Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

The Gospel of Barnabas 133

of the events recorded in these three Gospels are contained within
the Gospel of Barnabas -although, as has already been remarked,
there are sorne notable and deeply significant differences -which
is why, according to the Introductionto the Gospel ofBarnabas, Barna­
bas wrote his Gospel in the first place:

Dearly beloved, the great and wonderful God has dur­

ing these past days visited us by his Prophet Jesus Christ

in great mercy of teaching and miracles, by reason

whereof many, being deceived of Satan, under pretence

of piety, are preaching most impious doctrine, calling

Jesus son of God, repudiating the circumcision ordained

of God for ever, and permitling every unclean meat:

among whom also Paul has been deceived, whereof 1

speak not without grief; for which cause 1 am writing

that truth which 1have seen and heard, in the intercourse

that 1 have had with Jesus, in order that you may be

saved, and not deceived ofSatan and perish in the judge­

ment of God. Therefore beware of every one that

preaches unto you new doctrine contrary to that which

1 write, that you may be saved eternally.

The great God be with you and guard you from Sa­

tan and from every evil. Amen. (The Gospel of Barnabas).

If the Italian version of the Gospel of Barnabas is a faithful transla­
tion of an earlier manuscript which actually did contain what Barna­
bas originally wrote - and there is no way of conclusively 'prov­
ing' this, just as there is no way of conclusively 'proving' that the
contents of the four officially accepted Gospels which exist today
actually contain what their original authors in fact wrote - then it
does follow that the Gospel of Barnabas could weIl be the 'Q' Gos­
pel, the common source of the synoptic Gospels, although as yet
no one hasventuredtomakea verse by verse comparisonbetween
the contents of the Gospel of Barnabas and the contents of the four
official Gospels inorderto establish exact1ywhich verses areshared
and which verses are unique.
Ifthe Gospel of Barnabas is the 'Q' Gospel, and given the manner
in which Paulinian Christianity developed, it then makes it easier
to understand why not only the manuscripts of all the other Gos­
pels - which are known to have existed in the early years of Chris­
tianity and which were rejected at the Council of Nicea - were de­