And we welcome you once again to Western focus. Please forgive me shallot will be our 13th in our series Muhammad, peace be upon him the last messenger of God and our service and our segment on the coming of Mohammed as foretold by Jesus. I’m your host shot the mission here once again from St. Mary’s University is Dr. dellavedova, esoteric electronic.
For the benefit of our viewers, could you please give us a quick summary of last week’s program? Okay, last week, we began to examine whether there’s any other documents that might shed some light as to whether the latest
that Jesus spoke about really is a person or a spirit.
And we refer to the writings of the famous biographer of Prophet Muhammad, Ignatius have writing in the eighth century, he was quoting from a city a copy of the gospel, according to john, and the Syriac term for the one about whom Jesus speaks that he’s coming after him is called Medina, which actually is for praised one or for Mohammed named for Mohammed.
And we compared that quotation, and we found that it’s not really totally off track, even from the present canonized gospels, because it sounds very similar to what is there in chapter 16, verses 23 through 27, and the first verse in the following chapter.
And that seems to indicate that they might have been a variant copy CD, a copy that has perhaps
the equivalent of the Greek Cletus, which means Muhammad or Atman.
We said, however, even if it’s not proven beyond doubt, that there have been other copies of john, which described become the one to come after Jesus as the crazed one arm hunted.
Still, it does apply to the profit for a number of reasons we said that, first of all, either the original was in the Greek was pretty clear to us, which means Mohammed. And then through some in error in copying, it was copied percolators, which means just counselor advocate.
Secondly, that the original copies might have had both words, perfectly two separate letters, which means the advocate or the counselor that praised one, or Mohammed, or Mohammed becomes with In which case, it could apply to the Prophet. And we said there is a possibility of error also, that one word was left out, because it’s very similar to the other one. The third possibility is that it was only partly just as most theologians appalled, and we said, why this is not the name of Prophet Muhammad, it is his description, because certainly, he’s a guide and his account, you know, counselors sent to the world.
And then we indicated that it’s half quotation
from whatever source was available to him at that time in Syria, is not the only source. For this also another important document known as the Gospel of Barnabas, which has the same kind of orientation also,
and describes becoming a prophet Mohammed by name on the time of Jesus.
We began first by examining the meaning of the term Barnabas, and we refer to some biblical authorities and indicated that that may or may not necessarily have been given to badmus Barnabas only after the ascension of Jesus, but it is a name that seemed to reflect his ability and eloquence as a preacher.
Then we raised the question as to whether that the St. Barnabas was one of the 12 disciples or not.
And we indicated that while he is not mentioned in the list of the 12, in the gospels, but some other Christian documents, like recognitions and homies, mentioned him as one of the personal apostles of Jesus peace be upon him.
And finally, we try to examine what the present canonized New Testament literature, especially the book of Acts, say about Barnabas, and we indicated that the least one can say really that he was very highly praised for his faith for being full of the Holy Spirit, in which case, his position really must be taken quite seriously. And what he says would have a great deal of weight. Now he had mentioned rule two anyway, a conflict between
All Barnabas views. Maybe it might be worthwhile at this time to talk more about the nature of this conflict. Yeah, that was perhaps one of the last thing we covered last time. We didn’t have to elaborate on it. But I’d like to say, however, that I’m not going to give a detailed answer of the conflict between these two important figures Paul and Barnabas.
Since this was discussed in greater detail, as part of the series, remember Jesus the beloved messenger of God, just to make a cross reference that might help us in this particular topic.
We indicated that the act the book of Acts simply say, but the reason why they differ is that
Paul did not agree that john mark will go out with them in the second check for missionary work.
But definitely This is a really
an adequate explanation as to how could such big figures like Paul and Barnabas could have a sharp difference that they would split.
And we indicated in the previous series also that the difference much I’ve been much deeper and perhaps related with the dissatisfaction of St. Barnabas with the new ideas, introduced by Paul, which he might have considered different from what you consider to be the genuine, pure teachings of Jesus, peace be upon him, such as the ideas introduced by Paul about the vicarious or substitutionary sacrifice the his views about circumcision and eating pork and all of these things. Now, this indications has been
confirmed, quite strongly I would say, when the gospel according to Barnabas was discovered, in which he is very critical.
