THE TRUE MESSAGE OF

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THE TRUE MESSAGE OF
JESUS CHRIST

BY
DR. ABU AMEENAH BILAL PHILIPS

INTRODUTION
Jesus Christ represents the common link between the two religions having the most followers on the earth today, Christianity and Islam. The following study of Jesus message and his person is based on this link .it is hoped that through this study, both Muslims and Christians will better understand the significance of Jesus and the importance of his message.
However, for us to accurately identify the true message of Jesus Christ, an objective point of view must be maintained throughout the course of our research. We should not allow our emotions to cloud our vision and thereby blind us from the truth. We must look at all of the issues rationally and separate the truth from falsehood- with the help of the almighty.
When we look at the variety of false religions and deviant beliefs around the world and the zeal with which their followers uphold these beliefs, it becomes quite evident that these people are not able to find the truth because of their blind commitment to their beliefs. Their tenacious adherence is usually not based on an intellectual understanding of the teachings, but on powerful cultural and emotional influences. Because they were brought up in a particular family or society, they firmly cling to the beliefs of that society, believing that they are upholding the truth.
The only way that we may find the truth about anything is to approach it systematically and logically. First, we weigh the evidence and then we judge it by the intelligence which god has given us. in the material world, it is fundamentally intelligence that distinguishes humans from animals, which act purely on instinct. After determining what the objective truth is, we must then commit ourselves to it emotionally. Yes, there is a place for emotional commitment, but emotional commitment must come after a reasoned comprehension of the issues. Emotional commitment is essential, because it is evidence of a true understanding. When one fully and properly understands the reality of the issue, one is then mentally and spiritually prepared to vigorously uphold that reality. It is from this intellectual and spiritual poit of view that the subject of Jesus” message and his relevance to those who desire to follow god will be analyzed in the following pages.
Dr. Bilal Philips Saudi Arabia, 1989
CHAPTER ONE: THE ******URES
The topic (The True Message of Jesus Christ) is comprised of two basic parts: 1.the message and 2. The person of Jesus Christ .each one is inseparable from the other. In order to understand Jesus “message, we must know who he was.
However, for us to understand who he was, it is also necessary to identify and comprehended his message.
There are two possible avenues which may be taken to look into the identity of Jesus
Christ and the ******* of his message. One is based on the historical record compiled by modern historians from the writings and relics of that period and the other is based on the reports contained in the revealed ******ures.
In reality, there is very little historical evidence available to inform us about who Jesus Christ was or to determine what his message was. The official historical ********s of that time contain virtually no record of Jesus .a biblical scholar, R.T. France, writes, “No 1st century in******ion mentions him and no object or building has survived which has a specific link to him. ‘¹This fact has even led some western historians to mistakenly claim that Jesus Christ never actually existed. Therefore, research has to be primarily based on the ******ures which address the person and the mission of Jesus Christ. The ******ures in question are those officially recognized by both Christianity and Islam. However, to accurately analyze the information contained in these religious ****s, it is essential to first determine their validity. Are they reliable sources of ********ary evidence, or humanly concocted tales and myths, or a mixture of both? Are the bibles old and new testaments divinely revealed ******ures? Is the Qur’aan (Koran) authentic?
For the bible and the Qur’aan to be the divine word of god, they must be free from inexplicable contradictions, and there should be no doubt about their ******* or about their authors. If this is the case, the material contained in the old and New Testament and the Qur’aan can then be considered reliable sources of information concerning the message and the person of Jesus Christ.

¹time, December 18, 1995, p.46.

Authentic Manu******s
it has been ********ed by many scholars from various branches and sects of Christianity that much of the material in the Bible is of doubtful authenticity.
In the preface of The Myth of God Incarnate, the editor wrote the following: “In the nineteenth century, Western Christianity made two major new adjustments in response to important enlargements of human knowledge: it accepted that man is a part of nature and has emerged within the evolution of the forms of life on this earth; and it accepted that the books of the Bible were written by a variety of human beings in a variety of circumstances, and cannot be accorded a verbal divine authority.”²

In the international news magazine, Newsweek³, which carried an article, entitled ‘O Lord, Who Wrote they brayer? ‘, a group of theologians from the major Protestant
Sects, along with noted Roman Catholic Biblical scholars in the united states, after a detailed examination of the earliest manu******s of the new Testament, concluded that the only words of the “Lord’s prayer “that can be accurately attributed to Jesus Christ is “father” .That is, according to these learned church scholars, all the words that came after the beginning phrase, “our father”, of the most fundamental Christian prayer, were added centuries later by church scribes who copied the early manu******s of the Gospels.U.S News & World Report, further quotes the team of scholars as saying that over 80 percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels may be apocryphal 6. That includes Jesus’ Eucharistic speech at the Last Supper (“Take, eat. This is my body …”) and every word he is said to have uttered from the cross.

