Editing Gospel of Barnabas (section)

== Textual history ==
{{Quote box
| quote  = The complete silence of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim traditions is bothersome. If it was only a secondary text of little importance, this silence could be understood. But a fundamental work, which claims to have been written on the direct orders of Jesus, would have to leave some traces in history.
| author ={{ill|Jacques Jomier|fr}}<ref name="value">{{Cite book <!-- url=http://www.muhammadanism.org/campbell/barnabas_letter_format.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101127050314/http://muhammadanism.org/campbell/barnabas_letter_format.pdf |archive-date=2010-11-27 |url-status=live --> |title=Gospel of Barnabas: Its True Value |date=1989 |isbn=1-881085-02-3 |last=Campbell |first=William F. |publisher=Christian Study Centre }}</ref>{{rp|51}}
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The Gospel of Barnabas is dated from the 14th<ref name="date" /> to the 17th centuries,<ref name="value" /><sup>:57</sup> too late to have been written by the biblical [[Barnabas]] ({{fl.|1st century CE}}).<ref name="Barnabas" /><sup>:3</sup> It is one of three extant works bearing his name, along with the [[Epistle of Barnabas]] and the [[Acts of Barnabas]].<ref name="Barnabas">{{Cite book |title=Joseph Barnabas: His Life and Legacy |last=Kollmann |first=Bernd |date=2004 |publisher=[[Liturgical Press]] |isbn=978-08-14651-70-4 }}</ref><sup>:53–60</sup> A "Gospel according to Barnabas" was first mentioned in the sixth-century [[Gelasian Decree]], and was condemned as apocryphal.<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|25}} Another mention of a gospel using his name is in the seventh-century ''List of the Sixty Books'',<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Apocryphal New Testament: A Collection of Apocryphal Christian Literature in an English Translation |date=2005 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |last=Elliott |first=J. K. |isbn=978-01-91068-53-9 }}</ref>{{rp|xxiv}} or the ''Catalogue of the Sixty Canonical Books''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception |editor-last1=Furey |editor-first1=Constance M. |editor-last2=Matz |editor-first2=Brian |editor-last3=McKenzie |editor-first3=Steven L. |editor-last4=Römer |editor-first4=Thomas |editor-last5=Schröter |editor-first5=Jens |editor-last6=Walfish |editor-first6=Barry Dov |editor-last7=Ziolkowski |editor-first7=Eric |last=Nickel |first=Gordon L. |chapter=Barnabas, Gospel of |isbn=978-31-10183-55-9 |date=2009 |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] }}</ref>{{rp|533}} Historians are uncertain whether these refer to this Gospel of Barnabas, since no quotes have been preserved for confirmation.<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|25}} Jomier believes a forger could have taken the title after the publishing of the Gelasian Decree by printing press.<ref name="Geisler">Geisler, Norman L. & Abdul Saleeb "Answering Islam: The Crescent in Light of the Cross" Baker Books, 2002, p. 304.</ref>

