25 Ocak 2013 Cuma

The Gospels Matthew Mark Luke John Thomas Philip ...


The Gospels
Matthew Mark Luke John Thomas Philip ...




1.    New Testament: It is the name of the second part of The Bible which includes the holy texts of Christians. Although there are some differences in the sequence of the books in New Testament, all Christians accept the same text. All of the books of New Testament, the first official list of which was ascertained between 150 and 200 A.D., were originally written in Greek. Among the old manuscripts, John Rylands papyrus of 117 – 138 A.D. is displayed in Manchester J. R. University library, Bodmer papyruses of 200 – 250 A.D. are displayed in Library of Vatican, the codex which was found in a monastery in Mount Sinai by a scholar named Tischendorf in 1844 and the Mount Sinai codex of 350 A.D. are displayed in London Museum and Ephraim codex of 400 A.D. is displayed in Paris Public Library[1].

2.    The Evangel: According to Qur’an the Evangel, which means “good news”, is the name of the books which were sent to Jesus at a time in order to confirm “Torah” and to show him the right path[2]. However, it is not known exactly whether this divine inspiration was collected into a book or what had happened to it. It is accepted that Jesus did not want to make it dictated to his apostles because of historical facts or he did not have time to do this and current evangels (or Gospels) were written by his apostles or by the people who loved him.
There aren’t any exact or convincing evidences about “who the real author(s) was/were”, “with which language they were first written” or “what the first manuscripts included” in the gospels taking place in New Testament.[3] The Gospels which include information compiled from different sources instead of Jesus himself liken to the hadith books including the sayings of Prophet Muhammad. And some of the Muslim scholars think these gospels are more like Siyer/History books considering the way of compiling and they do not equate them with Qur’an or hadith books.[4]   
On the other hand Christians do not accept the fact that God sent a book to Jesus with the name of The Evangel. According to them “The Bible is Jesus himself and Jesus is the human form of God’s words.” Christians carry their thoughts even further and claim that Jesus is the human form of God after He came to Earth (incarnation). There are four gospels that could take place in New Testament, which are known as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Apart from these four gospels there are various gospels. However, during the First Council of Nicaea where thousands of delegates attended in 325 A.D. with the insisting of a minority these four gospels were elected to be authentic, and the others were declared as suspicious and apocryphal.
3.    Matthew: Matthew is one of the apostles who used to be a tax collector. It is rumoured that he was killed in Abyssinia where he went to evangelize after Jesus. The gospel with his name is said to be written for Jewish groups in Antioch by a Palestinian Christian in 70-75 A.D. He is careful about introducing Jesus as “the prophet who fulfils the prophecies in Old Testament”.    
                           
4.    Mark: He isn’t one of the apostles. He attended the first propaganda expeditions of Paul and Barnabas. It is said that he wrote his gospel first for non-Jewish groups with the help of the knowledge he learned from Peter. According to some Catholic ecclesiastics Mark is “an inexperienced author who cannot even form a sentence”.[5] The gospel of Mark is the shortest book of New Testament Books. It tells about the interest of people to Jesus instead of giving information about the birth and childhood of Jesus and His doctrines.[6]    
  
5.    Luke: He is known as the doctor of Paul and a non-Jewish friend of him. It is indicated that he was from a cultured family, he could speak Greek fluently and he wrote his gospel to someone named Theophilus.
According to Marcion, who is the son of a bishop, who lived in 2 A.D., and who was excommunicated as he believed in two Gods, one of which is a “punisher” and the other one is “compassionate” who sent Jesus and as he refused Old Testament, the most valid gospel can be considered as the Gospel of Luke.[7]  
6.    Synoptic: Because of the similarities between Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke they are called Synoptic Gospels in New Testament Literature. There are 330 same or similar sentences in these three gospels. 178 sentences in Mark and Matthew Gospels, 100 sentences in Matthew and Luke Gospels and 230 sentences in Matthew and Luke Gospels are similar.    