² the myth of god incarnate. Ix.
³october 31, 1988, p.44
Luke 11:2 and Matthew 6:9-10
the word gospel is derived from the Anglo-Saxon term god-spell, meaning “good story,” a rendering of the Latin evangelium and the Greek Euangelion, meaning “good news” or “good telling.”(The new encyclopedia Britannica, vol.5, p.379).
₆ Apocryphal: not likely to be genuine; untrue or invented. (Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, p.45).
₇ the Eucharist is the bread and wine taken at the Christian ceremony based on Christ’s last supper. (Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, p. 410.)
₈ July 1, 1991, p.57.

Dr. J.K. Elliott, of the department of Theology and Religious Studies at Leeds University, wrote an article published in The Times, London (10th Sept., 1987) entitled “Checking the Bible’s Roots”. In it stated that:” More than 5,000 manu******s contain all or part of the New Testament in its original language. These range in date from the second century up to the invention of printing. It has been estimated that no two agree in all particulars. Inevitably, all handwritten ********s are liable to contain accidental errors in copying. However, in living theological works it is not surprising that deliberate changes were introduced to avoid or alters statements that the copyist found unsound. There was also a tendency for copyists to add explanatory glosses⁹.
Deliberate changes are more likely to have been introduced at an early stage before the canonical status of the New Testament was established.”

The author went on to explain that “no one manu****** contains the original, unaltered **** in its entirety,” and that, “one cannot select any one of these manu******s and rely exclusively on its **** as if it contained the monopoly the original words of the original authors.”
He further said: “if one further argues that the original **** has survived somewhere among the thousands of extant¹⁰ manu******s, then one is forced to read all these manu******s, to assemble the differences between them in a systematic way, and then to assess, variant by variant, which manu******s have the original [****] and which the
Secondary ****. Such a prospect has daunted¹¹ many biblical scholars who have been
******* to rely on the printed ****s of earlier ages, in which the evidence of only a few favored manu******s were used. Even many recent printed editions of Greek New Testament, and modern translations based on these; usually follow this practice of building their **** on a narrow base that is unlikely to be entirely original.”

⁹A ‘gloss’ is an explanatory comment added to a ****. (Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary, p.528).
¹⁰extant: surviving.
¹¹daunt: discourage; frighten.

Versions of the English Bible

In the preface of the most widely used version of the Bible, the Revised Standard Version, the authors wrote the following:
‘The Revised Standard Version of the Bible is an authorized revision of the American Standard Version, published in 1901, which was a revision of the King James Version,
Published in 1611…

“The King James Version had to compete with the Geneva bible (1560) in popular use; but in the end it prevailed, and for more than two and a half centuries no other authorized translation of the Bible into English was made.
The King James Version became the “Authorized Version” of the English-speaking peoples…yet the King James Version has grave defects. By the middle of the nineteenth century, the development of Biblical studies and the discovery of many manu******s more ancient than those upon which the King James Version was based, made it manifest that these defects are so many and so serious as to call for revision of the English translation.
The task was undertaken, by authority of the Church of England, in 1870.The English Revised Version of the Bible was published in 1881-1885; and the American Standard Version, its variant embodying the preferences of the American scholars associated in the work, was published in 1901.”¹

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“The King James Version of the New Testament was based upon a Greek **** that was marred by mistakes, containing the accumulated errors of fourteen centuries of manu****** copying. It was essentially the Greek **** of the New Testament as edited by Beza, 1598, who closely followed that published by Erasmus,1516-1535 , which was based upon a few medieval manu******s. The earliest and best of the eight manu******s witch Erasmus consulted was from the tenth century, and he made the least use of it because it differed most from the commonly received ****; Beza had fifth and sixth centuries, but he made very little use of them because they differed from the **** published by Erasmus¹³”. “….The American Standard Version was copyrighted to protect the **** from unauthorized changes. In 1928 this copyright was acquired by the International council religious Education, and thus passed into the ownership of the churches of the United States and Canada which were associated in this council through their boards of education and publication. The council appointed a committee of scholars to have charge of the **** of the American Standard Version and to undertake inquiry as to whether further revision was necessary … [After two years] the decision was reached that is need for a through revision of the version of 1901, which will stay as close to the Tynadale-King James tradition as it can …in 1937 the revision was authorized by vote of the council.¹”

