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Chapter 2: Contradictions "Then
woe to those who write the book with their own hands and then say: 'This
is from Allah', to traffic with it for a miserable price. Woe to them
for what their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby"
The noble Qur'an Al-Bakarah(2):79 "And when there came to them a
messenger from Allah, Confirming what was with them, a party of the
people of the book threw away the book of Allah behind their backs as if
(it had been something) they did not know" The noble Qur'an Al-Bakarah(2):101 "Ye shall not add unto the word
which I (God) command you, neither shall ye diminish [ought] from it,
that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command
you." Deuteronomy
4:2 2.1
Christian scholars recognize contradictions p1 (note:
Many of the following quotations were obtained from the writings of
Ahmed Deedat although many other sources were used as well) Let
us start from the beginning. No Biblical scholar on this earth will
claim that the Bible was written by Jesus himself. They all agree that
the Bible was written after the departure of Jesus peace be upon him by
his followers. Dr. W Graham Scroggie of the Moody Bible Institute,
Chicago, a prestigious Christian evangelical mission, says: "..Yes, the Bible is human,
although some out of zeal which is not according to knowledge, have
denied this. Those books have passed through the minds of men, are
written in the language of men, were penned by the hands of men and bear
in their style the characteristics of men...."
"It is Human, Yet Divine," W
Graham Scroggie, p. 17 Another Christian scholar, Kenneth Cragg,
the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, says: "...Not so the New
testament...There is condensation and editing; there is choice
reproduction and witness. The Gospels have come through the mind of the
church behind the authors. They represent experience and
history..." "The Call of the Minaret,"
Kenneth Cragg, p 277 "It is well known that the
primitive Christian Gospel was initially transmitted by word of mouth
and that this oral tradition resulted in variant reporting of word and
deed. It is equally true that when the Christian record was committed to
writing it continued to be the subject of verbal variation. Involuntary
and intentional, at the hands of scribes and editors"
Peake's Commentary on the Bible, p. 633 "Yet, as a matter of fact, every
book of the New Testament with the exception of the four great Epistles
of St. Paul is at present more or less the subject of controversy, and
interpolations are asserted even in these." Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 12th Ed. Vol. 3,
p. 643 Dr. Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin Von
Tischendorf, one of the most adamant conservative Christian defenders of
the Trinity was himself driven to admit that: "[the New Testament had] in many
passages undergone such serious modification of meaning as to leave us
in painful uncertainty as to what the Apostles had actually
written" Secrets of Mount Sinai, James Bentley, p.
117 After listing many examples of
contradictory statements in the Bible, Dr. Frederic Kenyon says: "Besides the larger discrepancies,
such as these, there is scarcely a verse in which there is not some
variation of phrase in some copies [of the ancient manuscripts from
which the Bible has been collected]. No one can say that these additions
or omissions or alterations are matters of mere indifference"
Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, Dr.
Frederic Kenyon, Eyre and Spottiswoode, p. 3 Throughout this book you will find
countless other similar quotations from some of Christendom's leading
scholars. Let us suffice with these for now. Christians are, in general, good and decent
people, and the stronger their convictions the more decent they are.
This is attested to in the noble Qur'an: "...and nearest among them (men) in
love to the believers will you find those who say 'we are Christians':
because amongst these are men devoted to learning and men who have
renounced the world, and they are not arrogant. And when they listen to
the revelation received by the messenger (Muhammad), you will see their
eyes overflowing with tears for they recognize the truth: They pray:
'Our Lord! we believe; write us down among the witnesses'." The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):82-83. All biblical "versions" of the
Bible prior to the revised version of 1881 were dependent upon the
"Ancient Copies" (those dating between five to six hundred
years after Jesus). The revisers of the Revised Standard Version (RSV)
1952 were the first biblical scholars to have access to the "MOST
ancient copies" which date fully three to four hundred years after
Christ. It is only logical for us to concur that the closer a document
is to the source the more authentic it is. Let us see what is the
opinion of Christendom with regard to the most revised version of the
Bible (revised in 1952 and then again in 1971): "The finest version which has been
produced in the present century" - (Church of England newspaper) "A completely fresh translation by
scholars of the highest eminence" - (Times literary supplement) "The well loved characteristics of
the authorized version combined with a new accuracy of translation"
- (Life and Work) "The most accurate and close
rendering of the original" - (The Times) The publishers themselves (Collins) mention
on page 10 of their notes: "This Bible (RSV) is the product of
thirty two scholars assisted by an advisory committee representing fifty
cooperating denominations" Let us see what these thirty two
Christian scholars of the highest eminence backed by fifty
cooperating Christian denominations have to say about the Authorized
Version (AV), or as it is better known, the King James Version (KJV). In
the preface of the RSV 1971 we find the following: "...Yet the King James Version has
GRAVE DEFECTS.." They go on to caution us that: "...That these defects are SO MANY
AND SO SERIOUS as to call for revision" The Jehovah's Witnesses in their
"AWAKE" Magazine dated 8th September 1957 published
the following headline: "50,000 Errors in the Bible"
wherein they say "..there are probably 50,000 errors in the
Bible...errors which have crept into the Bible text...50,000 such
serious errors..." After all of this, however, they go on to
say: "...as a whole the Bible is accurate." Let us have
a look at only a very few of these errors. In John 3:16 - AV(KJV) we read: "For God so loved the world, that
he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should
not perish, but have everlasting life.." But as seen in section 1.2.3.10, this
fabrication "begotten" has now been unceremoniously
excised by these most eminent of Bible revisers. However, humanity did
not have to wait 2000 years for this revelation. In Maryam(19):88-98 of the noble Qur'an we
read: "And they say 'Allah Most
Compassionate has begotten a son!'. Indeed you have put forth a thing
most monstrous! The skies are ready to burst (at such a claim), and the
earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin.
That they should ascribe a son to the Most Compassionate. But it is not
befitting [the majesty of] the Most Compassionate that He should beget a
son. Not one of the beings in the heavens and the earth but must come to
the Most Compassionate as a servant. He has taken account of all of them
and has numbered them all exactly. And every one of them will come to
him singly on the day of judgment. On those who believe and work deeds
of righteousness, will Allah most gracious bestow love. Verily, We have
made this [Qur'an] easy in your tongue [O Muhammad] that you might
deliver glad tidings to those who seek refuge [in Allah] and warn with
it a people who are contentious. And how many a generation before them
have we destroyed! Can you find a single one of them or hear from them
so much as a whisper?" In 1st Epistle of John 5:7 (King James
Version) we find: "For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are one." As we have already seen in section 1.2.2.5,
this verse is the closest approximation to what the Church calls the
holy Trinity. However, as seen in that section, this cornerstone of the
Christian faith has also been scrapped from the RSV by the same thirty
two Christian scholars of the highest eminence backed by fifty
cooperating Christian denominations, once again all according to the
"most ancient manuscripts." And once again, we find that the
noble Qur'an revealed this truth over fourteen hundred years ago: "O people of the book! commit no
excesses in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but the truth. Christ
Jesus the son of Mary was (no more than) a Messenger of Allah, and his
Word, which he bestowed upon Mary, and a spirit preceding from him so
believe in Allah and his messengers. Say not "Three" desist It
will be better for you for Allah is one God Glory be to him Far exalted
is he above having a son. To him belong all things in the heavens and
the earth. And enough is Allah as a disposer of affairs." The noble Qur'an, Al-Nissa(4):171 Prior to 1952 all versions of the Bible
made mention of one of the most miraculous events associated with the
prophet Jesus peace be upon him, that of his ascension into heaven: "So then the lord Jesus, after he
had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right
hand of God" Mark 16:19 and once again in Luke: "While he blessed them, he parted
from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and
returned to Jerusalem with great joy." Luke 24:51-52 In the 1952 RSV Mark 16 ends at verse 8 and
the rest is relegated in small print to a footnote (more on this later).
Similarly, in the commentary on the verses of Luke 24, we are told in
the footnotes of the NRSV Bible "Other ancient authorities lack "and
was carried up into heaven'" and "Other ancient
authorities lack 'and worshipped him'". Thus, we see
that the verse of Luke in it's original form only said: "While he blessed them, he parted
from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy." It took
centuries of "inspired correction" to give us Luke 24:51-52 in
their current form. As another example, in Luke 24:1-7 we read:
"Now upon the first day of the
week, very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing
the spices which they had prepared, and certain others with them. And
they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. And they entered
in, and found not the body of the Lord Jesus. And it came to pass, as
they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in
shining garments: And as they were afraid, and bowed down their faces to
the earth, they said unto them, Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen: remember how he spake unto you when he was
yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of man must be delivered into the hands
of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again." Once again, in reference to verse 5, the
footnotes say: "Other ancient authorities lack 'He is not
here but has risen'" Also, please read entries 16 and 17 in
the table in section 2.2. The examples are far too numerous to list
here, however, you are encouraged to obtain a copy of the New Revised
Standard Version of the Bible for yourself and scan through the four
gospels. You shall be hard pressed to find even two consecutive pages
that do not contain the words "Other ancient authorities
lack..." or "Other ancient authorities add..."
etc. in the footnotes.. Let us now talk about the alleged authors
of the New Testament. We will note that every Gospel begins with the
introduction "According to....." such as "The Gospel
according to Saint Matthew," "The Gospel according to Saint
Luke," "The Gospel according to Saint Mark," "The
Gospel according to Saint John." The obvious conclusion for the
average man on the street is that these people are known to be the
authors of the books attributed to them. This, however is not the case.
Why? Because not one of the vaunted four thousand copies existent
carries it's author's signature. It has just been assumed that they were
the authors. Recent discoveries, however, refute this belief. Even the
internal evidence proves that, for instance, Matthew did not write the
Gospel attributed to him: "...And as Jesus passed forth
thence, HE (Jesus) saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of
custom: and HE (Jesus) saith unto HIM (Matthew), follow ME (Jesus) and
HE (Matthew) arose, and followed HIM (Jesus)." Matthew 9:9 It does not take a rocket scientist to see
that neither Jesus nor Matthew wrote this verse of "Matthew."
Such evidence can be found in many places throughout the New Testament.
