The Gospel of Barnabas

The Quran does not affirm the death of Jesus on the cross:

Quran 4:157
And because of their saying (in boast), “We killed Messiah ‘Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary), the Messenger of Allah,” – but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but the resemblance of ‘Iesa (Jesus) was put over another man (and they killed that man), and those who differ therein are full of doubts. They have no (certain) knowledge, they follow nothing but conjecture. For surely; they killed him not [i.e. ‘Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary)]:

Islam’s denial of the historic event of Jesus’ death on the cross is irrational, because the death of Jesus on the cross is an established event.¹Why believe what the Quran has to say about the afterlife, when it can’t be trusted with the things of this world?

Muslims have tried to give evidence in support of Quran 4:157 to support its mistaken claims. In their attempt to cast doubt about the fact of Jesus’ death on the cross, the Gospel of Barnabas has been popular. 

The Gospel of Barnabas is available in Islamic bookstores and often the first and only “gospel” Muslims read. What many Muslims don’t know is that the Gospel of Barnabas appears to have been written some 1,500 years after the time of Jesus.

A text called the Gospel of Barnabas has had a wide circulation in modern times. It was discovered in an Italian manuscript in Amsterdam in 1709. Since its translation into Arabic in the early 20th century, some have claimed that it preserves the original Gospel, of which the Qurʾān speaks. In fact, the Gospel of Barnabas has been shown to have its origins in the western Mediterranean world, probably in Spain, in the 16th century.²“Gospel.” Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān. General Editor: Jane Dammen McAuliffe; Brill [Leiden and Boston], 2005. CD-ROM version.

Muslims have been presenting a 16th century work to try and disprove an established historical event from the 1st century. By appealing to the Gospel of Barnabas, Muslims are guilty of tampering with 1st century Scripture (tahrif).

The reason the Bible is true is because it is a record of what God has done in history culminating in the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection from the dead.³“They [events pertaining to the Gospel] were true because they happened in history, and things that happen in history are not just true for direct participants, but are true for everyone” (Michael Horton, “Heaven Came Down”; Modern Reformation, Nov./Dec. 1995, Vol. 4 No. 6.)

The reason Quran 4:157 is not true is because it is not a true record about  what happened in history to Jesus.

Here’s a helpful video to learn more about the Gospel of Barnabas.

You may want to read:

An example of Muhammad’s corruption of Scripture: Quran 33:37

What every Muslim should know about the Bible