Andy Gill
So apparently in 2012 a 1500 year old bible re-surfaced in Turkey after supposedly having been seized by a mob of smugglers. More interestingly, to me at least, these “deviants” are said to have been charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations, and the possession of explosives [can you hear the wheels churning in the minds of hollywood? #NationalTreasure8!].
Photocopies of this 1500 year old “Bible,” are estimated up to $1.7 million dollars, while the entire book itself is estimated to be around $28 million. This particular bible is speculated to contain the possible original Gospel of Barnabas in which undermines Christian faith on the resurrection and portrays more of an Islamic version of Jesus.
So far no copies of Jesus’ words in this book have been released to the public. Although there is speculation around this bible stating that it holds inside of it “The Gospel of Barnabas”. If you’re like me, and you’re not too privy to the Gospel of Barnabas – it is not included with the original four gospels.
I have not spent crazy amounts of time “researching” this 1500 year old bible, other than Googling it a bit. Although, if you do Google it you’ll find statements being made 2-years removed from this book re-emerging with very little, to no citations or credible references. Some get the Gospel of Barnabas confused with the Epistle of Barnabas or the Acts of Barnabas, all the while we don’t even know if this book contains anything even written by a Barnabas.
Something I personally need to consider is the fact that I’ve been in seminary since 2012 and I have heard nothing about this until this recently. This says a few things:
- Seminary’s a bubble, I might as well have lived in a cave, or under a rock.
- I can’t afford cable, let alone a TV.
- Scholars have far more important things to discuss that have gained credibility and merit their time [1].
To no one’s surprise, The Vatican Insider was quick to label this so-called “bible” a hoax. As its been widely publicized as a book in which directly undermines Christian thought, things such as the crucifixion and resurrection. It seems as if things are now turning into speculation, hypothetic, and bizarre conspiracy theories which make [failed] attempts at connecting this text, which none of us have read, to the reason Pope Benedict resigned. #illuminati
Either way, hoax or not, my point isn’t to highlight this 1500 year old bible but rather to highlight how the internet has a tendency to blow things like this way out of proportion…
Such as this example over on RELEVANT claiming there is a “Newly-Found Document in which Holds Eyewitness Account of Jesus Performing Miracle.” Then there’s Bill Maher’s movie Religulous, which cites the infamous movie Zeitgeist. A movie driven by baseless conspiracies theories that attempt to “discredit Christianity.”
I guess if you give a funny guy a TV show and a large budget he then becomes, to his fans, a credible scholar that lead to videos such as this…
At 6:29 in the video she says that these claims in which disprove Christianity was “the straw that broke the camels back” and the “she felt lied to…” I’m not doubting she was lied to by the Church, but I do want to acknowledge that she was also lied to by whoever presented this information to her. I love hearing well-informed responses that attempt to respectfully refute Christianity, but in this video she is very respectful but not well-informed.
The only source I could find, outside of google, was from Bart Ehrman’s who says the claims come from “Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy, The Jesus Mysteries: Was the “Original Jesus” a Pagan God?” It should be stated that Ehrman is an agnostic, whom is not defending Christianity so much as he is defending scholarship by encouraging one provide evidence to such bold claims. I also emailed a couple professors one here at Princeton who echo similar sentiments as Ehrman.
“The authors provide no evidence for their claims concerning the standard mythology of the godmen. They cite no sources from the ancient world that can be checked. It is not that they have provided an alternative interpretation of the available evidence. They have not even cited the available evidence. And for good reason. No such evidence exists [2].” – Bart D. Ehrman
Although, I must admit this is fun stuff to talk or hypothesize about… but so is reading Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code.
I hope it’s apparent that none of us need a formal degree in order to make bold statements or seemingly outlandish statements. Neither do I believe that we should ignore “mythicists” or every single outlandish claim, deeming it or them false because “scholarship” has yet to recognize it as credible.
Just as I’m against a Christian blindly believing in a Jesus being God without any thought or reason [formal or not], I’m also against anyone [atheist, agnostic, or ____ fill in the blank] watching a couple YouTube videos or “documentaries” on Netflix and immediately regurgitating it as truth.
Here’s a couple articles to check out on that Bible:
Christian Post: Turkey’s 1500 Year Old Bible
Huffington Post: Vatican Requestions 1500 Year Old Bible From Turkey
Salon: Muslim Gospel Excites Da Vinci Code Conspiracists
[1] This is not to say that simply because scholars do not acknowledge certain topics as truth that they then are not truth. Galileo, anyone?
[2] Excerpt From: Bart D. Ehrman. “Did Jesus Exist? – The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth.”
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