Some Muslims use the Gospel of Barnabas to preach the message
of Islam on their websites and they make some pretty extraordinary claims about
it.
Within these extraordinary claims they will drop some names
of some great Christian leaders from the early church and some names of important
places from the early church’s history and say that: “This shows that the
Gospel of Barnabas was in circulation in the first and second centuries”. But the one thing you will also see, is they will never provide
you with any references as to where these details can be found (at least not until
the references are from books written after the 16th century).
1.) The Gospel of Barnabas was accepted in the Churches of
Alexandria till 325 A.D.
2.) Irenaeus of
Lyons (130-202) opposed Paul for injecting pagan Roman religion
and Platonic philosophy into Christianity.
3.) Irenaeus had
quoted extensively from the Gospel of Barnabas showing that the Gospel of
Barnabas was in circulation in the first and second centuries of Christianity.
1.) You will notice that in each of the websites that quote this point, the
author of the website provides absolutely no evidence for the statement that they have
made. Quite frankly, I believe that this claim is totally baseless and will
continue to do so until some evidence is provided to the contrary.
2.) Once again, no
references are provided even though the works of Irenaeus are divided into book, chapter and verse and can be
referenced very easily. Irenaeus quotes extensively from the four canonised
Gospels, the Book of Acts, Paul’s letters and the letters from the other
apostles. I have not found anywhere where he opposes Paul or Paul’s writings;
on the contrary, he quotes Paul’s letters to make his case within his series of
five books called “Adversus Haereses” (Against Heresies) in which he defends the Christian faith against Gnosticism.
3.) And again, the writers of the various web pages
provide no references. In the works of Irenaeus, I have found many direct
quotes made from the four canonised Gospels but nothing from the so called “Gospel
of Barnabas”. But because the Gospel of Barnabas parallels some parts of
the canonised Gospels one could make the assumption that Irenaeus was quoting from the Gospel
of Barnabas. However there are some mark differences between the Gospel of
Barnabas and what Irenaeus quotes. For
example Irenaeus quite often refers to Jesus as the “Word of God” which found
in Gospel of John and not in the Gospel of Barnabas. He also talks about the death and resurrection of Jesus found in the
four canonised Gospels but not in the Gospel of Barnabas.
The works of Irenaeus’ can be found at this web site.
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/irenaeus.html
There are a lot of websites out there that say all sorts of
things and make all sorts of claims, but what I say is this:
Please do not just accept or reject the words of this website or for
that matter any other web site without first checking out for yourself the claims that
have been made.
It’s the truth that matters, not the ideas, opinions or
agendas of those who would want to gain the power of influence over us. It was God who gave us our minds; not so that
we would blindly follow someone else, but so we could use our minds, determine
what is the true and then to do what is right.
Seek out the truth; it is the truth that sets us free.
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