Although many people have hypothesized that it is possible that an
author sometimes may write in the third person, still, in light of the
rest of the evidence that we shall see throughout this book, there is
simply too much evidence against this hypothesis. This observation is by no means limited to
the New Testament. There is even proof that at least parts of
Deuteronomy were neither written by God nor by Moses. This can be seen
in Deuteronomy 34:5-10 where we read "So Moses....DIED... and he (God
Almighty) BURIED HIM (Moses)... He was 120 years old WHEN HE DIED... and
there arose not a prophet SINCE in Israel like unto Moses...." Did Moses write his own obituary? Joshua
also speaks in detail about his own death in Joshua 24:29-33. The
evidence overwhelmingly supports the current recognition that most of
the books of the Bible were not written by their supposed authors. The authors of the RSV by Collins say that
the author of "Kings" is "Unknown." If they knew it
to be the word of God they would have undoubtedly attributed it to him.
Rather, they have chosen to honestly say "Author....Unknown."
But if the author is unknown then why attribute it to God? How can it
then be claimed to have been "inspired"? Continuing, we read
that the book of Isaiah is "Mainly credited to Isaiah. Parts may
have been written by others." Ecclesiastics: "Author.
Doubtful, but commonly assigned to Solomon." Ruth: "Author.
Not definitely known, perhaps Samuel." and on and on. Let us have a slightly more detailed look
at only one book of the New Testament: "The author of the Book of Hebrews
is unknown. Martin Luther suggested that Apollos was the author...Tertullian
said that Hebrews was a letter of Barnabas...Adolf Harnack and J. Rendel
Harris speculated that it was written by Priscilla (or Prisca). William
Ramsey suggested that it was done by Philip. However, the traditional
position is that the Apostle Paul wrote Hebrews...Eusebius believed that
Paul wrote it, but Origen was not positive of Pauline authorship." From the introduction to the King James
Bible, New revised and updated sixth edition, the Hebrew/Greek Key
Study, Red Letter Edition Is this how we define "inspired by
God"? As seen in chapter one, St. Paul and his
church after him, were responsible of making wholesale changes to the
religion of Jesus (pbuh) after his departure and were further
responsible for mounting a massive campaign of death and torture of all
Christians who refused to renounce the teachings of the apostles in
favor of the Pauline doctrines. All but the Gospels acceptable to the
Pauline faith were then systematically destroyed or re-written. Rev.
Charles Anderson Scott has the following to say: "It is highly probable that not one
of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) was in existence in
the form which we have it, prior to the death of Paul. And were the
documents to be taken in strict order of chronology, the Pauline
Epistles would come before the synoptic Gospels."
History of Christianity in the Light of
Modern Knowledge, Rev. Charles Anderson Scott, p.338 This statement is further confirmed by
Prof. Brandon: "The earliest Christian writings
that have been preserved for us are the letters of the apostle
Paul" "Religions in Ancient History,"
S.G.F. Brandon, p. 228. In the latter part of the second century,
Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth says: "As the brethren desired me to
write epistles(letters), I did so, and these the apostles of the devil
have filled with tares (undesirable elements), exchanging some things
and adding others, for whom there is a woe reserved. It is not
therefore, a matter of wonder if some have also attempted to adulterate
the sacred writings of the Lord, since they have attempted the same in
other works that are not to be compared with these." The Qur'an confirms this with the words: "Then woe to those who write the
book (of Allah/God) with their own hands and then say: 'This is from
Allah', to traffic with it for a miserable price. Woe to them for what
their hands do write and for the gain they make thereby" The noble Qur'an Al-Bakarah(2):79 Victor Tununensis, a sixth century African
Bishop related in his Chronicle (566 AD) that when Messala was consul at
Costantinople (506 AD), he "censored and corrected" the
Gentile Gospels written by persons considered illiterate by the Emperor
Anastasius. The implication was that they were altered to conform to
sixth century Christianity which differed from the Christianity of
previous centuries (The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gospel of Barnabas, and
the New Testament, by M. A. Yusseff, p. 81) These "corrections" were by no
means confined to the first centuries after Christ. Sir Higgins says: "It is impossible to deny that the
Bendictine Monks of St. Maur, as far as Latin and Greek language went,
were very learned and talented, as well as numerous body of men. In
Cleland's 'Life of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury', is the following
passage: 'Lanfranc, a Benedictine Monk, Archbishop of Canterbury, having
found the Scriptures much corrupted by copyists, applied himself to
correct them, as also the writings of the fathers, agreeably to the
orthodox faith, secundum fidem orthodoxam."
History of Christianity in the light of
Modern knowledge, Higgins p.318 In other words, the Christian scriptures
were re-written in order to conform to the doctrines of the eleventh and
twelfth centuries and even the writings of the early church fathers were
"corrected" so that the changes would not be discovered. Sir
Higgins goes on to say: "The same Protestant divine has
this remarkable passage: 'Impartiality exacts from me the confession,
that the orthodox have in some places altered the Gospels." The author then goes on to demonstrate how
a massive effort was undertaken in Costantinople, Rome, Canterbury, and
the Christian world in general in order to "correct" the
Gospels and destroy all manuscripts before this period. Theodore Zahan, illustrated the bitter
conflicts within the established churches in Articles of the
Apostolic Creed. He points out that the Roman Catholics accuse the
Greek Orthodox Church of remodeling the text of the holy scriptures by
additions and omissions with both good as well as evil intentions. The
Greek Orthodox, on the other hand, accuse the Roman Catholics of
straying in many places very far away from the original text. In spite
of their differences, they both join forces to condemn the
non-conformist Christians of deviating from "the true way" and
condemn them as heretics. The heretics in turn condemn the Catholics for
having "recoined the truth like forgers." The author
concludes "Do not facts support these accusations?" "And from those who said: "We
are Christians," We took their Covenant, but they forgot a good
part of the message which was sent to them. Therefore We have stirred up
enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, and Allah
will inform them of what they used to do. O people of the Scripture! Now
has Our messenger (Muhammad) come to you, explaining to you much of that
which you used to hide in the Scripture, and forgiving much. Indeed,
there has come to you a light from Allah and a plain Scripture.
Wherewith Allah guides him who seeks His good pleasure unto paths of
peace. He brings them out of darkness by His will into light, and guides
them to a straight path. They indeed have disbelieved who say: Lo! Allah
is the Messiah, son of Mary. Say: Who then has the least power against
Allah, if He had willed to destroy the Messiah son of Mary, and his
mother and everyone on earth? And to Allah belongs the dominion of the
heavens and the earth and all that is between them. He creates what He
will. And Allah is Able to do all things. The Jews and Christians say:
We are sons of Allah and His loved ones. Say; Why then does He punish
you for your sins? No, you are but mortals of His creating. He forgives
whom He will, and punishes whom He will. And to Allah belongs the
dominion of the heavens and the earth and all that is between them, and
unto Him is the return (of all). O people of the Scripture! Now has Our
messenger (Muhammad) come unto you to make things plain after a break in
(the series of) the messengers, lest you should say: There came not unto
us a messenger of cheer nor any Warner. Now has a messenger of cheer and
a Warner come unto you. And Allah is Able to do all things." The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):14-19 St. Augustine himself, a man acknowledged
and looked up to by both Protestants and Catholics alike, professed that
there were secret doctrines in the Christian religion and that "there were many things true in the
Christian religion which it was not convenient for the vulgar to know,
and that some things were false, but convenient for the vulgar to
believe in them." Sir Higgins admits: "It is not unfair to suppose that in
these withheld truths we have part of the modern Christian mysteries,
and I think it will hardly be denied that the church, whose highest
authorities held such doctrines, would not scruple to retouch the sacred
writings" (The Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gospel of Barnabas, and the
New Testament, M. A. Yusseff, p.83) Even the epistles attributed to Paul were
not written by him. After years of research, Catholics and Protestants
alike agree that of the thirteen epistles attributed to Paul only seven
are genuinely his. They are: Romans, 1, 2 Corinthians, Galatians,
Philipians, Philemon, and 1 Thessalonians. Christian sect are not even agreed on the
definition of what exactly is an "inspired" book of God. The
Protestants are taught that there are 66 truly "inspired"
books in the Bible, while the Catholics have been taught that there are
73 truly "inspired" books, not to mention the many other sects
and their "newer" books, such as the Mormons, etc. As we shall
see shortly, the very first Christians, for many generations, did not
follow either the 66 books of the Protestants, nor the 73 books of the
Catholics. Quite the opposite, they believed in books that were, many
generations later, "recognized" to be fabrications and
apocrypha by a more enlightened age than that of the apostles. Well, where do all of these Bibles come
from and why the difficulty in defining what is a truly
"inspired" word of God? They come from the "ancient
manuscripts" (also known as MSS). The Christian world today boasts
of an excess of 24,000 "ancient manuscripts" of the Bible
dating all the way back to the fourth century after Christ (But not back
to Christ or the apostles themselves). In other words, we have with us
gospels which date back to the century when the Trinitarians took over
the Christian Church. All manuscripts from before this period have
strangely perished. All Bibles in existence today are compiled from
these "ancient manuscripts." Any scholar of the Bible will
tell us that no two ancient manuscripts are exactly identical. People today generally believe that there
is only ONE Bible, and ONE version of any given verse of the Bible. This
is far from true. All Bibles in our possession today (Such as the KJV,
the NRSV, the NAB, NIV,...etc.) are the result of extensive cutting and
pasting from these various manuscripts with no single one being the
definitive reference. There are countless cases where a paragraph
shows up in one "ancient manuscript" but is totally missing
from many others. For instance, Mark 16:8-20 (twelve whole verses) is
completely missing from the most ancient manuscripts available today
(such as the Sinaitic Manuscript, the Vatican #1209 and the Armenian
version) but shows up in more recent "ancient
manuscripts." There are also many documented cases where even
geographical locations are completely different from one ancient
manuscript to the next. For instance, in the "Samaritan Pentateuch
manuscript," Deuteronomy 27:4 speaks of "mount Gerizim,"
while in the "Hebrew manuscript" the exact same verse
speaks of "mount Ebal." From Deuteronomy 27:12-13 we can see
that these are two distinctly different locations. Similarly, Luke 4:44
in some "ancient manuscripts" mentions "Synagogues of
Judea," others mention "Synagogues of Galilee." This is
only a sampling, a comprehensive listing would require a book of it's
own. There are countless examples in the Bible
where verses of a questionable nature are included in the text without
any disclaimer telling the reader that many scholars and translators
have serious reservations as to their authenticity. The King James
Version of the Bible (Also known as the "Authorized Version"),
the one in the hands of the majority of Christendom today, is one of the
most notorious in this regard. It gives the reader absolutely no clue as
to the questionable nature of such verses. However, more recent
translations of the Bible are now beginning to be a little more honest
and forthcoming in this regard. For example, the New Revised Standard
Version of the Bible, by Oxford Press, has adopted an extremely subtle
system of bracketing the most glaring examples of such questionable
verses with double square brackets ([[ ]]). It is highly unlikely that
the casual reader will realize the true function these brackets serve.
