What did Jesus really say?

2.1 Christian scholars recognize contradictions (Part 2)

In all, Tischendorf uncovered over 14,800 "corrections" to the manuscript by nine (some say ten) separate "correctors," which had been applied to this one manuscript over a period from 400AD to 1200AD (see Fig. 1). Although he was well known to be quite ruthless and unscrupulous in his dealings with his fellow Christian, still, he strove in his dealings with his holy texts themselves to be as honest and sincere as humanly possible. For this reason he could not understand how the scribes could have so continuously and so callously

"allow themselves to bring in here and there changes, which were not simple verbal ones, but materially affected the meaning" or why they "did not shrink from cutting out a passage or inserting one."

In the book "The Story of the Manuscripts" by Rev. George E. Merrill, the good Reverend quotes Prof. Arnold as stating:

"there are not more than fifteen hundred to two thousand places 2,000 errors in which there is any uncertainty whatever as to the true text.."

this number being in the respected Professor's estimation quite minuscule. Prof. Arnold then goes on to explain how all of these "variant readings" are undeserving of his attention with only about a dozen being of any doctrinal importance. In this manner, many thousands of additions, omissions, and "corrections" of the church over the ages are suddenly transformed to only a dozen and then quickly reduced to none. Notice how casually and quickly centuries of tampering with the text of the "inspired word of God" is brushed off and justified?.

The reader is encouraged to go back and read all of these inserted verses that the conservative Trinitarian scholars themselves now admit were later forgeries of the Church. Notice the intricate detail that is to be found in them. Notice the attention to the minutest aspect that is lavished upon these inserted verses. Notice how "spiritual" they are. Notice how truly "inspired" they are. What does all of this tell us?

Please keep in mind that these are only but a few of the most outstanding of these discrepancies. In many cases the translators appear to have been unable to determine the true wording in any truly scientific and unbiased fashion, thus, they appear to have been reduced to such actions as choosing the version adopted by the majority of the "ancient authorities." I am sure no one will mistake this for a truly scientific determination (e.g. perhaps the minority version is found in the most ancient manuscripts, as seen above). Think about it.

"O People of the Book! Our messenger has come to you revealing to you much of what you used to hide of the Book and forgiving much. There has come to you from Allah a light and a plain scripture"

The noble Qur'an, Al-Maida(5):15

As we have seen, these are not simply the ramblings of a small number of obscure crackpot Christian-haters. This information has become so well recognized and acknowledged in the Christian West today that even their own encyclopedias affirm it, and although no one will ever mistake an encyclopedia for an official Christian reference, still, this does go to show the extent that this information has become accepted in the West today. Grolier's encyclopedia says under the heading "Jesus Christ":

"The Gospels According to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the first four books of the New Testament of the Bible, are the principal sources for the life of Jesus. These works are primarily testimonies to the faith of the early Christian community, however, and have to be used critically as evidence for the historical Jesus. The methods include source, form, and redaction criticism...These methods provide criteria to sift through the redaction and tradition and reconstruct the message and the mission of the historical Jesus...Application of the critical methods described above reveals that the gospel tradition apparently started originally with Jesus' baptism by John the Baptist (Matt. 3:13-17; Mark 1:9-11; Luke 3:21-22; John 1:29-34). The stories concerning the birth of Jesus were probably later additions. These stories--the annunciations to Mary and Joseph, their journey to Bethlehem for the Roman census, and Jesus' birth there (Luke 2:1-7); the visits of the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20) and the three magi from the East (Matt. 2:1-12); and the flight of the family to Egypt to escape the massacre of young boys that had been ordered by King Herod (Matt. 2:13-23)--may be characterized conveniently, if loosely, as 'Christological midrash,' expressions of Christological faith cast into narrative form. If there are any factual elements in them, these will be found among the items on which Matthew and Luke agree: the names of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus; the dating of Jesus' birth toward the end of the reign of Herod the Great (d. 4 BC); and, less certainly, the Bethlehem location of the birth" (emphasis added).

