibish.
- Although Barnabas is not mentioned among the twelve disciples of Christ in the New Testament Gospels, and Christians insist that Barnabas was not a contemporary of Christ but was one of the seventy, historical tracing of Barnabas’s status finds that Barnabas had a much higher status than what people give him, and there is much evidence for that:
First: Barnabas, nicknamed the Apostle:
It is noted that the title Apostle was only given to the twelve disciples of Christ, and later to Paul when he claimed that Christ appeared to him and spoke to him alone on his way to Damascus... As for the seventy or seventy-two, they were called Disciples
The seventy disciples or seventy-two disciples, but
the first sentence in the Gospel of Barnabas confirms that Barnabas was the disciple of Christ “Barnabas
, apostle of Jesus the Nazarene.”
Then it confirms in the fourteenth chapter of the same Gospel that Christ chose twelve apostles, including Barnabas .
Is there any confirmation that Barnabas was an "Apostle", i.e. a disciple who saw, heard and spoke with Christ like the Twelve Apostles and not just one of the seventy disciples?
The seventy disciples or seventy-two disciples 1-
In fact, we find that Barnabas is the only one other than these (the twelve and Paul) who has this title "Apostle" in more than one place in the New Testament letters. If Barnabas was not a contemporary of Christ and spoke with him or claimed to be like Paul... then why does he have this title and that position?
2- Saint Clement of Alexandria (150: 215 AD) refers to Barnabas as an Apostle.
Clement of Alexandria and Barnabas | second century church father Clement of Alexandria, Egyptian Christianity, minority apostolic tradition in Stromateis, Stromata, Miscellanies, Secret Gospel of Mark, Letter of Theodore, Christian spirituality, contemplation, theoria, Christian mysticism (churchhistory101.com) 3-
Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome (first century AD), is credited in the Clementine Confessions with Barnabas being one of Christ's disciples and preaching the things he had heard and seen from Christ .
Arrival of Barnabas at Rome. (biblehub.com )
Second: Was Barnabas the beloved disciple of Jesus?
- In fact, it was believed that the beloved disciple of Christ was John the son of Zebedee... He is mentioned in the Gospel of John 13:23-26
23 Now there was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
24 Then Simon Peter motioned to him, that he should ask who it was of whom he spoke.
25 Then he leaned on Jesus' breast and said to him, "Lord, who is it?"
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it.” So he dipped the sop and gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
Now in the Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 72, we read the same incident with a few slight changes:
And at night Jesus spoke secretly to his disciples, saying, “Truly I say to you, Satan wants to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed to God for you, so that none of you will perish except he who casts snares for me.” Now he spoke this about Judas because the angel Gabriel had told him how Judas had a hand with the priests and had told them everything that Jesus had spoken. Then the one who wrote this came to Jesus with tears, saying, “Teacher, tell me who is the one who betrays you?” Jesus answered, saying: Barnabas , this is not the hour that you know him, but the evil one will soon reveal himself, because I will depart from the world.
- The Gospel of Barnabas confirms that Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Christ!
- Therefore, we find Father Paul Al-Feghali in his book (The Gospel of Barnabas: Translation, Study, Analysis) p. 174 commenting on this text with astonishment in the margin, saying:
*
Now we have three questions to verify this subject, whether “Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ” is just a claim and theft of the title of the disciple John, son of Zebedee, or does the matter go beyond that!
The first question: Did Christian scholars agree that John is the beloved disciple, or was that just a possibility? John W. Drane says
[ Irenaeus defines the beloved disciple as John . However, many researchers believe that he may have been an ideal figure symbolizing the true believer in Jesus, and that he was known as Lazarus, who in any case was the only person who was always said to be loved by Jesus .
John W. Drane, Jesus the Fourth Gospels, Dar Al-Thaqafah, p. 271.
So John W. Drane puts us in a state of confusion about the identity of the beloved disciple:
Was it John? Or Lazarus? Or an unknown person? Or was there no beloved disciple at all, and this is a characteristic of his discipleship? *
The second question: Are there any Christian researchers who said that Barnabas was the beloved disciple of Christ?
Barnaba the disciple whom Jesus Loved
The answer is yes.. This opinion was actually adopted by many Christian scholars and researchers. We mention, for example:
1- The book "The Divine Priest - The Life of Priest Jeremiah Hallock" p. 286 2- Edward Broomfield (Bible researcher and Sunday school teacher)
Location: Pennsylvania, USA:
Time: November 2012
Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Christ:
Post link:
Barnabas ~ Whom Jesus Loved | Things Paul & Luke (wordpress.com) Question
3: Are there other historical or biblical evidence to support this claim? - Of course ,
there are many indications that support this claim, including, for example:
1- The apostles described Barnabas as the beloved in Acts 15:25 "Beloved Barnabas"
25 And of course the translator into Arabic did not forget to share Paul's title of beloved , so he translated it ( our beloved brothers Barnabas and Paul ). The truth is that the apostles' attitude towards Paul during that period was one of doubt and suspicion
, so it is unlikely that they would describe him as the beloved "And when Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples. But they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple " Acts 9:26
Rather, Barnabas was the one who brought him to them, trying to reassure them:
"So Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles" Acts 9:26
* So it is very clear the status of Barnabas compared to Paul with the apostles during that period...
2- Barnabas hosts Christ:
Let us ask a direct question: How did he not know Joseph (Barnabas) the Messiah and he did not meet him even once in his life - although the meetings of Christ and the disciples were always in the house of his sister Mary and her son Mark (Mark's Upper Room)?
Doesn't that seem strange?!
* If we know that his sister was a widow and her children were orphans? Would Barnabas, who is known for his care for everyone, leave her? Wouldn't he take care of his household?!
Of course he would take care of his sister Mary , he is a righteous man as mentioned in the Book of Acts (Acts 11:24) - and if that is the case, then he must have met Christ a lot .. perhaps more than all of his disciples.. He is the owner of the house in which they meet - perhaps some guests (disciples) would stay away sometimes, but the owner of the house would most likely be in the house.
3- Barnabas, Son of
the Prophet : The Second Book of Kings tells us that while the Prophet of God Elijah was walking with his beloved disciple Elisha and they were talking together, suddenly a chariot and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah ascended to heaven. Elisha kept staring up in astonishment and then cried out: “My father! My father!! ” But no answer came to him from heaven except for Elijah’s cloak that fell in front of him. After that, he did not see Elijah again. (2 Kings 2:11-12)
Elijah was not Elisha’s father so that Elisha would call him: “My father! ” But the relationship between a prophet and his disciple made the disciple in the position of “the son of the prophet” ... Thus, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, tells us that every prophet has a disciple whom he chooses, and Al-Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam, may God be pleased with him, was the disciple of the prophet, just as Elisha was the disciple of Elijah and Joshua (Joshua) ibn Nun was the disciple of the Prophet Moses and his successor.
- The prophets Elijah and Moses met Christ on Mount Tabor in the incident of the Transfiguration mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas and the Gospel of John. Barnabas tells in his Gospel that he, Peter, James, and John accompanied Christ in the incident of the Transfiguration . The disciples who attended this incident were described as the Super Apostles, as Paul mentions them, and hatred for them drips from his words, saying:
“I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you , since in nothing I fell short of the super Apostles .” ( 2 Corinthians 12:11 ).
The interpretation of the super Apostles: those whom Christ singled out for some situations, such as the Transfiguration. ( The Church Encyclopedia for the Interpretation of the New Testament: St. Mark's Church in Heliopolis)
Now back to our topic: the relationship between the prophet and his disciple, which made the disciple in the position of "the son of the prophet" as is the case between the prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha. This term even developed during the time of the prophet Samuel, so the disciples were called the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:5).
Christ spoke about them, praising them in the Gospel of Barnabas, Chapter 145, and called them " the true Pharisees ." They were ascetic worshippers in mountain caves, staying up at night, wearing coarse clothing, and eating without being full. They had honors from God, and they were close in their way of life to the Essenes in the caves of Qumran, who were first discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century.
- We return to "Elisha" the son of the prophet "Elijah" and his noble disciple, as the Book of Kings mentions that Elijah passed by Elisha and the latter owned a field of twelve yoke of oxen, so Elijah called him and threw his mantle over him . So he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Let me kiss my father and mother and follow you." But he said to him, "Go back, for I have not done anything for you." So he returned from behind him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled the meat with the tools of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate . Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered to him (1 Kings 19:19-21)
- What Elisha, the "son of the prophet", did with Elijah the prophet, we do not find anyone who did with Christ like Barnabas... Barnabas also owned a field and sold it and put his money to serve the call of Christ, and Barnabas is the one who hosted Christ and served Him in the upper room of St. Mark. But there is a secret that is time to reveal:
- What does the name "Barnabas" mean?
- They have deceived us by saying that it means the son of comfort or the son of encouragement, and they also call him the star maker because he introduced Paul to the people!