¹² the holy bible: Revised Standard Version, p.iii
¹³ Ibid.’p.v.
¹ the holy bible: Revised Standard Version, p.iii-iv.
“Thirty –two scholars have served as members of the committee charged with making the revision. And they have secured the review and counsel of an Advisory Board of fifty representatives of the co-operating denominations… The Revised Standard Version of the New Testament was published in1946.”¹ “The Revised standard version of the Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, was published on September 30, and has met with wide acceptance.” ¹⁶
In the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, a number of key verses from the King James Version of the Old and New Testament, which biblical scholars concluded were added in later centuries, were removed from the **** and placed in the footnotes. For example, the famous passage in the Gospel of John 8.7 about an adulteress who was about to be stoned. Jesus was supposed to have said: “let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”
The footnotes of the revised standard version of the bible (1952) state “The most ancient authorities omit 7.53-8.11”¹⁷. Since the Vatican manu****** no. 1209 and the Sinai tic manu****** codex from the 4th century do not contain these twelve verses, Biblical scholars have concluded that these words cannot be attributed to Jesus. Another example is the passage attributed to Jesus and used as evidence of reference to the Trinity in the ******ures. In 1 john 5.7, Jesus was supposed to have said:” There are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the word, and the holey ghost: and these three are one.¹⁸” The well- known Biblical scholar, Benjamin Wilson, writes that this **** concerning the” heavenly witness” is not contained in any Greek manu****** which was written earlier than the 15th century! Consequently, in the Revised Standard Version, this verse was deleted from the **** without even so much as a footnote. However, in order to keep the total number of verses in the Revised Standard Version the same as that of the King James Version, the revisers split verse 6 into two verses.
The Second Edition of the translation of the New Testament (1971) profited from ****ual and linguistic studies published since the Revised Standard Version New Testament was first issued in 1946.¹⁹ consequently, some previously deleted passages were reinstated, and some accepted passages were deleted. “two passages, the longer ending of mark (16.9-20) and the account of the woman caught in adultery (john 7.53-8.11), were restored to the ****, separated from it by a blank space and accompanied by informative notes … With new manu****** support, two passages, Luke 22.19b-20 and 24.51b, were restored to the ****, and one passage, Luke 22.43-44, was placed in the footnotes, as was a phrase in Luke 12.39.²⁰”

¹Ibid. p.iv.
¹⁶Ibid. p.vi
¹⁷the holy bible: Revised Standard Version, p.96.
¹⁸holy bible THE TRUE MESSAGE OF Frown

king James version)
¹⁹the holy bible: Revised Standard Version, p.vi.
²⁰ibid. p.vii.

Authorship

According to biblical scholars, even the authorship of the Old Testament books and the gospels themselves is in doubt.
Torah
The first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch²¹) are traditionally attributed to Prophet Moses²²; however, there are many verses within these books which indicate that Prophet Moses could not possibly have written everything in them. For example, Deuteronomy 34.5-8 states: “5 so Moses the servant of the lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the lord, 6 and he buried him in the valley of the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor ;but no man knows the place of his burial to this day. 7 Moses was
A hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. 8 And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses ended”. It is quite obvious that someone else wrote these verses about Prophet Moses’ death.
Some Christian scholars have explained these discrepancies by suggesting that Moses had written his books, but that later prophets, as well as inspired scribes, had made the additions previously mentioned. Consequently, according to them, the ****, in its entirety, remained an inspired ******ure of God. However, this explanation did not stand up to scrutiny, because the style and literary characteristics of the interpolated verses are the same as the remainder of the ****.
In the 19th century, Christian Bible scholars began to debate the meaning of “doublets “that appeared in the Torah.
These are stories which appear twice, each time with different details. Among these are the two versions of the creation of the world, of the covenant between God and Abraham, of god changing Jacob’s name to Israel and of Moses getting water from a rock²³.
Defenders of Moses’ authorship said that the doublets were not contradictory, but instructive. Their intent was to teach us about the deeper, subtler meanings of the Torah. However, this claim was soon brushed aside by open- minded scholars who noted that, not only were some accounts clearly contradictory , but also that when the doublets were separated into two separate accounts, each account consistently used a different name for God. One would always refer to god as Yahweh/Jehovah; this ******** was called “j

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”.
The other always referred to God as Elohim, and was called “E”².
There were various other literary characteristics found to be common to one ******** or the other. Modern linguistics analyses, according to Professor Richard Friedman, ² indicate that the five books of Moses are a mixture of Hebrew from the ninth, eight, seventh and sixth centuries B.C. therefore, Moses, who was alive in the 13th century B.C., was further away from the Hebrew of the Bible than Shakespeare was from the English of today.
²¹genesis, exodus, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy.
²²orthodox jews claim that the torah, the jewish name for the five books, was created 974 generations before the creation of the world. According to them, god dictated the torah during the 40 days moses was on mount Sinai, in such a final and irrevocable from that it is sinful to claim that moses wrote even one letter of it by himself.

²³ who wrote the bible, pp.54-70.
² the late 19th century German scholar, Julius wheelhouse, was the first to identify the multiple sources for the five books.
²richard Elliot Friedman is a professor in the University of California at San Diego. He earned his doctorate in Hebrew bible at Harvard University, and is the author of the controversial work, who wrote the bible.

Further study of the Pentateuch led to the discovery that it was not made up of two major
Sources but of four. It was discovered that some stories were not only doublets but triplets. Additional literary characteristics were identified for these ********s. The third source was called “P” (for priestly), and the fourth called “D” (for Deuteronomy). ²⁶
The extent to which less obvious additions were made to the original **** is very difficult to determine. Consequently a great shadow of doubt has been cast on the authorship of the books as a whole.
In the appendix of the Revised Standard Version entitled “books of the Bible,” the following is written concerning the authorship of over one third of the remaining books of the Old Testament:

BOOKS Authors
Judges Possibly Samuel
Ruth Perhaps Samuel
First Samuel Unknown
Second Samuel Unknown
First kings Unknown
Second Kings Unknown
First Chronicles Unknown
Esther Unknown
Job Unknown
Ecclesiastes Doubtful
Jonah Unknown
Malachi Nothing known

²⁶the interpreter’s dictionary of the bible, vol.1, p.756, and vol.
3, p.617.see also the new encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 14, pp.773-4.

