110 Jesus, Prophet of Islam
This phenomenon of 'councils' meeting and passing 'official'
resolutions demonstrates just how far even 'orthodox' Christian
ity in Eastern Europe had departed from what Jesus had taught,
peace be on him. He himself had never resorted to this kind of
procedure, which was usually to be found solely within the courts
of rulers - for wisdom and debate are mutually incompatible!
In 387 AD, Jerome completed his famous Vulgate Bible. This was
the first Latin translation of sorne of the Scriptures which had been
translated into Greek from the Hebrew texts. It included what is
known today as the Old Testament. It was this Bible which became
the basis of all other Bibles translated into other languages, and
which was adopted by the Roman Catholic - and at a later stage by
the Protestant - Churches as their official canonical book. Once this
version had become established, all other Gospels and Scriptures
not included in [erome's selection were almost completely de
stroyed by these two Trinitarian Churches at one stage or another.
Thus all contact with the real Jesus continued to be gradually lost,
as the 'official' versionbecame more deeply and widely established.
Today, for example, relatively few Christians are aware of just
how many Gospels there used to be, or why they were destroyed.
Of those who are aware of this historical fact, most will explain it
away by stating that either these missing Gospels were written by
'heretics', or that they must have merely duplicated what is already
in the officially accepted Gospels, or that they must have been un
reliable for sorne other reason.
Furthermore, most Christians today are totally unaware of the
research which has been conducted, especially during the present
century, into the authenticity, accuracy and reliability of the con
tents ofthe Bible. Nothavingbeeninformedof the inescapablefind
ings and conclusions of that research, they will probably assert, in
direct contradiction of what the leaders of all the established
Churches must surely know by now, that the contents of the Bible
are 'the Word of God' - reliably translated into their own language
from authentic texts which accurately record the accounts written
by actual eyewitnesses. This, as Dr Maurice Bucaille points out in
his book, The Bible, the Qur'an and Science, is often because they
have been deliberately misled:
In editions of the Bible produced for widespread publi
cation, introductory notes more often than not set out ahttp://www.islamicbulletin.com