They are there to tell the informed reader that the enclosed verses are
of a highly questionable nature. Examples of this are the story of the
"woman taken in adultery" in John 8:1-11, as well as Mark
16:9-20 (Jesus' resurrection and return), and Luke 23:34 (which,
interestingly enough, is there to confirm the prophesy of Isaiah
53:12).....and so forth. For example, with regard to John 8:1-11,
the commentators of this Bible say in very small print at the bottom of
the page: "The most ancient authorities lack
7.53-8.11; other authorities add the passage here or after 7.36 or after
21.25 or after Luke 21.38 with variations of text; some mark the text as
doubtful." (emphasis added). With regard to Mark 16:9-20, we are,
strangely enough, given a choice of how we would like the Gospel
of Mark to end. The commentators have supplied both a "short
ending" and a "long ending." Thus, we are given a choice
of what we would prefer to be the "inspired word of God". Once
again, at the end of this Gospel in very small text, the commentators
say: "Some of the most ancient
authorities bring the book to a close at the end of verse 8. One
authority concludes the book with the shorter ending; others include the
shorter ending and then continue with verses 9-20. In most authorities,
verses 9-20 follow immediately after verse 8, though in some of these
authorities the passage is marked as being doubtful." Peake's Commentary on the Bible records; "It is now generally agreed that
9-20 are not an original part of Mk. They are not found in the oldest
MSS, and indeed were apparently not in the copies used by Mt. and Lk. A
10th-cent. Armenian MS ascribes the passage to Aristion, the presbyter
mentioned by Papias (ap.Eus.HE III, xxxix, 15)." "Indeed an Armenian translation of
St. Mark has quite recently been discovered, in which the last twelve
verses of St. Mark are ascribed to Ariston, who is otherwise known as
one of the earliest of the Christian Fathers; and it is quite possible
that this tradition is correct" Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, F.
Kenyon, Eyre and Spottiswoode, pp. 7-8 Even at that, these verses are noted as
having been narrated differently in different "authorities."
For example, verse 14 is claimed by the commentators to have the
following words added on to them in some "ancient
authorities": "and they excused themselves saying
'This age of lawlessness and unbelief is under Satan, who does not allow
the truth and power of God to prevail over the unclean things of the
spirits. Therefore, reveal your righteousness now' - thus they spoke to
Christ and Christ replied to them 'The term of years of Satan's power
has been fulfilled, but other terrible things draw near. And for those
who have sinned I was handed over to death, that they may return to the
truth and sin no more, that they may inherit the spiritual and
imperishable glory of the righteousness that is in heaven'.". Dr. Lobegott Friedrich Konstantin Von
Tischendorf was one of the most eminent conservative biblical scholars
of the nineteenth century. He was also one of the staunchest most
adamant defenders of the "Trinity" history has known. One of
his greatest lifelong achievements was the discovery of the oldest known
Biblical manuscript know to mankind, the "Codex Sinaiticus,"
from Saint Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai. One of the most
devastating discoveries made from the study of this fourth century
manuscript was that the gospel of Mark originally ended at verses 16:8
and not at verse 16:20 as it does today. In other words, the last 12
verses (Mark 16:9 through Mark 16:20) were "injected" by the
church into the Bible sometime after the 4th century. Clement of
Alexandria and Origen never quoted these verses. Later on, it was also
discovered that the said 12 verses, wherein lies the account of
"the resurrection of Jesus," do not appear in codices
Syriacus, Vaticanus and Bobiensis. Originally, the "Gospel of
Mark" contained no mention of the "resurrection of
Jesus" (Mark 16:9-20). At least four hundred years (if not
more) after the departure of Jesus, the Church received divine
"inspiration" to add the story of the resurrection to the end
of this Gospel. The author of "Codex Sinaiticus"
had no doubt that the Gospel of Mark came to an end at Mark 16:8, to
emphasize this point we find that immediately following this verse he
brings the text to a close with a fine artistic squiggle and the words
"The Gospel according to Mark." Tischendorf was a staunch
conservative Christian and as such he managed to casually brush this
discrepancy aside since in his estimation the fact that Mark was not an
apostle nor an eye witness to the ministry of Jesus made his account
secondary to those of the apostles such as Matthew and John. However, as
seen elsewhere in this book, the majority of Christian scholars today
recognize the writings of Paul to be the oldest of the writings of the
Bible. These are closely followed by the "Gospel of Mark" and
the "Gospels of Matthew and Luke" are almost universally
recognized to have been based upon the "Gospel of Mark." This
discovery was the result of centuries of detailed and painstaking
studies by these Christian scholars and the details can not be repeated
here. Suffice it to say that most reputable Christian scholars today
recognize this as a basic indisputable fact. Today, the translators and publishers of
our modern Bibles are beginning to be a little more forthright and
honest with their readers. Although they may not simply openly admit
that these twelve verses were forgeries of the Church and not the word
of God, still, at least they are beginning to draw the reader's
attention to the fact that there are two "versions" of the
"Gospel of Mark" and then leave the reader to decide what to
make of these two "versions." Now the question becomes "if the
Church has tampered with the Gospel of Mark, then did they stop there or
is there more to this story?. As it happens, Tischendorf also discovered
that the "Gospel of John" has been heavily reworked by the
Church over the ages. For example,
(For more on this topic please read
'Secrets of Mount Sinai' by James Bentley, Doubleday, NY, 1985). Much of the discoveries of Dr. Tischendorf
regarding the continuous and unrelenting tampering with the text of the
Bible over the ages has been verified by twentieth century science. For
example, a study of the Codex Sinaiticus under ultraviolet light has
revealed that the "Gospel of John" originally ended at verse
21:24 and was followed by a small tail piece and then the words
"The Gospel according to John." However, some time later, a
completely different "inspired" individual took pen in hand,
erased the text following verse 24, and then added in the
"inspired" text of John 21:25 which we find in our Bibles
today. The evidence of tampering goes on and on.
For example, in the Codex Sinaiticus the "lord's prayer" of
Luke 11:2-4 differs substantially from the version which has reached us
through the agency of centuries of "inspired" correction. Luke
11:2-4 in this most ancient of all Christian manuscripts reads: "Father, Hallowed by thy name, Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon earth. Give us day
by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, as we ourselves also
forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And bring us not into
temptation." Further, the "Codex Vaticanus,"
is another ancient manuscript held by the scholars of Christianity in
the same reverent standing as the Codex Sinaiticus. These two fourth
century codices are together considered the most ancient copies of the
Bible available today. In the codex Vaticanus we can find a version of
Luke 11:2-4 even shorter than that of Codex Sinaiticus. In this version
even the words "Thy will be done, as in heaven, so upon
earth." are not to be found. Well, what has been the official Church
position regarding these "discrepancies"? How did the Church
decide to handle this situation? Did they call upon all of the foremost
scholars of Christian literature to come together in a mass conference
in order to jointly study the most ancient Christian manuscripts
available to the Church and come to a common agreement as to what was
the true original word of God? No! Well then, did they immediately expend
every effort to make mass copies of the original manuscripts and send
them out to the Christian world so that they could make their own
decisions as to what truly was the original unchanged word of God? Once
again, No! So what did they do? Let us ask Rev. Dr.
George L. Robertson. In his book "Where did we get our Bible? he
writes: "Of the MSS. of Holy Scripture in
Greek still existing there are said to be several thousand of varying
worth ... Three or four in particular of these old, faded out, and
unattractive documents constitute the most ancient and the most precious
treasures of the Christian Church, and are therefore of special
interest." First in Rev.
Richardson's list is the "Codex Vaticanus" of which he says: "This
is probably the most ancient of all Greek MSS. now known to exist. It is
designated as Codex 'B.' In 1448, Pope Nicholas V brought it to Rome
where it has lain practically ever since, being guarded assiduously by
papal officials in the Vatican Library. It's history is brief: Erasmus
in 1533 knew of its existence, but neither he nor any of his successors
were permitted to study it... becoming quite inaccessible to scholars,
till Tischendorf in 1843, after months of delay, was finally allowed to
see it for six hours. Another specialist, named de Muralt in 1844 was
likewise given an aggravating glimpse of it for nine hours. The story of
how Dr. Tregelles in 1845 was allowed by the authorities (all
unconscious to themselves) to secure it page by page through memorizing
the text, is a fascinating one. Dr. Tregelles did it. He was permitted
to study the MS. continuously for a long time, but not to touch it or to
take notes. Indeed, every day as he entered the room where the precious
document was guarded, his pockets were searched and pen, paper and ink
were taken from him, if he carried such accessories with him. The
permission to enter, however, was repeated, until he finally had carried
away with him and annotated in his room most of the principle variant
readings of this most ancient text. Often, however, in the process, if
the papal authorities observed he was becoming too much absorbed in any
one section, they would snatch the MS. away from him and direct his
attention to another leaf. Eventually they discovered that Tregelles had
practically stolen the text, and that the Biblical world knew the
secrets of their historic MS. Accordingly, Pope Pius IX ordered that it
should be photographed and published; and it was, in five volumes which
appeared in 1857. But the work was very unsatisfactorily done. About
that time Tischendorf made a third attempt to gain access to and examine
it. He succeeded, and later issued the text of the first twenty pages.
Finally in 1889-90, with papal permission, the entire text was
photographed and issued in facsimile, and published so that a copy of
the expensive quartos was obtainable by, and is now in the possession of
all the principle libraries in the biblical world." "Where did we get our Bible?",
Rev. Dr. George L. Robertson. Harper and Brothers Publishers, pp.110-112
What were all of the Popes afraid of? What
was the Vatican as a whole afraid of? Why was the concept of releasing
the text of their most ancient copy of the Bible to the general public
so terrifying to them? Why did they feel it necessary to bury the most
ancient copies of the inspired word of God in a dark corner of the
Vatican never to be seen by outside eyes? Why? What about all of the
thousands upon thousands of other manuscripts which to this day remain
buried in the darkest depths of the Vatican vaults never to be seen or
studied by the general masses of Christendom? "[And remember] When God took a
Covenant from those who were given the Scripture: You shall make it
known and clear to mankind, and you shall not to hide it; but they flung
it behind their backs, and purchased with it a miserable gain! How evil
was that which they purchased!"
The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):187 "Say: 'O people of the Book! exceed
not in your religion the bounds [of what is proper], trespassing beyond
the truth, nor follow the vain desires of people who went astray in
times gone by, who misled many, and strayed [themselves] from the
straight path.'" The noble Qur'an, Al-Maida(5):77 Returning to our study of some of the
"discrepancies" to be found between our modern Bibles and
between the most ancient copies of the Bible available to the chosen
few, we find that the verse of Luke 24:51 contains Luke's alleged
account of the final parting of Jesus (pbuh) and how he was "raised
up into heaven." However, as seen in previous pages, in the Codex
Sinaiticus and other ancient manuscripts the words "and was
carried up into heaven" are completely missing. The verse only
says: "And it came to pass, while he
blessed them, he was parted from them." C.S.C. Williams observed, if this omission
were correct, "there is no reference at all to the Ascension in
the original text of the Gospel." Some other "inspired"
modification of the Church to Codex Sinaiticus and our modern Bibles:
2.2
A small sampling of these contradictions p1
"And
the chief priests and all the council sought for witness against Jesus
to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against
him, but their witness agreed not together. And there arose certain, and
bare false witness against him, saying, We heard him say, I will destroy
this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build
another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree
together." Mark 14:56-59 Christian scholars have known, recognized,
and documented the many and varied contradictions to be found in the
Bible for centuries now. These contradictions are a direct result of the
continuous and unrelenting attempts to correct, fix, and amend the Bible
in order to make a given doctrine "clear" to the reader. It is
the masses who have been kept in the dark in this regard. There is
extensive historical and scriptural evidence to be found in the books of
the Bible which support this conclusion. Many detailed examples have
been presented in this and other chapters of this book. As shown above,
some Christian scholars estimate the errors in the Bible to be in the
range of 48,800. This is why it has become necessary for the Church to
demand "blind faith" from the masses. Matthew is now recognized as not being the
author of Matthew (read for example Matthew 9:9). John is also
recognized as not being the author of John (read for example John
21:24).... and on and on. These Christian scholars (not Muslims) have
even gone so far as to attempt to identify the original documents from
which these books were originally derived, such as J, P, Y,
Q,...etc.(see section 2.3) . For centuries now, the Qur'an has been
bearing witness that the previous books of God had been modified by the
hands of the unscrupulous few. Even now when Christians and their
universities themselves recognize this to be a historical fact they
still do not bother to tell the masses. Some of these Conservative
scholars, such as Mr. F.F. Bruce, appear to have completely given up on
refuting the proof of distortion and have now resorted to
"spiritualizing" the Bible and telling people in effect that
the teachings of the Bible are useful anyway even if we don't even know
who the inspired authors are. Others will adamantly refuse to believe
that anyone has changed the word of God or that the Bible contains any
conflictions whatsoever no matter how much evidence is presented. They
are willing to either: 1) Explain it away using abstraction to
explain the "true" meanings of the verses presented, or 2) Explain it based upon assumptions of
their own not contained in the Bible, or 3) Claim that these matters are all
insignificant and that the words remain the inspiration of God even if
we don't know who the "inspired" authors were and their
narrations contradict one another. Even at that, they don't attempt to explain
all the contradictions presented. As we have seen in the
previous chapter, they have developed a system where in one paragraph
they manage to reduce many thousands of discrepancies to "only a
handful which are at all important," and even before reaching the
end of the paragraph, even this "handful" is quickly brushed
away as being "only apparent discrepancies." The problem in many cases is that it is
human nature when given a choice between two matters, to take the
simpler of the two, sometimes even against one's better judgment. This
is indeed how many people lose their life savings to people who tell
them that they will invest it for them in a "sure thing," or
people who encourage others to participate in lotteries. We would not
expect that our land would grow fruit without our having to lavish upon
it months of back breaking work. We would not expect that a large
company would be willing to pay us a handsome weekly paycheck without
our actually doing some useful work for them, however, when it comes to
the ultimate reward and the ultimate prize, the Paradise of the Lord of
creation, now we are told that it is no longer necessary to work for the
ultimate prize. Paul has made salvation a very easy
commodity to come by in Christianity. They only have to
"believe." No actual work is required. No one has to work
for their salvation (Romans 3:28, etc.). Paul has brought for them the
"sure thing" and the short cut to salvation. The commandments
of Jesus (pbuh) which he himself observed faithfully and fully up until
the crucifixion, are all discarded by Paul as old, decaying, and ready
to vanish away (Hebrews 8:13, etc.). The fact that Jesus (pbuh) himself
told his followers that observing the commandments and selling their
belongings shall make them "perfect" is forgotten (Matthew
19:16-21). The fact that Jesus (pbuh) himself commanded his followers to
keep the commandments until the end of time is also forgotten (Matthew
5:17-19). All they need is "faith." They have already been
saved. The commandments are merely "extra." In this chapter I have presented a table
containing only a small sampling of the many and varied contradictions
between the verses of the Bible. These are only some of the very simple
and obvious examples known today. Other more serious ones require
comparisons of many passages with each other (see for example sections
5.2, 5.4 and 5.5) or with historical or scientific knowledge. The reader
is encouraged to investigate these examples and to try to analyze
the excuses given for them objectively. Please do not accept any
and all attempts to justify these contradictions without first analyzing
them carefully. When someone tells you that something was a scribal
error then remember that the transmitters of even the Old Testament
claim that every word and every letter was
faithfully counted and recorded and thus, it
would be impossible for unintentional errors to creep in.
This claim by itself should refute all excuses. For instance, the contradiction between
Matthew 17:13 and John 1:21 (point 16 below) is explained by Mr. J as: "John
is answering the question directly and literally, he is not Elijah, he
is John the son of Zechariah.... John was not interested in promoting
all kind of speculation about his identity, but to focus attention upon
the one he had been sent to prepare the way for." So, if Joe is
a vice principal, and someone asks the principal "Is Joe the vice
principal?" and the Principal says "yes," then it is OK
for Joe to say "I am not the vice principal" because he is
"talking within the context that he is Joe" and he
wants to "focus attention" on the principal? Does this sound logical? These apologists'
arguments are usually presented with such confidence that people don't
bother to analyze them or look any further. The Jews acceptance of Jesus
as the Messiah hinges on John admitting he is Elias (Mark 9:12). If John
does not admit to being Elias then Jesus' (pbuh) whole message will lose
credibility. Is this how John "focuses attention" on Jesus? It is inconceivable to think that John,
peace be upon him, a prophet of God, would intentionally lie especially
in a matter that can totally nullify Jesus' whole message. It is also
inconceivable that a prophet of God would remain a prophet of God for
many years before the coming of Jesus (pbuh), fulfilling many
prophesies, but neither know that he was sent by God, nor be informed by
God that He sent him. The Qur'an tells us that if the word of God
were ever to be tampered with by the hands of mankind then it will be
easy to detect this tampering by the contradictions which will
inevitably result. We read "Do they not consider the Qur'an
(with care)? Had it been from other than Allah, they would have surely
found therein much discrepancy." The noble Qur'an, Al-Nissa(4):82. Even the Bible itself gives the same
criteria for discovering such modifications, "For many bare false witness
against him(Jesus), but their witness agreed not together." Mark 14:56 2.3
Did mankind tamper with the Old Testament "And
it came to pass, when moses had made an end of writing the words of this
law in a book, until they were finished, That Moses commanded the
Levites(Jews), which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying,
Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the
covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness
against thee. For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold,
while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against
the LORD; and how much more after my death? Gather unto me all the
elders of your tribes, and your officers, that I may speak these words
in their ears, and call heaven and earth to record against them. For I
know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt [yourselves], and turn
aside from the way which I have commanded you; and evil will befall you
in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to
provoke him to anger through the work of your hands."
Deuteronomy 31:25-29 "How can you say we (the Jews) are
wise and the law of the Lord is with us, when in fact the false pen of
the scribes has made it into a lie?"
Jeremiah 8:8 (Revised Standard Version) "And because of their (the Jews)
breaking their covenant, We have cursed them and made hard their hearts.
They change words from their places and have abandoned a good part of
the message that was sent to them. And you will not cease to discover
deceit in them, except a few of them. But forgive them and overlook
(their misdeed). Verily! Allah loves the kindly." The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):13. "O Messenger!(Muhammad) Do not be
grieved by those who vie with one another in the race to disbelief, of
such as say with their mouths: "We believe" but their hearts
believe not, and of the Jews: of them are those who listen eagerly to
lies -listener to others who have not come to you. They change the words
from their places; they say: If you are given this then take it, but if
you are not given this then beware! He whom Allah dooms unto sin, you
(by your efforts) will avail him naught against Allah. Those are they
for whom the will of Allah is that He cleanse not their hearts; for them
there is a disgrace in this world, and in the Hereafter a great
torment." The noble Qur'an, Al-Maidah(5):41. For countless ages, the only book of
history available to Christians and Jews was the Old Testament. When
someone wanted to know what happened in the past, they would go back and
study the Old Testament to find the answer. New theories about history
literally lived and died by their conformance to what the Old Testament
taught. Then the discrepancies began to be noticed. Once mankind began to study the Old
Testament in detail, comparing the various passages which referred to
the same topic in order to obtain as much detail as possible, they began
to notice conflicting accounts of many matters as well as other
problems. For instance, in the eleventh century, it was noticed that the
list of Edomite kings in Genesis 36 names kings who lived long after
Moses was dead Then people began to notice such statements as "to
this day" something is true, which implies that the author was
looking back at these matters through history and has seen that they
have endured. After this, it was noticed that in the
beginning verses of the OT manuscripts, Deuteronomy says: "These
are the words that Moses spoke to the children of Israel across
the Jordan...." They noticed that the words "across the
Jordan" refers to people who are on the opposite side of the Jordan
river to the author. But the alleged author, Moses himself, was never
supposed to have been in Israel in his life. It was also noticed that Moses speaks in
detail in Deuteronomy 34:5-10 about how he died and where he was buried.
