Long ago, the Synoptic Gospels were adopted by Christians and became part of the Bible, which should be believed in and not opposed. Christianity has built this principle on the following principles:
First: the inspiration of the apostles and the writers of the Gospels which makes the Gospels definitive.
Second: the infallibility or prophecy of their carriers.
Hence, on such grounds the Gospels became the “Word of God”!. However, the historical reality of the Gospels witnesses otherwise! There have been calls from within the Christian field itself to correct the course and have objective examination of what came in the Gospels; such calls were met with suppression from others. Here are some historical evidence to nullify such grounds and deem them invalid:
Different manuscripts and copies of the New Testament:
There are approximately twenty-four thousand ancient manuscripts of the Word of God counted as “the New Testament”, the oldest dating back three hundred and fifty years A.D, while the original first manuscript of the Word of God does not exist! ”
The introduction to the Catholic New Testament in the approved Vatican version of the Gospels, which dates back to the fourth century A.D, tells that the author is “unknown”. Moreover, the copy has been damaged!”
There are other versions that were not written or dictated by their real authors and were not in their eras; they were rather written at least two centuries after their death, such as the Sinai and Alexandrian versions, the Ephraimian version, the version of Pisa, the basal version and the version of Ladianus.
The chain of narrators of these copies was lost and some Christian clerics admit such fact. In his debate with The Indian Muslim scholar Rahmatullah, Frang, a priest, acknowledged this when he said: “The reason for the loss of our chain of narrators is the occurrence of calamities and sedition against Christians for a period of three hundred and thirteen years.”
There are also difference between manuscripts among which include distortions, whether through addition or deletion and misinterpretation of their meanings or erasing other versions of Gospels. One may wonder why were these particular Gospels among the thousands of evangelical versions of the Word of God approved?!
Dr. Assakar says, “Robert gave Tisanvangli press a scientific memo to be printed with the Bible, which were banned by him from printing. When asked why it was banned, he said,” This memo will make people lose faith in this book! “.
“No one will ever claim that God is the author of all the parts of this book with all such distortions,” says Dr. Robert.
The human element
One may also touches the human source in the synoptic gospels, which makes us confused whether such gospels are the word of God or not. Luke uses human-made words such as “One may think or “about”. Therefore, the Church has removed such words from English versions of the Gospels.
Christianity seems to have adopted inspirations as a source of divine revelation and legislation rather than the linguistic sense of them. This indicates the fluctuation of the concept of revelation in Christianity and the disciplined Islamic concept for it on the contrary. Religious texts and rulings may not be based on inspirations because they lack disciplined criteria. Apostles were neither prophets nor messengers sent by God .
Ibn al-Atheer, an Arab linguist defines inspiration as “What God instills in the soul whether to act upon or not”.
Zakaria al-Ansari, a Muslim theologian, says: “Inspiration is a meaning put in the heart to reassure the chest of those chosen by God. It should not be considered as a proof of the legitimacy of a thing or not”.
Thoughts and inspirations may be from the inspiration that God instills in the heart or from the whispers of the devil , and may be by the soul itself.
Ibn Hajar says, “Inspiration may occur for certain people. It has no certain rule…However, whatever the case, they should not be considered as foundation for religious rulings.”
The infallibility of the Gospel writers or authors is criticized for many of the fatal mistakes they have made in what they said about Christ or even the Lord. They were heedless of many events. To name a few for, example, three gospels do not record the miracle of turning water into wine by Jesus while John mentions it only (2 / 1-11)!
References
Assakkar, Is the New Testament The Word Of God?
Rahmattullah Al-Hindi, Idhhar Al-Haq,
Fat-h al-Bari