BISM ELLAH ARRAHMAN ARRAHEEM
By the name of the Merciful Gracious God

 Verification of Gospel of Barnabas
By
S A Fadel

Abstract: The "Gospel of Barnabas " was written by Barnabas, the apostle of Christ (PBOH) , but some mistakes had happened during its copying , after all the Holy Quran is the only book preserved by God.

1 - Comparing the Gospel of Barnabas and the new testament's Gospels shows that Barnabas mentions all the events contained in the four gospels. However, there are events mentioned in the Gospel of Barnabas which are not mentioned in the four gospels of the testament. Barnabas contains a lot more events than any of the four Gospels separately. The writer of the Gospel of Barnabas knows that Mary Salomy is the sister of virgin Mary, that Taboor is the mountain that Jesus (PBOH) mounted when the holly spirit declared his prophecy. The writer was thus very close to Jesus Christ (PBOH).

On the contrary the writer of the Gospel does not know when prophet Muhammad (SAAWS) was sent, but only states when he would be sent. See (ch.72:13) for reference. It is quite known to all who lived after the spreading of Islam that it was more than 600 years between Jesus and the Prophet (PBOT). The Gospel of Barnabas also states that the Prophet will revenge from those who say that Jesus is more than a man (ch. 72:17); but what really happened was that the Prophet Muhammad never fought the Christians. It states " the moon shall minister sleep to him in his boyhood, and when he shall be grown up he shall take her in his hands." (ch.72 :18 ). Regarding his boyhood, no one said such a thing about the moon, but perhaps the division of the moon in his time is the explanation of " take her in his hands." So the writer of the Gospel of Barnabas is very ignorant of the Islamic history, which does not permit that he is a Muslim , and assures that he lived prior to the advent of Muhammad (SAAWS).

2 - Barnabas is a known apostle of Christ (PBOH) even as the new testament says that he is one of the first 83 disciples (12 +72 mentioned in Luke 10:1,after eliminating Judah ). What he preached is similar to what is in the Gospel related to him. He preached the creator of heavens and earth, insisted that circumcision should proceed and was against the permissibilty of the unclean meat. He was against Paul in these aspects which caused them to separate, as Paul accused him and Peter to be hypocrites. On the other hand, Paul was against these 83 disciples and was satisfied by there killings. Then through Barnabas he pretended that he had faith in Christ (PBOH). Many of his own words show clearly that he is a hypocrite (`Acts 23:6, 1 corinthos 9:20,21 ,1 corinthos 10:32 ). And that he is very proud of himself (1 Rom 1:1 , 1 cornithos 1 :1 , 7:8, 10:33,11:1 ,1 Tsalonic 2:3 ,Efsos 1 :4 ,Philip 4:3 ) which assures that he could not be true apostle of Jesus. The relationship between Paul and Barnabas explains clearly the preface of the Gospel of Barnabas.

3 - The writer of the Gospel of Barnabas can not be a Muslim, since there are much contradictions between his words and what are well known facts to the Muslims. For instance,

• he sometimes refers to God as "our father " which is rejected in the Holy Quran.
• He referred to both "Christ " ,"Messiah" or "messenger of God " (PBOT) as lords, which is completely prohibited in Islam .
• He related that three magi bent down doing obeisance to Jesus ( Ch.7: 7), Mary the virgin, and the disciples fell with their faces to the ground for the angels (Ch.221 :13 ), which is also not accepted by any Muslim .
• The writer of "Gospel of Barnabas " considers Satan as an angel ,which contradicts the Holy Quran for Satan is a ghost, a genie.
• He says that devils do the punishment for the sinners in hell, contradicting the Holy Quran which states that this is angels' job naming one of them "Malek"(PBOH).
• He hadn’t mentioned some of the miracles attributed to the Christ in the Holy Quran, such as making a shape of birds of clay then by the will of God they are converted to living birds.
• that Jesus (PBOH) spoke right after his birth.
• He lessens the miracle of the table which descended from the sky, saying that it was just blessing a small amount of food to satisfy a great multitude of people.
• The commandments of Jesus (PBOH) differ from what is known in Islam, for instance he permits drinking wine, which is totally forbidden in Islam. Muslims can’t accept that any prophet of God can permit wine.
• The punishment of stealing and fornication are death, it is not so in Islam ; but it may be so in the commandments given to the Christ (PBOH).

4 - His knowledge of the prophets of Israel is tremendous sometimes giving details not known from the old testament. Most of the Muslims did not know many of them. His expression is quite like that of the old/new testament.

5 - The Holy Quran said more than once that whoever got the true Gospel knows about Muhammad (SAAWS) as they know their own children. Does "Gospel of Barnabas " do so? I believe the answer is no.

6 - The manuscript of the "Gospel of Barnabas " was found at Turkey in which Barnabas preached.

The final result then is that the origin of "Gospel of Barnabas " was written by Barnabas the apostle of Christ (PBOH) , but some mistakes had happened during its copying , after all the Holy Quran is the only book preserved by God.