Abdullah wrote:
UNANIMOUS testimony? It was based on an assumption it was written by Mark, and The Bible was documentated 100-150 years after Jesus went to heaven.
Kai replies:
As I have referred to above, the Gospel of Mark has been confirmed by Eusebius in a reference to Papias (110-140) in his reference to Mark dictating what the Apostle Peter was lecturing in Rome (Eusebius, Hist.Eccl.3.39.15).
The same is confirmed by Justin Martyr (100-160) in his Dialogue with Trypho where he mentions the memoirs of Peter (Dialogue 106.3 and 100.4) as one of the memoirs of the apostles:
‘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…’
Justin in his dialogue with Trypho also stated that Jesus changed the name of Peter, and further that Jesus in the memoirs of Peter also changed the name of two others, the sons of Zebedee to Boanerges, which means ‘sons of thunder’ (106.6):
‘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 in fact (that they were known as the ‘sons of thunder’) is only mentioned in the
Gospel of Mark, in chapters 3: 17:
…James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means sons of thunder).
According to Irenaeus (130-200) the Gospel of Mark was written when Peter and Paul were preaching in Rome, and after their death he delivered the writings to the church (Adv. Haer. 3.1.1; H.E. 5. 8. 2-4). We have to remember that Irenaeus new the disciples of the of the actual apostles. He was the disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the Apostle.
According to Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria (150-215) states:
"When Peter had preached the gospel publicly in Rome...those who were present...besought Mark, since he had followed him (Peter) for a long time and remembered the things that had been spoken, to write out the things that had been said; and when he had done this he gave the gospel to those who asked him. When Peter learned of it later, he neither obstructed nor commended" (H.E. 6.14.6-7).
Again we are so close the eyewitness that this information is highly reliable, and has not been corrupted by oral tradition and mere hear saying.
Thus Abdullah, you cannot claim that we are relying upon assumption, this is virtually a better evidence than for the Koran, if we are to follow your (Abdullah’s) criteria.