But the name Barnabas (ברנביא) is divided into two parts:
1- Bar (בר) which means son. 2-
Neba (נביא) which means prophet or prophecy. So
the literal translation is the son of the prophet or the son of
prophecy. Source:
Barnabas | The amazing name Barnabas: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com) And to be continued,
God willing ,,,
First, Dante Alighieri is known as the supreme poet and is also called the father of the Italian language. The Divine Comedy was his greatest work, which he wrote in the early fourteenth century. He divided it into three chapters (Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise). This work is classified as the greatest literary statement produced by Europe in the Middle Ages. However, investigators have proven that Dante quoted much of his material from the Islamic heritage, in addition to the canonical and non-canonical gospels, and even from some sermons of the Apostolic Fathers and even the late ones.
Among the Christian scholars who have proven that Dante was influenced by the Islamic heritage is Father Miguel Asin Palacios, who published a book in 1920 entitled “The Influence of Islam on the Divine Comedy,” in which he confirmed that Dante was influenced by:
1- The story of the Night Journey and Ascension
2- The Meccan Revelations of Ibn Arabi
3- The Epistle of Forgiveness by Abu al-Ala al-Ma’arri.
In addition, some modern studies have proven that he was also influenced by Ibn Arabi and Ibn Shahid. Andalusian in addition to some of what came in the Holy Quran and the hadiths of the Prophet. (1)
- Regarding Dante's quotation from some of the unauthorized gospels, Father Abdel-Masih Basit Abu Al-Khair says about the Gospel of Nicodemus:
"This apocryphal book is the main inspiration for Dante Alighieri in writing the divine epic consisting of three parts: Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell.
The apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus
- We will suffice with this much that confirms that much of Dante's literary material was inspired by a previous religious heritage, whether Islamic or Christian, and this basically invalidates the idea of quoting the Gospel of Barnabas from the Divine Comedy. Rather, we have the right to ask why the source of the similarity is not that Dante read the Gospel of Barnabas as he read some of the other apocryphal gospels?
- However, let us review the claims of quoting the Gospel of Barnabas from Dante and verify whether Dante was really the source of these quotations or not?
A- The expression “hunger in hell” when talking about the punishment of sinners in hell:
Barnabas 60:8 “How sick shall make them raging hunger.”
This hunger was described, as it came in the English translation, as “raging hunger” and in Italian as “rabbiasa fame.” This expression also came in the Divine Comedy in the third part of “Inferno.”
- The priest made a mistake in quoting, as the hunger he meant was mentioned in the thirty-third paragraph, not the third paragraph.
Here, one can ask several questions:
The first question: Dante's Divine Comedy consists of three parts (Inferno - Purgatory - Paradise) and consists of about 15,000 verses. If we assume that the Inferno Canticle represents a third of the content, i.e. 5,000 verses, and each verse consists of at least 15 words... Is it reasonable that Dante would talk about hell with no less than 75,000 words and that there would not be a single similarity with other works that talk about hell?
The second question: Was Dante the first to point out that hunger is one of the manifestations of the suffering of the people of hell or fire?
The answer is of course no... For example, the Holy Quran talks about the people of Hell and says:
(They will have no food except from Dharee' (a tree that neither nourishes nor satisfies hunger)
meaning that the people of Hell will continue to suffer from hunger because even the food designated for them (dharee') which is by the way a tree of dry thorns without leaves will not satisfy their hunger.
So if there is a quote, then Dante is the one who quoted from Islam , as he did not claim that it was a revelation from God. On the other hand, the similarity of the Gospel of Barnabas to the Holy Quran is like the rest of the Gospels, if there is something in them that resembles the Holy Quran, then this is from the revelation that God sent down to His prophets.
Therefore, this accusation becomes superficial and naive, as we did not find the Gospel of Barnabas stating a compound sentence taken from Dante such as (the people of hell suffer, but hunger was more powerful than pain). At that time, we will say that this sentence is one of the characteristics of Dante’s poetry that we will only find in Dante. This did not happen.
B- The punishment of the bitter cold in hell
. It is stated in the Gospel of Barnabas (60:8, 17): “How severe is the hunger, the stinging flames, the burning coals, the painful torment, with the bitter and intense crying. How severe is the bitter cold that does not abate their flames.”
Barnabas 106:15 “Truly I say to you, when God created him (the senses), he condemned him to hell, to unbearable snow and ice.”
Barnabas 135:43-44 “In this accursed place there will be a general punishment that will include all the depths, like a mixture of many grains that make a loaf, for in God’s justice fire and frost, thunderbolts and lightning, brimstone, heat and cold, wind, madness and terror will be united in such a way that neither the cold will alleviate the heat nor the fire and ice, but will torment both of them.”
“This description of hell was common in medieval Europe in the visionary writings that were widespread in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Let us come to what Dante wrote:
- “I am in the third ring, the ring of eternal rain, accursed, cold, heavy… Much hail and black waters, snow falling through the dark air” (Canto 6:7-10).
- “When I turned and saw before me and under my feet a lake that had the appearance of glass, not water, from the freezing… It was The two tormented ghosts are immersed in the snow... and their color has turned blue (Song 32: 22-26).
The response:
This also does not need Barnabas to quote from Dante’s poetry, as God Almighty mentioned the freezing cold in Hell ... God Almighty says:
(They will see therein neither sun nor freezing cold)
Al-Tabari’s interpretation: God Almighty says: They will not see therein the sun, so that its heat would harm them, nor the intense cold, so that its cold would harm them.
Al-Zamharir was also mentioned in the prophetic hadiths as the intense cold in Hell:
Ibn Abd al-A’la told us: Ibn Thawr told us, on the authority of Muammar, on the authority of al-Zuhri, on the authority of Abu Salamah, on the authority of Abu Hurayrah, on the authority of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, who said: “The Fire complained to its Lord and said: ‘O Lord, some parts of me have consumed the other, so give me some relief.’ So He permitted it to take two breaths every year. The most intense cold you will find is from the cold of Hell, and the most intense heat you will find is from the heat of Hell.” Al-Bukhari and Muslim narrated in their Sahihs on the authority of Abu Hurairah,
may God be pleased with him, that the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, said: “The fire complained to its Lord and said: ‘O Lord!’ Some of them ate each other, so He gave her permission to have two breaths: a breath in the winter, and a breath in the summer, and it is the most intense heat you find, and the most intense cold you find .” So,
as we mentioned before, if there is a quote, then Dante is the one who quoted from Islam , as he did not claim that it was a revelation from God. On the other hand, the similarity of the Gospel of Barnabas to the Holy Quran is like the rest of the Gospels, if there is something similar to the Holy Quran in them, then this is from the revelation that God sent down to His prophets. C
- The heavens are nine:
Barnabas 105: 3 “I tell you
, then, that the heavens are nine”
The number of heavens according to Christian thought is three, the sky of birds or the atmosphere (Gen. 1:2), the sky of stars (Job 22:12-14), the sky of heavens or the third heaven (2 Cor. 12:2-4)
and according to the Quranic text seven heavens (Al-Isra 17, Al-Mu'minun 23, Fussilat 41, At-Talaq 65, Noah 71...)
So where did the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas get that the number of heavens is nine?
This is what is stated in the Divine Comedy where the number of heavens is nine and the tenth is Paradise.
Response:
This doubt contains a number of fallacies:
The first fallacy: The number of heavens is three according to Christian thought
since the number of heavens is not specified in the Bible but the number three is a late opinion and some late Christian scholars said that the number is four and not three.
The second fallacy: Christ in the Gospel of Barnabas did not confirm that the number of heavens is nine. As we mentioned earlier, the number of heavens was not known in the Old Testament. Rather, the reader who examines the text will find that Christ is presenting a suggestion (as an example) to demonstrate to the disciples that God is beyond measure. He says:
God is beyond measure to the point that I tremble at His description. But I must suggest something to you . I tell you then that the heavens are nine and that they are as far apart as the first heaven is from the earth, which is five hundred years away from the earth. Accordingly, the earth is four thousand five hundred years away from the highest heaven. Based on that, I tell you that it is in relation to the first heaven.
Like the head of a needle, and likewise the first heaven in relation to the second, and in this manner all the heavens are lower than the one following it, but the entire size of the earth with the size of all the heavens in relation to heaven is like the head of a needle, or rather like a grain of sand. Is not this greatness immeasurable? The disciples answered: Yes, yes.
Then Jesus said: By the life of God, in whose presence my soul stands, the universe before God is as small as a grain of sand, and God is greater than that by the amount of grains of sand needed to fill all the heavens and heaven, or even more. So now see if there is a relationship between God and man, who is nothing but a small lump
of clay standing on the earth, then be careful to take the meaning and not the mere words if you want to attain eternal life.
