Dr. Ali Ataie:
Christians often ask us: “If you don’t believe in the four Gospels of the New Testament, then
where is the ‘true Gospel’ that the Qur’an speaks of?” This is not an easily answered question. It
is certainly true that we do not affirm that the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the
words of God -- They are not even the words of Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. History teaches
us that these books were anonymous until the 180 CE at which time they were pseudonymously
ascribed to two disciples of Christ, a student of Peter, and a missionary partner of Paul.
These so-called “Gospels” were written many decades after the ascension of Christ (between 68
CE - 110 CE), in a language foreign to Jesus himself who spoke Syriac, by four men who never
claim to be writing while inspired by the Holy Ghost. The oldest New Testament manuscripts on
earth, the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, were not codified until 350-375 CE.
It is also a fact that all four canonical gospels were composed after the Apostle Paul had penned
all fourteen of his letters and epistles to the various European churches and were widely in
circulation in the Greco-Roman world (Many scholars contend that only seven letters are
genuinely from Paul while the others are pseudonymous). Although there is still a lot of useful
material preserved in the four canonical gospels for us to reconstruct the original Gospel of Jesus,
we must remember that despite this fact, all four accounts are heavily influenced by Pauline
doctrine and Hellenistic elements. Paul’s revolutionary view of the death and resurrection of the
Jewish Messiah, for instance, as atonement for the sins of mankind is apparent even as early as
Mark’s Gospel: “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Even with this said, much of the actual recorded words of Christ in the New Testament gospels
horrendously contradict statements made by Paul in his writings (See Chapter 3 of the book “In
Defense of Islam” on Voiceforislam.com). Alas, the quest for a Gospel of Jesus Christ that either
predates Paul or was written concurrently with his letters continues.
Certainly Muslims believe in the Injil-e-‘Isa, or the Gospel according to Jesus as being the true
Word of God Almighty. However, this Gospel is not the subjective biographical accounts of the
four evangelists as recorded in the New Testament. You can think of these gospels (notice the
small “g”) as being four theologically motivated interpretations of the one true Gospel, which so
far has not shown up on earth in writing. The Gospel of Jesus was a spoken message that God
sent to the Children of Israel as light and guidance. The synoptic authors tell us:
• “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and
preaching the
gospel of the kingdom...” (Matthew 9:35).
• “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the
gospel of
the kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14.).
• “And it came to pass, [that] on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple,
and preached the
gospel...” (Luke 20:1).
THIS is the Gospel that Muslims believe was truly sent down from above; the
teachings of Christ
as oppose to the meaning of his (apparent) death.
(Gospel of Jesus)