The Gospel of Barnabas

is a version of the life of Jesus, as recounted by the apostle Barnabas.

First, his name. Written in Greek as Βαρναβας, the original is in fact Aramaic rather than Yehudit, and though Acts 4:36 claims that the name meant "son of encouragement" (whatever that means! some translations prefer "son of consolation"), the only obvious possibility in Aramaic is Bar Neviy'a (בּר נביא), which would be rendered as Ben Nevi in Yehudit, and would mean "son of the Prophet" in either language, "son" being used, presumably, as a synonym for "disciple", and therefore an entirely logical name for Yoseph (see below) to have chosen when he became a Christian.

St Paul's Pillar, Paphos, Cyprus

Second, his biography. He was born a Jew on the island of Kaprisin (Cyprus), and originally named Yoseph. He encountered Jesus in Yeru-Shala'im at the very end of the latter's life, became an immediate devotee, and accompanied Paul on missionary journeys, with the specific task of defending Gentile converts against those who would persuade them to convert, or convert back, to Judaism.

Most of his travels were in Anatolia, which may suggest the sect of early Christianity that he adhered to: Anatolia was the land of Anat, whose shrine in Yehudah (Judea) was Beit Anatot, the home of Lazar/Lazarus); he also took Paul, and Mark, to his home in Kaprisin (click here for detail).

Those travels are theoretically recorded by the Apostle John in "The Acts of Barnabas" (the narrator calls himself John Mark, which should alert any reader to its being pseudepigraphical; scholars now date it to the 5th century CE). He participated in the Council of Yeru-Shalayim in 50 CE. In addition to his appearances in the Acts of the Apostles, he is also mentioned in several of Paul's epistles (click here). Tertullian believed him to be the author of "The Epistle to the Hebrews", and Clement of Alexandria ascribed "The Epistle of Barnabas to him, which is logical since it bears his name; but in fact there is no evidence to support either claim. Tradition holds that he was martyred at Salamis, in Cyprus, in 61 CE.

Third, the text (click here to read it). Two versions of this Gospel are known to have existed, one in Italian, the other in Spanish, both dating from the 16th century; the Spanish is now lost, except for a small fragment in an 18th-century transcript. Hugely lengthy - the Italian manuscript has 222 chapters, where Mark manages the full tale in just 16 - it focuses on Jesus' ministry, though most of it is simply extended accounts of what is already in the Canonical Gospels, but with one significant difference - theologically it is much closer to the Islamic than the Christian orthodox in its interpretation of Christ's message!

The general view among the scholars is that Barnabas' gospel is pseudepigraphical (written by someone else but claiming his name), and that it probably includes fragments of other lost gospels (the Gnostic and the Ebionite, plus the two Diatessaronics - Tatian and Basilides - are the usual suspects), and it remains a version of Christianity much favoured amongst Moslems wishing to know more (which is not surprising, given the Anat connection mentioned above).

Dating it is also interesting. A "Gospel according to Barnabas" is mentioned in two early Christian lists of apocryphal works: the Latin "Decretum Gelasianum" (6th century), and a 7th-century Greek "List of the Sixty Books", but beyond that there is no mention of it anywhere until 1634, when it is referenced in a manuscript of a man named Ibrahim al-Taybili in Tunisia. Nothing after that until 1718: a passing reference by the Irish deist John Toland; and an even more passing reference by George Sale in his 1734 "Preliminary Discourse to the Koran":

"The Mohammedans have also a Gospel in Arabic, attributed to St. Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is related in a manner very different from what we find in the true Gospels, and correspondent to those traditions which Mohammed has followed in his Koran. Of this Gospel the Moriscoes in Africa have a translation in Spanish; and there is in the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy, a manuscript of some antiquity, containing an Italian translation of the same Gospel, made, it is to be supposed, for the use of renegades. This book appears to be no original forgery of the Mohammedans, though they have no doubt interpolated and altered it since, the better to serve their purpose; and in particular, instead of the Paraclete or Comforter, they have, in this apocryphal gospel, inserted the word Periclyte, that is, the famous or illustrious, by which they pretend their prophet was foretold by name, that being the signification of Mohammed in Arabic; and this they say to justify that passage in the Koran where Jesus Christ is formally asserted to have foretold his coming under his other name Ahmed, which is derived from the same root as Mohammed and of the same import."