Anyone who reads the text carefully will find that the number of heavens is a suggested hypothesis and an example, and the distances between the heavens are common hypotheses and not based on reality. The meaning of the statement is clear: if, by assumption, the number of heavens is nine and the distance between each heaven is a travel distance of five hundred years, then this entire universe does not represent the head of a needle or a grain of sand in comparison to heaven, and God Almighty is greater than all of that.
So the problem was in Khalil Saadeh’s translation, which distorted the text, as his translation of Christ’s saying in Barnabas was: But I must mention to you a case,
and the sentence in Italian came as follows:
What's wrong with my idea?
But it is necessary that I make to you a proposition.
And its translation in Arabic: But it is necessary for me to suggest to you ...So the numbers are just a suggestion or an example... as stated in Matthew 13 and Mark 4 (And he spoke to them in parables)..
And he emphasizes once again that what is meant by what was mentioned is the meaning and not the letter, so he says:
So be careful to take the meaning and not the abstract words.
Also, the words of Christ in Barnabas express the language of his time, so the estimation of the distance of one heaven from the other by a distance of 500 years is found in the Jerusalem Talmud (2)... and it has no relation at all to the nine rings of heaven that Dante mentioned to compare them to the nine rings of hell that he mentioned in Inferno (the first part of the Divine Comedy). Rather, Dante is closer in quoting the nine rings of hell to the legends of the Aztec civilization, which say that Tezcatlipoca (the god of divine providence and darkness) after creating the earth and the heavens, then formed the nine layers of hell for the underworld known as Mictlan... and the nine layers of hell are located at the end of Capactli..
After the four Tezcatlipocas created the earth and heavens they then formed the nine strata of the Underworld, known as Mictlán. These nine hells are located in the tail of Cipactli;
However, the detailed planning of the degrees of Hell mentioned by Dante is completely consistent with what Ibn Arabi (1165-1240) mentioned in Al-Futuhat Al-Malikiyya, Part 6, p. 191!
Finally: If this statement in the Gospel of Barnabas was fabricated and the author intended to actually mention the number of heavens... he would have made them seven heavens to conform to Islamic belief! This did not happen.
Rather, as we explained above, Christ was speaking about a hypothesis using the language of his time to give the disciples an example that God is beyond comparison ... and nothing more.
D - The levels of Hell and their association with the types of sins:
He said in (F3:135-29) “Know therefore that Hell is one and yet it has seven levels , one below the other. Just as sin has seven types if Satan created it, similar to the seven gates of Hell , so there are seven types of torment in it.”
The description of Hell in terms of levels, types of sins and types of punishment is taken from the first part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Inferno, where Dante’s Hell consists of nine levels or rings of
response:
Raising this doubt is a clear example that the death sentence was prepared in advance for the Gospel of Barnabas and all they lack is fabricating accusations!
- Let us assume that the Gospel of Barnabas is a complete forgery and that its author is a fabricator... Would the author have needed Dante in the fourteenth century to quote that Hell has levels corresponding to types of sin and that the number of levels is seven?!
Why would he quote from Dante when Dante confirms that their number is nine and not seven?!
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for him to quote from Ibn Arabi, since he says the same thing and agrees on the number seven?
Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate for him to quote from the Holy Quran or the Sunnah of the Prophet or from the words of the commentators? Al-Qurtubi
said in (Al-Tadhkira): God Almighty said: {Indeed, the hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire}. So Hell has seven levels : meaning levels and stations... So the hypocrites will be in the lowest depth of the Fire, which is the abyss; Because of the severity of their disbelief and the abundance of their evils, and their ability to harm the believers . End quote. Ibn Rajab said in (Al-Takhīf min Al-Nār): Allah the Almighty said after mentioning the people of Paradise and the people of Hell: {And for each are degrees according to what they have done}, and He said: {Is he who pursues the pleasure of Allah like he who draws down upon himself the wrath of Allah and whose refuge is Hell, and wretched is the destination? * They are degrees with Allah}. Abdur-Rahman bin Zayd bin Aslam said: “The degrees of Paradise go up, and the degrees of Hell go down.” Ibn Abi Al-Dunya narrated with his chain of transmission on the authority of Ikrimah regarding the words of Allah the Almighty: {It has seven gates}, he said: “It has seven levels.” And on the authority of Qatadah: {For each of their gates is a portion allotted}, he said: By Allah, they are stations according to their deeds . End quote. Al-Hafiz Ibn Kathir said in his interpretation: {And the Hereafter is greater in degrees and greater in distinction}, meaning: And because their differences in the Hereafter are greater than in this world; Some of them will be in the lowest levels of Hell, with its chains and shackles, and some of them will be in the highest levels, with its bliss and joy . Then the people of the lowest levels will vary in what they are in , just as the people of the levels will vary . End quote. Al-Saadi said in his interpretation of the Almighty’s statement: “ They have degrees with Allah” (Al Imran: 163):
Meaning: All of these vary in their degrees and stations according to the variation in their deeds. Those who seek the pleasure of Allah strive to attain the highest degrees, stations and chambers, so Allah gives them from His grace and generosity according to their deeds. Those who seek what displeases Allah strive to descend to the lowest depths, each according to his deeds . End quote. And
Allah knows best.
Rather, we will add another verse to the priest’s poem and say: Hasn’t he seen what is stated in the Gospel of Luke 12, which confirms that punishment has degrees according to the type of sin?
47 But that servant who knew his master’s will and did not prepare himself nor do according to his will will be beaten with many blows.
48 But he who did not know, and does things deserving of stripes, will be stripped with few stripes. For everyone to whom much has been given, of him much will be required, and to whom much has been entrusted, of him they will ask the more .
The phrase "false gods"
appears in the Gospel of Barnabas four times.
* Barnabas 23:26-28 Jesus says: "For all the saints and prophets were enemies of their own flesh to serve God. Therefore they willingly ran to their death, that they might not transgress the law of God given to Moses his servant, and serve the false and lying gods."
* Barnabas 78:15-17 Jesus says to his disciples: "Truly I say to you, when our God created man, he did not create him righteous only, but he also put a light in his heart to show him that he was worthy of serving God. And even if this light is darkened after sin, it will not be extinguished, because every nation has this desire to serve God, even though they have lost God and served false and lying gods."
*Barnabas 128:2-3: “ I say to you, brothers, that Satan has led you astray through the Roman soldiers when you said, ‘I am God.’ Beware that you do not believe them, for they are under the curse of God and serve false and lying gods.”
*Barnabas 217:59-61: “ So they led Judas to Herod, who had long desired that Jesus would come to his house. But Jesus would not come to his house, because Herod was a Gentile
and adored the false and lying gods
. This expression, “false gods,” is not found in the Bible, but it is found literally in the Divine Comedy in Inferno 1:72, in Italian, from which the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas quotes it.
Response:
In fact, the term false gods is found in the Bible:
priests of false gods (Zephaniah 1: 4).
Also, the term false gods and idols was mentioned
(Deuteronomy 32:21) “They have enticed me with their false idols.”
I do not see any problem in the translator using a standard, common and widespread term in Italian culture (false gods) in his translation of the phrase! .. And more than that, the phrase is not exclusive to Dante, but the mind tends to use the phrase in more than one time and place by different people without that representing a quote, due to the prevalence of words and their frequent use!
The clearest example of this is the term Anti Christ, which literally translates into Arabic as Against Christ , but many Arabic translations of the Bible translate it as “ the false Messiah ,” which is a purely Islamic term . However, it is the most appropriate term because it is the common term in Arabic . In the Arabic translation of the First Epistle of John, Chapter Two: Has anyone said that the Epistle of John is taken from the Sunnah of the Prophet? To be continued, God willing -------------------------
- The influence of Islamic culture on Dante's Divine Comedy.
- Jerusalem Talmud (Messicht Berakhot 9)
(4) Dreams of revolutions and the republic (events in the Middle Ages): He said
in (F4:69-9) “O jurists and Pharisees, and you, O priests, you are the ones who desire horses like knights , but you do not desire to go to war, you are the ones who desire beautiful clothes like women, but you do not desire spinning and raising children… you are the ones who desire glory like republicans , but you do not desire the burden of a republic ”!! This statement does not apply to the reality of Palestine in the days of Christ, and there was no war in which they were required to participate! And there was no one who thought about or dreamed of a republic! And Christ was not an instigator of wars. All these descriptions apply to the Western European environment in the era of feudalism, where there was chivalry, knights, wars, and the tradition of the priests (Catholics) for the nobility, and where there were dreams of revolutions and the republic.
The answer:
The era of Christ, peace be upon him, was not far from the concepts of the republic, wars and revolutions, as the republican system was known to the Romans, and the slogan of the republic at that time was symbolized by four letters as an abbreviation: SPQR, which means in Latin Senatus Populus Que Romanus, meaning: the Senate and the Roman people... So it is not surprising that a text appeared in Barnabas in which Christ speaks about the republic.