The earliest reference to the gospel may have been in a 1634 letter<ref name="value" />{{rp|50}} in the [[Biblioteca Nacional de España]] written in Tunisia by Ibrahim al-Taybil (Juan Pérez in Spanish), an Arabic-Spanish translator and author.<ref name="de">{{Cite web |url=https://www.chrislages.de/barnarom.htm |title=The 'Gospel of Barnabas' in recent research |website={{ill|Christlich-Islamische Gesellschaft|de}} |access-date=22 May 2022 |last=Slomp |first=Jan |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407071312/https://www.chrislages.de/barnarom.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> He referred to the "Gospel of Saint Barnabas, where one can find the light".{{efn|Quoted in Spanish: {{lang|es|"&nbsp;... y asi mesmo en Elanjelio de San Barnabé donde de hallara luz."}}<ref name="de" />}}<ref name="de" /> The first published reference to the gospel was by the French poet [[Bernard de la Monnoye]] in his 1715 book, ''Menagiana''.<ref name="Sox">{{Cite book |title=The Gospel of Barnabas |url=https://archive.org/details/gospelofbarnabas0000soxd |date=1984 |last=Sox |first=David |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]] |isbn=0-04-200044-0 |url-access=registration }}</ref>{{rp|26}} Dutch orientalist [[Adriaan Reland]] referred to the gospel's Spanish version in his 1717 {{lang|es|De religione Mohamedica}} (''On the Mohammedan Religion'').<ref>{{Cite book |title=Évangile de Barnabé : fac-similé, traduction et notes |date=1999 |last1=Cirillo |first1=Luigi |last2=Frémaux |first2=Michel |publisher=Beauchesne |isbn=978-27-01013-89-3 |language=fr |trans-title=Gospel of Barnabas: Facsimile, Translation, and Notes }}</ref>{{rp|17}} The following year, a reference to the Italian version appeared in the Irish philosopher [[John Toland]]'s {{lang|la|Nazarenus}}.<ref name="date" /> British Orientalist [[George Sale]] cited the Italian and Spanish manuscripts in his 1734 ''The Preliminary Discourse to the Koran''.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Koran, Commonly Called the Alcoran of Mohammed: Translated into English Immediately from the Original Arabic with Explanatory Notes Taken from the Most Approved Commentators to which is Prefixed a Preliminary Discourse |date=1734 |last=Sale |first=George |author-link=George Sale |oclc=1135206 |publisher=J. W. Moore }}</ref>{{rp|53}}

=== Manuscripts ===
==== Italian ====
[[File:Balthasar Wigand Josephsplatz 1835.jpg|thumb|alt=See caption|1835 painting of the [[Austrian National Library]], where the Italian manuscript was kept]]
In {{lang|la|Nazarenus}}, Toland said that he was shown the manuscript he called the "Mahometan Gospel" in 1709 in [[Amsterdam]]<ref name="date" /> through an ambassador in the city and the [[Antitrinitarianism|anti-Trinitarian]] scholar Jean Frederic Cramer (counsellor of [[Frederick I of Prussia]]).<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and Its Enemies, 1660–1730 |date=1992 |last=Champion |first=J. A. I. |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-05-21405-36-2 }}</ref>{{rp|125}} His description is not detailed, and provides no information about the gospel's general contents. However, he quotes the opening of the gospel ("The true Gospel of Jesus called Christ, a new prophet sent by God to the world, according to the relation of Barnabas his apostle"); a fragment ("The Apostle Barnabas says, 'He gets the worst of it who overcomes in evil contentions; because he thus comes to have the more sin{{'"}}), and the ending:

<blockquote>Jesus being gone, the Disciples scattered themselves into many parts of Palestine, and of the rest of the world; and the truth, being hated of Satan, was persecuted by falshood, as it ever happens. For certain wicked men, under pretence of being Disciples, preached that Jesus was dead, and not risen again: others preached that Jesus was truly dead, and risen again: others preached, and still continued to preach, that Jesus is the Son of God, among which persons Paul has been deceived. We therefore, according to the measure of our knowledge, do preach to those who fear God, to the end that they may be saved at the last day of divine judgment; Amen. The end of the Gospel.<ref name="Axon">{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23949668 |title=On the Mohammedan Gospel of Barnabas |last=Axon |first=William E. A. |author-link=William E. A. Axon |date=April 1902 |pages=441–451 |volume=3 |issue=1 |doi=10.1093/jts/os-III.11.441 |journal=The Journal of Theological Studies |jstor=23949668  }}</ref></blockquote>

