Notes on the Messianic Doctrine
in the Gospel of BarnabasLittle or no study has been made of the Messianic doctrine in the medieval Gospel of Barnabas. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, the Gospel as a whole was long ago dismissed as a "worthless forgery" that does not warrant close scholarly attention and so has been subject to general neglect, and secondly, the work's Messianic doctrine is explicitly connected with the Prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and so it has been assumed that this aspect of the gospel, like many others, is Islamic in inspiration and should therefore be left to the inquiries of Islamicists. My purpose in these notes is to help change this state of affairs. The Gospel of Barnabas is, I maintain, of intrinsic interest not only to Islamicists but also to students of Gospel and New Testament literature generally, and its Messianic doctrine is among its most interesting features. That this doctrine can hardly be Islamic in inspiration should be obvious from the fact that no Muslim or anyone with any proper acquaintance with Islam could ever conceive of Muhammad as 'Messiah'. It is clear - although in the small secondary literature on Barnabas it has never been plainly stated - that Muhammad's name has been attached to an earlier, and entirely non-Islamic, conception by a redactor who knows very little about Islam. This is the case even if, along with recent theories, we place the work among the Moriscos of Spain some of whom, it seems, did think of Muhammad as Messiah. The Moriscos simply adapted Muhammad's name to a previous Messianic conception - this is what has happened in the Gospel of Barnabas. What was this previous conception?
Let us then establish the main features of the doctrine of the Messiah according to this medieval Barnabas, ignoring the explicit mentions of Muhammad as the man who filled the Messianic promise. The following notes give a full account of the doctrine:
Proof Texts There are only three quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures applied in a Messianic context:
From Chapter 12
Before Lucifer, in the brightness of the saints, I created you. (12)
From Chapters 43 and 97
Behold, in your seed I will bless all the tribes of the earth (43, 97)
From Chapter 43
God said to my Lord, sit you on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. God shall send forth your rod which shall have lordship in the midst of your enemies. (43)
Texts The following provides a summary of all the Messianic references and attributes of the Messiah in the text (with references to Muhammad removed):
[1] Jesus said: Blessed be the holy name of God, who created the splendour of all the saints and prophets before him for the salvation of the world, as spoke by his servant David, saying: "Before Lucifer, in the brightness of the saints I created you." ( Chpt. 12)
[2] All the prophets have spoken darkly, but after me shall come the Splendour who shall shed light upon the darkness. (Chpt. 17)
[3] The soul of the Messiah He created before anything else. (Chpt. 17)
[4] All the prophets are come except the Messiah (Chpt. 36)
[5] When God gave soul to a lump of clay, there appeared to Adam the name of the Messiah in writing that shone like the sun. (Chpt. 39)
[6] God said to Adam: He who you have seen is your son for whom I created all things. He shall give light to the world when he comes. His soul was set in a celestial splendour before I made all things.(Chpt. 39)
[7] Jesus said: The Messiah who was made before me shall come after me, and shall bring the words of truth, so that his faith shall have no end. (Chpt. 39)
[8] He created before all things the soul of the Messiah, for whom he determined to create the whole that all shall find blessedness. (Chpt. 43)
[9] The Messiah will take delight in his creatures which are appointed his slaves. (Chpt. 43)
[10] Every prophet has borne the mark of God's mercy to one nation alone. But God shall give to the Messiah the seal of his hand. He shall carry mercy to all that shall receive him. (Chpt. 43)
[11] The Messiah is a Splendour that shall give gladness to all God has made. He is adorned with the spirit of wisdom and might.(Chpt. 44)
[12] Jesus said: I have seen him, even as every prophet has seen him, for it is his spirit that God gives to the prophets. When I saw him my soul was filled with consolation (Chpt. 44)
[13] At the Judgement there shall be darkness and God shall raise the Messiah as resplendant as a thousand suns. The four angels shall station themselves on the four sides to keep watch upon him. The other angels shall circle him like bees.(Chpt. 54)
[14] In the midst of heaven over Jehosophat a glittering throne over which shall come a white cloud. The angels shall cry out. (Chpt. 54)
[15] When he has drawn near the throne God shall speak to the Messiah even as a friend to a friend. (Chpt. 55)
[16] God shall give to the Messiah a book of the elect. And God shall open it and the Messiah will read the names of those who bear his mark. And in the book shall be written the glory of paradise. (Chpt. 56)
[17] Each shall pass to the right hand of God where sits the Messiah. (Chpt.56)
