What Christians (and Muslims) should know

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jan 16, 2016

And no, this is not a criticism of either Christianity or Islam. This is to urge both Christians and Muslims to do more academic research and not take what the priests and mullahs say at face value. If not we will have a situation where Muslims kill fellow Muslims thinking that this is what God or Allah has decreed.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Historians consider the first century as one of the best-documented periods in ancient history. There were actually many Roman and Jewish writers of that period and much of their work — volumes, in fact — still remain intact until today. Hence there should be no reason why an important historical figure or historical event of that time should not be reported in what some may consider ‘secular’ records when even less important events of no real historical value are.

However, we have to depend on the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to find any reference to Jesus because none of the secular records mention him. The Gospels were all written over more than 100 years and after Paul’s letters. So that would place them between the years 58 and almost 200. Mark’s Gospel has to be after the year 70 because he makes references to the Jewish-Roman War and the destruction of the temple that happened between the years 66 and 70.

Luke 1:1-2 says his story is handed down to his generation so that means he is not an eyewitness but is writing from hearsay. Matthew also lets slip that he is writing long after the event and was not a witness to the events.

Matthew quotes Jesus as telling Peter that ‘upon this rock I will build a church’. Peter must have been very confused with this statement because churches did not exist yet at that time so no one had any clue of that concept. So Matthew was not writing about the past but about the ‘present’ when churches already existed then.

Matthew 10.38 quotes Jesus as saying ‘He who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me’. However, Jesus did not know yet at that time that he would be arrested and crucified. John 10:17 then quotes Jesus as saying ‘Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it up again’ when even Jesus did not know yet that that was going to happen.

Luke 2:1-4 says Jesus was born in the year of the universal tax census when Augustus was Caesar and Quirinius was the governor of Syria. Mathew, Mark and John do not mention this, though. The error here is that Quirinius was not the governor then and he became governor in 6 CE. And, according to the Roman records, the first census was done during the reign of Vespasian in the year 74 CE.

Matthew then says that Jesus was born during the reign of Herod the Great who died four years before Jesus was supposed to have been born and ten years earlier than what Luke reported.

Mark says that just weeks before his death Jesus travelled to Jerusalem followed by a multitude of people. He travels to Galilee, then Capernaum, crosses the Jordan River, and goes to Jericho, Bethphage and Bethany before entering Jerusalem.

John, however, says that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, ‘which caused a great sensation’, and this enraged the Chief Priest and Pharises, who then plotted to kill him. From that time on Jesus stopped travelling openly and went into hiding.

According to Mark, Matthew and Luke, Jesus died at 3.00pm on the afternoon of Passover, which is the 15th of Nisan of the Jewish calendar. John, however, says that Jesus died on the day before Passover, which is on the 14th of Nisan. However, all four Gospels ‘agree’ that it was on a Friday. So it is either Friday the 14th or Friday the 15th.

John tells us that when it was time for Jesus to be crucified he would not let anyone else carry the cross up the hill. Matthew, Mark and Luke say that Simon of Cyrene helped Jesus carry the cross.

While on the cross, John tells us that Jesus said ‘woman, behold your son’. Mark and Matthew tells us that Jesus said ‘My god, my god, why have you forsaken me?’ while Luke tells us tell us that Jesus said ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing’.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were supposed to be Jews so that means they would know Jewish laws, customs and traditions of that time. However, according to Haim Cohn, the Attorney General of Israel who later became Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, what the Gospels reported regarding the trial of Jesus could not have happened because it goes against the legal system of that time.

The Gospel writers also do not seem to understand Jewish politics of that time. The Pharisees and the High Priest, who was a Sadducee, would never collaborate and conspire against Jesus because they hated each other and were bitter enemies. The Pharisees, in fact, regarded the High Priest as a Roman running dog or a ‘trained monkey’.

Then the Gospels tell us that Pilate resorted to the Jewish tradition during Passover of releasing the prisoners to the crowd and let the crowd decide who they want killed — Jesus or Barabbas. However, the Jews had no such tradition and neither did the Romans.

Mark tells us that Jesus travelled on the Sea of Galilee where there were storms and high waves. Actually it is just a small fresh-water lake fed by the Jordan River and is about the same width as Lake Geneva in Switzerland and less than one-third its length — and there are no storms and high waves there either.

Mark tells us that Jesus disembarked in Gerasa, which is actually 30 miles inland. Matthew then tells us that Jesus disembarked in Gadara, which is eight miles inland. So both those places are not ports.

Anyway, maybe I should stop here because in total there are about 1,800 discrepancies and areas of dispute and contradiction. Suffice to say that Christians need to do a critical analysis of the Gospels, just like Muslims should do the same with the almost 7,000 Hadith that have been shortlisted from the original 700,000.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK