The Bible’s text

Lost gospels: Thomas and Barnabas

The four Gospels in the Bible were not the only books written about Jesus. Over the centuries other “gospels” have been found or rediscovered, and two of them often come up when Muslims and Christians talk. This topic looks at the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Barnabas, and at what lost gospels can and cannot show.

1The question

What do the lost gospels tell us about Jesus, and can either side rely on them?

2What Christians believe

Christians hold that the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were accepted by the early churches because they came from the apostles and their companions and were read in worship from early times. Irenaeus defended these four around 180.

Christians see later gospels in a different light. The Gospel of Thomas is usually dated to the second century and linked with Gnostic ideas, and the Gospel of Barnabas is a late medieval work. On this view the lost gospels are interesting history, but not sources to set beside the four.

3What the texts say

Other accounts were written

Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us,
Luke 1:1 · KJVRead in context →
And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book:
John 20:30 · KJVRead in context →
And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
John 21:25 · KJVRead in context →

Barnabas in the New Testament

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
Acts 4:36 · KJVRead in context →
And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;
Acts 15:39 · KJVRead in context →

Paul warns against another gospel

But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.
Galatians 1:8 · KJVRead in context →

4What scholars say

Bart D. Ehrman (Lost Christianities, 2003) describes how many groups of early Christians read different books, and how the four Gospels came to be accepted while others were set aside.

The Gospel of Thomas, a list of 114 sayings, was found complete at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. Scholars debate whether its sayings depend on the four Gospels or preserve an early independent tradition, but most date the book in its present form to the second century.

The Gospel of Barnabas survives in an Italian and a Spanish manuscript. Most scholars, including many Muslim scholars, date it to the 14th–16th centuries. It says Jesus was not crucified and names Muhammad ﷺ, but it is not an early gospel.

5The Islamic perspective

The Qur’an speaks of one Gospel, the Injil, which God gave to Jesus. It also says that Christians forgot part of what they had been taught, and records Jesus foretelling a messenger after him:

And We caused Jesus, son of Mary, to follow in their footsteps, confirming that which was (revealed) before him in the Torah, and We bestowed on him the Gospel wherein is guidance and a light, confirming that which was (revealed) before it in the Torah - a guidance and an admonition unto those who ward off (evil).
Qur’an 5:46 · PickthallRead in context →
And with those who say: "Lo! we are Christians," We made a covenant, but they forgot a part of that whereof they were admonished. Therefor We have stirred up enmity and hatred among them till the Day of Resurrection, when Allah will inform them of their handiwork.
Qur’an 5:14 · PickthallRead in context →
And when Jesus son of Mary said: O Children of Israel! Lo! I am the messenger of Allah unto you, confirming that which was (revealed) before me in the Torah, and bringing good tidings of a messenger who cometh after me, whose name is the Praised One. Yet when he hath come unto them with clear proofs, they say: This is mere magic.
Qur’an 61:6 · PickthallRead in context →

The Muslim case does not depend on any lost gospel. It rests on the Qur’an and on the Bible Christians already read. What the lost gospels do show is that the early churches had many books about Jesus, and chose some of them. This site does not use the Gospel of Barnabas as evidence because it is late.

6Objections and responses

“Muslims rely on the Gospel of Barnabas, which is a forgery.”

Response: Careful Muslim writers do not rely on it, and this site does not. Many Muslim scholars have pointed out its problems, including that it has Jesus deny being the Messiah, which contradicts the Qur’an (3:45).

“The lost gospels were rightly rejected, so they prove nothing.”

Response: They do not prove that Islam is true, and this site does not claim they do. They do show that the selection of the four Gospels was a human process over time, and that early followers remembered Jesus in more than one way.

7Conclusion

Both sides agree that more gospels were written than the four in the Bible, that Thomas is a sayings collection found in 1945, and that the Gospel of Barnabas is a late work. Christians trust the early church’s choice of four. Muslims see the choice as a human process and rest their case on the Qur’an and the accepted Bible, not on lost books.

See the related topics for a closer look at Thomas, Barnabas, and the Barnabas of the Bible.

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