Bible led me to the Islam...5

THE GOSPELS

If you read Luke 1:2 - 3, you will learn, as I did
that Luke (who was not one of the 12 disciples and
never met Jesus) said that he himself was not an
eyewitness to Jesus' walk on earth, and the
knowledge he gathered was from eyewitnesses,
and not as words inspired by God.8 Incidentally,
why does every "Gospel" begin with the
introduction ACCORDING TO. Why "according
to?" The reason for this is because not a single one
of the gospels carries its original author's
autograph! Even the internal evidence. of Matthew
9:9 proves that Matthew was not the author of the
first Gospel which bears his name:
"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)."
Without any stretch of the imagination, one can
see that the HE's and the HIM's of the above
narration do not refer to Jesus or Matthew as its
author, but a third person writing what he saw or
heard - a hearsay account, JO and not words
inspired by God.
It is worth noting, and well known throughout the
religious world, that the choice of the present four
"gospels" of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John) were imposed in the Council of
Nicea 325 C.E. for political purposes under the
auspices of the pagan Emperor Constantine,5 and
not by Jesus.
Constantine's mind had not been enlightened
either by study or by inspiration. He was a pagan,
a tyrant and criminal who murdered his son, his
wife and thousands of innocent individuals
because of his lust for political power. Constantine
ratified other decisions in the Nicene creed such as
the decision to call Christ "the Son of God, only
begotten of the Father."lJ
Literally, hundreds of gospels and religious
writings were hidden from the people. Some of
those writings were written by Jesus' disciples,
and many of them were eyewitnesses to Jesus'

actions. The Nicea Council decided to destroy all
gospels written in Hebrew which resulted in the
burning of nearly three hundred accounts. 13 If these
writings were not more authentic than the four
present gospels, they were of equal authenticity.
Some of them are still available such as the
Gospel of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hennas
which agree with the Quran.5 The Gospel of
Barnabas, until now, is the only eyewitness
account of the life and mission of Jesus. 13 Even
today, the whole of the Protestant world,
Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists and
other sects and denominations condemn the
Roman Catholic version of the Bible because it
contains seven "extra" books. The Protestants
have bravely expunged seven whole books from
their "Word of God." A few of the outcasts are the
Books of Judith, Tobias, Baruch and Esther. 10
Concerning Jesus' teachings of the Gospel
(Injeel), the Gospel writers frequently mentioned
Jesus preaching the Gospel: Matthew 9:35, Mark
8:35 and Luke 20:1. The word "gospel" is
recurrently used in the Bible. However, in the New
Testament Greek edition, the word evangelion is

used in place of the word gospel, which is
translated to mean good news. 14 My question was:
What Gospel did Jesus preach? Of the 27 books of
the New Testament, only a small fraction can be
accepted as the words of Jesus, 10 and only 4 of the
27 books are known to be attributed as the Gospel
of Jesus. Paul supposedly wrote the remaining 23.
Muslims do believe that Jesus was given God's
"Good News." However, they do not recognize the
present four Gospels as the utterances of Jesus. 14
The earliest Gospel is that of Mark's which was
written about 60-75 A.D. Mark was the son of
Barnabas's sister. Matthew was a tax collector, ~
minor official who did not travel around with
Jesus. Luke's Gospel was written much later, and
in fact, drawn from the same sources as Mark's
and Matthew's. Luke was Paul's physician, and
like Paul, never met Jesus. By the way, did you
know that the names Mark and Luke were not
included in the 12 appointed disciples of Jesus as
mentioned in Matthew 10:2-4?
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these; The
first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his
brother; James the son of Zebedee, and John his

brother; Philip, and Bartholomew; Thomas, and
Matthew the publican; James the son of Alphaeus, and
Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus; Simon the
Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed him.
John's Gospel is from a different source, and was
written in about 100 A.D. 7 He (John) should not be
confused with John, the disciple, who was
beheaded by Agrippa I in the year 44 CE long
before this gospel was written. It should be known
that for two centuries it was hotly debated whether
the Gospel of John should be accepted as a reliable
account of the life of Jesus, and whether it should
be included in the scriptures. 7
Christians, as I once did, boast about the Gospels
According to Matthew, According to Mark,
According to Luke and According to John.
However, if we think about it, there is not a single
Gospel according to Jesus himself. 1o According to
the preface of the KJV New Open Bible Study
Edition, the word "Gospel" was added (see the
information below) to the original titles,
"According to John, According to Matthew,
According to Luke and According to Mark."

