Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

112 Jesus, Prophet ofIslam

The value the authors of the Gospels have as eyewit­

nesses is always presented to the faithful as axiomatic.

In the middle of the Second century, Saint Justin did,

after all, call the Gospels the'Memoirs of the Apostles'.

There are moreover sa many details proclaimed concern­

ing the authors that it is a wonder that one could ever

doubt their accuraey; it is even said that they spokeAra­

maie and Greek. Matthew was a weU-known character,

'a customs officer employed at the tell-gate or customs

house at Capharnaum'; Mark is also easily identifiable

as Peter's colleague; there is no doubt that he too was

an eyewitness. Luke is the'dear physician' of whom Paul

talks: information on him is very precise. John is the

Apostle who was always near to Jesus, son of Zebedee,

fisherman on the Sea of Galilee.

Modern studies on the beginnings of Christianity

show that this way of presenting things hardly corre­

sponds to reality. We shall see who the authors of the

Gospels really were. As far as the decades following Je­

sus's mission are concemed, it must be understood that

events did not at all happen in the way they have been

said to have taken place and that Peter's arrival in Rome

in no way laid the foundations for the Church. On the

contrary, from the time Jesus left earth to the second half

of the Second Century, there was a struggle between two

factions. One was what one might call Pauline Christi­

anity and the other Judeo-Christianity. It was only very

slowly that the first supplanted the second, and Pauline

Christianity triumplfed over Judeo-Christianity. 31

Since, as a result of this 'triumph', the nature of the struggle itself
has been covered up by the Trinitarian Church - to the extentthat
most Christians are taught that Trinitarian Christians are 'true'
Christians, and that Unitarian Christians are misguided 'heretics',
whose beliefs should not even be considered under any circum­
stances - it would be helpful at this point to briefly consider the
origins, authenticity, accuraey and reliability of not only the New
Testament, but also of two of the early Scriptures which were con­
demned by the TrinitarianChurch, but which survived its attempts
to destroy them: The Gospel ofBarnabas and TheShepherd ofHermas.

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