Moses also calls himself the most humble man on earth in Numbers 12:3
(would the most humble man on earth call himself the most humble man on
earth?). In Deuteronomy 34:10 we read "And there arose not a
prophet since in Israel like unto Moses." This also implies
that the author was looking back at Moses through history a long time
after Moses's death. Now the flood gates were opened and countless other
discrepancies began to show up. In the beginning, it was claimed that Moses
wrote the Pentateuch (Five "books of Moses") and anyone
contesting this fact would be severely punished or worse. However, when
these matters started to become well known, it became necessary to find
explanations. For example, the first explanation presented for the
verses referring to the death of Moses was that Moses (pbuh) had written
his books, but that later prophets, as well as "inspired"
scribes (who could also be considered prophets), had later on
added on a couple of lines here and there. In this manner the text
remained 100% the "inspiration" of God. This explanation,
however, did not stand up to scrutiny because the style and literary
characteristics of the verses are the same throughout. For instance, the
verses which describe the death and burial of Moses exhibit the same
literary characteristics as the verses before and after them. After this, the trend became to explain any
and all discrepancies through abstraction and elaborate interpretations,
or through the introduction of additional narrative details that did not
appear in the biblical text. Around this time, a startling new discovery
was made. It was noticed that the stories in the five books of Moses
were made up of doublets. A doublet is a case of one story being told
twice. Even in the English translation of the Bible, the doublets are
noticeable. These doublets have been masterfully intertwined so that
they become one narrative. For example, there are doublets of the
creation of the world, the covenant between God and Abraham, the naming
of Isaac, Abraham's claim that his wife Sarah was his sister, the story
of Jacob's journey to Mesopotamia, Jacob's revelation at Beth-El,...etc.
In many cases these doublets actually contradict one another. The
apologists once again jumped up with an explanation in hand. They
claimed that the doublets were complementary and not contradictory. It
was claimed that they came to teach us a lesson by their
"apparent" contradiction. However, this claim did not hold
water for long. The reason is that not long after, it was discovered
that when the doublets were separated into two separate accounts, each
account was almost always consistent about the name of the deity that it
used. One would always refer to God as Yahweh/Jehovah. This document was
called "J." The other always referred to Him as Elohiym(God).
It was called "E." There were various other literary
characteristics which were then found to be common to one group or the
other. It became obvious that someone had taken two separate accounts of
the ministry of Moses (pbuh), cut them up, and then woven them together
quite masterfully so that their actions would not be discovered until
countless centuries later. Once this startling discovery was made, the
Old Testament was once again placed under the scrutiny of scholars and
it was discovered that the Pentateuch was not made up of two major
source documents but FOUR. It was discovered that some stories were not
only doublets, but triplets. Additional literary characteristics were
identified for these documents. The third source was called P (for
Priestly), and the fourth D (for Deuteronomy). In the end it was
concluded that the first four "books of Moses" were the result
of the merging of three separate accounts which were called J, E, and P,
and the book of Deuteronomy was found to be a separate account which was
called D. The person (or persons) who collected and intertwined these
sources was called "The Redactor." "D (DEUTERONOMIST). The
designation of one of the principle literary sources or strata of the
PENTATEUCH. The Deuteronomist was the editor or compiler of this source,
which is roughly coextensive with the book of Deuteronomy"
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Abingdon Press, Vol. 1, p. 756 "E (ELOHIST). One of the
principle narrative sources or strata of the PENTATEUCH. The term is
derived from a Hebrew word for 'God' ... the use of which is
characteristic of this source"
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Abingdon Press, Vol. 2, p. 1 "J. One of the principle
narrative sources or strata of the PENTATEUCH. The symbol is derived
from the personal name of God, Jehovah ... the use of which is
characteristic of this source. It is commonly regarded as Judahite in
origin, and somewhat earlier than E (tenth-ninth centuries B.C.)"
The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Abingdon Press, Vol. 2, p. 777 "P. The designation of the
so-called Priestly source of the PENTATEUCH. To this source are assigned
most of the liturgical, genealogical, legal, and technical materials,
connected by a bare minimum of narrative. The Priestly narrative is
usually dated after the captivity, in the sixth or fifth century
B.C." The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Abingdon Press, Vol. 3, p. 617 "The critical analysis of the
Hexateuch [the five 'books of moses' plus the book of Joshua] is the
result of more than a century of profound study of the documents by the
greatest critics of the age. There has been a steady advance until the
present position of agreement has been reached, in which Jew and
Christian, Roman Catholic and Protestant, Rationalistic and Evangelical
scholars, Reformed and Lutheran, Presbyterian and Episcopal, Unitarian,
Methodist, and Baptist all concur. The analysis of the Hexateuch into
several distinct original documents is a purely literary question in
which no article of faith is involved. Whoever in these times, in the
discussion of the literary phenomena of the Hexateuch appeals to the
ignorance or prejudice of the multitude as if they were any peril to
faith in these processes of Higher Criticism, risks his reputation for
scholarship by so doing. There are no Hebrew professors on the continent
of Europe, so far as I know, who deny the literary analysis of the
Pentateuch into the four great documents"
Who wrote the Bible, Washington Gladden,
Boston: Houghton, pp. 57-58 What exactly does the author mean by the
statement "Whoever in these times, in the discussion of the
literary phenomena of the Hexateuch appeals to the ignorance or
prejudice of the multitude as if they were any peril to faith in these
processes of Higher Criticism, risks his reputation for scholarship by
so doing" ? Well, he is referring to the practices of men who
have a regrettable formula for selling their books which is based upon
backing the reader into a corner and then giving them only one way to
save their faith. For example, they would say words to the effect
"Either the Bible is 100% the inspired, unchanged, and undisputed
word of God or else it is the greatest hoax ever foisted upon mankind
from the beginning of time." Such authors only allow their readers
to accept one extreme or the other. In effect, they are telling their
readers "either you accept every word and every syllable as undying
inspired truth or else renounce Jesus and become a pagan." However, the truth lies at neither extreme.
Allah Almighty tells us in the Qur'an: "O people of the book! Do not go to
extremes in your religion: nor say of Allah aught but the truth." The noble Qur'an, Al-Nissah(4):171 The fact that we recognize that mankind has
tampered with the Bible does not mean that God, at one point in time,
did not send down a revelation upon prophet Moses, or that He did not
send down a revelation upon prophet Jesus (peace be upon them both). It
only means that "thou shalt love the Lord thy God … with all
thy mind, …" Mark 12:30. The fact that we wish to sift out
the words of man from the book of God and only follow the words of God
is not by any stretch of the imagination an abandonment of God or Jesus.
Quite the contrary, anyone who is not willing to do their utmost in
protecting the words of God from the tampering fingers of mankind has
indeed forsaken the very first commandment of God. "For almost two millennia the
Pentateuch buted to Moses as
author by both Jewish and Christian tradition. Although significant
questions about his authorship were raised along the way, it was not
until the eighteenth century that the question was seriously broached.
Today, it is commonplace that he did not write the Pentateuch, but as we
shall see the formation of these books is still shrouded in
mystery." The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, p. 4 Grolier's encyclopedia, under the heading
"Divisions of the Old Testament" states: "The Pentateuch is based on four
principal sources. The oldest, J, was perhaps written in Judah, the
southern kingdom, about 950 BC. Between 900 and 750, another version
from Israel, the northern kingdom, was woven in; this is called EPHRAIM
(E). In the 7th century BC, Deuteronomy, or most of it (D), was
compiled. About 550 BC, during the exile, the final edition of the Torah
added a priestly source (P), some parts of which are very old." Encarta's Encyclopedia says: "Pentateuch (Greek penta,
"five"; teuch, "book"), collectively, first five
books of the Old Testament, that is, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus,
Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The term was used by the Christian theologian
Origen to denote what the Jews of his time called the "Five-Fifths
of Torah (teaching)." Pentateuch is the translation of the Hebrew
term for this concept. The Torah is the holiest and most beloved of the
sacred writings of the Jews. "The Five Books of Moses," as a
designation of the Pentateuch, was first used in the Western church by
St. Jerome and the Christian theologian Tyrannius Rufinus. The Mosaic
authorship of the work is not directly affirmed in the books themselves,
but it became tacitly accepted by Christian orthodoxy. The Pentateuch
includes various textual strata of writings, notably the Yahwist (J,
which refers to God as Jahwe-modern Jehovah-or Yahweh) and the Elohist
(E, which refers to God as Elohiym). The Hebrew priest and reformer
Ezra, whose work is associated with another textual component of the
Pentateuch known as the Priestly stratum (P), gave impetus to observance
of the regulations of the Pentateuch." Let us have a look at an example of these
doublets from Genesis 6:5 to 8:22. The Jehovah(J) text is in regular
type, the Priestly(P) is in bold: Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:6 And it repented the LORD that
he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Genesis 6:7 And the LORD said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man,
and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
repenteth me that I have made them. Genesis 6:8 But Noah found grace in the
eyes of the LORD. Genesis 6:9 These are the generations of
Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah
walked with God. Genesis 6:10 And Noah begat three sons,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Genesis 6:11 The earth also was corrupt
before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Genesis 6:12 And God looked upon the
earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way
upon the earth. Genesis 6:13 And God said unto Noah, The
end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with
violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis 6:14 Make thee an ark of gopher
wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and
without with pitch. Genesis 6:15 And this is the fashion
which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three
hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it
thirty cubits. Genesis 6:16 A window shalt thou make to
the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the
ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third
stories shalt thou make it. Genesis 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do
bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is
the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the
earth shall die. Genesis 6:18 But with thee will I
establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy
sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. Genesis 6:19 And of every living thing
of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep
them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Genesis 6:20 Of fowls after their kind,
and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth
after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them
alive. Genesis 6:21 And take thou unto thee of
all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall
be for food for thee, and for them. Genesis 6:22 Thus did Noah; according to
all that God commanded him, so did he. Genesis 7:
Genesis 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah,
Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous
before me in this generation. Genesis 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt
take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are
not clean by two, the male and his female. Genesis 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by
sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all
the earth. Genesis 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will
cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every
living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of
the earth. Genesis 7:5 And Noah did according unto all
that the LORD commanded him. Genesis 7:6 And Noah was six hundred
years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Genesis 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons,
and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the
waters of the flood. Genesis 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of
beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that
creepeth upon the earth, Genesis 7:9 There went in two and two
unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded
Noah. Genesis 7:10 And it came to pass after
seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year
of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month,
the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the
windows of heaven were opened. Genesis 7:12 And the rain was upon the
earth forty days and forty nights. Genesis 7:13 In the selfsame day entered
Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife,
and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; Genesis 7:14 They, and every beast after
his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing
that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his
kind, every bird of every sort. Genesis 7:15 And they went in unto Noah
into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
Genesis 7:16 And they that went in, went
in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the
LORD shut him in. Genesis 7:17 And the flood was forty days
upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it
was lift up above the earth. Genesis 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and
were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of
the waters. Genesis 7:19 And the waters prevailed
exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the
whole heaven, were covered. Genesis 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the
waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. Genesis 7:21 And all flesh died that
moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of
every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: Genesis 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the
breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. Genesis 7:23 And every living substance was
destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle,
and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were
destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that
were with him in the ark. Genesis 7:24 And the waters prevailed
upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. Genesis 8:
Genesis 8:1 And God remembered Noah, and
every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and
God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; Genesis 8:2 The fountains also of the
deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from
heaven was restrained; Genesis 8:3 And the waters returned from
off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty
days the waters were abated. Genesis 8:4 And the ark rested in the
seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains
of Ararat. Genesis 8:5 And the waters decreased
continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day
of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. Genesis 8:6 And it came to pass at the end
of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:
Genesis 8:7 And he sent forth a raven,
which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the
earth. Genesis 8:8 Also he sent forth a dove from
him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; Genesis 8:9 But the dove found no rest for
the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the
waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand,
and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. Genesis 8:10 And he stayed yet other seven
days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; Genesis 8:11 And the dove came in to him in
the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah
knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. Genesis 8:12 And he stayed yet other seven
days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any
more. Genesis 8:13 And it came to pass in the
six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the
month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed
the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground
was dry. Genesis 8:14 And in the second month, on
the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. Genesis 8:15 And God spake unto Noah,
saying, Genesis 8:16 Go forth of the ark, thou,
and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with thee. Genesis 8:17 Bring forth with thee every
living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of
cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that
they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply
upon the earth. Genesis 8:18 And Noah went forth, and
his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Genesis 8:19 Every beast, every creeping
thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after
their kinds, went forth out of the ark. Genesis 8:20 And Noah builded an altar unto
the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and
offered burnt offerings on the altar. Genesis 8:21 And the LORD smelled a sweet
savor; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground
any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I
have done. Genesis 8:22 While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day
and night shall not cease Richard Elliot Friedman is a professor in
the University of California, San Diego. He earned his Doctorate in
Hebrew Bible at Harvard University. He is one of many scholars who have
attempted to critically study these "source" documents of the
"five books of Moses" in order to arrive at the identity of
the authors, the time period when each was written, the motives for
writing each narrative, and other information. In his book "Who
Wrote the Bible," Prof. Friedman presents strong evidence that each
"source document" was written by a person or persons who,
while on the face of it seem to narrate the same stories, in actuality
had distinctly different goals they wished to achieve. According to Mr. Friedman's research, each
source emphasizes a certain branch of the Jews, their nobility, birth
right, and closeness to God. Sometimes at the price of other branches of
the Jews. For instance, J was written by descendants of Judah, E came
from descendants of Israel, and P was written by a priest from the
descendants of Aaron. According to Mr. Friedman, the P (Priestly) source
seems to be particularly interested in priests, their lineage, their
being the only ones who are allowed to sacrifice to God, the importance
of sacrifice to God, and the surprising absence of all stories wherein
anyone not of their lineage made a sacrifice that was accepted by God
(for instance the sacrifice of the sons of Adam is missing from this
narrative). It also contains stories of how all those who attempted to
make sacrifices to God without the agency of an Aaronid priest were
killed by God. The author goes on to show how in J and E
we can find similar emphasis on one tribe of the Jews over the other.
For instance, on pages 64-65 he shows how both the J and E documents
attempt to give the birthright of Jacob to their own forefathers. He
also shows how in the E version, Joseph is saved by his brother Ruben
(the firstborn of Israel), while in the J version it is Judah who saves
him. The author presents countless other proofs of these claims. The JE texts magnify prophet Moses. They
depict Aaron as having fashioned the golden calf. They also describe
Aaron and his sister Meriam as having criticized Moses and having been
chastised by God himself for this. They regularly have God saying "and
Yahweh said unto Moses....." On the other hand, the P document
(written by Aaronid priests), usually states: "and Yahweh said
unto Moses and unto Aaron......" In this document, the
staff Moses used to perform his miracles is called "Aaron's
staff." In the P document Aaron is also named as the firstborn
brother of Moses. Also, as mentioned previously, in the P text no
mention is made of any sacrifices to God whatsoever until the last
chapter of Exodus wherein we find the story of Aaron's sacrifice when he
was consecrated as high priest. After that, all sacrifices are performed
by Aaron and his sons. In other words, the author of P gives no
precedence for sacrifice for anyone other than an Aaronid priest. There
are even a couple of places in this document which denigrate Moses
(pbuh). They depicts Moses (pbuh) as sinning and Aaron suffering for
Moses' sin. Well, what about the rest of the Old
Testament? Are the remaining books of the Old Testament known to have
been preserved from change since the time of their first writing and
truly to be the words of the claimed authors? No! Once again, Groliers
encyclopedia tells us: ".....Joshua tells of a thorough
conquest of Canaan, but Judges contains traditions of the Hebrew tribes
in the period before the monarchy that reveal the conquest as partial.
The books of Samuel are about the founding of the monarchy under Saul
and David and contain a magnificent early source for the life of David,
probably written about 961-22 BC. All the above books have been
extensively edited by writers who shared the theology of the D source."
(emphasis added). Yale Professor Harold Bloom is the author
of the book "Book Of J" His book goes to prove that the author
of Pentateuch was not prophet Moses (pbuh), rather, he believes that the
Pentateuch, especially the oldest stories of Bible such as stories of
Adam and Eve, Noah, Joseph and even Moses were the works of a woman,
probably a descendant of King David in 10th century BC. Harold Bloom
says that the "second-rate plagiarists" later formed
scriptures out of her scripts. Prof. Richard Friedman has also suggested
that a woman contributed the OT which was later formally shaped as part
of The Holy Bible. Though other scholars believe it was the work of a
group of scholars and Jewish traditions. US NEWS & WORLD REPORT, Dec
10, 1990. The famous 19th century French scholar,
Alfred Loisy says "To explain the divinity of the
sources, the Papal Commission of Biblical Studies declared, in a
memorable decree, that moses had secretaries. The secretaries of Moses!
A brilliant discovery, to be sure!" Indeed, we can even find Jesus (pbuh)
himself bearing witness in the Bible against the Jews that they had
changed the commands and doctrines of God and substituted them with
their own doctrines. He says: "Then came to Jesus scribes and
Pharisees (learned Jews), which were of Jerusalem, saying, Why do thy
disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not
their hands when they eat bread. But he answered and said unto them, Why
do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God
commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth
father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say
to [his] father or [his] mother, [It is] a gift, by whatsoever thou
mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, [he
shall be free]. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect
by your tradition. [Ye] hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you,
saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with [their] lips; but their heart is far from me But in vain they do
worship me, teaching [for] doctrines the commandments of men." Matthew 15:1-9 He also says: "Then spake Jesus to
the multitude, and to his disciples, Saying, The scribes and the
Pharisees sit in moses' seat: All therefore whatsoever they bid you
observe, [that] observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for
they say, and do not. For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be
borne, and lay [them] on men's shoulders; but they [themselves] will not
move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to
be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the
borders of their garments. And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and
the chief seats in the synagogues, And greetings in the markets, and to
be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is
your Master, [even] Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no [man]
your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, [even] Christ. But
he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall
exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be
exalted. But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in
[yourselves], neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows'
houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive
the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made,
ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto
you, [ye] blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple,
it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he
is a debtor! [Ye] fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or
the temple that sanctifieth the gold? ... [Ye] fools and blind ... Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint
and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the
law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone. [Ye] blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and
swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they
are full of extortion and excess. [Thou] blind Pharisee, cleanse first
that [which is] within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may
be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward,
but are within full of dead [men's] bones, and of all uncleanness. Even
so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full
of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the
sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our
fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the
prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the
children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure
of your fathers. [Ye] serpents, [ye] generation of vipers, how can ye
escape the damnation of hell?" Matthew 23:1-33 There is much more which could be said
about these matters, however, we will leave it up to the interested
student to consult Prof. Friedman's book and make up their own minds.
Fourteen hundred years ago, back when it was a blasphemy of the highest
order punishable by death and worse to dare allege that the books of the
Bible were not 100% the inspired words of God, the Qur'an was sent down
upon Muhammad (pbuh) by God Almighty with the claim that "the
people of the Book" had changed the book of God. Muhammad (pbuh)
further affirmed that he was sent with the true religion of God which
was sent down upon Moses and Jesus (peace be upon them all). The
Christians responded that Muslims were ignorant savages who had
concocted their own religion by copying Christianity (just as the Jews
before them had claimed that the Christians had plagiarized Judaism). I
invite the reader to judge for themselves where the truth lies. Is all of this restricted to the Old
Testament? No! Christian scholars today call the Gospels of Matthew,
Mark, and Luke, the "Synoptic" (One eyed) Gospels. This is
because they all seem to have had access to a common source document
they were working from when they wrote their Gospels. This source
document is called 'Q'. Now they are beginning to recognize that the
alleged authors are not the true authors (see sections 2.1, and 2.2).