Apocrypha

More than half of the world’s Christians are Roman Catholics. Their version of the bible was published in 1582 from Jerome’s Latin vulgate, and reproduced at Douay in 1609. The old testament of the RCV (Roman Catholic version) contains seven more books than the King James Version recognized by the protestant world. The extra books are referred to as the apocrypha (i.e., of doubtful authority) and were removed from the bible in 1611 by protestant bible scholars.

The Gospels
Aramaic was the spoken language of the Jews of Palestine. Consequently, it is believed that Jesus and his disciples spoke and taught in Aramaic²⁷. The earliest oral tradition of Jesus’ deeds and sayings undoubtedly circulated in Aramaic. However, the four Gospels were written in an entirely different speech, common Greek, the spoken language of the civilized Mediterranean world, to serve the majority of the church, which was becoming Hellenistic (Greek-speaking) instead of Palestinian. Traces of Aramaic survive in the Greek gospels. For example, in mark5:41, “taking her by the hand he said to her, ‘tal’itha cu’mi’: which means little girl, I say to you, arise. ‘And mark 15:34, “and at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, ‘E’lo-I, E’lo-I, la’ma’ sabachtha’ni? Which means, ‘my god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?’”²⁸
The New Testament gospels of mark, though considered by church scholars to be the oldest of the gospels, was not written by a disciple of Jesus. Biblical scholars concluded, based on the evidence contained in the gospels that mark himself was not a disciple of Jesus. Furthermore, according to them, it is not even certain who mark really was. The ancient Christian author, eusebius (325c.e.), reported that another ancient author, papias (130c.e), was the first to attribute the gospels to john mark, a companion of Paul²⁹. Others suggested that he may have may have been the scribe of peter and yet others hold that he was probably someone else.

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²⁷aramaic is a Semitic language which gradually supplanted Akkadian as the common tongue of the near east in the 7th and 6th centuries BC. It later became the official language of the Persian Empire. Aramaic replaced Hebrew as the language of the Jews; portions of the Old Testament books of Daniel and Ezra are written in Aramaic, as are the Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmud’s. 1ts period of greatest influence extended from 300BC until650CE, after which it was gradually supplanted by Arabic. (The new encyclopedia Britannica, vol.1, p.516)
²⁸encyclopedia Americana, vol.3, p.654.
²⁹the five gospels, p.20and the new encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.824. For references to various marks in the New Testament, see the following: acts12:12, 25; 13:5; 15:36-41; Colossians 4:10; 2 timothy 4:11; philemon24; and 1peter5:13.

The same is the case with the other gospels. Although Mathew, Luke and john are the names of disciples of Jesus, the authors of the gospels bearing their names were not those famous disciples, but other individuals who used the disciples’ names to give their accounts credibility. In fact, all the gospels originally circulated anonymously. Authoritative names were later assigned to them by unknown figures in the early church.³⁰

Gospel of Matthew unknown³¹
Gospel of mark unknown³²
Gospel of Luke unknown³³
Gospel of John unknown³
Acts The author of Luke ³⁵
I,II,IIIJohn The author of john ³⁶

³⁰The Five Gospels, p.20.
³¹”although there is a Matthew named among the various lists of Jesus’ disciples…the writer of Matthew is probably anonymous.” The new Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.826.
³²”though the author of mark is probably unknown …”the new encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.824.
³³”the moratoriun canon refers to Luke, the physician, Paul’s companion; irenaeus depicts Luke as a follower of Paul’s gospels. Eusebius has Luke as an antiochene physician who was with Paul in order to give the gospel apostolic authority.” The new encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.827.
³”from internal evidence the gospel was written by a beloved disciple whose name is unknown”. The new Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.828.
³⁵the new Encyclopedia Britannica, vol.14, p.830.
³⁶Ibid. vol.14, p.844.

J.B.Phillips, a prebendary³⁷of the chi Chester cathedral, the Anglican church of England, wrote the following preface for his translation of the Gospel according to st. Matthew:” Early tradition ascribed this Gospel to the apostle Matthew, but scholars nowadays almost all reject this view. The author, whom we can conveniently call Matthew, has plainly drawn on the mysterious “Q”,³⁸ which may have been a collection of oral traditions. He has used mark’s gospel freely, through he has rearranged the order of events and has in several instances used different words for what is plainly the same story.”³⁹The fourth Gospel (john) was opposed as heretical in the early church, and it knows none of the stories associated with john, son of Zebedee.⁴⁰in the judgment of many scholars, it was produced by a”school”of disciples, probably in Syria in the last decade of the first century⁴¹.

