Christian/Muslim ThreadsBible Corruption and Who are the Real Authors?Secondly, the whole Muslim concept about the Gospel is misunderstood and wrong.
Jesus was never given a book, Jesus never wrote a book, according to the Gospels the responsibility was given to the apostles (And may I then explain that these men were apostles and are valued by Christians in the same way as Muhammad is value by Muslims).
In Luke 24: 45-49 we read:
45Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46He told them, “This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49I am going to send you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”
In Matthew 28 we read:
18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In other words the Gospels are the apostolic confirmation of witness.
In John 14 this is further elaborated:
25“All this I have spoken while still with you. 26But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you
And in John 16:
12“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
Thus the Gospels are the witnesses of the apostles inspired and by the work of the Holy Spirit.
Further, this can be confirmed by the earliest Christian historical manuscripts, In which the Gospels are referred to, not as Gospels but the memoirs of the Apostles:
In his historical book of early Christianity ‘The History of the Church’ (260) Eusebius refers to Papias (110-140) who refers to the Gospel of Mark dictating the Apostle Peter, without omitting or adding anything (Eusebius, Hist.Eccl.3.39.15). Papias also confirms that Matthew wrote a Gospel mainly to the Jews (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. , 3.39.16)
Papias also provides a list in which at least two compiled Gospel information:
Papias bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia (125), refers to the written tradition but was also significantly in favour of oral transmission:
‘If ever any one came who had been a companion of the elders, I would inquire about the elders words. “What” I would ask “did Andrew or Peter say, or Philip or Thomas or James, or John or Matthew or any other of the Lord’s disciples”? “And what do Aristion and John the elder, the Lord’s disciple, say”?’ (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. 3.39.4. Taken from Papia’s Exegesis of the Dominical oracles)
Justin Martyr (100-160) confirms similar facts in his Dialogue with Trypho where he mentions the memoirs of Peter (Dialogue 106.3 and 100.4), and later in his two apologies to emperor Antonius Pius (138-61) and Roman Senate (144-160); in which he refers to the memoirs of the apostles, which he also calls Gospels, which he states are read along the compositions of the prophet (First apology, 66.3; 67.3)
Here is the actual text, I have underlined the important phrases but I post the whole passage so anybody can look at it within its full context:
Justin Martyr Dialogue 100:4
100.4 says:
Chapter C.-In What Sense Christ is [Called] Jacob, and Israel, and Son of Man.
"Then what follows-`But Thou, the praise of Israel, inhabitest the holy place'-declared that He is to do something worthy of praise and wonderment, being about to rise again from the dead on the third day after the crucifixion; and this He has obtained from the Father. For I have showed already that Christ is called both Jacob and Israel; and I have proved that it is not in the blessing of Joseph and Judah alone that what relates to Him was proclaimed mysteriously, but also in the Gospel it is written that He said: `All things are delivered unto me by My Father; 'and, `No man knoweth the Father but the Son; nor the Son but the Father, and they to whom the Son will reveal Him.'381 Accordingly He revealed to us all that we have perceived by His grace out of the Scriptures, so that we know Him to be the first-begotten of God, and to be before all creatures; likewise to be the Son of the patriarchs, since He assumed flesh by the Virgin of their family, and submitted to become a man without comeliness, dishonoured, and subject to suffering. Hence, also, among His words He said, when He was discoursing about His future sufferings: `The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the Pharisees and Scribes, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.'382 He said then that He was the Son of man, either because of His birth by the Virgin, who was, as I said, of the family of David383 and Jacob, and Isaac, and Abraham; or because Adam384 was the father both of Himself and of those who have been first enumerated from whom Mary derives her descent. For we know that the fathers of women are the fathers likewise of those children whom their daughters bear. For [Christ] called one of His disciples-previously known by the name of Simon-Peter; since he recognised Him to be Christ the Son. of God, by the revelation of His Father: and since we find it recorded in the memoirs of His apostles that He is the Son of God, and since we call Him the Son, we have understood that He proceeded before all creatures from the Father by His power and will (for He is addressed in the writings of the prophets in one way or another as Wisdom, and the Day,385 and the East, and a Sword, and a Stone, and a Rod, and Jacob, and Israel); and that He became man by the Virgin, in order that the disobedience which proceeded from the serpent might receive its destruction in the same manner in which it derived its origin. For Eve, who was a virgin and undefiled, having conceived the word of the serpent, brought forth disobedience and death. But the Virgin Mary received faith and joy, when the angel Gabriel announced the good tidings to her that the Spirit of the Lord would come upon her, and the power of the Highest would overshadow her: wherefore also the Holy Thing begotten of her is the Son of God;386 and she replied, `Be it unto me according to thy word.'"387 And by her has He been born, to whom we have proved so many Scriptures refer, and by whom God destroys both the serpent and those angels and men who are like him; but works deliverance from death to those who repent of their wickedness and believe upon Him.
