The Gospel of Barnabas

From time to time readers will encounter tantalising stories in the media and these days its 'social' adjuncts of a long lost gospel that has been recently rediscovered that proves the Mahometan version of the life of Christ. Great claims are made for this gospel and it is usually said to be in the possession of museum authorities in Turkey. The media story keeps reappearing. The present author must have seen it four or five times now over a period of twenty years. It is an item of sensationalist drivel that bored journalists recycle on a regular basis. 

The document in question - although it is often not named in these stories - is the medieval Gospel of Barnabas. It is surely one of the strangest of texts from the occidental Middle Ages. It has long been an object of fascination because it does indeed present a Mahometan or at least Islaamified version of the life of Christ. It is clearly a work of the Middle Ages, although there remains the possibility that it contains material from earlier periods - even from the early Christian era.

Over the years it has been the centrepiece of the present author's academic work. Unfortunately, it has been - and continues to be - entangled in the febrile inter-religious disputes of Christian and Mahometan apologists. For their part, the Musulmans claim that it is the long lost Injeel of the Prophet Isa. The Christians, on the other hand, want to dismiss it as a worthless or even a "vile" forgery. The present writer is firmly of the view that it is best to consider it separate from this atmosphere of polemic.

You can find some work on this fascinating and mysterious text here:

http://medievalbarnabas.wix.com/fra-marinos-treasure

Here is a page from the said document. As readers can observe it contains Arabic margin notes. These have never been explained. In fact, we do not know who wrote this gospel text, when, where or why. After twenty or so years of research this writer believes he has a few clues but much of the mystery remains. Cross-posts of a few items on this mysterious Gospel of Barnabas will be placed here in the near future.

Yours,

Harper McAlpine Black