Dated to the end of the sixteenth century,<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4150739 |title=The 'Gospel of Barnabas' and the Diatessaron |date=January 2002 |journal=[[The Harvard Theological Review]] |volume=95 |issue=1 |pages=73–96 |doi=10.1017/S0017816002041056 |last=Joosten |first=Jan |doi-broken-date=1 November 2024 |jstor=4150739 }}</ref> the manuscript was anonymous.<ref name="Axon" /> Toland observed that it was written on a "Turkish paper delicately gummed and polished", bound in the "Turkish manner", and the fine quality of its ink and orthography{{cn|date=April 2024}} led him to assume that it was at least three hundred years old. In the appendix of his book, Toland wrote: "[I]t was an [[octavo]] volume six inches long, four broad, and one-and-a-half thick, and containing 229 leaves, each of about eighteen and nineteen lines."<ref name="Axon" /> The manuscript was obtained by [[Prince Eugene of Savoy]] in 1738 through Cramer, who wrote in a dedicatory preface that no Christian had ever been allowed to see it "although they strove with all means at their disposal to find it and take a look at it".<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|50}} It is currently held by the [[Austrian National Library]].<ref name="date">{{Cite journal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43665026 |title=The Date and Provenance of the 'Gospel of Barnabas' |date=April 2010 |last=Joosten |first=Jan |author-link=Jan Joosten (biblical scholar) |journal=[[The Journal of Theological Studies]] |volume=61 |issue=1 |pages=200–215 |doi=10.1093/jts/flq010 |jstor=43665026 }}</ref><ref name="de" />

The scholars Lonsdale and Laura Ragg published an English translation of the Italian manuscript by [[Oxford University Press]] in 1907.<ref name="de" /> An Arabic translation, at the initiative of the Egyptian scholar [[Rashid Rida]], was published the following year<ref name="de" /> and became popular in the Muslim world; Saʿādeh, a Christian, translated it.<ref name="Rida">{{Cite book <!-- |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1163/j.ctt1w76v0s.9 --> |title=Islamic Reformism and Christianity: A Critical Reading of the Works of Muḥammad Rashīd Riḍā and His Associates (1898–1935) |date=2009 |isbn=978-90-47-44146-5 |last=Ryad |first=Umar }}</ref>{{rp|214}} Rida began publishing promotional excerpts and information about the Arabic translation before its publication in July 1907 in his magazine, {{transliteration|ar|[[Al-Manār (magazine)|Al-Manār]]}}.<ref name="Rida" />{{rp|218}} The Raggs' English translation (without their critical preface) became popular in 1973 in Pakistan,<ref name="Wipf">{{Cite book |title=The Mission and Death of Jesus in Islam and Christianity |last=Zahniser |first=A. H. Mathias |date=2017 |publisher=[[Wipf and Stock Publishers]] |isbn=978-17-25256-26-2 }}</ref>{{rp|80}} when it was published by M. A. Rahim and promoted as the "true gospel of Jesus"<ref name="forgery" /> by local newspapers.<ref name="de" /> In Indonesia, it was translated in 1969, 1970, and 1980;<ref>{{Cite book |title=Menjadi Gereja di Tengah Dunia yang Terluka |trans-title=The Church in a Damaged World |date=2020 |last=Sairin |first=Weinata |publisher=[[Gramedia Pustaka Utama]] |isbn=978-60-20648-13-2 }}</ref>{{rp|129}} the 1970 translation, by {{ill|Husein bin Abu Bakar Al-Habsyi|id}} and Abubakar Basymeleh, was republished with additional footnotes in 1987.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Telaah Kritis Atas Injil Barnabas: Asal-Usul, Historisitas dan Isinya |last=Noorsena |first=Bambang |date=2021 |publisher=Penerbit Andi |trans-title=A Critical Analysis of the Gospel of Barnabas: Origins, Historicity, and its Contents }}</ref>{{rp|91}}<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://jurnal.staialanwar.ac.id/index.php/itqon/article/download/710/81/218 |title=Melacak Sumber dan Keotentikan Penafsiran Muqātil bin Sulaymān tentang Ayat Kisah Penyaliban dan Pengangkatan Nabi ʿĪsā ke Langit |date=February 2019 |journal=Al-Itqal: Jurnal Studi Al-Qur'an |last=Umam |first=Ahmad Jauhari |doi=10.47454/itqan.v5i1.710 |trans-title=Analysing the Sources and Authenticity of Muqātil bin Sulaymān's Interpretation of the Verses on the Crucifixion and Ascension of Jesus to the Heavens |language=id |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=115–140 |doi-broken-date=2 December 2024 |s2cid=241324498 |access-date=2022-05-26 |archive-date=2022-05-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220527120943/https://jurnal.staialanwar.ac.id/index.php/itqon/article/download/710/81/218 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }}</ref> Translations in Dutch (1990), German (1994), modern Italian, Persian (1927), Spanish, Turkish, and Urdu (1916) have also been published.<ref name="de" /><ref name="influence">{{Cite web |url=http://www.contra-mundum.org/schirrmacher/rationalism.html |title=The influence of German Biblical criticism on Muslim apologetics in the 19th century |last=Schirrmacher |first=Christine |date=1997 |website=contra-mundum.org |access-date=27 May 2022 |archive-date=8 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181108065525/http://www.contra-mundum.org/schirrmacher/rationalism.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Spanish ====
[[File:Fisher Library, University of Sydney.JPG|thumb|alt=Street view of a modern building|The University of Sydney's Fisher Library, where the Spanish manuscript was discovered]]
The Spanish manuscript was lost for more than a century;<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|25}} Sale became the only source for a detailed description in his 1734 book, ''The Koran''.<ref name="Raggs">{{Cite book |title=The Gospel of Barnabas: Edited and Translated from the Italian Ms. in the Imperial Library at Vienna |date=1907 |last1=Ragg |first1=Lonsdale |last2=Ragg |first2=Laura |publisher=Oxford University Press |oclc=1085610126 }}</ref>{{rp|xi}} He wrote, "The book is a moderate quarto&nbsp;[...] written in a very legible hand, but a little damaged towards the latter end. It contains two hundred and twenty-two chapters of unequal length, and four hundred and twenty pages."<ref name="Raggs" />{{rp|xi}} Sale saw the manuscript while it was still in the possession of rector George Holme.<ref name="Spanish">{{Cite journal |title=The Spanish Gospel of Barnabas |last=Fletcher |first=J. E. |journal=[[Novum Testamentum]] |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=314–320 |date=October 1976 |doi=10.1163/156853676X00157 |jstor=1560539 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1560539 }}</ref> It later passed to Thomas Monkhouse, a fellow of [[The Queen's College, Oxford]], and was seen by the Reverend Joseph White. White quoted several extracts from the English translation in a 1784 lecture, before the gospel's whereabouts became unknown.<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|25}}