7.    John: It is accepted that he was the most favourite student of Jesus and he wrote his gospel in 65-90 A.D. in Ephesus. As it has sufistic / gnostic elements, Gospel of John is considered as different from others. However, it is stated that the last part of it was written by the church of Ephesus as its style did not match its time period.   
Moreover, it is also claimed that Gospel of John was written by Mary Magdalene (or Mary of Magdala) who was bond with Jesus at heart.[8] The three epistles in the New Testament and Revelation that takes place at the very end bear John’s name as well. In his epistles John declares that God is “love” and Jesus is “the son of God”.[9] He claims that believing in God is essential for human beings being accepted by God and their being able to cope with the difficulties of the world.  
In The Book of Revelation there are some bizarre expressions like “a scroll with seven seals”[10], “a lamb having seven horns and seven eyes”[11], “seven angels who had the seven trumpets”[12], “seven angels with seven plagues”[13], “seven bowls”[14], these expressions cannot be explained even by Christians at all. The fact that the Book of Revelation, which doesn’t take place in Syriac and Armenian translations of New Testament, was written by John is generally criticized.[15] 
8.    Gospels that don’t take place in New Testament: There are various Gospels that are announced as suspicious and apocryphal by Christians, like Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of Egyptians, Gospel of Jacob, Gospel of Peter, Gospel of Barnabas, Arabic and Syriac Gospels etc. Among these Gospels of Barnabas and Thomas were translated into Turkish.

9.    The Gospel of Barnabas: This is the gospel which is important for Muslims as it gives information about the prophet (Muhammad) who will come after Jesus. Gospel of Barnabas which was hidden by Christians for centuries was translated into English by two English scholars in the second half of the 20th century. Scholars like Anselmo Turmeda who converted into Islam and took the name of Abdullah-i Tercüman and Abdulahad David emphasized the importance of The Gospel of Barnabas in their works. On the other hand Christians claim that Gospel of Barnabas was written by a priest who converted into Islam towards the end of 16th century.[16]     
    
10.         The Gospel of Thomas: The 105th sentence of this book which is accepted as one of the suspicious and apocryphal gospels, which includes 114 sentences of Jesus and some of the sentences of which bear similarities with New Testament has a bizarre and immoral expression of “Jesus said that: one who knows both his father and mother is called child of a harlot”.[17]
    
11.         The Gospel of Philip: Just like The Gospel of Thomas it was found among the manuscripts of Nag Hammadi Kipti[18] which are considered as “the oldest Christian records” in Egypt in 1945. It was announced to be apocryphal by Christian authorities. The Gospel of Philip which was thought to be written by one of the apostles includes some sentences that are in accordance with Qur’an about the fact that Jesus didn’t die on the Cross, but he is thought to be dead. It gives information about the marriage of Jesus and Mary Magdalene and about their children and grandchildren.

Yusuf Ulucan
Translation: H. Neslihan Demiriz




[2] Al-Maidah (5):46
[4] Look: Dr. M. Hamidullah, Sacred Qur’an, Turkish translation, Introduction
[6] Look: The Bible, Mark, Turkish translation, Introduction part.
[7] . Dr. Y. Özemre, The Gospel of Thomas
[8] Y. Özemre, The Gospel of Thomas, page 34- quoted from Ramon J. Justino
[9] 1 John: 4/7 – 16, 5/ 9
[10] Revelation: 5/1 – 4 
[11] Revelation: 5/6
[12] Revelation: 8/6
[13] Revelation: 15/1
[14] Revelation: 16/1
[15] Look: Turkish Religious Foundation Encyclopaedia of Islam
[16] Thomas Michel, Introduction to Christian Theology
[17] The Gospel of Thomas 114 Hadith of Jesus translated by Yüksel Özemre
[18] Don Brown who criticized the attitude of Vatican about the manuscripts of Nag Hammadi Coptic says that: “…and of course there are Coptic manuscripts which were found in Nag Hammadi. These documents not only tell stories but also explain the prophethood of Jesus with human terms. Of course Vatican, who continue the tradition of misinformation, did its best to hide these documents. Why didn’t they do this? The manuscripts bring the historical mistakes and fabrication and prove the fact that the current Bible was falsified. They deified Jesus Christ and used his domination for their own sakes. (DaVinci Code,).