- The Jews in Palestine were also carrying out revolutions against the Romans. Some Jewish history scholars believe that there was a Jewish group called the Zealots, who were a group of revolutionaries who organized to confront the injustice of Roman rule, but they were harshly suppressed. They may have been behind the riots mentioned in Mark 15:7. Barabbas, the thief who was released explicitly instead of Jesus, was one of them. It is likely that Simon the Zealot was a member of this group before he joined the disciples of Christ.
- Walid Fikry wrote: “After the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was divided among his three sons, according to the “Bible Atlas.” His son Herod Athanarkh Archelaus ruled the “Judea” region, which included Jerusalem, until the sixth year AD, when the Romans deposed him for his mismanagement, and appointed a Roman governor in his place. His brother Herod Antipas ruled “Galilee” and part of Jordan, while their third brother Herod Philip ruled the northern regions.
Deposing Herod’s son from “Judea” created a state of discontent among the Jews, who felt that this was a loss of their independence. Also, the Roman governor had been granted some of the powers of the high priest despite the latter’s appointment, to the point of wearing his robe, which was an insult to them.
When the Romans decided to conduct a census, the Jews considered it the beginning of imposing slavery and heavy taxes on them, so disturbances occurred in the sixth year AD , but the Romans suppressed them and obliged the state of Judea to pay taxes.”
The situation remained this wayuntil disturbances broke out in Jerusalem in 36 AD , which forced the Roman governor to depose the high priest and appoint another, but these disturbances also forced him to restore the powers previously taken from the holder of this office, and this was by order of the Emperor Titus, in whose reign the historian Tacitus records the fact that “the Roman governor Pilatus ordered the crucifixion of a man named Christus because of the disturbances he had caused among the Jews.”
The Revolution and the Destruction of the Temple: The Exciting Details of the Story of the Jews with the Romans | Published by (manshoor.com) In
the book Introduction to the New Testament, David de Silva says (p. 87) ( 5) The punishment of hanging (was not in the days of Christ, but in the Middle Ages) He said in (F8:153) that soldiers used to hang thieves! And he said in (F1:154) “ So a man who has honor, life, and money, if his money is stolen, God will hang the thief ”! Hanging was not known in Palestine in the days of Christ! Just as there were no nobles with honor, life, and money who had the authority to hang or execute a thief!! Rather, the nobles were honorable in Europe in the era of feudalism and they owned the land and those who worked it. Reply: - Let us return to the contemporary sources of the rule of the Seleucids and after them the Romans in Syria and Palestine, we will find that hanging was one of the methods actually used for execution, as evidenced by its mention since the days of the rule of Antonius IV the Seleucid (175 - 164 BC) in Judea, as Alexander Jannaeus also applied it around the year 88 BC, as narrated by the historian Flavius Josephus (380 AD) in his book War of the Jews, i, 97 (6) Barnabas and the philosophical expressions in the Gospel of Barnabas (10: 3) “Because the soul and the senses are closely linked together, so that most people affirm that the soul and the senses are one thing, separated from each other by action, not by essence, and they call them the sensible, vegetative, and rational souls.” In this text there is a type of Aristotle’s philosophy, which was common in the Middle Ages, which means that the Gospel of Barnabas It was written at that time. Response: This suspicion, like its counterparts, is absurd because the presence of some philosophical expressions in the Gospel of Barnabas does not mean that it was written in any other than the first century AD. As is well known, Barnabas was a Hellenistic Jew and had a broad culture, whether Roman or Greek. Paul also had a broad Greek culture. Just as the Gospel of Barnabas contains philosophical ideas, so do the books of the New Testament. An example of this is what is stated in the Epistle to the Hebrews 1:3 (He is the radiance of His glory and the express image of His nature). Although it was written around 65 AD, we found the following comment on the text: “These two phrases are taken from the teaching of the thinkers of Alexandria.” The New Testament - Paul Bassim, p. 856. - Finally, Paul himself acknowledges the prevalence and spread of philosophy in his time, saying ( Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy) Colossians 2:8. So there is no room left to challenge the Gospel of Barnabas in terms of it containing some philosophical expressions.
(7) The Jubilee:
It is stated in Chapter 82:18 that the Jubilee occurs every hundred years. Although the Jubilee occurred only every fifty years until the presence of Christ on earth (Leviticus 25:11). As for making the Jubilee every hundred years, it was by order of Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 AD, then it was reduced in 1350 AD to 50 years, which means that the Gospel of Barnabas was written during that period of time, i.e. the first half of the fifteenth century, and its attribution to Saint Barnabas is incorrect.
Response:
The presence of the number (one hundred) in the text does not mean that the attribution of the book to Saint Barnabas is incorrect, but rather the most that it can be said is that the Italian version of the Gospel of Barnabas was copied during the period (1300: 1350 AD).
However, anyone who notices the breadth of knowledge of the writer (they claim) cannot believe that he would make such a clear mistake. It is very likely that the mention of (one hundred) instead of (fifty) is a copyist’s mistake, so it is very likely that the copyist made a verbal mistake in Italian between the words Cento (100) and Cinquanta (50), or it is a copyist’s comment that was inserted into the text. This happened in the Holy Bible, but it did not diminish the sanctity of the Holy Bible among them, so the Gospel of Barnabas should not be treated differently because the reason is the same in all of them... What confirms the existence of copyist errors in the Holy Bible is what is stated in Introduction to the New Testament - Paul Bassim, p. 7. Then he returns to the same source, p. 13, to confirm this fact again, saying: Examples of copyist errors in the Holy Bible include 1- Matthew (23:35) “From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, whom you killed between The temple and the altar.” In the margin, Paul Bassim comments: It is likely that this Zechariah is the one mentioned in the Second Book of Chronicles (24:21-22) and he is the last to mention the news of his murder. As for Zechariah, son of Berechiah, he was mentioned in Isaiah (8:2) and the Book of Zechariah (1:1). Perhaps there was an oversight in copying the originals, so Zechariah, son of Berechiah, was written, while the correct version is Zechariah only, without “son of Berechiah.” 2- In the Book of Genesis (46:15), the number of Jacob’s sons and daughters is thirty-three, while when counting the names mentioned in the book, we find them thirty-four. And there is much more, so just as the copyists made mistakes in the Holy Book, why could it not be possible for the copyist of Barnabas to make a mistake in Italian?
(8) The use of the pound as a unit of weight in Barnabas:
The writer of Barnabas mentioned of Joseph, after they had anointed him with a hundred pounds of spices” (217:88). The first to use the pound were the Ottomans in their trade with Italy and Spain.
The myth of the Gospel of Barnabas - A. My dream, Father Yacoub
Reply:
Almost the same story was mentioned in the Gospel of John 19:39
"And Nicodemus also came, who came at first to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight ." But
the difference was in the unit of weight. While John mentions that it is a hundred pound, we find Barnabas saying that it is a hundred pounds.
Was the weight of the pound mentioned by the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas really the first one used during the time of the Ottomans?
The truth is that the pound was first used in the Roman Empire , that is, before the time of Christ. It was called the Roman pound and sometimes the Greek pound: We read together and all the interpreters of the Gospels
confirm and they even confirm that the unit of the Roman pound (mentioned in Barnabas) is completely equivalent in value to the unit of the manna. (Included in John) Father Matthew the Poor says in his interpretation of the Gospel of John 12:3 that “manna” is the Roman pound and is equal to three hundred and twenty-seven and a quarter grams, which is equal to one-third of a liter. https://awtar-alsama.com/bible/inter...3%d9%8a%d8%b1/ The same words are confirmed by Father Antonious Fikry in his interpretation of the Gospel of John 12:3, saying:
Manna = 327 ¼ g = Roman pound = ⅓ liter.
Source (link): The Passion of Christ and the Resurrection | A Study in the Four Gospels - Father Antonious Fikry
- So the Roman (or Greek) pound unit was used in ancient times just like manna.. So why did the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas use it instead of manna?
Because manna is a unit of weight for the Hebrews.. While the Romans and Greeks used the pound unit, this fits Barnabas's personality perfectly , as he is a Hellenistic Jew!
in (F4:69-9) “O jurists and Pharisees, and you, O priests, you are the ones who desire horses like knights , but you do not desire to go to war, you are the ones who desire beautiful clothes like women, but you do not desire spinning and raising children… you are the ones who desire glory like republicans , but you do not desire the burden of a republic ”!! This statement does not apply to the reality of Palestine in the days of Christ, and there was no war in which they were required to participate! And there was no one who thought about or dreamed of a republic! And Christ was not an instigator of wars. All these descriptions apply to the Western European environment in the era of feudalism, where there was chivalry, knights, wars, and the tradition of the priests (Catholics) for the nobility, and where there were dreams of revolutions and the republic.
