A Deceit to Die For (64 page)

He stopped. Gwyn reached up for a strand of hair to twirl around her finger, but found none. She smacked her lips in disgust. It was her favorite thing to do while she was thinking. Gary cleared his throat and tapped his watch.

“Are you done, Gwyn?”

She nodded, “That’s it in a nutshell. What did you find out about the Gospel of Barnabas?”

CHAPTER
50

“I read everything that Gwyn sent,” said Gary. “Then I spent all morning reading stuff on the Internet. I’m more convinced than ever that the Gospel of Barnabas and the document my father found are connected with this whole Morisco affair. For example, the first reference to the Gospel of Barnabas which can be clearly connected to the extant version is in a Morisco text written by Ibrahim al-Taybili. Today, the text is known as BNM ms 9653 and it was probably written in 1634 in Tunisia.”

“Were the Moriscos sent there?” asked Matt.

“Yes,” replied Zeki, “Many were sent to Tunis, and this same city is also mentioned in the letter Prof. O’Brien found. Others ended up in Morocco or Istanbul. Some actually settled in European countries, but very few.”

“1634 would be roughly twenty years after the last Moriscos left Spain,” noted Gwyn.

“That’s right,” continued Gary. “The reference in this Morisco text is only a single line. The G.O.B. does not appear to be referenced in any other Morisco literature. In fact, as far as I can tell, it isn’t mentioned again in any document for two generations.”

“That is odd,” said Gwyn, screwing up her face. “From what I read, there are supposed to be hundreds of extant Morisco documents. If they wrote it, surely it would be quoted often.”

“Yes, it
is
odd. Extremely odd, unless there was an attempt to destroy it, which is exactly what the document Dad found seems to suggest.”

“You mean a cover-up?” asked Matt.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, in the context of the Bible allegedly predicting the coming of Mohammed, MS 9653 says, ‘the Gospel of Saint Barnabas where one can find the light.’ The Gospel of Barnabas is a tome, as long as the canonical four Gospels combined. As a forgery, this would’ve been a massive undertaking. It would have required serious financial backing and scholarly support.”

“Wait a minute,” said Zeki. “Did I miss something? Are we jumping to the conclusion that it is a forgery? How do we know that? I grant you the Moriscos certainly forged documents and tried to influence policy through religion. But, just because a Morisco document refers to the Gospel of Barnabas as the truth doesn’t mean they wrote it or that it is a forgery. That is guilt by association. The Gospel of Barnabas is regarded throughout the Muslim world as the truest copy of the message of Jesus. We have been told that it was suppressed by a corrupt clergy intent on retaining power because it validated the message of the Qur’an. There was even a movie of the life of Jesus produced somewhere in the Middle East a few years ago based on the Gospel of Barnabas. I didn’t see the movie and haven’t read this Gospel, but I’d like to hear some evidence before we jump to a conclusion that flies in the face of everything I know.”

Gary took a deep breath. The last thing he wanted to do was offend his father’s friend.

“Well, the truth is a difficult thing to fabricate, sir. The Gospel of Barnabas contains so many geographical and historical errors that it couldn’t have possibly been written by someone who lived and walked in Palestine."

“For example?” asked Zeki.

“For example,” said Gary, looking back down at his computer and scrolling through his notes. “It has Jesus saying that the year of Jubilee comes every one hundred years, but throughout the Old Testament and church history, it was celebrated every fifty years. There was only one time in history when it was celebrated every hundred years and that was when Pope Boniface changed it in the thirteenth century. It was later changed back to fifty years by Pope Clement VI.”

“That could be a subconscious scribal error,” offered Gwyn.

Gary shook his head, “Which would, at the very least, prove that the extant copy was written in the thirteenth century or later, but there are much more serious problems.” He continued reading off the screen. “First, the Gospel of Barnabas also says that Jesus was born when Pilate was governor. Pilate did not become governor of Judea until 26 AD. Second, the G.O.B. says that wine was kept in casks, but this technology was developed much later. In the Palestine of Jesus’ day, wine was kept in wine-skins or amphorae. Third, it has Jesus saying that a golden
denarius
can be exchanged for sixty
minuti
. But,
minuti
were Spanish coins used by the pre-Muslim Visigoth rulers hundreds of years after Jesus and never in Palestine. ”

“I don’t see how those can be scribal errors,” said Matt. “Looks like the author simply used the oldest monetary unit he was aware of. That’s a solid Spanish connection then.”

“Combined with a reference in a Morisco document, I would say it is a reasonable conclusion,” continued Gary. “Anyway, there are dozens of examples like these. Let me give you two more. In one place, Jesus comes by ship to Nazareth and then departs by ship for Jerusalem. Nazareth is located at an elevation of two thousand feet and Jerusalem at two thousand five hundred feet and neither of them are close to any body of water.”

Matt laughed out loud. “Travelling by boat to Jerusalem would have been a greater miracle than walking on the water or parting the Red Sea. Palestine is a small area. No one acquainted with it could make this mistake.”

“And,” continued Gary, “The author, who claims to be Barnabas and would have spoken Greek and Hebrew, refers to Jesus as ‘Christ’, but throughout the Gospel which Barnabas allegedly wrote, Jesus repeatedly rejects the title of Messiah. He says instead that the one who would come after him would be the Messiah and that he was not worthy to untie the Messiah sandals.”

“I don’t understand,” said Gwyn.

“It’s simple, really,” replied Gary. “The writer didn’t know that these two words meant the same thing. Most likely, he knew Greek and not Hebrew, but maybe he knew neither. He apparently thought that Christ was Jesus’ surname and Messiah was a title.”

