In July 2015 I wrote a
blog about the Old Testament of the Bible (OT), which you can read here: The Horrors of the Old Testament
This blog is about the
development of the Christian religion and the emergence of the second holy book
of Christianity, the New Testament (NT). Both the religion and the scriptures took
shape after the death of Jesus, who was born into a Jewish family. As a Jew he is
said to have accepted the Jewish scriptures, believed in the Jewish Prophets of the
OT and followed the Jewish religious law. At the time of Jesus’ death
Christianity was little more than a sect within Judaism. Within a hundred
years, however, Christianity had transformed itself into an anti-Jewish
religion of gentiles.
The NT came into being
decades after Jesus’ death. If a Muslim, with a good understanding of the Qur’an,
is introduced to the NT he/she will be struck by its many contradictions and inconsistencies,
and by the preponderance of statements which are insulting to human intelligence.
This is quite bewildering for one who has been instructed in the Qur’an to use
one’s powers of thought when reading the Qur’an and to think deeply when the
same subject is illuminated from different angles in different parts of the Quran.
Those who do not, are likened to cattle or to one who is simultaneously deaf,
blind and mute. Needless to say, for a Muslim the NT is not an easy book to
read, especially as wisdom and guidance are scattered through its pages, side
by side with the convoluted theology and the confused thinking.
What is one to make of
this amazing mix? I needed to understand the origins of Christianity, which I
eventually did, thanks to this excellent book : “Jesus, Interrupted” by Bart D.
Ehrman. The author started out as a staunch Christian who considered the Bible
to be the immutable Word of God. His years of studying the Bible, and the
origins of Christian religion, eventually led him to become an agnostic.
I learnt from Ehrman
that there are numerous books which were, at one time or another, considered
canonical but were later excluded from the Scripture. These books were not written by the followers of Jesus, who were all
lower-class Aramaic speakers from Galilee. They would have been unfamiliar with
the refined Greek in which the books were actually written. Most of these books were
written by anonymous writers decades after Jesus’ death, who relied on oral
traditions as their sources. To validate the anonymously written books, and to
give them authority, it was decided to link them to established names. Hence
the attributions such as “the Gospel according to Matthew”, etc. This explains why the books of the NT
are so different from one another, full of contradictions, inconsistencies and
discrepancies: the anonymous accounts were written by men who did not know each
other and probably lived in different countries in the Roman empire, and they
modified the stories in accordance with their own cultural traditions. None of
the original copies of those books have survived. What we do have are copies
made centuries later, all of which have been altered as the Christian religion
took shape after the death of Jesus.
In summary, the NT
consists of 27 books, which were written by 16 or 17 authors over a period of
some 70 years (compare this with the OT, consisting of 39 books, written by
dozens of authors over a period exceeding 600 years). Four of these books are
Gospels (Jesus’ sayings, plus a description of events in his life) while the
remaining books consist of writings by, or attributed to, Jesus’ disciples or apostles, or their
companions. The 4 Gospels are those linked to the names of Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. Of the remaining books, one is a book of Acts, which describes what
happened after Jesus’ death (his “ascension to heaven”). A large part of Acts
is concerned with an early convert, Saul of Tarsus, who came to be known as
apostle Paul, and who established much of the Christian dogma which later came
to be accepted as official canon.
No less than 13 books simply comprise Paul’s letters to the churches he
founded. These letters, which establish Christian religion in Paul’s image, are
somehow considered as ”inspired”. Biblical scholars think that Paul wrote,
perhaps, six of these letters, the remaining letters were written by others but
attributed to Paul.
The first certain
reference to the four Gospels included in the authorised NT occurred around 180
CE by a church father called Irenaeus. At that time lots of other Gospels were
floating around, some claimed to have been written by Jesus’ disciples Peter,
Thomas and Philip. These contained too many "heresies" unacceptable
to church fathers in the Roman empire, and were excluded from Scripture.
John and Matthew were
two of the 12 disciples of Jesus while Mark was said to be a companion of
disciple Peter and Luke was a companion of Paul. In fact, the Gospels
attributed to Mark, Matthew, Luke and John were not written to be part of the
Scripture. These Gospels were written anonymously from oral traditions: none of
the writers claimed to be an eyewitness. They simply state what they think
Mark, Matthew, Luke and John might have related after the death of Jesus. Hence
the attribution: “The Gospel according to ….”. With the passage of time their
accounts acquired a mystique and an aura of holiness, eventually becoming a
part of the Scripture.
Here is a quotation
taken from pages 267,268 and 279 of Ehrman’s book:
“Christianity, as has
long been recognised by critical historians, is the religion about Jesus, not
the religion of Jesus. The beliefs and perspectives that emerged among Jesus’
later followers were different from the religion of Jesus himself.
There were numerous
Christians involved in these transformations, who reinterpreted the traditions
of Jesus for their own time. Christianity emerged over a long period of time,
through a period of struggles, debates, and conflicts over competing views,
doctrines, perspectives, canons, and rules. The ultimate emergence of the
Christian religion represents a human invention, arguably the greatest
invention in the history of western civilisation.
It would be impossible
to argue that the Bible is a unified whole, inspired by God in every way. The
Bible is not a unity, it is a massive plurality. God did not write the Bible,
people did. “
In the first century
CE the Christian beliefs differed widely. These diverse Christian communities
bickered among themselves concerning their rival theologies and they competed
bitterly to win converts. They all claimed to be the true exponents of Jesus’ religion
and they had books to back up their claims. The group that eventually won was
the influential one based in Rome, the centre of the empire. It declared this
Roman Christianity to be the catholic religion - universal religion – followed
by the disciples and apostles of Jesus. Thus was born Roman Catholic
Christianity, which re-wrote history to present itself as always having been
the largest and truest Christian sect.
With the exception of
Paul’s letters, the NT is essentially a collection of forged documents, written
anonymously but attributed to Jesus’ disciples or apostles or their companions.
Ehrman, again:
“A large number of
books in the early church were written by authors who falsely claimed to be
apostles in order to deceive their readers into accepting their books and the
views they represented”.
This blog has dealt
with the background to the established Christian religion and the authorised
Scripture (NT). In the next blog I intend to comment on the contents of the NT
and the fundamental Christian beliefs.