106:
"The remainder of the Psalm makes it manifest that He knew His Father would grant to Him all things which He asked, and would raise Him from the dead; and that He urged all who fear God to praise Him because He had compassion on all races of believing men, through the mystery of Him who was crucified; and that He stood in the midst of His brethren the apostles (who repented of their flight from Him when He was crucified, after He rose from the dead, and after they were persuaded by Himself that, before His passion He had mentioned to them that He must suffer these things, and that they were announced beforehand by the prophets), and when living with them sang praises to God, as is made evident in the memoirs of the apostles. The words are the following: `I will declare Thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the Church will I praise Thee. Ye that fear the Lord, praise Him; all ye, the seed of Jacob, glorify Him. Let all the seed of Israel fear Him.' And when it is said that He changed the name of one of the apostles to Peter; and when it is written in the memoirs of Him that this so happened, as well as that He changed the names of other two brothers, the sons of Zebedee, to Boanerges, which means sons of thunder; this was an announcement of the fact that it was He by whom Jacob was called Israel, and Oshea called Jesus (Joshua), under whose name the people who survived of those that came from Egypt were conducted into the land promised to the patriarchs. And that He should arise like a star from the seed of Abraham, Moses showed before hand when he thus said, `A star shall arise from Jacob, and a leader from Israel; '410 and another Scripture says, `Behold a man; the East is His name.'411 Accordingly, when a star rose in heaven at the time of His birth, as is recorded in the memoirs of His apostles, the Magi from Arabia, recognising the sign by this, came and worshipped Him.
So here we have the memoirs of the apostles (the Four Gospels) and the memoirs of Peter (Mark’s Gospel), THE LAST PHRASE REFERS TO THE MEMOIRS OF MATTHEW, OR WHAT WE TODAY CALL THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW.
In the next passage Justin Martyr reveals that these memoirs are in fact (not a Gospel), but the Gospels:
First apology 66.3 and 67:3
Chapter LXVI.-Of the Eucharist.
And this food is called among us Eu0xaristi/a143 [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined. For not as common bread and common drink do we receive these; but in like manner as Jesus Christ our Saviour, having been made flesh by the Word of God, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so likewise have we been taught that the food which is blessed by the prayer of His word, and from which our blood and flesh by transmutation are nourished, is the flesh and blood of that Jesus who was made flesh.144 For the apostles, in the memoirs composed by them, which are called Gospels, have thus delivered unto us what was enjoined upon them; that Jesus took bread, and when He had given thanks, said, "This do ye in remembrance of Me,145 this is My body.
NOTICE THAT JUSTIN MARTYR REFERS TO THE MEMOIRS AS GOSPELS, ALSO HE CONFIRMS THAT THE GOSPELS WERE NOT WRITTEN WORKS BUT COMPOSITIONS (if you look at it the compositions of sayings and narrative).
AND WE CONTINUE
Chapter LXVII.-Weekly Worship of the Christians.