Additional to these, in 1698 the Anglican divine John Ernest Grabe claimed to have found an otherwise unreported saying of Jesus, attributed to the Apostle Barnabas, amongst the Greek manuscripts in the Baroccian collection in the Bodleian Library; which he speculated might be a quotation from this lost gospel; and the philosopher John Toland claimed to have identified a corresponding phrase when he examined the surviving Italian manuscript of the Gospel of Barnabas in Amsterdam before 1709. Subsequent scholars examining the Italian and Spanish texts have been unable, however, to confirm Toland's observation, and given that he was a notorious hoaxer and satirist, he may well have made the whole thing up as a spoof on Grabe, and as a way of tacitly accusing him of making his whole thing up.

St Barnabas monastery, Famagusta, Cyprus

What then was "The Gospel of Barnabas", and when was it written. Textual analysis of the Italian version by the more literary has revealed a significant debt to Dante, which places the writing no earlier than the 14th century, and also to the so-called "vernacular harmonies" of middle Italy in the same period - the equivalent of "Gospels for Dummies". On the other hand, it is an Italian translation, and we can expect a literary-minded translator to want to show off his poetic talents as much as his ability to convey one language in another; the Dante and the dialect tell us much about the translation, but nothing at all about the original.

The other manuscript is Spanish and bears many resemblances to other Morisco forgeries, including the Sacromonte Tablets of Granada, produced in the 1590s, and to Morisco reworkings of various Christian and Islamic traditions, produced following the expulsion of the Moors from Spain. This thesis is supported by the Islamic nature of the take on Christ's teaching, but more intriguing is the fact that the lost manuscript is supposed to have been written in Istanbul, which was Byzantium originally, and at the time of the expulsion of the Moors was called Constantinople. An Islamic-Christian work published in Constantinople? Against all advice of the Moslem clerics no doubt, who may not have forbidden, but certainly disapproved, of the publication of any books other than the Qur'an. And who would have done the printing? In Constantinople at that time, it can only have been Jews! And perhaps that explains why there are so many errors in the Arabic - it even gets the shahada, the "lā ʾilāha ʾillā l-Lāh" wrong!

As to the text itself, Barnabas' version of Jesus' life borrows from the Canonical Gospels, but also regularly contradicts them; for example, Jesus escapes crucifixion by being raised alive to Heaven, while Judas Iscariot is crucified in his place - the sort of "based on" ending you get in Hollywood movies.

More significantly, it is strongly anti-Pauline - which is odd for a man who was Paul's travelling companion - and anti-Trinitarian in tone. Jesus is held to be a prophet rather than the son of God, and Paul is

called "the deceived". Jesus permits the drinking of wine, and encourages monogamy rather than either the asceticism of the Gnostics or the alabaster-oil and myrrh sensualism hinted at in the Canonical Gospels. He also insists that Hell will only be for those who commit one or more of the Seven Deadly Sins, that circumcision remains a requirement for entry into Paradise, that God has a soul, and that there are nine heavens (the influence of Dante less obvious here, perhaps, than knowledge of the Egyptian pyramid texts).

Amongst its other "deviations from orthodoxy", chapter 164 offers an extended polemic against the doctrine of predestination and in favour of justification by faith, while chapter 137 makes the case that the eternal destination of the soul to Heaven or Hell is neither pre-determined by God's grace (as in Calvinism), nor the judgement of God, in his mercy, on the faith of believers on Earth (as in Islam). Instead it states that all those condemned at the Last Judgement, but who subsequently respond in faith, who demonstrate unfeigned penitence, and who make a free choice of blessedness, will eventually be offered salvation; only those whose persistent pride prevents them from sincere repentance will remain forever in Hell. Those campaigning to close all prisons in today's Britain and America appear to be making a similarly naive case.

Both of these discussions reflect the intellectual zeitgeist of 16th century Europe, where neo-Pelagians were debating with anti-Trinitarian Protestants, who were in conflict with Catholic Unitarians, and everyone hated the Moslems and the Jews, except for those who wanted to reconcile all three religions. In much the way that Sartre set his anti-Fascist play "Les Mouches" in ancient Greece, but had it performed in Nazi-occupied Paris, so it would seem "The Gospel of Barabas" made its appearance in 16th century Italy and Spain, printed no doubt by Jews in Constantinople, with enough nonsense in it that it could be dismissed as a hoax, while those in the know knew what they knew, and read the work as part of a samizdat international debate. This at least sounds plausible.

Sarcophagus of St Barnabas in Salamis

The full text of "The Gospel of Barnabas" can be found by clicking here.

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