The Gospel of Barnabas 1255aid Jesus: 'It is written there that our God is every
where, and that there is not any other god but He, Who
strikes down and makes whole, and does all that pleases
Him.'
'50 it is written,' replied the priest.
Then Jesus, having lifted up his hands, said: 'Lord
our God, this is my faith wherewith 1shall come to Your
judgement: in testimony against every one that shall
believe the contrary.'
And turning himself towards the people, he said, 'Re
pent, for from all that of which the priest has said that it
is written in the book of Moses, the covenant of God for
ever, you may perceive your sin; for that 1 am a visible
man and a morsel of clay that walks upon the earth,
mortal as are other men. And 1 have had a beginning,
and shall have an end, and am such that 1cannot create
a fly over again.' (The Gospel of Barnabas: 95).The publicity which Toland gave to the Vienna manuscript made
it impossible for it to share the same fate as another manuscript of
the Gospel in 5panish which also once existed. This manuscript
was presented to a coHege library in England at about the same
time that the Italian manuscript was given to the Hofbibliothek. It
had not been in England long before it mysteriously disappeared.
The Italian manuscript was translated into English by Canon
Lonsdale and Laura Ragg, and was printed and published by the
Oxford University Press in 1907. Nearly the whole edition of this
English translation abruptly and mysteriously disappeared from
the market. Only two copies of this translation are known to exist,
one in the British Museum, and the other in the Library of Con
gress in Washington. A microfilm copy of the book in the Library
of Congress was obtained, and a fresh edition of the English trans
lation was printed in Pakistan. A copy of this edition was used for
the purposes of reprinting a revised version of the Gospel ofBarna
bas thereafter,
The new English edition, understandably, has caused the present
Christian Church a certain degree of irritation - for if the contents
of the Gospel of Barnabas are true, then it clearly foHows that most
of the versions of Christianity which exist today - and accordingly
the various Churches which promote them - do not have very firm
foundations