Similarly, countless verses of the Gospel of John, as well as other
historical discrepancies, also go to show that John did not write the
Gospel of John. "Of the Jews are those who change
words from their places and say: 'We hear (your words O Muhammad) and
disobey; hear you as one who hears not' and 'give us concession' with a
twist of their tongues and as a mockery of religion(Islam). But if only
they had said: 'We hear and we obey' and 'Do make us understand' it
would have been better for them and more upright. But Allah has cursed
them for their disbelief, so they believe not, except a few." The noble Qur'an, Al-Nissa(4):46. "Do you covet that they will
believe in you when [in fact] a party of them used to hear the Word of
Allah (the Torah) then they would distort it knowingly after they had
understood it?" The noble Qur'an, Al-Bakarah(2):75 "Then woe to those who write the
book (of God) with their own hands and then say: 'This is from Allah',
to traffic with it for a miserable price. Woe to them for what their
hands do write and for the gain they make thereby" The noble Qur'an Al-Bakarah(2):79 2.4
When is a book an "inspired" book?
"Ye
shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye
diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD
your God." Deuteronomy 4:2 Adi ibn Hatim al-Tai'i was a Christian who
embraced Islam during the time of Muhammad (pbuh). One day, the verse of
the Qur'an, Al-Tawba(9):30-31 was recited before him: "And the
Jews said: Ezra is the son of Allah, and the Christians said: The
Messiah is the son of Allah. That is their saying with their [own]
mouths. They imitate the saying of those who disbelieved of old. Allah's
curse be upon them. How deluded are they! They took their rabbis and
their monks as lords besides Allah, and the Messiah son of Mary, but
they were not commanded but to worship One God. There is no God but Him.
Be He Glorified from all that they associate with Him!" When
Adi heard this verse, he commented: "O messenger of Allah, we did
not worship them." The prophet Muhammad (pbuh) replied:
"Did they not make matters lawful and unlawful for you?"
(He was referring to the power the monks and Rabbis gave themselves
because of their claimed divine inspiration to change laws and
regulations). Adi replied "Yes, they did!". Muhammad (pbuh)
said: "That, then, is the worshipping of them in association
with Allah." If we were to ask a Christian layman:
"Where did the Bible in your hands come from?," they would
more than likely tell us "from God!" If you were now to ask him: "How do
you know it is from God? He will reply, "He inspired it to many
people who then wrote it down and preserved it for us." If we now ask: "Are all of these
inspired people prophets?" He will answer: "No, they include
both prophets and other faultless 'saints', etc.." "So these prophets and 'saints' signed
their names to these documents?" we would ask. They would respond
"No. But the Church knows who wrote them, and when they were
written, and has irrefutable proof regarding this matter." If we were to now ask: "would it be
possible for any unscrupulous person who had access to the Bible in the
past to modify it's books?" They would reply: "Of course not!
The church has told us that even the much older Old Testament was
preserved with such diligent guardianship that they even counted and
recorded every single word and every single letter in it. Thus, the
church has justly reassured us that these words never have, and never
could be, changed by mankind, even by scribal error or by
accident." "Let us now ask a different
question" we would continue. "Are the 'New and Old Testaments'
in your hands today the same "New and Old Testaments"
available to the apostles of Jesus (pbuh) till the present day?"
They would answer "Of course! There has always been only one
Bible!" This is the general gist of any such
conversation that is held between a Muslim and a Christian layman
regarding their Bible, it's composition and preservation. However, if we
were to ask their SCHOLARS the same set of questions we would be
amazed to find a tremendous chasm in the responses supplied by the
Christian laypeople as compared to their own Christian scholars. If we
were to go to a Western library and look up the history of the Bible as
recorded by their own eminent Christian scholars throughout the ages, we
would find that they tell us that the books of the "New
Testament" in our possession today were not officially approved
into the New Testament "canon" of "inspired" books
until many centuries after the departure of Jesus. Tens of
generations of Christians literally lived and died after the
departure of Jesus (pbuh) never having known nor seen such a "New
Testament" or "Bible" as the one in our possession today. After the departure of Jesus (pbuh), the
apostles and many other people began to write "gospels." Each
one of these authors would travel to other lands and be followed by a
number of people who would adopt this man's gospel as his
"Bible." Now, even the unscrupulous began to write
"gospels" and to claim they were from a given apostle or that
they themselves were receiving divine inspiration. Many new and
innovative teachings began now to be introduced into the religion of
Jesus (pbuh). Enmity, hatred and war began to break out between these
groups. Each person claimed that they alone held the "true"
Gospel of Jesus (pbuh) and no one else. Their beliefs now ran the gamut,
from those who believed Jesus (pbuh) to be a mortal messenger of God and
nothing more, to those who claimed partial divinity for Jesus (pbuh), to
those who claimed Jesus (pbuh) to be a true god, but independent of God
himself, to those who called for a "Trinity," to those who
claimed that Mary (pbuh) too was a god, to those who believed in two
gods, one good and the other evil. This is when the war of the gospels
began. Everyone now cursed and damned everyone
else. Christian sects butchered one-another right and left. There were
more great debates and councils than you could shake a stick at.
However, none of these groups had sufficient might to totally dominate
and silence the others for good. They needed an undefeatable ally, so
they began to look to the Roman empire for support. The Roman empire was
a pagan empire, however, it was the dominant "superpower" of
the time. Anyone who could enlist it's aid would have an unconquerable
ally at their side and would themselves be undefeatable. On the Roman
side, Emperor Constantine was greatly troubled by the swelling ranks of
his Christian subjects and the great division among their ranks which
did not bode well for the continued stability of his empire. Most of these fringe sects now began to
fade into insignificance and the matter was now left between those who
believed in the Unity of God and those who believed in a
"Trinity." The Roman empire's support fluctuated between these
two groups for a long time until the Trinitarian's finally gained the
upper hand and all but wiped the Unitarians off the face of the earth.
They selected and collected the "truly inspired" gospels into
one volume which later became the "New Testament." They burned
all other gospels. Many sweeping campaigns if "Inquisition"
were launched. Everyone found possessing any of these "false"
Gospels was put to death and his Gospel burned. This state of affairs continued for many
centuries and many people were convicted of heresy and burned to death
at the stake for a great variety of reasons. Yet others had their land
and property confiscated and were imprisoned. Physical torture was
casually used in order to extract a confession of guilt which would then
be used to justify a verdict of death by burning. Some of the methods
used to extract a confession of guilt were the stretching of limbs on
the rack, burning with live coals, and the strappado (a vertical rack).
Denial of the charges without counterproof or refusal to confess
resulted in the most severe punishments such as life imprisonment or
execution and total confiscation of property. The number of those who
fell victim to these inquisitions are far to numerous to list here.
Examples of these people include the philosopher Giordano Bruno,
Galileo, Joan of Arc, and the religious order of knights called the
Templars among countless hundreds of thousands of others. If the
Trinitarians did not have the power to burn these people at the stake
during their lifetime, then they would exhume their bodies after their
death and burn them after their death (e.g. John Wycliffe). In the end,
over twelve million people were put to death by the Church inquisitions
(Apology for Muhammad and the Qur'an, John Davenport). The inquisitions reached their height
around the middle of the fifteenth century in a massive and vicious
persecution campaign the major targets of which were the Marranos
(converts from Judaism) and Moriscos (converts from Islam), many of whom
were suspected of secretly adhering to their original faiths. When
things began to quiet down a little, the victor's historians and
philosophers wrote their history books explaining how they managed to
overcome the wicked, to defeat the blasphemers, and to burn the devils,
sorcerers, and witches at the stake. These are the books which have had
the greatest influence on the Western history books we have in our hands
today. Whenever a scholar of Christianity would
stumble upon the truth and begin to write about it his works would
invariably be destroyed (e.g. Sir Isaac Newton, the 16th century
Spaniard Michael Servetus, etc.). In all cases, it was recognized that
there was no need to disprove the author's evidence or refute it,
rather, it was sufficient to muzzle the opposition, burn their books,
extract a confession from them under duress, and expel them from society
or kill them. Even the Popes themselves would sometimes
recognize the falsehood of the "Trinity" and the fact that it
was a later fabrication of mankind. One of these popes, Honorius, was
officially cursed forty eight years after his death by the Synod which
was held in Istanbul in 680 C.E. Sometimes it is an individual's own silence
which proves to be the most deafening proclamation. As we saw in the
previous chapters, for the period of a century and more the only
"Scriptures" used by the first Jewish followers of Jesus were
the Greek Septuagint translations (commonly designated LXX) of the
Hebrew Old Testament, "the Law and the Prophets", supplemented
by various Jewish apocrypha and the Sibylline Oracles (150 BC to AD
180); these were the only "authorities" appealed to by the
early "Church Fathers" when preaching their new faith. Nowhere
do they quote the books which we know today as the "New
Testament." Naturally, if the "history" of
the Trinitarian Church regarding their chosen Gospels and what are
claimed to be the inspired writings of Jesus' first Apostles were true,
and these writings had indeed been accepted as authoritative at that
time, then they would have been the most precious and potent documents
of preaching for their doctrine. Undoubtedly, they would have spoken of
nothing else, but would have quoted them and appealed to their authority
at every turn as they have been doing through the centuries since. But,
for some 150 years, little or nothing besides the Old Testament and
these Oracles were known or quoted. As said by the great critic, Solomon
Reinach, "With the exception of Papias, who
speaks of a narrative by Mark, and a collection of sayings of Jesus, no
Christian writer of the first half of the second century (i.e., up to
150 C.E.) quotes the Gospels or their reputed authors."
Orpheus, Reinach, p. 218 But let us back up a little and study how
and when the "inspired" books of the Bible were incorporated
into the Christian "canon" of the Bible. We have already given
a brief introduction in section 1.2.5 onwards of how the current Gospels
of the Bible were introduced as "authentic." Let us now have a
very brief look at some of the details. The following was obtained from
the book "Izhar ul Haqq" among other references: In the city of Nicea (modern: Iznik,
Turkey), in the year 325 AD, a great conference of Christian theologians
and religious scholars was convened under the order of the Emperor
Constantine to examine and define the status of these countless
Christian Gospels. After a thorough investigation it was decided that
the Epistle of Jude was genuine and believable. The rest of our current
books of the Bible were declared doubtful. This was explicitly mentioned
by Saint Jerome in the introduction to his book. St. Jerome, of course,
was a Christian scholar and a great philosopher. He was born in 340 AD
He translated the Bible into Latin. He was a famous bibliographer and
wrote many books on the Bible. Before the year 325 C.E., it is known
that the Gospel of Barnabas was accepted as canonical in the churches of
Alexandria. It is known to have been circulated in the first two
centuries after Christ (pbuh) from the writings of Irenaeus (130-200AD).