³⁷A priest who receives income from the revenue of a church, especially a cathedral. (Oxford Advanced learner’s dictionary, p 973.)
³⁸there are about two hundred identical verses found in both Matthew and Luke (e.g.matt3:7-10& Luke 3:7-9; matt.18:10-14&Luke 15:3-7), with no equivalent in either mark or john. As a way of explaining this striking agreement, a German scholar hypothesized that there once existed a source ********, which he referred to as a Quelle (German for “source”). The abbreviation “q” was later adopted as its name. The existence of Q was once challenged by some scholars on the grounds that a sayings gospel was not really a gospel. The challengers argued that there were no ancient parallels to a gospel containing only sayings and parables and lacking stories about Jesus, especially the story about his trial and death. The discovery of the gospel of Thomas changed all that. (The five gospels, p. 12.)Thomas contains one hundred and fourteen sayings and parables ascribed to Jesus; it has no narrative framework: no account of Jesus’ exorcisms, healings, trial, death, and resurrection; no birth or childhood stories; and no narrated account of his public ministry in Galilee and Judea. The Coptic translation of this ******** (written about 350 C.E.), found in 1945 at nag Hammadi in Egypt, has enabled scholars to identify three Greek fragments (dated around 200 c.e.), discovered earlier, as pieces of three different copies of the same gospel. Thomas has forty-seven parallels to mark, forty parallels to Q, seventeen to Matthew, four to Luke, and five to john. About sixty-five sayings or parts of sayings are unique to Thomas. (The five gospels, p. 15).
³⁹ the Gospels in modern English.
⁴⁰ since the late 18thth century, the first three Gospels have been called the synoptic Gospels, because the ****s, set by side, show a similar treatment of the life and death of Jesus Christ. (The new Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 5, p.379).

⁴¹The five Gospels, p.20.

Contradictions
Evidence for the unreliability of much of the material in the bible can also be found in the many contradictions in the ****s of the old and new testaments. The following are only a few examples:
The Old Testament
1. The authors of Samuel, it states that Prophet David acted on God’s instructions, while in 1st chronicles; he acted on Satan’s instructions.

II SAMUEL 24
The Numbering
And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah.”
I CHRONICLES 21
The Numbering
And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.

2. In describing the length of a plague prophesied by Gad⁴², the author of 2nd Samuel listed it as seven years, while the author of 1st chronicles listed it as three years.
II SAMUEL 24:13
The plague
So Gad came to David and told him, and said unto him, “shall seven years of famine come unto three in thy land? Or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee?”

I CHRONICLES 21:11
The plague
11 so Gad came to David, and said unto him, “thus saith the Lord, ‘choose thee 12 either three years’ famine; or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtaketh thee;’”

, p. 15). s gur to luke, and h,m the revenue of a church. ,
⁴²”” and the lord spoke to Gad, David’s seer, saying,” chronicles, 21:91. According to this ****, Gad was the name of Prophet David’s personal fortuneteller.

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3. In 2nd chronicles, jehoiachin was described as being eight years old when he began to reign, while in 2nd kings he is described as being eighteen years old.
IICHRONICLES 36:9
The Age
Jehoiachin was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem: and he did that which was evil in the sight of the lord. IIKINGS 24:8
The Age
Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. And his mother’s name was nehushta, the daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
4.The author of 2nd Samuel described the number of Syrians who died during a battle with prophet David as being seven hundred, while the author of 1st chronicles gave their number as seven thousand.
IISAMUEL 10:18
The Dead
And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians, and forty thousand horsemen, and smote shobach the captain of their host, who died there. I CHRONICLES 19:18
The Dead
But the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand men which fought in chariots, and forty thousand footmen and killed shophach the captain of the host.

Although some may say that the adding or dropping of a ‘1’ or a zero is not significant, as it is only a copying mistake, here that is not the case because the Jews spelled out their numbers in words and did not use numerals.
Such discrepancies cannot be accepted as part of a divinely revealed ****. Moreover, they prove the fallability of the human authors and further prove that the ****s of the Old Testament were not divinely preserved.
The New Testament
In the New Testament many similar contradictions may also be found. The following are but a few:
The gospel accounts vary regarding who carried the cross on which Jesus was supposed to have been crucified. In Matthew, mark and Luke, it was Simon of Cyrene, and in john, it was Jesus.

Luke, 23:26⁴³
The Cross
As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of cyrene.who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him and made him carry it… John, 19:16
The Cross
Then he (Pilate) handed him over to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross himself, he went to what is called the place of the skull…

after Jesus’” crucifixion”, the gospel accounts differ as to who visited his tomb, when the visit took place, as well as the state of the tomb when it was visited. The gospels of Matthew, Luke and john state that the visit took place before sunrise, while the gospel of mark states that it was after sunrise. In another three gospels (Mark, Luke and John) the women found the stone door of the tomb rolled away, but in one (Matthew) the tomb was closed until an angel descended before them and rolled it away.
Mark, 16:1-2
The visit
And when the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. ²And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen John,20:1⁴⁴
The visit
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Matthew,28:1-2
The visit
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the sepulcher.² And behold, there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone, and sat upon it.