The answer:
The era of Christ, peace be upon him, was not far from the concepts of the republic, wars and revolutions, as the republican system was known to the Romans, and the slogan of the republic at that time was symbolized by four letters as an abbreviation: SPQR, which means in Latin Senatus Populus Que Romanus, meaning: the Senate and the Roman people... So it is not surprising that a text appeared in Barnabas in which Christ speaks about the republic.
- The Jews in Palestine were also carrying out revolutions against the Romans. Some Jewish history scholars believe that there was a Jewish group called the Zealots, who were a group of revolutionaries who organized to confront the injustice of Roman rule, but they were harshly suppressed. They may have been behind the riots mentioned in Mark 15:7. Barabbas, the thief who was released explicitly instead of Jesus, was one of them. It is likely that Simon the Zealot was a member of this group before he joined the disciples of Christ.
- Walid Fikry wrote: “After the death of Herod the Great, his kingdom was divided among his three sons, according to the “Bible Atlas.” His son Herod Athanarkh Archelaus ruled the “Judea” region, which included Jerusalem, until the sixth year AD, when the Romans deposed him for his mismanagement, and appointed a Roman governor in his place. His brother Herod Antipas ruled “Galilee” and part of Jordan, while their third brother Herod Philip ruled the northern regions.
Deposing Herod’s son from “Judea” created a state of discontent among the Jews, who felt that this was a loss of their independence. Also, the Roman governor had been granted some of the powers of the high priest despite the latter’s appointment, to the point of wearing his robe, which was an insult to them.
When the Romans decided to conduct a census, the Jews considered it the beginning of imposing slavery and heavy taxes on them, so disturbances occurred in the sixth year AD , but the Romans suppressed them and obliged the state of Judea to pay taxes.”
The situation remained this wayuntil disturbances broke out in Jerusalem in 36 AD , which forced the Roman governor to depose the high priest and appoint another, but these disturbances also forced him to restore the powers previously taken from the holder of this office, and this was by order of the Emperor Titus, in whose reign the historian Tacitus records the fact that “the Roman governor Pilatus ordered the crucifixion of a man named Christus because of the disturbances he had caused among the Jews.”
The Revolution and the Destruction of the Temple: The Exciting Details of the Story of the Jews with the Romans | Published by (manshoor.com) In
the book Introduction to the New Testament, David de Silva says (p. 87) ( 5) The punishment of hanging (was not in the days of Christ, but in the Middle Ages) He said in (F8:153) that soldiers used to hang thieves! And he said in (F1:154) “ So a man who has honor, life, and money, if his money is stolen, God will hang the thief ”! Hanging was not known in Palestine in the days of Christ! Just as there were no nobles with honor, life, and money who had the authority to hang or execute a thief!! Rather, the nobles were honorable in Europe in the era of feudalism and they owned the land and those who worked it. Reply: - Let us return to the contemporary sources of the rule of the Seleucids and after them the Romans in Syria and Palestine, we will find that hanging was one of the methods actually used for execution, as evidenced by its mention since the days of the rule of Antonius IV the Seleucid (175 - 164 BC) in Judea, as Alexander Jannaeus also applied it around the year 88 BC, as narrated by the historian Flavius Josephus (380 AD) in his book War of the Jews, i, 97 (6) Barnabas and the philosophical expressions in the Gospel of Barnabas (10: 3) “Because the soul and the senses are closely linked together, so that most people affirm that the soul and the senses are one thing, separated from each other by action, not by essence, and they call them the sensible, vegetative, and rational souls.” In this text there is a type of Aristotle’s philosophy, which was common in the Middle Ages, which means that the Gospel of Barnabas It was written at that time. Response: This suspicion, like its counterparts, is absurd because the presence of some philosophical expressions in the Gospel of Barnabas does not mean that it was written in any other than the first century AD. As is well known, Barnabas was a Hellenistic Jew and had a broad culture, whether Roman or Greek. Paul also had a broad Greek culture. Just as the Gospel of Barnabas contains philosophical ideas, so do the books of the New Testament. An example of this is what is stated in the Epistle to the Hebrews 1:3 (He is the radiance of His glory and the express image of His nature). Although it was written around 65 AD, we found the following comment on the text: “These two phrases are taken from the teaching of the thinkers of Alexandria.” The New Testament - Paul Bassim, p. 856. - Finally, Paul himself acknowledges the prevalence and spread of philosophy in his time, saying ( Beware lest anyone take you captive through philosophy) Colossians 2:8. So there is no room left to challenge the Gospel of Barnabas in terms of it containing some philosophical expressions.
(7) The Jubilee:
It is stated in Chapter 82:18 that the Jubilee occurs every hundred years. Although the Jubilee occurred only every fifty years until the presence of Christ on earth (Leviticus 25:11). As for making the Jubilee every hundred years, it was by order of Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 AD, then it was reduced in 1350 AD to 50 years, which means that the Gospel of Barnabas was written during that period of time, i.e. the first half of the fifteenth century, and its attribution to Saint Barnabas is incorrect.
Response:
The presence of the number (one hundred) in the text does not mean that the attribution of the book to Saint Barnabas is incorrect, but rather the most that it can be said is that the Italian version of the Gospel of Barnabas was copied during the period (1300: 1350 AD).
However, anyone who notices the breadth of knowledge of the writer (they claim) cannot believe that he would make such a clear mistake. It is very likely that the mention of (one hundred) instead of (fifty) is a copyist’s mistake, so it is very likely that the copyist made a verbal mistake in Italian between the words Cento (100) and Cinquanta (50), or it is a copyist’s comment that was inserted into the text. This happened in the Holy Bible, but it did not diminish the sanctity of the Holy Bible among them, so the Gospel of Barnabas should not be treated differently because the reason is the same in all of them... What confirms the existence of copyist errors in the Holy Bible is what is stated in Introduction to the New Testament - Paul Bassim, p. 7. Then he returns to the same source, p. 13, to confirm this fact again, saying: Examples of copyist errors in the Holy Bible include 1- Matthew (23:35) “From the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Barachiah, whom you killed between The temple and the altar.” In the margin, Paul Bassim comments: It is likely that this Zechariah is the one mentioned in the Second Book of Chronicles (24:21-22) and he is the last to mention the news of his murder. As for Zechariah, son of Berechiah, he was mentioned in Isaiah (8:2) and the Book of Zechariah (1:1). Perhaps there was an oversight in copying the originals, so Zechariah, son of Berechiah, was written, while the correct version is Zechariah only, without “son of Berechiah.” 2- In the Book of Genesis (46:15), the number of Jacob’s sons and daughters is thirty-three, while when counting the names mentioned in the book, we find them thirty-four. And there is much more, so just as the copyists made mistakes in the Holy Book, why could it not be possible for the copyist of Barnabas to make a mistake in Italian?
(8) The use of the pound as a unit of weight in Barnabas:
The writer of Barnabas mentioned of Joseph, after they had anointed him with a hundred pounds of spices” (217:88). The first to use the pound were the Ottomans in their trade with Italy and Spain.
The myth of the Gospel of Barnabas - A. My dream, Father Yacoub
Reply:
Almost the same story was mentioned in the Gospel of John 19:39
"And Nicodemus also came, who came at first to Jesus by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight ." But
the difference was in the unit of weight. While John mentions that it is a hundred pound, we find Barnabas saying that it is a hundred pounds.
Was the weight of the pound mentioned by the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas really the first one used during the time of the Ottomans?
The truth is that the pound was first used in the Roman Empire , that is, before the time of Christ. It was called the Roman pound and sometimes the Greek pound: We read together and all the interpreters of the Gospels
Manna = 327 ¼ g = Roman pound = ⅓ liter.
Source (link): The Passion of Christ and the Resurrection | A Study in the Four Gospels - Father Antonious Fikry
- So the Roman (or Greek) pound unit was used in ancient times just like manna.. So why did the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas use it instead of manna?
Because manna is a unit of weight for the Hebrews.. While the Romans and Greeks used the pound unit, this fits Barnabas's personality perfectly , as he is a Hellenistic Jew!
8- Lovers' duels are a feature of the Middle Ages:
On (p. 105) there is a description of the duels that take place between lovers.
In fact, such duels were not known in Palestine at the time of Christ and they did not exist except in Western Europe before the French Revolution, i.e. before the (18th) century, and these duels were known there as chivalry
. This indicates the writer's homeland and the time of writing this forged gospel.
Response:
The entire text reads as follows: "And you know that when a young man is assigned to a woman and she loves him not but another, he becomes enraged and kills his rival" Barnabas 99.
Christ says to the disciples ( and you know ) because he is speaking about an obvious truth that has no relation to a specific time or place, but has existed since God created man, and even animals!! All the objecting priest has to do is open the National Geographic channel and see how this act (males fighting over females) has existed among all living beings since eternity , from cats to ibex to humans, and Europe did not invent it in the Middle Ages.