Matt laughed again. “How did they expect anyone to take this seriously?”

“You laugh,” said Gary, “And it does contain numerous errors, but suppose a pagan Irish king in the eighth century wanted to give legitimacy to his Druid religion and hired you to write a gospel claiming that St. Patrick was a disciple of Jesus and that Jesus was actually a Druid.”

The smile disappeared from Matt’s face. “Hmmm, I see your point. That would be a tough assignment with no internet and no encyclopedia. Still, I don’t understand the motive with the Gospel of Barnabas. With the Moriscos, the evidence and the motive are clear. But you said this book is not even referred to until twenty years after the Moriscos had been expelled from Spain?”

“The fact that there is no written record before then can hardly be taken as proof that it did not exist,” replied Gary, “especially if there was some attempt to ‘erase every trace’ as it says in the document Dad found. The project had to have been completed earlier than this for Ibrahim al-Taybili to mention it. The overriding purpose of the G.O.B. is, like the Lead Books of Sacromonte, to recast the message of Jesus in a way that reflects Islamic values. I found an English copy online and read about sixty pages of it. I have an example here.”

He brought the document up on his screen and began scrolling down to the portions he had highlighted.

“Listen, this is Jesus speaking.

‘As God liveth, in whose presence my soul standeth, I am not the Messiah whom all the tribes of the earth expect, even as God promised to our father Abraham, saying: ‘In thy seed will I bless all the tribes of the earth.’ But when God shall take me away from the world, Satan will praise again this accursed sedition, by making the impious believe that I am God and son of God, whence my words and my doctrine shall be contaminated, insomuch that scarcely shall there remain thirty faithful ones: whereupon God will have mercy upon the world, and will send his messenger for whom he hath made all things; who shall come from the south with power, and shall destroy the idols with the idolaters; who shall take away the dominion from Satan which he hath over men. He shall bring with him the Mercy of God for salvation of them that shall believe in him, and blessed is he who shall believe his words.’”

Gary looked at Zeki. Everyone else was silent. Finally, Zeki spoke.

“That’s very close to what a Muslim might say about Jesus. ‘The one from the south’ is obviously a reference to the Prophet Mohammed.”

Gary continued. “I think you’re right. In fact, in other parts of the G.O.B., Mohammed is referred to by name. The book also claims that the Messiah will come though the seed of Abraham through Ishmael, not through Isaac.”

“Again, this mirrors Muslim belief,” replied Zeki. “However, to be perfectly honest, the issue of Ishmael and Isaac is not really addressed in the Qur’an. It was only raised much later when the two religions began to develop a polemic. For example, I know that the Old Testament says Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac and Muslims say it was Ishmael, but the Qur’an only says ‘his son’ without referring to which one it was.”

“Finally,” continued Gary. “The central Christian teaching of the crucifixion—the death, burial and resurrection of Christ—is denied. The G.O.B. says that it was Judas, not Jesus, who was crucified.”

“Another teaching of Islam,” admitted Zeki.

“Yes, but this teaching originated with the Gnostics. The Muslims simply borrowed it,” explained Gary.

Gwyn lowered one eyebrow and raised the other, but held her tongue. Gary continued.

“Most scholars seem to agree that the G.O.B. is an attempt to render the Gospel in a manner that defends Muslim positions on a number of issues. John the Baptist, who was the forerunner of Messiah tasked with preparing the Jews for the Messiah’s arrival, is completely absent from the Gospel of Barnabas. In every passage that refers to John the Baptist in the canonical New Testament, he has been replaced with Jesus, who is portrayed as heralding the coming of Mohammed.”

He looked at Zeki, his tone apologetic, “Even though the book is highly regarded in the Muslim world, there have also been several Muslim scholars who acknowledge that the text cannot be genuine. I’m just trying to make sense of it all.”

Zeki smiled back at him. “My faith is in the God of Abraham, the Lord of the Worlds. I do not worship a book.”

The room was silent. Matt poured himself another glass of tea.

“There is one thing that is still bothering me,” said Gwyn. “Why would they go to all the trouble and never use it?”

“I agree it seems odd,” said Gary. “It was a total rewrite of the Gospel, an ambitious project, requiring years if not decades of research. There are only two existing copies of the Gospel of Barnabas in the world. A fact I find equally as strange. One is an Italian version, which is kept in the Austrian National Library. I will come back to that later. There is also an incomplete Spanish copy which was found in 1974 in Sydney, Australia, and I believe it is more important given the Morisco connection.”

“Australia?” said Gwyn, screwing up her face. “What in the world does Australia have to do with it?”

“Now, that is a tale worth telling. Remember, the entries in Sale’s diary referring to a Spanish translation?” said Gary, turning back to the screen and reading from his notes. “I think he could be referring to the G.O.B. You see, Sale had the Spanish copy of the G.O.B. in his possession. He referred to it in his introduction to the English translation of the Qur’an in 1734. Sale had borrowed it from Dr. Holme, Rector of Hedley. We don’t know where Holme acquired it. From there, the book went to Dr. Thomas Monkhouse, Fellow of Queen’s College. But, Sale’s reference in 1734 was the last time anyone referred to the Spanish copy until 1974 when the incomplete copy was found in Australia. Interestingly enough, this copy has a note in it.

Transcribed from MS in possession of Revd Mr. Edm. Callamy who bought it at the Decease of Mr. George Sale 17.. and now gave me at the Decease of Mr. John Nickolls 1745 (signed) “N. Hone”.