At an early date this gospel was given the title Kata
Matthaion, "According to Matthew." As this title
suggests, other gospel accounts were known at that
time (the word gospel was added later).4
The permission to call the "According to "
writings the Gospel was not given by Jesus nor by
any other divine guidance. These writings;
Matthew, Luke, Mark and John were never
originally intended to be the Gospel. Therefore,
Mark 1: 1 can not be a true statement that his
writing is the gospel of Jesus.
It should be mentioned that Muslims must believe
in all Divine Scriptures in their original fonn, their
Prophets and make no distinction between them:
The Suhuf (Abraham); Torah (Moses); Psalms
(David); Gospel - or the Injeel (Jesus); and, the
Quran (Mohammed). It is clearly stated in the
Quran 3:3 that Allah sent down the Torah and the
Gospel. ,However, none of these scriptures remains
in its original form now, except the Quran, which
was sent for all mankind everywhere and for all
times.

In addition to other reasons why the Quran was
sent to mankind, as mentioned in 18:4-5, it was
sent to warn the Christians of a terrible
punishment from God if they cease not in saying:
"Allah hath begotten a son. "

Muslims sincerely believe that everything Jesus
(May the peace and blessing of God be upon him)
preached was from God; the Gospel (Injeel): The
"good news" and the guidance of God for the
Children of Israel. 10 There is no place mentioned in
the present four Gospels that Jesus wrote a single
word of his Gospel, nor is it mentioned that Jesus
instructed anyone to do so. What passes off as the
"Gospels" today are the works of third party
human hands. 10
The Quran 2:79 says:
"And woe to those who write the book with their
own hands and then say: "This is from Allah
(God)." To traffic with it for a miserable price!
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So woe to them for what their hands do write,
and woe to them for what they earn thereby!"
Before closing this chapter, I would like to share
with you some comments from an article printed in
the U.S. News & World Report, In Search of
Jesus, April 8, 1996, page 47-53:
• Robert Funk, a renowned biblical scholar, and
50 religion professors concluded that no more
than 20 percent of the sayings and even fewer
of the deeds attributed to Jesus are authentic.
Among the cast offs: the Lord's Prayer, the
saying from the cross and any claims of Jesus
to divinity, the virgin birth, most of his
miracles and his bodily resurrection. (Page 49)

• John Meier, a professor at the Catholic
University of America in Washington DC:,
concludes:
* He (Jesus) was born around 7 BC in Nazareth, not
in Bethlehem as the gospel of Luke says.
* Despite official Catholic teaching that Mary, the
mother of Jesus, remained a virgin all of her life,
Meier says Jesus had four brothers and at least two
sisters, details that emerge from the gospels of Mark
and John and from the writings of Paul. The virgin
birth of Jesus, says Meier, "cannot be proven or
disproven" by historical investigation.
* He had a brief ministry in Galilee as a teacher,
prophet and worker of deeds that were perceived by
some as miracles.
* He was arrested in Jerusalem and crucified under
pontius Pilate somewhere around A.D. 30. His
followers claimed he rose from the dead. (Page 50)
• John Crossan, one of the most prolific of the
modem questers, a former Roman Catholic
priest and professor emeritus at Depaul
University in Chicago, thinks the evidence he's
gathered would rule out most of Christianity's
traditional teachings. Biblical accounts of the
Last Supper and appearances of the risen Jesus,
he says for example, are merely attempts by his
devout followers to express their "continued
experience" of his presence after the
Crucifixion. (Page 52)