A Spanish Gospel of Barnabas was found at the [[University of Sydney]]'s [[Fisher Library]], among the books of Australian politician [[Charles Nicholson]], in 1976.<ref name="Spanish" /> A copy of Sale's manuscript, made between 1736 and 1745,<ref name="value" />{{rp|50}}{{efn|The transcriber (probably English), who identified themselves as "M. Hone", wrote: "Transcribed from ms [manuscript] in possession of Revd Mr. Edm. Callamy who bought it at the Decease of Mr. George Sale 17[36] and now gave me at the Decease of Mr. [[John Nickolls]] 1745."<ref name="value" />{{rp|50}}}} is incomplete and has differences from the Italian manuscript;<ref name="Spanish" /> the [[Page header|subheaders]] of chapters 1–27 are missing.<ref name="date" /> Only the first third of chapter 120 exists, ending on page 116 with a note: "Cap. 121 to 200 wanting".<ref name="Spanish" /> The next page continues with chapter 200, chapter 199 in the Italian manuscript (a discrepancy which continues until chapter 222 in the Spanish manuscript, 221 in the Italian).<ref name="Spanish" /> The Spanish 218th chapter has different lines, and the subheader {{lang|es|"En que se cuenta la passion de Judas Traydor"}} ("In which the passion of Judas the Betrayer is recounted").<ref name="Spanish" /> The Italian chapter 222 is missing from the Spanish manuscript. J. E. Fletcher, who discovered the latter, published his findings in the October 1976 issue of {{lang|la|[[Novum Testamentum]]}}.<ref name="Spanish" />

