The True Gospel or a Forgery ?

In 1977 Begum Aisha Bawany Wakf, Karachi, Pakistan, reprinted Lonsdale and Laura Ragg's translation of "The Gospel of Barnabas" ¹ This has been widely distributed by Muslims and is used in discussions with Christians.

Muslims believe that God delivered to the Lord Jesus a revelation called the Injil [the Gospel]. Surah 5:46:

“… We bestowed on him* the Gospel … “  *[ i.e. "Jesus, son of Mary"]

They believe that it was written down as one book. A significant number of Muslims claim that "The Gospel of Barnabas" is the true “Gospel” and that Christians have replaced it with the collection of books called “The New Testament”

"The Gospel of Barnabas" claims to be the true gospel of the Lord Jesus written by a disciple of the Lord Jesus named Barnabas who live in the land of Palestine in the first century AD. It is very popular with many in the Muslim world probably because it denies that Jesus is the son of God, that he died and rose from the dead and also claims that the Lord Jesus was the forerunner of Mohammad. A significant number of Muslims believe that this book is the "original testament"

Begum Aisha Bawany Wakf’s reprint omits the translator’s preface. Lonsdale and Laura Ragg’s preface gives a detailed appraisal of the book, its origin and content, showing it to be a forgery. As far as we know, the original translation is out of print but copies can be viewed in some major UK libraries ¹.

The Writer of "The Gospel of Barnabas" was not Barnabas.

The writer shows an appalling ignorance of the terrain of the land of Palestine.

The writer thought that Nazareth was a coastal city. In "Barnabas 10" it reads:

"Having arrived at the city of Nazareth the seamen spread through the city all that Jesus had wrought"

Nazareth was, and still is, high in the hills, midway between the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee

The writer also thought that Capernaum was higher than Nazareth. In "Barnabas 21" it says:

Jesus "went up to Capernaum"

Evidently the writer was not a native of the land of Palestine and could not have been Barnabas.

"The Gospel of Barnabas" is a fourteenth century forgery.

In the law of Moses God ordained that a "jubilee" was to be observed by the Hebrew nation every fifty years. Leviticus 25:11:

"That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee to you …"

The Roman Church adopted and observed this practise until the beginning of the fourteenth century.

At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the pope of the Roman Church, Boniface the Eighth, decreed that the "jubilee" must be observed once very hundred years.

In AD 1343, this decree was countermanded by a subsequent Roman pope, Clemens the sixth, decreeing that it must again be observed every fifty years.

However in "Barnabas 82" it reads:

"... the year of jubilee, which now cometh every hundred years ..."

Therefore the "Gospel of Barnabas" must have been written in the fourteenth century before AD 1343, that being the only time when the jubilee was observed every hundred years.

The writer of "The Gospel of Barnabas" was very ignorant of the Qur'an.

Various works have been written showing even more inconsistencies in "The Gospel of Barnabas"  The foregoing are sufficient to show that it is a forgery. However it is puzzling why so many Muslims uphold "The Gospel of Barnabas" as the true Injil when it starkly contradicts the book they consider, above all other books, to be the pure word of Allah.

In "Barnabas 3" it says of Mary, the mother of Jesus:

"The virgin ... brought forth her son without pain"

Whereas in the Qur'an, Surah 19:23 it says:

"...the pangs of childbirth drove her unto the trunk of the palm tree: She said: Oh would that I had died ere this …" ²

Both cannot be right.

The Qur'an declares that the Lord Jesus is the Messiah, for example Surah 3:45:

"… O Mary! Lo! Allah giveth thee glad tidings of a word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary …" ²

But in "Barnabas 42, 82" it reads:

"Jesus confessed and said the truth: 'I am not the Messiah ... after me shall come the Messiah'"

Is the Lord Jesus the Messiah? The Bible says he is, for example John 4:25,26:

“The woman said to him, ‘I know that the Messiah comes, who is called the Christ …’ Jesus said to her, ‘I , the one who is speaking to you, am he.’”

Why was "The Gospel of Barnabas" written?

Some suggest that it was written by a Spanish Muslim who wanted to bolster the cause of Islam and chose the name Barnabas to give it credibility. Alternatively it might have been written as a fictional novel in a popular historical setting which the author thought would appeal to a wide readership in Spain at that time.

Whatever the reason, it is obviously a forgery and has no credibility in the Muslim-Christian dialogue.

Allan Ashurst 2005

NOTES:

1. “The Gospel of Barnabas” Lonsdale and Laura Ragg, Clarendon Press, Oxford, UK. 1907
2. Quranic references are taken from:-
   "The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an", translated by Marmaduke Pickthall, Taj Company, Karachi.
   ^NOTE:  Verse reference numbering in other publications of the Qur'an might differ a little.

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