"The Five Gospels," is a 550 page book containing translations of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It was the result of a six year study by 24 Christian scholars from some of the most prestigious universities the Western world. They decided to produce a translation of the Gospels which would be uncolored by the translator's personal faith. It was decided that this translation was to give the reader an honest picture of what Jesus (pbuh) truly said. They scanned the text for the words of Jesus (pbuh), and collect an index of over 1,500 such sayings. They then tested the validity of each of these sayings, one at a time, to see whether Jesus (pbuh) truly said each one. They then produced a fresh translation, color-coded to show authentic Jesuit sayings and those of an unreliable nature. Their conclusion (page 5) was:

"Eighty-two percent of the words ascribed to Jesus in the gospels were not actually spoken by him."

They go on to reveal that:

"biblical scholars and theologians alike have learned to distinguish the Jesus of history from the Christ of faith. It has been a painful lesson for both the church and scholarship. The distinction between the two figures is the difference between a historical person who lived in a particular time and place...and a figure who has been assigned a mythical role, in which he descends from heaven to rescue humankind and, of course, eventually returns there."

Well then, if 82% of the "words of Jesus" found in the Bible were apparently never spoken by him then where did they come from? Some of the sources demonstrated by the authors are:

"The concept of plagiarism was unknown in the ancient world. Authors freely copied from predecessors without acknowledgment. Sages became the repository of free-floating proverbs and witticisms. For the first Christians, Jesus was a legendary sage: it was proper to attribute the world's wisdom to him. The proverb in Mark 2:17, for example, is attested in secular sources (Plutarch and Diogenes for example)...in the parallel to the Markan passage, Matthew adds a sentence taken from the prophet Hosea (Matt 9:13)."

Also:

"Hard sayings are frequently softened in the process of transmission to adapt them to the conditions of daily living...Variations in difficult saying often betray the struggle of the early Christian community to interpret or adapt sayings to it's own situations... Matthew's version of the aphorism "The last will be first and the first last"(Matt 20:16) is softened in Mark 10:31 to "MANY of the first will be last, and of the last MANY will be first"."

And probably most revealing:

"Christian conviction eventually overwhelms Jesus: he is made to confess what Christians had come to believe...The contrast between Christian language or viewpoint and the language or viewpoint of Jesus is a very important clue to the real voice of Jesus, the language of Jesus was distinctive, as was his style and perspective."

The above is only a very small sampling of the very large cache of evidence clearly showing the Bible to have been seriously distorted and altered. To this day it is being continuously edited, corrected, and modified. This is not to say that Christians are not good and honest people in search of the truth. Quite the opposite. Among them are some of the most decent and moral people on this earth. The goal of this book is only to show that the Christian faith as it stands today is not the same one preached by Jesus peace be upon him to his followers nineteen hundred years ago. This is exactly what the Qur'an has been asserting for over fourteen hundred years now.

"O People of the Book! Why do you reject the Signs of God, when you [yourselves] bear witness [to their truth]?. O People of the Book! Why do you clothe Truth with falsehood, and conceal the Truth, while you have knowledge?"

The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):70-71

"Say: 'O People of the Book! Why do you reject the Signs of God, when God is Himself witness to all you do?' Say: 'O People of the Book! Why do you obstruct those who believe from the path of God, Seeking to make it crooked, while you were yourselves witnesses? But God is not unaware of what you do'"

The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):98-99

"Truly, the Religion in the Sight of God is Islam (literally: "the submission"). Nor did those who were given the scripture dissent therefrom except after knowledge had come to them, through envy of each other. But whosoever disbelieves in the Signs of God, [then surely,] God is swift in calling to account."

The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):19

"They are not all alike. Of the People of the Scripture there is a party who stand [for that which is right], they recite the revelations of Allah throughout the night, falling prostrate [before Him]."

The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):113

"And there are, certainly, among the People of the Book, those who believe in God, and in that which was sent down unto you, and in that which was sent down unto them, humbling themselves before God: They will not sell the Signs of God for a miserable gain! For them is a reward with their Lord, and God is swift to take account."

The noble Qur'an, A'al-Umran(3):199

"O people of the Book! Now has come unto you Our messenger, revealing to you much of what you used to hide in the Book, and passing over much. Indeed, there has come to you from God a light and a plain Scripture"

The noble Qur'an, Al-Maida(5):15

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