And we afterwards continually remind each other of these things. And the wealthy among us help the needy; and we always keep together; and for all things wherewith we are supplied, we bless the Maker of all through His Son Jesus Christ, and through the Holy Ghost. And on the day called Sunday,146 all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits; then, when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs, and exhorts to the imitation of these good things. Then we all rise together and pray, and, as we before said, when our prayer is ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings, according to his ability,147 and the people assent, saying Amen; and there is a distribution to each, and a participation of that over which thanks have been given,148 and to those who are absent a portion is sent by the deacons. And they who are well to do, and willing, give what each thinks fit; and what is collected is deposited with the president, who succours the orphans and widows and those who, through sickness or any other cause, are in want, and those who are in bonds and the strangers sojourning among us, and in a word takes care of all who are in need. But Sunday is the day on which we all hold our common assembly, because it is the first day on which God, having wrought a change in the darkness and matter, made the world; and Jesus Christ our Saviour on the same day rose from the dead. For He was crucified on the day before that of Saturn (Saturday); and on the day after that of Saturn, which is the day of the Sun, having appeared to His apostles and disciples, He taught them these things, which we have submitted to you also for your consideration.
One of Justin Martyr’s students Tatian even introduced the Diatessaron in 170 which was a harmony of the four Gospels. In which the earliest fragments we possess today dates the third century and a full commentary on it written by Ephrem (306-73) in Greek. This proves that the four Gospels were considered to be the accepted standard to what the church considered to the Gospel.
Later the church rejected the use of the Diatessaron as the church preferred the four Gospels to be read as individually separated.
Hyppolytus from Rome (200-215) also confirms that 50 years later the memoirs are mainly known as, not Gospel but Gospels.
A Refutation of all heresies book 8, Hippolytus of Rome (200-215)
CHAP. XII.--THE MONTANISTS; PRISCILLA AND MAXIMILLA THEIR PROPHETESSES; SOME OF THEM NOETIANS.
But there are others who themselves are even more heretical in nature (than the foregoing). and are Phrygians by birth. These have been rendered victims of error from being previously captivated by (two) wretched women, called a certain Priscilla and Maximilla, whom they supposed (to be) prophetesses. And they assert that into these the Paraclete Spirit had departed; and antecedently to them, they in like manner consider Montanus as a prophet. And being in possession of an infinite number of their books, (the Phrygians) are overrun with delusion; and they do not judge whatever statements are made by them, according to (the criterion of) reason; nor do they give heed unto those who are competent to decide; but they are heedlessly swept onwards, by the reliance which they place on these (impostors). And they allege that they have learned something more through these, than from law, and prophets, and the Gospels. But they magnify these wretched women above the Apostles and every gift of Grace, so that some of them presume to assert that there is in them a something superior to Christ. These acknowledge God to be the Father of the universe, and Creator of all things, similarly with the Church, and (receive) as many things as the Gospel testifies concerning Christ. They introduce, however, the novelties of fasts, and feasts, and meals of parched food, and repasts of radishes, alleging that they have been instructed by women. And some of these assent to the heresy of the Noetians, and affirm that the Father himself is the Son, and that this (one) came under generation, and suffering, and death. Concerning these I shall again offer an explanation, after a more minute manner; for the heresy of these has been an occasion of evils to many. We therefore are of opinion, that the statements made concerning these (heretics) are sufficient when we shall have briefly proved to all that the majority of their books are silly, and their attempts (at reasoning) weak, and worthy of no consideration. But it is not necessary for those who possess a sound mind to pay attention (either to their volumes or their arguments).
An even more significant source is Irenaeus who was trained under Polycarp (a disciple of John the Apostle), and becomes a presbyter in Lyons.
He quotes from almost the whole NT on the basis of its authority, and asserts that all the apostles were endowed with power from on high, having equal measure and each one singly the gospel of God ( Against Heretics, 3:3).
He writes: “The word…gave us the gospel in a fourfold shape, but held together by one Spirit”.
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