Scholars note parallels in the manuscript to a series of Morisco forgeries (collectively known as the [[Lead Books of Sacromonte]]),<ref>{{Cite book |title=Muslims in Spain: 1500 to 1614 |date=15 September 2008 |last=Harvey |first=Leonard Patrick |author-link=Leonard Patrick Harvey |isbn=978-02-26319-65-0 |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] }}</ref>{{rp|289}}<ref name="de" /> which may date it to the 16th century.<ref name="date" /> Claiming to be a translation of an Italian manuscript{{snd}}probably not the extant one{{snd}}it opens with a prologue by Fra Marino (likely a pseudonym).<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|51}} According to Fra Marino, he first encountered writings by the [[Church Fathers|Church Father]] [[Irenaeus]] which criticized Paul and referred to the Gospel of Barnabas. While with his friend [[Pope Sixtus V]] at a [[Vatican City]] library, he then found a copy of the Gospel of Barnabas and converted to Islam after reading it.<ref name="Sox" />{{rp|9}}<ref name="forgery" /> Mustafa de Aranda, an [[Aragonese people|Aragonese]] Muslim who lived in Istanbul (then Constantinople), is identified in the translator's note as the translator of the Italian manuscript into Spanish.<ref name="date" /> Nothing further is known about this,<ref name="de" /> and none of Irenaeus' writings mentioned the gospel.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/240429/ |title=The 'Wahubiri wa Kislamu' (Preachers of Islam) in East Africa |last=Ahmed |first=Chanfi |journal=[[Africa Today]] |volume=54 |issue=4 |date=Summer 2008 |pages=3–18 |doi=10.2979/AFT.2008.54.4.2 |jstor=27666928 |s2cid=145192048 }}</ref> Through the [[University of Granada]], Luis Bernabé Pons published the incomplete Spanish manuscript (with missing parts derived from the Italian manuscript) in a 1998 book entitled {{lang|es|El texto morisco del Evangelio de San Bernabé}} (''The Moorish Text of the Gospel of Saint Barnabas'').<ref name="date" />

==== Syriac ====
[[File:Ethnography Museum of Ankara.jpg|thumb|alt=Exterior photo of a large building with a domed roof|The Ethnography Museum of Ankara, where a Syriac copy is being held]]

In 1985, Turkish media reported that an alleged [[Syriac language|Syriac]]-language copy of the Gospel of Barnabas had been found in the city of [[Hakkâri (city)|Hakkâri]]. <ref name="true" />
In February 2012, the Turkish press reported that the [[Ministry of Culture and Tourism (Turkey)|Ministry of Culture and Tourism]] confirmed that a 52-page biblical manuscript thought to be the Gospel of Barnabas had been deposited at the [[Ethnography Museum of Ankara]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/turkish-authorities-claim-to-have-seized-early-biblical-text/ |title=Turkish Authorities Claim to Have Seized Early Biblical Text |date=27 February 2012 |website=[[Biblical Archaeology Society]] |access-date=27 May 2022 |archive-date=23 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423042720/https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/news/turkish-authorities-claim-to-have-seized-early-biblical-text/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The manuscript was reportedly found in Cyprus in 2000 in a police anti-smuggling operation, and had been in a police repository since then.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/vatican-requests-1500-year-old-bible-from-turkey_n_1296672 |title=Vatican Requests 1,500-Year-Old Bible Held In Turkey |last=Hibbard |first=Laura |date=23 February 2012 |work=[[Huffington Post]] |access-date=27 May 2022 |archive-date=23 January 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180123192219/https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/23/vatican-requests-1500-year-old-bible-from-turkey_n_1296672.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Photographs of a cover page were widely published, on which can be read an inscription in a neo-Aramaic hand: "In the name of our Lord, this book is written on the hands of the monks of the high monastery in Nineveh, in the 1,500th year of our Lord."<ref name="hoax">{{Cite news |url=https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/en/2012/03/05/news/the-gospel-of-barnabas-hoax-1.36491112 |title=The Gospel of Barnabas 'hoax' |date=5 March 2012 |work=[[Vatican Insider]] |access-date=27 May 2022 |archive-date=19 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219103017/http://www.lastampa.it/2012/03/04/vaticaninsider/eng/world-news/the-gospel-of-barnabas-hoax-dmytRSmf9UhiPZJZJx60SL/pagina.html |url-status=live }}</ref>