FINAL WARNING: The Curtain Falls
Matthew was put together about 85, and allegedly not by the disciple
Matthew. It was intended to be a revision of Mark, in order to put more
emphasis on the divine nature of Jesus, and borrowed references from
the Book of Joshua who referred to placing guards at a cave in which
he had five captured kings imprisoned, and having the cave sealed
with a huge stone. It also alluded to Daniel in the lion’s den, and how
he came out alive, when he applied the story to Jesus in regard to him
surviving the tomb. In Mark, Peter is quoted to have said to Jesus,
“Thou art the Christ,” and in Matthew, he is quoted to have said, “Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The disciples were told to
baptize “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost,” which it is alleged that Jesus could not have said, because it
actually represented a theological premise that didn’t occur till much
later.Barnabas, a follower of Jesus, uncle of Mark, and a companion of Paul,
who traveled around Palestine preaching the good news, wrote an
apocryphal book, known as the Gospel of Barnabas. It was accepted
as a canonical gospel in the Alexandrian churches until 325 AD, when
the Nicene Council ordered all copies of it to be destroyed, and anyone
who had it in there possession was to be put to death.In the 5th century, a copy, written in his own hand, was found lying on
his chest, in his tomb in Cyprus, which made its way into the library of
Pope Sixtus V (1585-1590) and was made available by a monk named
Frater Marino.Though there is no major deviation from the authorized gospels, one
subtle difference appeared in the Sermon on the Mount, which seems
to indicate that the account which in written in Matthew may have been
embellished, to make it sound better. Barnabas writes: ““Blessed are
they that mourn this earthly life, for they shall be comforted. Blessed
are the poor who truly hate the delights of the world, for they shall
abound in the delights of the Kingdom of God. Blessed are they that
eat at the table of God, for the angels shall minister unto them.”Polycarp, author of a letter to the Philippians, wrote about the first
three Gospels, but not the fourth, because it didn’t exist, and it wasn’t
mentioned until 180 by Theophilus of Antioch. John has come to be