Paul speaks about him in a very, very critical way. Perhaps,
if I may, I can just read the introduction. I have a copy of the Gospel of Barnabas translated into English and see what he says about about Paul.
Notice the beginning, he says,
true gospel of Jesus called Christ and new Prophet, sent by God to the world.
Notice all that stuff is stated, according to the description of Barnabas his apostle.
And then he goes on to say,
Barnabas, apostle of Jesus, the Nazarene, called Christ, to all them that dwell upon the earth, desire, its peace and consolation. God, beloved, the great and wonderful God has during these past days visited us by His Prophet Jesus Christ, in great mercy of teaching Americans, by reason were of many, being deceived of Satan, under pretense of piety, or preaching most Empire’s doctrine, calling Jesus Son of God repudiating circumcision or dating of God forever, and permitting every unclean meat among whom also porn has been deceived. That’s what Barnabas says.
When I speak not without grief,
for which cause I am writing that truth, which I have seen and heard, in the intercourse that I have I have had with Jesus, in order that you may be saved, and not be deceived of Satan, and perish in the judgment of God.
Therefore, be aware of everyone that preaches unto you new doctrine, contrary to that, which is that you may be saved eternally The Great God be with you, and Gods you from Satan, and from every evil, amen.
That’s quite, quite revealing, you know that.
Unlike the book of actors, there is a very minor reason given for the split. That seems to be a very
revealing
indication that the difference or split between Paul and Barnabas were much, much deeper underneath perhaps to the issues of abduction.
Well, now, let’s let’s talk about the gospel.
When and where was it discovered?
Well, first of all, to trace the specific means not necessarily tracing on the way
the gospel was in the hand or found by one of the
advisors or counselors of the Kingdom of Austria.
In 1709, so that was very early in the 18th century and that was in Austria.
The that coffee was in Italian.
Subsequently, that advisors was named by the with Kramer,
je Kramer
against that copy of Barnabas as a gift to Prince Eugene of Savoy as a V or why.
Now, as subsequently that copy, along with the other library, other books in the library of Beth Prince
was transferred to the
the museum
in Vienna, in 1738, about the same time approximately the same time that is in the early 18th century. Another copy, another copy of the Gospel of Barnabas in Spanish, was also discovered. Now, as far as the Italian copy, it is still in the Imperial library in Vienna, Austria here is it sort of
the numbers
that appears on the document is just like a photocopy of the, of the
book, the title of it.
Now, this particular number
of the document,
was obtained from a booklet written on the subject
by Adam beard behind it’s called missing documents from the Gospel of Barnabas, which was published some use back in South Africa. And he says that this photocopy that I showed actually was obtained directly from the Imperial library. And in Vienna.
It was not, however, until 1907 that Lonsdale and Laura rag are a gg
translated that gospel into English.
In fact, I have also a sample here, or facsimile of the original, which was apparently as you can see, and written
copy of it.
In the translation by
nons, Bill and Laura grads, they have side by side,
senior living, but they have side by side service, the Italian
texts, putting in print instead of just handwriting, just translate better put it in print. And on the other side, we have the English translation.
Obviously, the publication of that gospel of that gospel is a great deal of discussions. I’m sure, we can expect that of course, and the religious hierarchy totally dismissed it as apocrypha, or even forgery.
I’m sure I must have created quite a quite a stir at the time. Now, is there any trace of this gospel before creamer found? Even before 1709? Yeah. In fact,
a famous Christian scholar by the name of George seal, who actually made the translation of the Quran mentioned in that introduction,
something more about the origin of the gospel. And he says that the original discover of actually a bad gospel was a Christian monk, by the name of Frank Marino, if ra Marino m er, info.
And he says that this took place in the later part of the 16th century,
perhaps around 1585 through 1590.
