Contradictions to the Qur'an in the Gospel of Barnabas
... (not all of the chapter available, but I think the given point
is enough anyway).
d) The use of the word "Messiah" (Christ)
(i) The Origin of the Word "Messiah"
This word "Messiah" which is used in various forms by Jews,
Christians and Muslims has its origin in the Jewish Torah. When a
new priest or king was to be placed in office, God commanded Moses
and said that his head should be anointed with a special oil. He
thus became a "mashiakh" in Hebrew - an anointed one.
When God revealed the Psalms (Zabur) to David by the Holy
Spirit, He spoke of a special "anointed one" (see Psalms 2 and 45).
As time passed Jewish believers began to understand that these Psalms
and other passages were pointing to a special priest-king who would
come with miraculous power, and they began to talk about and wait for
this special mashiakh.
Later in about 200 BC when Jewish scholars made their own
Greek translation of the Torah and the Zabur, they used "christos",
the Greek word for "anointed", to translate the Hebrew mashiakh. And
from this we get the English word "Christ". Thus when John the Baptist
came (Yahya Ibn Zakariya of the Qur'an), the Jewish people asked him,
"Are you the mashiakh?" i.e. the promised special Messiah, and he
answered, "No, I am not the Christ (mashiakh)... I am not (even) worthy
to untie the straps of his sandals". (Luke 3:15-16). When he comes he
"will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire" (Luke 3:16).
During his earthly ministry, Jesus taught that he, himself,
was the promised mashiakh or Messiah, for whom the Jewish people were
waiting. After he ascended his followers continued to teach this truth.
When they explained the gospel, the good news about the forgiveness of
sins, to Jews, they used the Hebrew mashiakh. When they spoke to people
who knew Greek, they usually used the Greek word christos (and because
of this they were called Christians). Sometimes, however, they used
the Hebrew mashiakh even with the Greeks, but since Greek has no "sh",
and since "kh", was often ignored in transliteration, the word became
messias (see John 1:4 and 4:25). This spelling brought over through
Latin became messia in Italian and can be seen twice in Figure 8
(photograph of page No. 213 of the Italian manuscript of the Gospel of
Barnabas). Thus, for example, Al-Maurid, A modern English-Arabic
Dictionary by Munir Ba'alkaki published in 1987 (Dar El-Ilm, Lil-Malayen)
lists both words as follows:
messiah ~~~~ (some arabic wiggles)
Messias '~~.~ (some more arabic wiggles, not very ascii friendly)
We can conclude therefore, that when Christians use mashiakh
in Hebrew, or messiah in English, or messias in Greek, or messia in
Italian, they are referring to Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary.
(ii) "The Messiah" in the Qur'an
The Qur'an also has a number of verses about Jesus, so we
are not surprised to find that the name "messiah" (Al-Masih) is
present there too. When we look up the word, we find that it is used
11 times in the Qur'an in eight different sections as shown below.
1. Ali 'imran (The Family of 'Imran) 3:45, AH 2-3.
"Behold! the angels said: O Mary! God gives thee glad tidings
of a Word from Him: His name will be the Messiah Jesus,
son of Mary."
2. Al-Nisa' (The Women) 4:157, AH 3-5.
"And they said, 'We killed the Messiah Jesus, the son of Mary,
the Apostle of God; but they didn't kill him."
3. Al-Nisa' (The Women) 4:171-172.
"The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, was only an apostle of God
and His Word which He put on Mary, and a Spirit from Him,...
The Messiah does not disdain to be a servant of God."
4. Al-Ma'ida (The Table) 5:19, AH 10.
"In blasphemy are those who say that God is the Messiah,
son of Mary. Say, 'Who then has any power against God, if He
wanted to destroy the Messiah, the son of Mary, his mother,
and everyone on the earth.'"