3. The New T testament accounts vary regarding the fate of Judas Iscariot and the money he received for betraying Jesus. In Matthew, he hung himself, while in acts; he fell in a field and died there.

⁴⁴ see also, Luke 24:1-2.

Matthew, 27:3-6
The fate of Judas
When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders …and throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself. Acts, 1:18
The fate of Judas
Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness; and falling headlong, he bust open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

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When the genealogy of Jesus from David in Matthew 1:6-16, is compared to that of Luke 3:23-31, there are major discrepancies. Firstly, Jesus in Matthew has 26 parents between himself and David, but in Luke he has 41. Secondly, the names in both lists vary radically after David, and only two names are the same: Joseph, and zorobabel. Both lists start off with Joseph, strangely enough, as the father of Jesus, but in Matthew, the author records Jesus’ paternal grandfather as being Jacob, while in Luke he is Heli. If one were to accept the suggestion of some that one of the lists is actually the genealogy of Mary, it could not possibly account for any differences after their common ancestor David. Both lists meet again at Abraham and between David and Abraham most of the names are the same. However, in Matthew’s list, hezron’s son’s name is Ram, the father of Ammin’adab, while in Luke’s list; Hezron’s son’s name is Arni, whose son’s name is Admin, the father of Ammin’adab⁴⁵.

⁴⁵ also in Matthew’s list, nahshon’s son’s name is salmon, while in Luke’s list; nahshon’s son’s name is sala.

Consequently, between David and Abraham there are 12 forefathers in Matthew’s list and 13 in Luke’s list. These discrepancies and many others like them in the gospels are clearly errors that cast a shadow of doubt on their authenticity as divinely revealed ****s. Consequently, most Christian scholars today look at the old and New Testament books as human accounts which they believe were inspired by God. However, even the claim that they were inspired by God is questionable as it implies that God inspired the authors to write mistakes and contradictions in his ******ures. Having established that the authenticity of both the new and the Old Testament is questionable, it can then be said with certainty that the bible cannot be used by itself as an authentic reference source for establishing who Jesus was, nor the ******* of his message.
The Qur’aan
On the other hand, the Qur’aan –believed by Muslims to be the word of God revealed to Prophet Muhammad ( )- was written down and memorized, from beginning to end, during the lifetime of the prophet himself. Within a year after his death, the first standard written **** was produced⁴⁶. And within 14 years after his death, authorized copies (the ‘Uthmanic ****) made from the standard codex⁴⁷ were sent to the capitals of the Muslims state, and unauthorized copies were destroyed⁴⁸.

⁴⁶ shorter encyclopedia of Islam, p.278.
⁴⁷ a handwritten book of ancient ****s (pl.cdices).
⁴⁸shorter encyclopedia of Islam, p.279. See also the new encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 22, p.8.

Since the prophet’s death in 632 ce, an increasing number of people in each successive generation have memorized the the complete **** of Qur’aan from beginning to end. Today there exist tens of thousands of people around the world who recite the whole ****, from memory, during the month of Ramadan every year, as well as on other occasions.
One of the leading orient lists, Kenneth Cragg, said the following regarding the memorization and preservation of the Qur’aanic ****, “this phenomenon of Qur’aanic recital means that the **** has traversed the centuries in an unbroken living sequence of devotion. It cannot, therefore, be handled as an antiquarian thing, nor as a historical ******** out of a distant past. “⁴⁹ another orientalist scholar, William graham, wrote: “for countless millions of Muslims over more than fourteen centuries of Islamic history, ‘******ure’, al-kitab has been a book learned, read and passed on by vocal repetition and memorization. The written Qur’aan may ‘fix’ visibly the authoritative **** of the divine word in a way unknown in history, but the authoritativeness of the qur’aanic book is only realized in its fullness and perfection when it is correctly recited.”⁵⁰yet another, john Burton, stated: “the method of transmitting the Qur’aan from one generation to the next by having the young memorize the oral tradition of their elders had mitigated somewhat from the beginning the worst perils of relying solely on written records...”⁵¹ at the end of a voluminous work on the Qur’aan’s collection, Burton stated that the **** of the Qur’aan available today is ‘the **** which has come down to us in the form in which it was organized and approved by the prophet.. What we have today in our hands is the mushaf⁵² of Muhammad⁵³.

⁴⁹the mind of the Qur’aan, p.26.
⁵⁰ beyond the written word, p.80.
⁵¹an introduction to the hadith, p.27.
⁵²the Arabic term used to refer to the **** of the Qur’aan.
⁵³ the collection of the Qur’aan, p.239-40.