And that was obviously before Kramer discovered that in Austria, so that means that the, the gospel must have passed through a number of hands before the feast
trimmer in Austria.
According to since he said that this monk from Marino accidentally saw some works, or a book written by Iranian, the famous person who was regarded as heretical in the early church, who lived actually between 130 and 200.
Talking about the second century nearly
in that particular document, erroneous
speaks against the teaching of Paul. he opposes the ideas introduced by Paul. And he based his objections, by way of authority on the Gospel of Barnabas.
So that monk from arena became very curious. What is that gospel, the Gospel of Barnabas that Aeneas has been referring to a long time ago
it happened that once that monk, who was a very intimate friend of the remain reigning Pope at that time, Pope sixtus, the fire testified
that
he was visiting with him. And he was since he is a very close friend, intimate friend, he was sitting with the Pope, in the personal library, in a
library of the Pope.
And he said that while they were sitting there, and the pope fell asleep.
So for Marino, the monk in order to occupy himself,
tried to reach down for some book to read.
And to his pleasant surprise, the book that he held, was the gospel that he has been hoping to find and has been looking for the Gospel of Barnabas,
the, the monk could not
resist the temptation to hire that book in his sleeves.
And when the pope woke up, he simply took permission from him to believe that he’s leaving, and went out with with that treasures in his sleeve.
According to George, since he said that
he read the gospel, and discovering that it mentioned Prophet Mohammed by name, that is to come after Jesus, he actually embraced Islam. Again, I’d like to emphasize that this is the version or explanation of George says, I’m not saying this is mine. I’m not saying it’s right or wrong. But this is his historical case of the gospel prior to its finding in Austria, that it must have been in the Pope’s library.
But whatever the case may be, whether the story is right or wrong. The fact of the matter is that there is a physical evidence and existence that at least it can be traced to 1709 Italian coffee, and it’s still
in existence in the in the Royal Imperial library in Austria. That’s where we get these photos.
Now, it’s open for examination.
You few it was earlier that the church considered the Gospel of Barnabas as an apocryphal gospel. That’s interesting. And I’d like to ask you why is that
there isn’t why they consider it apocryphal or
unauthentic.
There are a number of reasons in fact, first of all, because the Christian Creed’s,
as we know it today,
seem to have been shaped largely by the teachings of Paul and his interpretation or understanding of Jesus peace be upon him,
perhaps much more so than the straight, simple words of Jesus Himself. I mean, if I look at it the
the New Testament has very little from the direct words of Jesus that is mostly the explanation of Paul who wrote almost half of the New Testament literature with Christian books. The simple teaching of Jesus was simply to invite people to repent and to worship. The one God that God Himself worship Jesus worship was just like all other silent prophets.
However, in his introduction to the to the gospel, as we have seen
mitten
before,
he was very critical of Paul Barnabas is very critical of Ford as we had seen, and that seems to give a more logical reason for the split and difference between these two important men.
The problem here is not only in Barnabas severe criticism
of Paul was regarded by many as the second founder of Christianity, it’s not even the main founder of Christianity.
Christianity that is based on the notion of Christ, or Christ the event then, historical Jesus Himself.
But the difference also is that the Gospel of Barnabas is very similar to the canonical gospels in many details in the stories
However, are significantly different, and some creedal aspects. And this difference is, I believe, are very important that
it could probably shed light on early Christianity, and how it developed and potentially even might provide answers to some pressing and important questions. First, that’s quite interesting.
going one step turn that maybe I’ll ask you to elaborate on that and specifically about similarities and the differences between the canonical Gospels and out of Barnabas. Okay, I’d like first of all to indicate that from the
quantitative standpoint, in terms of number of verses, we can say that the gospel according to the Gospel of Barnabas, is very much similar to the canonized gospels, especially with respect to the teaching of Jesus, his sermons, and spiritual teaching is many other spiritual, many other, sorry, historical details also, are very similar.
So that’s not necessarily a major issue.
But despite of the similarities of the general stories of what happened to Jesus and His mission, we find
at least three important differences.