- As for man, the struggle over females has been known since ancient times, and it did not stop at duels between lovers only, but it reached wars between nations. Let us mention two examples of this:
1- The Trojan War (between 1260 - 1180 BC) between Menelaus, King of Sparta and his army, and Paris, Prince of Troy and his army, due to the struggle over Queen Helena, who had loved Paris, Prince of Troy, and fled with him . The war lasted ten years, and tens of thousands were killed, until the Greeks were able to defeat the people of Troy with the well-known trick of the Trojan Horse. The Greek poet Homer recorded this in the Iliad.
2- The war that almost broke out between Romulus (the founder of Rome) and his followers with the Sabine tribe (in 750 BC) after the Romans kidnapped the unmarried girls of the tribe and married them, so an army of Sabine men marched to Rome to bring the girls back and the heavily armed Romans were ready to defend their new wives, and here the kidnapped Sabine women who fell in love with the Romans rushed to stand between the two armies.. between the men of their tribe and their new husbands.
9- Training in archery is a manifestation
of the Middle Ages. It was mentioned in Chapter 110 (Have you seen those who train in shooting at a target? Indeed, they shoot many times without a target) and training in archery and manifestations of war were common in the Middle Ages.
- Reply:
- This suspicion was made by Rugg who began to smell the scent of the Middle Ages with his excellent detective sense! In his brilliant opinion, the Palestinian society did not have such a great civilized work (training in archery)! We say: Couldn't Christ have seen Roman soldiers training in archery?! Was this simple act exclusive to medieval Europe?? Wherever there are arrows, there will be archery. This is a human instinct that Rugg and his ilk do not understand
.
https://pressbee.net/show4824641.html?title=%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8 %A9-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%85-%D9%88%D8%A3%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3- 10- Barnabas and reliance on the Vulgate - The writer of Barnabas relied in conveying the biblical hints and texts shared with the Gospels on the old Latin translation known as the Vulgate, which is the translation that Saint Jerome, the
secretary
of the Pope of Rome , made at the beginning of the fifth century of the Holy Bible into the common Latin language, and this is evidence that this alleged Gospel was written after the fifth century AD.
Answer:
- Every researcher in the publication of texts knows that when translating an ancient text into another language, the translator conveys the meaning in parallel phrases that express it. But if he encounters a meaning with a textual structure fixed by a literal, divinely ordained text, he has no room for adaptation, but rather translates within an approved, standard, stereotypical template.
Therefore, when the translator of the Gospel of Barnabas translated it from Greek into Italian, how did he convey the Torah’s verses into Italian (which is colloquial Latin)? He had to rely on the official translation (the Vulgate) that Jerome made at the end of the fourth century.
And the evidence for that is that some texts the translator inadvertently missed were cast into the Vulgate and translated as they are... such as this text found in Barnabas 146 and found in Luke 15 and known as the parable of the prodigal son:
Barnabas 146
Then Jesus said to those who had turned to repentance and to his disciples: A father had two sons. The younger of them said, “Father, give me my share of goods.” So his father gave it to him. And when he had received his share, he departed and went to a distant country where he spent all his wealth on
prostitutes extravagantly. After that, a severe famine arose in that country, so that the wretched man went to serve one of the locals, who made him a swineherd on his property. While he was tending the swine, he would ease his hunger by eating acorns with the swine. But when he came to his senses, he said, “How much comfort there is in my father’s house, and I perish here with hunger. Therefore let me arise and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against you in heaven; make me like one of your swineherds. ’” And the poor man went, and it happened that his father saw him coming from afar, and he had compassion on him, so he went to meet him, and when he reached him, he embraced him and kissed him, and the son bowed before his father, saying: (Father, I have sinned against you in heaven; make me like one of your servants, for I am not worthy to be called your son), the father answered: (Do not say so, my son, for you are my son, and I will not allow you to be my slave), then he called his servants and said: (Bring out the robes and put them on my son, and give him new trousers, put the ring on his finger, and immediately slaughter the fatted calf, so that we may rejoice, for this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found). The text
in Luke 15 reads as follows:
11 And he said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 Then the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of the goods that falls to me.” So he divided his living for them. 13 14 And when he had spent all, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. 15 So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he desired to fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, but no one gave him. 17 Then he came to himself and said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ” 20 So he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22 Then the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
The Italian version of Barnabas reads as follows:
As for the Vulgate text of Luke 15:11-13
We notice in the text of Barnabas a verbal agreement with the Vulgate in only two places (the phrase portione which replaces portionem below as well as the phrase vivendo lussuriosament) and the rest of the words are completely different ..
which confirms that the use of the Vulgate was the work of the translator who used the standard form (the Vulgate) in the translation, and not the writer of the original text.
On (p. 105) there is a description of the duels that take place between lovers.
In fact, such duels were not known in Palestine at the time of Christ and they did not exist except in Western Europe before the French Revolution, i.e. before the (18th) century, and these duels were known there as chivalry
. This indicates the writer's homeland and the time of writing this forged gospel.
Response:
The entire text reads as follows: "And you know that when a young man is assigned to a woman and she loves him not but another, he becomes enraged and kills his rival" Barnabas 99.
Christ says to the disciples ( and you know ) because he is speaking about an obvious truth that has no relation to a specific time or place, but has existed since God created man, and even animals!! All the objecting priest has to do is open the National Geographic channel and see how this act (males fighting over females) has existed among all living beings since eternity , from cats to ibex to humans, and Europe did not invent it in the Middle Ages.
- As for man, the struggle over females has been known since ancient times, and it did not stop at duels between lovers only, but it reached wars between nations. Let us mention two examples of this:
1- The Trojan War (between 1260 - 1180 BC) between Menelaus, King of Sparta and his army, and Paris, Prince of Troy and his army, due to the struggle over Queen Helena, who had loved Paris, Prince of Troy, and fled with him . The war lasted ten years, and tens of thousands were killed, until the Greeks were able to defeat the people of Troy with the well-known trick of the Trojan Horse. The Greek poet Homer recorded this in the Iliad.
2- The war that almost broke out between Romulus (the founder of Rome) and his followers with the Sabine tribe (in 750 BC) after the Romans kidnapped the unmarried girls of the tribe and married them, so an army of Sabine men marched to Rome to bring the girls back and the heavily armed Romans were ready to defend their new wives, and here the kidnapped Sabine women who fell in love with the Romans rushed to stand between the two armies.. between the men of their tribe and their new husbands.
9- Training in archery is a manifestation
of the Middle Ages. It was mentioned in Chapter 110 (Have you seen those who train in shooting at a target? Indeed, they shoot many times without a target) and training in archery and manifestations of war were common in the Middle Ages.
- Reply:
- This suspicion was made by Rugg who began to smell the scent of the Middle Ages with his excellent detective sense! In his brilliant opinion, the Palestinian society did not have such a great civilized work (training in archery)! We say: Couldn't Christ have seen Roman soldiers training in archery?! Was this simple act exclusive to medieval Europe?? Wherever there are arrows, there will be archery. This is a human instinct that Rugg and his ilk do not understand
https://pressbee.net/show4824641.html?title=%D8%AF%D8%B1%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8 %A9-%D8%AA%D9%83%D8%B4%D9%81-%D8%A7%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%AF%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A3%D8%B3%D9%87%D9%85-%D9%88%D8%A3%D9%82%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%B3- 10- Barnabas and reliance on the Vulgate - The writer of Barnabas relied in conveying the biblical hints and texts shared with the Gospels on the old Latin translation known as the Vulgate, which is the translation that Saint Jerome, the
secretary
of the Pope of Rome , made at the beginning of the fifth century of the Holy Bible into the common Latin language, and this is evidence that this alleged Gospel was written after the fifth century AD.
Answer:
- Every researcher in the publication of texts knows that when translating an ancient text into another language, the translator conveys the meaning in parallel phrases that express it. But if he encounters a meaning with a textual structure fixed by a literal, divinely ordained text, he has no room for adaptation, but rather translates within an approved, standard, stereotypical template.
Therefore, when the translator of the Gospel of Barnabas translated it from Greek into Italian, how did he convey the Torah’s verses into Italian (which is colloquial Latin)? He had to rely on the official translation (the Vulgate) that Jerome made at the end of the fourth century.