After this council, four Gospels were selected out of a minimum of three
hundred available and the rest, including the Gospel of Barnabas, were
ordered utterly destroyed. All Gospels written in Hebrew were also
ordered destroyed. In the year 364 AD, another council was
held in Laodicea for the same purpose. This conference of Christian
scholars and theologians not only confirmed the decision of the council
of Nicea regarding the authenticity of the Epistle of Jude but also
declared that the following six books must also be added to the list of
genuine and believable books: The Book of Esther, The Epistle Of James,
The Second Epistle of Peter, The Second and Third Epistles of John, The
Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews. This conference pronounced their
decision to the public. The book of Revelations, however, remained out
of the list of the acknowledged books in both the councils. In 397 another great conference was held
called the Council of Carthage. Augustine, the celebrated Christian
scholar, was among the one hundred and twenty six learned participants.
The members of this council confirmed the decisions of the two previous
Councils and also added the following books to the list of the divine
books: The Book of the Songs of Solomon, The Book of Tobit, The Book of
Baruch, Ecclesiasticus, and The First and Second Books of Maccabees. At the same time the members of this
council decided that the book of Baruch was a part of the book of
Jeremiah because Baruch was the deputy of Jeremiah. Therefore they did
not include the name of this book separately in the list. Three more conferences were held after this
in Trullo, Florence and Trent (1545-63). The members of these meetings
confirmed the decision of the Council of Carthage. The last two
councils, however, wrote the name of the book of Baruch separately. After these councils nearly all the books
which had previously been doubtful among Christians were now included in
the list of acknowledged books. The status of these books remained
unchanged until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th
century. The Protestants repudiated the decisions of the councils and
declared that there are only 66 truly "inspired" books of God,
and not 73 as claimed by the Catholics. The following books were to be
rejected: The Book of Baruch, The Book of Tobit, The Letter of Jude, The
Songs of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, and The First and Second Books of
Maccabees. They excluded these books from the list of acknowledged
books. The Protestants also rejected the decision
of their forbears regarding some chapters of the book of Esther. This
book consists of 16 chapters. They decided that the first nine chapters
and three verses from chapter ten were to be rejected. They based their
decision on the following six reasons: 1 These works were considered to be false
even in the original Hebrew and Chaldaean languages which were no longer
available. 2 The Jews did not acknowledge them as
revealed books. 3 All the Christians have not acknowledged
them as believable. 4 Jerome said that these books were not
reliable and were insufficient to prove and support the doctrines of the
faith. 5 Klaus has openly said that these books
were recited but not in every place. 6 Eusebius specifically said in section 22
of his fourth book that these books have been tampered with, and
changed. In particular the Second Book of Maccabees. It now becomes apparent that books which
had been lost in the original and which only existed in translation were
erroneously acknowledged by thousands of theologians as divine
revelation. This state of affairs leads a non-Christian reader to
distrust the unanimous decisions of Christian scholars of both the
Catholic and the Protestant persuasions. The followers of Catholic faith
still believe in these books in blind pursuance of their forebears. It is a prerequisite of believing in a
certain book as divinely revealed that it is proved through infallible
arguments that the book in question was revealed through a prophet and
that it has been conveyed to us precisely in the same order without any
change through an uninterrupted chain of narrators. It is not at all
sufficient to attribute a book to a certain prophet on the basis of
suppositions and conjectures. Unsupported assertions made by one or a
few sects of people should not be, and cannot be, accepted in this
connection. We have already seen how Catholic and
Protestant scholars differ on the question of the authenticity of some
of these books. There are yet more books of the Bible which have been
rejected by Christians. They include the Book of Revelation, the Book of
Genesis, the Book of Ascension, the Book of Mysteries, the Book of
Testament and the Book of Confession which are all ascribed to the
Prophet Moses. Similarly a fourth Book of Ezra is claimed to be from the
Prophet Ezra and a book concerning Isaiah's ascension and revelation are
ascribed to him. In addition to the known book of Jeremiah, there is
another book attributed to him. There are numerous sayings which are
claimed to be from the Prophet Habakkuk. There are many songs which are
said to be from the Prophet Solomon. There are more than 70 books, other
than the present ones, of the new Testament, which are ascribed to
Jesus, Mary, the apostles, and their disciples. In this day and age,
some Christian scholars are even making the case for the authenticity of
the Gospel of Thomas as the "fifth" Gospel (see "The Five
Gospels," written over six years by 24 Christian scholars from some
of the USA and Canada's most prestigious universities) The Christians of this age have claimed
that these books are false and forgeries. The Greek Church, Catholic
church and the Protestant Church are unanimous on this point. Similarly
the Greek Church claims that the third book of Ezra is a part of the Old
Testament and believes it to have been written by the Prophet Ezra while
the Protestant and Catholic Churches have declared it false and
fabricated. Groliers encyclopedia says under the
heading "New Testament, canon": "The process by which the canon of
the New Testament was formed began in the 2d century, probably with a
collection of ten letters of Paul. Toward the end of that century,
Irenaeus argued for the unique authority of the portion of the Canon
called the Gospels. Acceptance of the other books came gradually.
The church in Egypt used more than the present 27 books, and the
Syriac-speaking churches fewer. The question of an official canon
became urgent during the 4th century. It was mainly through the
influence of Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, and because Jerome
included the 27 books in his Latin version of the Bible called the
Vulgate, that the present canon came to be accepted.." Notice, as mentioned in the previous
chapters, how the writings of Paul were the first to be accepted by the
Trinitarian church. All other gospels were then either accepted or
destroyed based upon their conformance to the teachings of Paul. As mentioned previously, Lobegott Friedrich
Konstantin Von Tischendorf was one of the most eminent conservative
Biblical scholars of the nineteenth century. One of his greatest
lifelong achievements was his discovery of one of the oldest known
Biblical manuscripts know to mankind, the "Codex Sinaiticus,"
with the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery in Mount Sinai. In this
oldest known copy of the Bible known to humanity we find contained two
gospels which would later be discarded by a more enlightened generation.
They are "The Epistle of Barnabas" (not to be confused with
the Gospel of Barnabas), and "The Shepherd of Hermas." Today,
of course, neither of these two books is to be found in our modern
Bibles. As also seen in section 1.2, many later "insertions"
of the church were exposed through the study of this manuscript.
However, following in the tradition of true conservative Christian
scholars before him, Tischendorf managed to apply 12,000
"corrections" to this manuscript's 110,000 lines before he was
through "transcribing" it (see "secrets of Mount
Sinai", James Bentley, Doubleday, NY, 1986, p. 95) We have already seen in chapter one how
"St. Paul" all but totally obliterated the religion of Jesus
(pbuh) based upon the authority of his alleged "visions". We
then saw how his teachings were based more upon his personal philosophy
and beliefs than any attempt to cite words or actions of Jesus (pbuh)
himself (e.g. Galatians 2). We further saw how his followers slaughtered
all Christians who would not forsake the teachings of the apostles for
his teachings and how he was later made the "majority author"
of the Bible and countless authentic gospels were burned and labeled
apocrypha by his followers. Remember, "St. Paul" is claimed to
be the author of Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians,
Phillippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, and Hebrews. "All the evidence indicates that
the words of Jesus were authoritative in the Church from the first, and
this makes it the more remarkable that such scanty attention is paid to
the words or works of Jesus in the earliest Christian writings, Paul's
letters, the later Epistles, Hebrews, Revelation, and even Acts have
little to report about them... Papias (ca. AD 130), the first person to
actually name a written gospel, illustrates the point. Even though he
defends Mark's gospel (Euseb. Hist. III.xxxix.15-16), and had himself
appended a collection of Jesus tradition to his 'Interpretation of the
Oracles of the Lord' (Euseb. Hist. III.xxxix.2-3), his own clear
preference was for the oral tradition concerning Jesus, and the glimpses
that Eusebius provides of Papias' Jesus tradition give no hint of his
dependence on Mark. Neither do the more frequent citations of Jesus in
the APOSTOLIC FATHERS, largely 'synoptic' in character show much
dependence on our written gospels" The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible,
Supplementary Volume, p. 137 The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible
contains much more revealing information in this regard, far too much to
reproduce here. The reader is strongly encouraged to locate a copy in
their local library and read the details. The popularly accepted dates for the
authorship of the current books of the Bible are approximately as
follows: Approx. AD Event / Document ----------------------------------------------------------------
30 Crucifixion (Ascension) of Jesus 50 First Epistle of Paul 62 Last Epistle of Paul 65-70 Mark's Gospel 70 Epistle to Hebrews 80 Luke's Gospel 85-90 Matthew's Gospel 90 Acts 90-100 John's Gospel and First Epistle 95-100 Revelation 100 I & II
Timothy and Titus Uncertainty about James I & II, Peter,
John and Jude does not allow historians to estimate their origin dates.
(See "The Early Church And The New Testament," Irene Allen,
1953). We begin to see the degree to which our current religion of
"Christianity" is based more on the teachings and writings of
Paul than anything else. The Gospels which are popularly believed to
have been written first were in actuality written long after the
writings of Paul. Now Christian scholars are even beginning to uncover
extensive evidence that these Gospels were not even written by their
claimed authors. The more Christian scholars study the Bible, the more
it becomes painfully apparent that what is popularly referred to today
as "Christianity" should more appropriately be named
"Paulanity." As mentioned in section 2.1, even when a
book is claimed to be truly "inspired" we still find that the
Church cannot say with 100% assuredness who wrote this
"inspired" book. As mentioned there, the authors of the RSV
Bible by Collins say that the author of "Kings" is
"Unknown," the book of Isaiah is "Mainly credited to
Isaiah. Parts may have been written by others." Ecclesiastics:
"Author. Doubtful, but commonly assigned to Solomon." Ruth:
"Author. Not definitely known, perhaps Samuel." and on and on.
Is this how a truly unbiased mind defines "inspired by God"?
You be the judge. "Verily, those who conceal that
which Allah has sent down of the Book and purchase a small gain
therewith, they eat into their bellies nothing but fire. Allah will not
speak to them on the Day of Resurrection, nor will He purify them, and
theirs will be a painful torment. Those are they who purchase error at
the price of guidance, and torment at the price of pardon. What boldness
(they show) for the Fire!" The noble Qur'an, Al-Baqarah(2):174-175
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