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
[5] Dr. S. Yıldırım, Christianity according to the
Current Sources
[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,).
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