[18] On that day the Messiah and all creation shall demand justice without mercy. The just shall laugh at the punishment of sinners. (Chpt. 57)
[19] Jesus said: On that day I will demand justice against those who defile my words. (Chpt. 58)
[20] Jesus said: When there is but thirty faithful God will send the Messiah over whose head will rest the white cloud by which he will be recognized. He will come with power against the ungodly. He will execute vengeance against those who are against me.(Chpt. 72)
[21] The moon shall minister sleep to him in his boyhood and as a man he will take her in his hands. (Chpt. 72)
[22] Let the world beware of casting him out for he shall slay the false worshippers without mercy like Moses and Joshua.(Chpt. 72)
[23] He shall come with truth more clear than all the prophets and shall reprove the wrongful. (Chpt. 72)
[24] The towers of the city of our fathers shall greet each other for joy when he comes. (Chpt. 72)
[25] Jesus said: The promise of God was made in Jerusalem but a time will come when God will give his mercy in another city and in every place he will accept true prayer. (Chpt. 82)
[26] Jesus said: I am sent to the House of Israel as prophet of salvation, but after me shall come the Messiah, sent of God to all the world, which He had made for him from the beginning. And he shall make the jubilee every year. (Chpt. 82)
[27] Jesus prayed with his disciples and said: This night shall be the jubilee the Messiah will make every year. Let us not sleep but make prayer. Let us give thanks to God because he has given to us this night great mercy. He has made to come back the time that passes in the night. We have prayed with the Messiah and I have heard his voice.(Chpt. 83)
[28] Jesus said: Faith is the seal God gave the Messiah. He created him before anything else and gave him first of all the faith which is a likeness of God and all that God has done and said.(Chpt. 90)
[29] Jesus said: He was made before me and shall come after me. (Chpt. 96)
[30] Jesus said: My words shall be contaminated until only thirty believe. Then God will send the Messiah for whom he has made all things. He shall come from the south with power. (Chpt. 97)
[31] Jesus said: My consolation is in the coming of the Messiah who shall destroy every false opinion of me. My consolation is that his faith shall have no end but shall be kept pure.(Chpt. 97)
[32] The name of the Messiah is admirable. God gave it to him when he created his soul and placed it in a celestial splendour. God said to him, 'For your sake I will create the world. Whoever blesses you shall be blessed and whoever curses you shall be cursed. You are my messenger of salvation. Your word shall be true. Heaven and earth shall fail, but you faith shall not fail. (Chpt. 97)
[33] Jesus said: I shall abide in dishnour for a long time in the world but when the Messiah comes that infamy shall be taken away. (Chpt. 112)
[34] Jesus prayed: Save us God for the love of the Messiah for whom you did create us.(Chpt. 122)
[35] Jesus said: When the Messiah comes he shall cleanse away all contaminations from my teaching. (Chpt. 124)
[36] Jesus said: When the Messiah comes he will bring good works like rain that makes the earth bear fruit. (Chpt. 163)
[37] Of how God created the Messiah Isaiah said, "His generation, who shall narrate it?" (Chpt. 167)
[38] Jesus said: The glory of paradise will be revealed by the Messiah who knows all things since God created all things for love of him. (Chpt. 176)
[39] God said: In the House of the Faithful I am the sun and the Messiah is the Moon who receives all from me, and the stars are my prophets. (Chpt. 177)
[40] In the old book of Moses and Joshua it is written that Moses said: Manifest to your servant the splendour of your glory. God showed him the Messiah in the arms of Ishmael, and Ishmael in the arms of Abraham. Near to Ishmael stood Isaac, in whose arms was a child, who pointed to the Messiah saying: This is he for whom God created all things. (Chpt. 191)
[41] Jesus said: I will be mocked by the world until the advent of the Messiah who shall reveal the truth. (Chpt. 220)
A number of points are outstanding: the Messiah is preexistent and indeed the object of creation, the cloud symbolism and so on. Clearly, though, there is nothing here that is exclusively or explicitly Islamic. The key proof text is that provided in chapter 12. In the Italian manuscript the Arabic notation to Chpter 12. refers to "Nur Muhammadhi" = the Light of Muhammad. This, I think, provides the basis upon which this Messianic portrait has been given an Islamic vaneer. The author has identified this portrait with the doctrine of the "Light of Muhammad" from medieval (and especially Shi'ite) Islam. I have tried to situate these ideas within Judaeo-Christian Messianic thought generally, with the following (tentative) conclusions:
The roots of Barnabas' notion of Messiah are in a wealth of mythology in later Judaism concerning a semi-divine mediator, personified as Wisdom, seated on God's right hand. The portrayal of this 'Wisdom' in anthropomorphic terms was a firmly established feature of post-exilic literature. It appears frequently in the book of Proverbs, especially.