First,
Barnabas does not speak about Jesus as either God or Son of God, but as a prophet, and messenger, a holy prophet and messenger of God. Remember, when we read the introduction, the very title of his gospel, he says, again, read
through gospel of Jesus called Christ and new Prophet, sent by that to the world, according to the description of Barnabas apostle, so that is quite revealing, and that’s consistent with his entire gospel, he speaks about Jesus as a prophet.
And as such, he considers all other
theological arguments that came later on, to define Jesus as something external or extraneous to the teaching of Jesus, something that was added on that was never taught by Jesus, perhaps I should give an illustration of that. In chapter 17,
of that gospel.
Chapter Seven, maybe if I did that, it might give some ideas. The chapters, by the way, are very short, usually about 20 pages or so.
And at the end of chapter 69, it describes how the Romans surgery
by the working Satan, he says, began to stir up the common people saying that Jesus was the God of Israel, who was come to visit his people from the beginning of chapter 17. In response to that, he says, Jesus departed from Jerusalem, after the Passover, and entered into the borders of Syria, Philippines, were upon the angel Gabrielle, having told him of this edition, which was beginning among the common people that still considering deity. He asked his disciples saying, What do men say of me?
They said, Some say that thou art Elijah, others, Jeremiah, and others, one of the odd prophets. Jesus answered, and he, what he says is, that I am, Peter answered, thou art Christ, Son of God.
Then was Jesus angry,
and with anger rebuked him, that rebuke Peter, saying, began, and depart from me, because thou art the devil, and seek is seeking to cause me offense.
And he threatened the 11 that’s the 11 disciples
saying, water you if he believed this, for I have one from God, a great purse against those who believe this and he was failing to cast a wage Peters were upon the 11. That’s the other relevant deceptions be so Jesus for him,
who cast him not away, but again rebuked him saying, beware, that never again. They’ll say such word. Because God would
reprobate, reprobate, the Peter wept, and said, Lord, I have spoken foolishly, beseech God, that He pardoned me. Then said Jesus is our God’s will not to show himself
To lose us seven, nor to Elijah, who is so loved north to any profit, we think that God should show himself to this faceless generation.
But no he not. That God has created all things of nothing with one single word, and all men have had their origin, out of a piece of clay. Now, how shall God have likeness to men, war to those who suffer themselves to be deceived, of Satan. And having said this, Jesus besought guards for Peters
and the 11 and Peters weeping, concealing Soviet, Soviet, all blessed Lord, our God. Afterwards, Jesus departed, and went into Galilee, in order that this vein opinion which this common folk began to hold, concerning him, might be extinguished,
says anything and it is indeed, a very powerful statements made by
by Barnabas, in which he seemed to negate any notion that Jesus accepted to be the fight or that he was the son of them. A second main difference is that in according to Barnabas, he says that Jesus was not crucified. But the one who was crucified in his place was Judas Iscariot to betrayed him. Now, the description of that is quite detailed, I cannot read it like chapter charity, because it appears in in about the several chapters nine of them, perhaps from
chapter 214 to 222. Instead of just giving a very brief summary of the events of crucifixion. First of all, he says that when the soldiers came to Jesus, the angels carried Jesus away. Then he said that Judas entered into the room where the 11 disciples were sleeping. And they said, at that time, God changed the face and speech of Judas. And he looked exactly like Jesus, to the point that when he was looking for Jesus and say, What is the Masters, the disciples were confounded by, so you are the master.
And then he says that when the soldiers took Judas, and then bound him, he protested that he is not Jesus. So they started to mock him and beat him up and talk to him mockingly, that we’re going to make you became a baseline. Perhaps we can stop at this point, because there are additional points perhaps that relates to the story of crucifixion. I’d like to both continue the summary and then next program and perhaps to give a few quotations.
Thank you very much, Doctor, by the way, and thank you all for joining us here in assignment focus. As always, your questions on Commerce would be most appreciated. Our phone number and address will be appearing on your screen. Hope to see you next week inshallah. From all of us.
