The Prophet Christ (PBUH) had made it a mission to persuade all Jews to join with the Christians to form the Grand Union. He himself was a devout Jew. He observed the tenets of the Jewish faith and went to the Jewish synagogue to pray and even to teach the Jews. The Bible says:-
“He taught them in their synagogue, insomuch that they were astonished, and said: Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works?” (Matthew 13:54-56)
He even took strong action against such persons who disturbed the sanctity of the Jewish synagogue by using parts of it as a market for selling animals and birds. (Luke 19:45) and (John 2:13-15)
This attempt to form the Grand Union was carried on by his Apostles by trying to keep the Jews with them.
“At the time Jesus left this world, his followers simply formed a small Jewish sect.” (Hart)
“After Jesus’s departure, the little group of Apostles formed a Jewish sect and remained faithful to the form of worship practiced in the temple (Jewish); James, a relation of Jesus was the head of the community”. (Cardinal Danielou – 1967)
The teachings of Prophet Christ (PBUH) could not be recorded, while he was in this world, but his Apostles preserved them through oral traditions.
Arrival of St. Paul.
“Paul, also known as Saul, was born in Chilacia (present day Turkey)” (Hart).
He was a late convert. He never saw Prophet Jesus (PBUH), so that he could neither give an eye witness or ear-witness account of the preaching of the Prophet. When he arrived in Jerusalem, he was not acceptable to the Christian elders, but later he was received on the recommendation of St. Burnabas, who was one of the 12 Apostles of Prophet Jesus (PBUH). The Bible says:-
“And when Saul (Paul) came to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples, but they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple.
But Burnabass took him and brought him to the Apostles.” (Acts 9: 26:27)
The sixth sense of the Apostles was correct. St. Paul very soon started to oppose the Apostles by preaching principles which were completely opposed to the original Christian creed as preached by Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and his Apostles. Naturally he was declared as a heretic.
The following were the main points on which he did not agree with the creed of the original Christians:-
The first point was that he did not want to restrict preaching of Christianity to Jews only, as were the clear instructions of Prophet Jesus (PBUH).
The bible says:-
“Go nowhere among the Gentiles and no town of the Samaritan, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”. (Matthew 10: 5-6)
“I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel”. (Matthew 15:24)
But since St. Paul was not being accepted by Jews and Christians, he wanted to go out to the pagans and establish a faith of his own liking.
Then he wanted that in order to make his Christianity attractive, new converts should be exempted from all formalities and observances of Christianity, which were the same as laid down by Prophet Moses (PBUH).
“In preaching to non-Jews, however, Paul was very successful. Paul insisted that there was no need for converts to Christianity to accept Jewish dietary restrictions, or to confirm to the rituals of the Mosaic Code or even to be circumcised.” (Hart)
He also exempted the converts from saying regular prayers in the temple. (The word Church was not used at that time.) The present day practice of Christians of paying a formal visit to church just once a week and then only just to hear a sermon, is St. Paul’s idea.
He also made a very attractive offer to all converts:-
“Christ died for our sins and his suffering can redeem us. If one accepts Christ, his sins will be forgiven”. (Hart)
Thus the idea of virtue, good deeds and the ‘Day of Judgment’ preached by every Prophet, was thrown overboard but it proved quite attractive to the pagans.
And then he executed his master stroke. The pagans, amongst whom he preached, worshipped idols and a number of gods and it did not appeal to them to switch their fidelity to one unseen God.
It was well known that the Prophet Jesus (PBUH) was given birth by a virgin. So St. Paul declared that God Himself was the father of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and thus two ideas developed: (a) Prophet Jesus (PBUH) was the son of God and that (b) there were three Gods, the father, the son and the Holy Ghost. Thus the idea of “Trinity” was founded and it carried away the pagans completely. Since they were provided with alternate gods, and at least one of them was material, they did not have any regrets for abandoning their idols and gods.
What an attractive Offer!
- No customary religious requirements.
- No restrictions on types of food – eat any meat, drink wine etc.
- No prayers or going to the temple.
- No circumcision or other rituals.
- No regrets for abandoning your idols, alternate gods provided.
And most important of all:-
-
No fear of any sins or the ‘Day of Judgment’. Accept Christianity and then you can do anything. Your Salvation is assured.
Thus St. Paul completely changed the original Christianity as preached by Prophet Jesus (PBUH).
“His central idea of the divinity of Christ and of justification (salvation) by faith alone, remained basic to Christian thought throughout all the intervening centuries. Indeed the influence of Paul’s ideas has been so great that some scholars have claimed that he, rather than Jesus, should be regarded as the principal founder of the Christian religion”.(Hart).
There is no doubt that with his attractive offer, St. Paul gathered a larger number of converts around him.
The Christian youth of today does not know this story – how St. Paul set aside all basic principles of Christianity as preached by Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and how he gave a new religion of his own. He also does not know how St. Paul overthrew the original faith and how he succeeded in establishing his own version of Christianity. The modern youth takes Paul’s version for granted. Most of them have not even studied the Bible from beginning to end. The number of youth who study the early history of Christianity is negligible. They just accept Christianity, which they have inherited from their parents.