And the evidence for that is that some texts the translator inadvertently missed were cast into the Vulgate and translated as they are... such as this text found in Barnabas 146 and found in Luke 15 and known as the parable of the prodigal son:
Barnabas 146
Then Jesus said to those who had turned to repentance and to his disciples: A father had two sons. The younger of them said, “Father, give me my share of goods.” So his father gave it to him. And when he had received his share, he departed and went to a distant country where he spent all his wealth on
prostitutes extravagantly. After that, a severe famine arose in that country, so that the wretched man went to serve one of the locals, who made him a swineherd on his property. While he was tending the swine, he would ease his hunger by eating acorns with the swine. But when he came to his senses, he said, “How much comfort there is in my father’s house, and I perish here with hunger. Therefore let me arise and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against you in heaven; make me like one of your swineherds. ’” And the poor man went, and it happened that his father saw him coming from afar, and he had compassion on him, so he went to meet him, and when he reached him, he embraced him and kissed him, and the son bowed before his father, saying: (Father, I have sinned against you in heaven; make me like one of your servants, for I am not worthy to be called your son), the father answered: (Do not say so, my son, for you are my son, and I will not allow you to be my slave), then he called his servants and said: (Bring out the robes and put them on my son, and give him new trousers, put the ring on his finger, and immediately slaughter the fatted calf, so that we may rejoice, for this son of mine was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found). The text
in Luke 15 reads as follows:
11 And he said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 Then the younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the portion of the goods that falls to me.” So he divided his living for them. 13 14 And when he had spent all, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in want. 15 So he went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he desired to fill his belly with the husks that the swine did eat, but no one gave him. 17 Then he came to himself and said, How many of my father's hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ ” 20 So he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and had compassion, ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 Then the son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. 22 Then the father said to his servants, “Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be merry. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
The Italian version of Barnabas reads as follows:
Here he is on the padre of his family and the quality of his family is that he has something to do with it. Padre dami la mia portione di roba il che li dete il padre suo il quale riceuta la portione sua. si parti he andete in paesse lontano onde sconssumo tutta the fachulta sua chon meretrice uiuendo lussuriosament
As for the Vulgate text of Luke 15:11-13
Homo quidam habuit duos filios: and dixit adolescentior ex illis patri: Pater, da mihi portionem substantiae, quae me contingit. And it divides the substantiam and non-post-multos dies, congregatis omnibus, adolescentior filius peregre profectus est in the long-term regionem, and ibi
dissipavit substantiam suam vivendo luxuriose
.
dissipavit substantiam suam vivendo luxuriose
.
We notice in the text of Barnabas a verbal agreement with the Vulgate in only two places (the phrase portione which replaces portionem below as well as the phrase vivendo lussuriosament) and the rest of the words are completely different ..
which confirms that the use of the Vulgate was the work of the translator who used the standard form (the Vulgate) in the translation, and not the writer of the original text.
The scent of the first centuries
- After we have refuted (thanks to God) the claims that the Gospel of Barnabas was written in the Middle Ages... a question comes to mind: Is there anything in the content of Barnabas that indicates that it was written in the early centuries?The answer: Yes, most definitely... and we have many examples of this:
1- The precious purple
(Truly I say to you, if the people of the world knew all this, they would prefer a hair shirt to purple ) Barnabas 57.
The example of purple here indicates that the writer belonged to the era of Christ, peace be upon him, in the first century AD , as the people of the eastern Mediterranean at that time knew that this precious dye that the Canaanites of the coast (the Phoenicians) extracted from seashells known as Murex was one of the most valuable commercial treasures. The most valuable robes were those dyed with this dye, and only emperors, kings, and those of their rank would wear them.
We read in Daniel 5:7 , “Whoever reads this writing and tells me its interpretation will be clothed in purple and have a chain of gold around his neck.”
The most valuable type of purple was
2- Boiling filth
(As for the fourth level, the lustful descend to it, where they have changed the path that God gave them, they are like wheat boiled in the filth of the devil burnt ) Barnabas 135.
The expression “the filth of the devil burnt” is an old Haggadic expression that appears in the Midrash as well as the Talmud (Messikhet Arabin 21):
“Everyone who disobeys the Khammim deserves death, and in hell he will be boiled in boiling filth ”
3- Converting clay into sugar:
(If a person is able to convert dung into gold or clay into sugar, what does he do? ) Barnabas 119
- I stopped a lot at the word (sugar), astonished because the people did not mention it as evidence that the writing of the Gospel of Barnabas was in the Middle Ages, when Arab businessmen adopted sugar production techniques from India and expanded the industry in Europe in the Middle Ages. And Andalusia was also an important center for sugar production starting from the tenth century.
- But my confusion and astonishment disappeared when I looked at the text again... I noticed something strange... namely, the mention of sugar came in conjunction with the mention of gold as something valuable and rare.
- But when was sugar something valuable and rare??
There are records among the ancient Greeks and Romans that mentioned sugar only as an imported medicine , and it was not known as a food. For example, the Greek physician Dioscorides wrote in the first century (AD) : “There is a kind of mixed honey called saccharone [i.e. sugar] found in the reeds of India and Eudaemon Arabia [i.e. Yemen ] that resembles saltIn consistency and brittle enough to be ground between the teeth like salt. It is good dissolved in water for the intestines and as food, and can be taken as a drink to help relieve bladder and kidney pains.” Pliny the Elder , a Roman from the first century AD, described sugar as medicinal : “Sugar is also made in Arabia , but Indian sugar is better. It is a kind of honey found in sugar cane, white as gum, and is ground between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut. It is used only for medicinal purposes .”
History of Sugar - Wikipedia (wikipedia.org) So
the answer is: Sugar was a valuable and rare thing when the Greeks and Romans used it as an imported medicine for various medical purposes in the first century AD and before.
4- Written expressions that smell of the first century AD:
Here are some of them, by way of example, that clearly illustrate the environment and era of this book:
A. You do not walk in the law of God
Barnabas 67 (And all this will happen because you do not walk in His law )
* A purely biblical expression from the language of the Torah, which smells of the first century AD.
B. The High Priest
Barnabas 68 * Then Jesus said: O priests and scribes and Pharisees, and you, O high priest , who hear my voice "
High Priest: The title in Hebrew כהן גדול (Kohen HaGdol) is a very common term in the Jewish religious heritage.
C. The repetition of the addressee
Barnabas 88 " (But beware of considering yourself better than him, but you should say thus: Peter, Peter , if God had not helped you, you would have been worse than him)
This method of repeating the addressee twice strongly indicates the Western Semitic languages: Canaanite and Hebrew, for in Hebrew it is very common שלום שלום "Shalom Shalom" and in the remnants of the Canaanite language in the dialect of the Syrian coastal mountains "Winak, wainak, Ein Ein!" And in the Gospel of Barnabas there are many examples, see for example Chapter 194 "Martha, Martha".
D. By the living God
Barnabas 96 (Jesus answered: By the living God, in whose presence my soul stands)
This standard phrase that is repeatedly mentioned in the Torah and also on the tongue of Jesus in the Gospels, was translated by Khalil Saadeh: By God! Which is an Islamic expression without commitment to the content of the text, so the reader thinks that the writer of Barnabas is influenced by Islamic culture, while the expression is purely biblical.
H. Dust and Ashes
Barnabas 125 “Tell me, do you want to receive something bad from God? Certainly not, you dust and ashes !” Dust and Ashes: עָפָר וָאֵפֶר (Efar and Ipher) which is a purely biblical expression and is also mentioned in Barnabas 129. W. Barnabas opened his mouth 139 (Therefore he opened his mouth and said, “He who walks without knowing where he is going is certainly miserable”)
A standard expression that occurs repeatedly in the Synoptic Gospels, in Greek (άνοιξε το στόμα). Here the question is repeated: Was this Gospel composed in Italian by a European in the sixteenth century, fluent in Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, and Italian, and all the sciences of the first century AD and its spatial and temporal circumstances, along with the Torah, Midrash, the Gospel, and the Qur’an as well?!! It is the duty of a person to judge matters by their circumstances and data - as they were originally stated - not to mold them and dress them in a garment that is not part of them, in the service of a predetermined result that he aims for.
Z. Grace in the eyes of God
Barnabas 191 (Remember me, a servant of God, that I may find grace in the eyes of God )
is a very old expression from the vocabulary of the Torah (חֵ֖ן בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְהוָֽה) that cannot be a subject in the sixteenth century.
To be continued, God willing...,,,
-----------------------
(1) The notes on the purple, the boiling malice, and the biblical expressions are taken from the wonderful book (The Gospel of Barnabas) by Dr. Ahmed Ibish.
Chapter Eight: Barnabas, the Apostle of Christ
- Although Barnabas is not mentioned among the twelve disciples of Christ in the New Testament Gospels, and Christians insist that Barnabas was not a contemporary of Christ but was one of the seventy, historical tracing of Barnabas’s status finds that Barnabas had a much higher status than what people give him, and there is much evidence for that:
First: Barnabas, nicknamed the Apostle:
It is noted that the title Apostle was only given to the twelve disciples of Christ, and later to Paul when he claimed that Christ appeared to him and spoke to him alone on his way to Damascus... As for the seventy or seventy-two, they were called Disciples
The seventy disciples or seventy-two disciples, but
the first sentence in the Gospel of Barnabas confirms that Barnabas was the disciple of Christ “Barnabas
, apostle of Jesus the Nazarene.”
Then it confirms in the fourteenth chapter of the same Gospel that Christ chose twelve apostles, including Barnabas .