Admin عدد الرسائل : 634 تاريخ التسجيل : 25/05/2007

******ural criticism
The same principles of analysis which were applied to bible manu******s by bible scholars and which exposed the flaws and changes, have been applied to Qur’aanic manu******s gathered from around the world. Ancient manu******s found in the library of congress in Washington, the Chester Beatty museum in Dublin, Ireland, the London museum, as well as museums in Tashkent, turkey and Egypt, from all periods of Islamic history, have been compared. The results of all such studies confirm that there has not been any change in the **** from its original writing. For example, the “institute fur koranforschung” of the University Of Munich, Germany, collected and collected over 42,000 complete or incomplete copies of the Qur’aan. After some fifty years of study, they reported that in terms of differences between the various copies, there were no variants, except occasional mistakes of copyists, which could easily be ascertained. The institute was destroyed by American bombs during the Second World War⁵⁴.
Contradictions in the Qur’aan
The Qur’aan remains in it original language, Arabic, and the Qur’aan challengers its readers in chapter an-nisaa, (4):82, to find any errors in it, if they do not believe it is really from god.
(أفلا يتدبرون القرآن ولو كان من عند غير الله لوجدوا فيه اختلافا كثيرا)
“Well they not consider the Qur’aan carefully? Had it been from other than Allah, they would have found many contradictions in it.”
The few “apparent contradictions” commonly mentioned by those who attempt to reduce the Qur’aan to the level of the bible are easily explained. For example, the “first believer” in the following two verses:
⁵²the Arabic term used to refer to the **** of the Qur’aan.
⁵³the collection of the Qur’aan, p.239-40.
⁵⁴Muhammad rasullullah, p.179.

Chapter al an’aam
(6):14
“say (o Muhammad):’shall I adopt as my lord someone other than Allah, creator of the heavens and earth, though it is he who feeds but is not fed?’ say:’ indeed I am commanded to be the first of those who submit themselves (to Allah), and not to be among the idolaters.’” Chapter al-a’raaf
(7):143
“…but when his lord appeared to the mountain, it crumbled to dust, and Moses fell down unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he said, ‘glory be to you, I turn to you in repentance and I am the first of the believers.’”

The earlier verse refers to Prophet Muhammad, who was told to inform the pagans of his time that he could never accept their idolatry and would be the first of those in his time to submit to Allah. In the second verse, Prophet Moses declares himself among the first in his time to submit to Allah upon realizing that it was impossible to see Allah. Each prophet was the first in his own era to submit to Allah.
Similarly, the “day with god” mentioned in the following two verses:

Chapter as-sajda(32):5

“He arranges (every) affair from the heavens to the earth, then it goes up to him, in a day equivalent to a thousand years according to your reckoning.” Chapter al-mi’raaj(70):4

“The angles and the spirit ascend to him in a day equivalent to fifty thousand years.”

The two verses refer to two completely deferent events. The first refers to the destiny that is sent down and reported back in a day governing a thousand years of human life. ⁵⁵the second refers to the ascent of the angles from the world to the highest of the heavens, which for them takes a day equivalent to 50,000 human years. ⁵⁶Allah is not governed by time. He created time and made it relative to the creatures it governs. Consequently, according to the calculation of modern scientists, one year on mars is equivalent to 687 earth days, while one year on Uranus is equal to 84 earth years. ⁵⁷
⁵⁵tafseer al-qurtubee, vol.8, pp.5169-70.
⁵⁶fat-hul-qadeer, vol.4, p.349.
⁵⁷the new encyclopedia Britannica, vol. 27, pp.551&571.

The Qur’aanic **** is remarkably consistent in its thought and presentation. In the preface of one of the best orient list translations of the Qur’aan, the translator, Arthur john arberry, writes:” there is repertory of familiar themes running through the whole Koran; each sura ⁵⁸elaborates or adumbrates ⁵⁹one or more-often many-of these. Using the language of music, each sura is a rhapsody composed of whole or fragmentary leitmotivs; ⁶⁰ the analogy is reinforced by the subtly varied rhythmical flow of the discourse.⁶¹
Scientific references in the Qur’aanic **** have proven to be consistently and inexplicably accurate. In a lecture given at the French academy of medicine, in 1976, entitled “physiological and embryological data in the Qur’aan,” Dr. Maurice bucaille said, “There is no human work in existence that contains statements as far beyond the level of knowledge of its time as the Qur’aan. Scientific opinions comparable to those in the Qur’aan are the result of modern knowledge.”⁶² speaking about the authority of the Qur’aan, Professor Reynolds A. Nicholson said, “We have [in the Koran] materials of unique and incontestable authority for tracing the origin and early development of Islam, such materials as do not exist in the case of Buddhism or Christianity or any other ancient religion.”⁶³
Consequently, it is only the Qur’aan that represents an accurate means of determining who Jesus was and what his message was. Moreover, the Qur’aan can also be used to determine to what degree some of the revealed word of God exists within the bible.
In the Qur’aan, God commands the believers to accept, as a part of their faith, the divine word revealed to prophet Moses, known as the torah; to prophet David in the original psalms; and to Jesus in the original Gospels. All Muslims are obliged to believe in all of the revealed ******ures. However, as stated in the Qur’aan, all ******ures revealed before the Qur’aan have not remained as they were revealed. People changed parts of them to suit their own desires.

