Jesus, Prophet of Islam - The Islamic Bulletin

122 Jesus, Prophet of Islam

It isinterestingto note that consistent with theobservationby Grabe
in Spicilegium Patrum, i, 302, Toland found that the 39th Baroccian
manuscript contains a fragment that is an Italian equivalent to the
Greek text. Thus Toland's conclusion was that the extant Italian
translation of the Gospel of Barnabas was identieal to the ancient
Gospel of Barnabas. In the same year, Reland in Dereligione Mahom­
medica (1718)discoveredthatthe Gospel also existed in Arabie and
Spanish.
Mr. Johnson's conclusions regarding all the various references
to the various versions of the Gospel of Barnabas are signifieant:

Grabe's knowledgeof a Greekversionof the Gospel and

its equivalence to the later Italian manuscript makes it

highly plausible that today's Gospel of Barnabas is in fact

the Evangelium Barnabae listed by the Sixth century

Gelasian Decretal and the Sixth or Seventh century Cod.

Barocc, 206's list of 60 books. 1 say,'highlyplausible'be­

cause no early Greek manuscript is known to be in ex­

istence today. However, it is equally certain that Chris­

tian claims that the Gospel ofBarnabas is a forgery of sorne

fifteenth or sixteenth century renegade Muslim, are sim­

ply vain attempts to dismiss a Gospel that strikes at the

heartofcontemporaryChristianchristol ogy. Paul in his

letter to the Corinthians admitted the centrality of this

doctrine to the entire body of Christian faith:

'Tell me, if Christ is preached as raised from the dead,

how is it that sorne of you say there is no resurrection of

the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, Christ

himself has not been raised. And if Christ has not been

raised, our preaching is void of content and your faith

is empty too. Indeed, we should then be exposed as false

witnesses of God, for we have borne witness before Him

that He raised up Christ ... ' (I Corinthians 15: 12-15).4

Clearly, if there is an early Greek or Hebrew copy of the Gospel of

Barnabas in existence somewhere, then a comparison between it

and the Italian translation would end the dispute as to the authen­

ticity and reliability of the Italian version once and for all.

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