Is there any confirmation that Barnabas was an "Apostle", i.e. a disciple who saw, heard and spoke with Christ like the Twelve Apostles and not just one of the seventy disciples?
The seventy disciples or seventy-two disciples 1-
In fact, we find that Barnabas is the only one other than these (the twelve and Paul) who has this title "Apostle" in more than one place in the New Testament letters. If Barnabas was not a contemporary of Christ and spoke with him or claimed to be like Paul... then why does he have this title and that position?
“ The apostles Barnabas and Paul ” (Acts 14:14).
2- Saint Clement of Alexandria (150: 215 AD) refers to Barnabas as an Apostle.
Clement refers to Barnabas as "the apostle"
Clement of Alexandria and Barnabas | second century church father Clement of Alexandria, Egyptian Christianity, minority apostolic tradition in Stromateis, Stromata, Miscellanies, Secret Gospel of Mark, Letter of Theodore, Christian spirituality, contemplation, theoria, Christian mysticism (churchhistory101.com) 3-
Saint Clement, Bishop of Rome (first century AD), is credited in the Clementine Confessions with Barnabas being one of Christ's disciples and preaching the things he had heard and seen from Christ .
Arrival of Barnabas at Rome. (biblehub.com )
================
Second: Was Barnabas the beloved disciple of Jesus?
- In fact, it was believed that the beloved disciple of Christ was John the son of Zebedee... He is mentioned in the Gospel of John 13:23-26
23 Now there was reclining on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
24 Then Simon Peter motioned to him, that he should ask who it was of whom he spoke.
25 Then he leaned on Jesus' breast and said to him, "Lord, who is it?"
26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it.” So he dipped the sop and gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
Now in the Gospel of Barnabas, chapter 72, we read the same incident with a few slight changes:
And at night Jesus spoke secretly to his disciples, saying, “Truly I say to you, Satan wants to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed to God for you, so that none of you will perish except he who casts snares for me.” Now he spoke this about Judas because the angel Gabriel had told him how Judas had a hand with the priests and had told them everything that Jesus had spoken. Then the one who wrote this came to Jesus with tears, saying, “Teacher, tell me who is the one who betrays you?” Jesus answered, saying: Barnabas , this is not the hour that you know him, but the evil one will soon reveal himself, because I will depart from the world.
- The Gospel of Barnabas confirms that Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Christ!
- Therefore, we find Father Paul Al-Feghali in his book (The Gospel of Barnabas: Translation, Study, Analysis) p. 174 commenting on this text with astonishment in the margin, saying:
Now we have three questions to verify this subject, whether “Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Jesus Christ” is just a claim and theft of the title of the disciple John, son of Zebedee, or does the matter go beyond that!
The first question: Did Christian scholars agree that John is the beloved disciple, or was that just a possibility? John W. Drane says
[ Irenaeus defines the beloved disciple as John . However, many researchers believe that he may have been an ideal figure symbolizing the true believer in Jesus, and that he was known as Lazarus, who in any case was the only person who was always said to be loved by Jesus .
John W. Drane, Jesus the Fourth Gospels, Dar Al-Thaqafah, p. 271.
So John W. Drane puts us in a state of confusion about the identity of the beloved disciple:
Was it John? Or Lazarus? Or an unknown person? Or was there no beloved disciple at all, and this is a characteristic of his discipleship? *
The second question: Are there any Christian researchers who said that Barnabas was the beloved disciple of Christ?
Barnaba the disciple whom Jesus Loved
The answer is yes.. This opinion was actually adopted by many Christian scholars and researchers. We mention, for example:
1- The book "The Divine Priest - The Life of Priest Jeremiah Hallock" p. 286 2- Edward Broomfield (Bible researcher and Sunday school teacher)
Location: Pennsylvania, USA:
Time: November 2012
Barnabas is the beloved disciple of Christ:
Post link:Barnabas ~ Whom Jesus Loved | Things Paul & Luke (wordpress.com) Question
3: Are there other historical or biblical evidence to support this claim? - Of course ,
there are many indications that support this claim, including, for example:
1- The apostles described Barnabas as the beloved in Acts 15:25 "Beloved Barnabas"
25 And of course the translator into Arabic did not forget to share Paul's title of beloved , so he translated it ( our beloved brothers Barnabas and Paul ). The truth is that the apostles' attitude towards Paul during that period was one of doubt and suspicion
, so it is unlikely that they would describe him as the beloved "And when Saul came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples. But they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple " Acts 9:26
Rather, Barnabas was the one who brought him to them, trying to reassure them:
"So Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles" Acts 9:26
* So it is very clear the status of Barnabas compared to Paul with the apostles during that period...
2- Barnabas hosts Christ:
Let us ask a direct question: How did he not know Joseph (Barnabas) the Messiah and he did not meet him even once in his life - although the meetings of Christ and the disciples were always in the house of his sister Mary and her son Mark (Mark's Upper Room)?
Doesn't that seem strange?!
* If we know that his sister was a widow and her children were orphans? Would Barnabas, who is known for his care for everyone, leave her? Wouldn't he take care of his household?!
Of course he would take care of his sister Mary , he is a righteous man as mentioned in the Book of Acts (Acts 11:24) - and if that is the case, then he must have met Christ a lot .. perhaps more than all of his disciples.. He is the owner of the house in which they meet - perhaps some guests (disciples) would stay away sometimes, but the owner of the house would most likely be in the house.
3- Barnabas, Son of
the Prophet : The Second Book of Kings tells us that while the Prophet of God Elijah was walking with his beloved disciple Elisha and they were talking together, suddenly a chariot and horses of fire separated them, and Elijah ascended to heaven. Elisha kept staring up in astonishment and then cried out: “My father! My father!! ” But no answer came to him from heaven except for Elijah’s cloak that fell in front of him. After that, he did not see Elijah again. (2 Kings 2:11-12)
Elijah was not Elisha’s father so that Elisha would call him: “My father! ” But the relationship between a prophet and his disciple made the disciple in the position of “the son of the prophet” ... Thus, the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, tells us that every prophet has a disciple whom he chooses, and Al-Zubayr ibn Al-Awwam, may God be pleased with him, was the disciple of the prophet, just as Elisha was the disciple of Elijah and Joshua (Joshua) ibn Nun was the disciple of the Prophet Moses and his successor.
- The prophets Elijah and Moses met Christ on Mount Tabor in the incident of the Transfiguration mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas and the Gospel of John. Barnabas tells in his Gospel that he, Peter, James, and John accompanied Christ in the incident of the Transfiguration . The disciples who attended this incident were described as the Super Apostles, as Paul mentions them, and hatred for them drips from his words, saying:
“I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you , since in nothing I fell short of the super Apostles .” ( 2 Corinthians 12:11 ).
The interpretation of the super Apostles: those whom Christ singled out for some situations, such as the Transfiguration. ( The Church Encyclopedia for the Interpretation of the New Testament: St. Mark's Church in Heliopolis)
Now back to our topic: the relationship between the prophet and his disciple, which made the disciple in the position of "the son of the prophet" as is the case between the prophet Elijah and his disciple Elisha. This term even developed during the time of the prophet Samuel, so the disciples were called the sons of the prophets (2 Kings 2:5).
Christ spoke about them, praising them in the Gospel of Barnabas, Chapter 145, and called them " the true Pharisees ." They were ascetic worshippers in mountain caves, staying up at night, wearing coarse clothing, and eating without being full. They had honors from God, and they were close in their way of life to the Essenes in the caves of Qumran, who were first discovered in the middle of the nineteenth century.
- We return to "Elisha" the son of the prophet "Elijah" and his noble disciple, as the Book of Kings mentions that Elijah passed by Elisha and the latter owned a field of twelve yoke of oxen, so Elijah called him and threw his mantle over him . So he left the oxen and ran after Elijah and said, "Let me kiss my father and mother and follow you." But he said to him, "Go back, for I have not done anything for you." So he returned from behind him and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled the meat with the tools of the oxen and gave it to the people and they ate . Then he arose and went after Elijah and ministered to him (1 Kings 19:19-21)
- What Elisha, the "son of the prophet", did with Elijah the prophet, we do not find anyone who did with Christ like Barnabas... Barnabas also owned a field and sold it and put his money to serve the call of Christ, and Barnabas is the one who hosted Christ and served Him in the upper room of St. Mark. But there is a secret that is time to reveal:
- What does the name "Barnabas" mean?
- They have deceived us by saying that it means the son of comfort or the son of encouragement, and they also call him the star maker because he introduced Paul to the people!
But the name Barnabas (ברנביא) is divided into two parts:
1- Bar (בר) which means son. 2-
Neba (נביא) which means prophet or prophecy. So
the literal translation is the son of the prophet or the son of
prophecy. Source:
Barnabas | The amazing name Barnabas: meaning and etymology (abarim-publications.com) And to be continued,
God willing ,,,
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