But in those days, when St. Paul started his activities, quite a number of Apostles were living. They had come in personal contact with Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and were fully aware of the teachings of the Prophet. They could not be blinded by St. Paul’s maneuvers and would not take it lying down. They opposed St. Paul tooth and nail and thus there comes a period in the history of Christianity, in which the two parties were pitched against each other. Both parties produced their own literature and quite a large number of Gospels were written by each.
Below are quotations, which will give some idea of the religious scene in those days.
“It is essential to know these facts to understand the struggle between communities, that formed the background against which the Gospels were written. The texts that we have today, after many adaptations from the sources, began to appear around 70 A.D. (Bucaille).
“The evangelists were the only spokesmen of the early Christian community, which wrote down the oral traditions. For thirty or forty years the Gospels had existed as an almost exclusively oral tradition and they only transmitted sayings and isolated narratives. The evangelists strung them together, each in his own way, according to his own character and theological preoccupations.” (O. Culmann in the Book “The New Testament.”)
“Thus the evangelists, each according to his own outlook, have collected and recorded in writing the material given to them by the oral traditions.” (Ecumenical Translation of the Bible).
“If one chooses to regard the Gospels as expressing the personal point of those, who collected the oral traditions, that belonged to various communities or as writings suited to an occasion or combat-writings, it does not come as a surprise to find faults in the Gospels. All these faults are the sign, that they were written by men in circumstances such as these. The writers may have been quite sincere, even though they relate facts without doubting their inaccuracy. They provide us with descriptions which contradict other authors’ narrations or are influenced by reasons of religious rivalry between communities. They therefore present stories about the life of Jesus from a completely different angle than their adversaries”. (Bucaille).
Thus the original Christians and the Pauline Christians continued to preach their religions and to write hundreds of their Gospels for more than three centuries. And then ……….
Paul’s Christianity overthrows Christ’s Christianity
During these 300 years, the two factions the followers of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and the followers of St. Paul continued to preach their own sets of gospels and were at loggers head.
During this period, the Christians had no political power. The Roman emperors were against the Christians and they subjected the Christians to the cruelest form of persecution, even to the extent of throwing them before hungry lions in the arena of the Coliseum theatre in Rome amidst the enjoyment and loud laughter of the Roman citizens.
However, when Emperor Constantine (A.D. 306-337) assumed power, things became easier for Christians. He had a soft corner for Christians, because he wanted their political support which the Christians welcomed.
Constantine did not want the Christians to have two opposing factions. He desired their united strength at his back. So in AD 325 he called a joint meeting of the two factions, which goes in history under the title of Council of Nicaea.
At this council, representatives of both the factions appeared before the Emperor Constantine. The group, following the teachings of Prophet Jesus (PBUH) and his Apostles, was represented by Arius. The other group following St. Paul (though he was dead by then) was represented by Athanesius. This group, as already stated, was much larger and louder in expressing their views. The Emperor tried reconciliation, but since it could not be achieved, he declared that, in future, only the Pauline majority group will be recognized as representative of Christianity.
Thus St. Paul won a posthumous victory and the “Nicean Creed” was established. Anybody not believing in Paul’s Christianity was declared to be a “heretic” and many Christians who did not believe in Paul’s Trinity were killed. All gospels, not conforming with ideas of St. Paul, were declared as “Apocrypha”. As a result hundreds of gospels were burnt down and only those were retained, which propagated the ideas of St. Paul. The Gospels of the Hebrews, the gospels of Nazarenes and the Gospels of the Egyptians are just a few examples. An edict was issued that any one in possession of these Gospels will be put to death.
Even the Gospel of St. Barnabas was amongst the banned books. St. Barnabas was one of the twelve Apostles who were nearest to the Prophet Jesus (PBUH). The famous “Last Supper” was held in the house of the sister of St. Barnabas. St. Barnabus was a prominent leader of the Christians after Prophet Jesus (PBUH) left this world. St. Paul arrived in Jerusalem much later and being a recent convert was not acceptable to the group. In fact it was St. Barnabas who helped St. Paul in gaining entry in the inner circle of Christians. A quotation from Bible has already been given in support of this fact. (Acts 9:26 and 27).
St. Barnabas is also mentioned at several other places in the Bible. Yet his Gospel was also banned at the council of Nicaea, because it carried original Christian ideas and not those which St. Paul had advocated later.
Though the Gospel of St. Barnabas was included amongst the books, which were banned and burnt and it was a crime to possess a copy of any such book, a few copies of the gospel of St. Barnabas were preserved by some people at great risk and were carried from generation to generation.
A copy of this book came in the possession of Prince Eugene of Savoy. In 1738 the library of the Prince was taken up by Hofbibliothek (library) in Vienna, where it is safely kept till today. Its English translation was published by the Oxford University at Claredon Press in 1907, but this edition soon mysteriously disappeared from the market. Two copies of this translation are known to exist, one in the British Museum and the other in the Library of Congress, Washington. Some people have obtained a microfilm copy from the Library of Congress and the book is available. Any person who wants to compare the real Christianity with the current Pauline Christianity must read the Gospel of Barnabas. (Available from Aisha Bawani Waqf, P.O. Box 4178, Karachi, Pakistan). |