Admin عدد الرسائل : 634 تاريخ التسجيل : 25/05/2007

⁵⁸Qur’aanic chapter.
⁵⁹indicate faintly or in outline.
⁶⁰ recurring features.
⁶¹the Koran interpreted p.28.
⁶²the Qur’aan and modern science, p.6.
⁶³literary history of the Arabs, p. 143.

(فويل للذين يكتبون الكتاب بايديهم ثم يقولون هذا من عند الله ليشتروا به ثمنا قليلا فويل لهم مما كتبت أيديهم وويل لهم مما يكسبون)

“woe to those who write the ******ure with their own hands and then say:’ this is from Allah,’ to purchase with it [worldly gain] at a cheap price. Woe to them for what their hands have written and woe to them for what they earned by doing it.” Qur’aan,(2):79
Furthermore, in the Old Testament, God is quoted in Jeremiah 8:8 as saying, “how can you say, ‘we are wise, and the law is with us’? But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.”⁶⁴

Chapter two: Jesus, the person
As has been shown in the previous chapter, the Biblical ******ures, both new and Old Testament are unreliable sources and cannot, therefore, be used as an authentic means of knowing the truth about the man called Jesus Christ or about his mission and message. However, a close examination of these ******ures in the light of Qur’aanic verses will reveal some of the truths about Jesus that have survived in the Bible.
A messenger
Throughout the Qur’aan, Jesus is identified
Fundamentally as a messenger of God. In chapter as-saff (61):6, God quotes Jesus as follows:
(واذ قال عيسى يا بني اسرائيل اني رسول الله اليكم مصدقا لما بين يدي من التوراة )
“And [remember] when Jesus, son of Mary, said:’o children of Israel, I am the messenger of Allah sent to you, confirming the Torah [which came] before me.”
There are many verses in the New Testament supporting the messngership/prophethood of Jesus. The following are only a few: in Matthew 21:11, the people of his time are recorded as referring to Jesus as a prophet:” and the crowds said’ ‘this is the prophet Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee.’” In mark, 6:4, it is stated that Jesus referred to himself as a prophet:” and Jesus said to them, ‘a prophet is not without honour, except in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. “in the following verses, Jesus, is referred to as having been sent as a messenger is sent. In Matthew 10:40, Jesus was purported to have said:” he that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth him that sent me.
In john 17:3, Jesus is also quoted as saying:” and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.”⁶⁵

⁶⁴revised standard version.
⁶⁵see also, john 4:34, 5:30, 7:16 &28, 11:42, 13:16, 14:24.
A man
The Qur’aanic revelation not only affirms Jesus’ prophet hood, but it also clearly denies Jesus’ divinity. In chapter al-maa’idah, (5):75, God points out that Jesus ate food, which is a human act, obviously not befitting to God.

(ما المسيح بن مريم الا رسول قد خلت من قبله الرسل وأمه صديقة كانا يأكلان الطعام انظر كيف نبين لهم الآيات ثم انظر أنى يؤفكون )

The messiah, son of Mary, was no more than a messenger and many messengers passed away before him. His mother was exceedingly truthful, and they both ate food. See how I have made the signs clear for them; yet see how they are deluded.” There are numerous accounts in the New Testament which also deny Jesus’ divinity. For example, in Matthew 19:17, Jesus responded to one who addressed him as “O good master”, saying: “why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is God.” If he rejected being called” good”, and stated that only God is truly good, he clearly implies that he is not god.
In john 14:28, Jesus was saving:’ the father is greater than I.” by stating that the “father” is greater than himself, Jesus distinguishes himself from god. Also in john 20:17, Jesus told Mary Magdalene to tell his followers:” I ascend unto my father and your father; and to my god and your god.” Jesus’ reference to god as” my father and your father” further emphasizes the distinction between himself and god. Furthermore, by referring to god as” his god “, he left no room for anyone to intelligently claim that he was god.
Even in some of the writings of Paul, which the church has taken to be sacred, Jesus is referred to as a “man” distinct and different from god. In 1st timothy, 2:5, paulwrites: “for there is one god, and one mediator between god and men, the man Christ Jesus. “

⁶⁵ see also, john 4:34, 5:30, 7:16 728, 11:42, 13:16, and 14:24.
⁶⁶ Jesus here rejects being called ‘perfectly good’, because perfection belongs only to god. He was ‘good’, but, being the “son of man” (mat. 19:29) –as he liked to call himself- he was capable of error.

There are also verses in the Qur’aan which confirm Prophet Muhammad’s humanity, in order to prevent his followers from elevating him to a divine or semi-divine status, as was done to Prophet Jesus. For example, in chapter al-kahf (18):110, Allah instructs the prophet Muhammad to inform all who hear his message:
(قل انما انا بشر مثلكم يوحى الي انما الهكم اله واحد )

عدد الرسائل : 940 تاريخ التسجيل : 26/05/2007

لا اله الا الله وحده لا شريك له