5. Al-Ma'ida (The Table) 5:75.
"They blaspheme who say that God is the Messiah, the son of
Mary... and the Messiah said, 'Oh Children of Israel,
worship God, my Lord and your Lord.'"
6. Al-Ma'ida (The Table) 5:78.
"The Messiah, the son of Mary, was no more than an apostle."
7. Al-Tauba (Repentance) 9:30, AH 9.
"And the Christians said that the Messiah is the Son of God.
That is their saying from their mouths.'
8. Al-Tauba (Repentance) 9:31.
"...As well as the Messiah, the son of Mary."
It is perfectly clear from these verses that the Qur'an gives
the title "Messiah" to Jesus the son of Mary. Some of these
passages were given as late as 9 and 10 AH, or the very end
of the Qur'anic revelations, so there is no question of any
change in the meaning of the word. Though they may disagree
about other things, Christians and Muslims firmly agreed that
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Mary was the Messiah.
(iii) "The Messiah" According to the Author of the
Gospel of Barnabas
As a first century Jew and claiming to be one of Jesus'
disciples, we would expect such a Barnabas to be using the word
'messiah" many times when speaking of Jesus. One is surprised
to read, therefore, the following eight sections fiom the Gospel
of Barnabas and find that the name "messiah" is used for another
person.
1. Chapter 42. "They sent the Levites saying, 'Who art thou?'
Jesus confessed and said the truth, 'I am not the Messiah.'"
{This verse is visible in the photograph of the Vienna ms., p. 441,
(see Figure 9).}
2. Chapter 82. "Said the woman: 'O Lord, perchance thou art the
Messiah.' Jesus answered: 'I am indeed sent to the house of Israel
as a prophet of salvation, but after me shall come the Messiah.'"
3. Chapter 83. "And (Jesus) said to them: 'This night shall be in
the time of the Messiah, messenger of God, the Jubilee every year -
that now cometh every hundred years..."'
4. Chapter 96. "The priest answered, 'In the book of Moses it is
written that our God must send us the Messiah... Art thou the
Messiah of God whom we expert?' Jesus answered, '... I am not he."'
5. Chapter 96. "Tell us in what wise the Messiah will come.'
Jesus answered, '... I am not the Messiah."'
6. Chapter 97. "Then said the priest, 'How shall the Messiah be
called ...?' Jesus answered, '...Muhammad is his blessed name.'"
7. Chapter 198. "Jesus answered, '...but since I have confessed...
that I am not the Messiah, therefore God hath taken away the
punishment from me.'"
8. Chapter 206. "The High Priest said, 'Tell me, O Jesus, hast
thou forgotten all that thou didst confess, that thou art not...
the Messiah?' Jesus said 'Certainly not... and I am God's servant
and desire to serve God's messenger whom ye call Messiah. "
{See the photograph of the Vienna ms., p. 213r (Figure 80)}
These eight passages say plainly and openly that Jesus
is not the Messiah - that Muhammad is the Messiah. In addition,
there are at least seven others which make the same claim. These
are found in Chapters 42 (a second time), 43, 112, 142, 191, 208,
and 210 for a total of fifteen passages.
This teaching is in blatant contradiction to the Qur'an
which teaches, as we saw above, that the Messiah is Jesus the son
of Mary. It is also in blatant contradiction with Christian
scriptures. In I John 2:22, we read,
"Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ
(the Messiah)? This is the anti-Christ."
{If a reader should see one of the rare Arabic copies of the
Gospel of Barnabas, he will find that the Italian word Messia
has not been translated into Arabic and written masih. Instead
it was transliterated. That means that the Italian messia has
been left as is, but written in Arabic letters as masiya ( .~~ ).
Why the Arabic translator left the word as masiya rather than
writing masih ( ~~ ), I do not know.}
CONCLUSION
We have examined 21 verses or passages where the Gospel
of Barnabas is in factual disagreement with 26 Qur'anic passages.
To add these contradictions to the Qur'an will only result in a
loss of credibility.