Yahweh created me when his purpose first unfolded,
before the oldest of his works.
From everlasting I was firmly set,
from the beginning, before earth came into being.
The deep was not, when I was born,
there were no springs to gush with water.
Before the mountains were settled,
before the hills, I came to birth;
before he made the earth, the countryside,
or the first grains of the world's dust.
When he fixed the heavens firm, I was there,
when he drew a ring on the surface of the deep,
when he assigned the sea its boundaries -
and the waters will not invade the shore -
when he laid the foundations of the earth,
I was led by his side, a master craftsman,
delighting him day after day,
ever at play in his presence,
at play everywhere in the world,
delighting to be with the sons of men.Proverbs 8:22-31
By wisdom, Yahweh set the earth on its foundations,
by discernment, he fixed the heavens firm.
Through his knowledge the depths were carved out,
and the clouds rain down the dew.Proverbs 3:19-20
In the first century BC composition 'The Wisdom of Solomon' this 'Wisdom' is given an even more exalted role. She is
"the breath of the power of God, and a clear effluence of the glory of the Almighty" (Wisdom of Solomon 7:25)
She is, in fact, the very spirit of Prophecy itself:
And she, though but one, has power to do all things;
and remaining in herself, renews all things:
and from generation to generation passing into holy souls
she makes them friends of God and prophets.
For nothing does God love save him that dwells in Wisdom.(Wisdom of Solomon 7:27-28)
Because she was present at creation, she is the fount of divine knowledge, knowing the "works of God":
And with you is Wisdom, which knows your works,
and was present when you were making the world,
and which understands what is pleasing in your eyes
and what is right according to your commandments.Send her forth out of the holy heavens
and from the throne of your glory bid her come,
that being present she may toil with me,
that I may learn what is well-pleasing before you...(Wisdom of Solomon, 9:9)
Also in the 'Wisdom of Solomon', developing an idea already present in Proverbs 3:20, this 'Wisdom' figure is associated with the idea of 'the cloud of mercy':
She became unto them a covering in the daytime,
and a flame of stars through the night.(Wisdom S. 10:17)
And the author of Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira) makes the same association:
In the high places did I fix my abode, and my throne was in the pillar of cloud.
(Ecclesiasticus 24:4)
This connects her with the story of the desert wanderings of the Israelites described in Exodus:
And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and night; the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of cloud by night did not depart from before the people.
Exodus 13:21-22
This 'pillar of cloud' appears as the divine presence and makes of Moses the "friend of God":
When Moses entrered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the door of the tent, and the Lord would speak to Moses. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, every man at his tent door. Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend...
(Exodus 33:9-11)
Related symbolism is found in the Psalms:
[God] spoke to them in a pillar of cloud
(Psalm 99:7)
in the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.(Psalm 78:14)
This cloud motif is especially important because of the way in which it is developed by the post-exilic prophets. Nehemiah employs the motif to assure those who returned from exile that God would provide guidance:
By a pillar of cloud you did lead them in the day...
(Nehemiah 9:12)
You in your mercy did not foresake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud which led them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night which lighted for them the way by which they should go...
(Nehemiah 9:19)
This idea opens the way for the idea of the Messiah (the Anointed One) being identified with the "pillar of cloud" and, by extension, with the pre-existent Wisdom, the fount of revelation. We see this in the 'Logos' in the prologue of John's Gospel, where the Messiah is 'the Word' that was with God from the beginning:
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God...(John 1:1)
The connection between the 'Wisdom' mythos and Messianic expectation was largely made, however, on the basis of a stellar mythology. The coming of the Messiah was to be heralded by a star prophesied by Balaam in the Old Testament:
A star shall come forth out of Jacob
and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.(Numbers 24:17)
A related symbolism is found in the Messianic Psalm 110:
Yahweh's oracle to you, my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand
and I will make your enemies as footstool for you.'Yahweh will force all your enemies
under the sway of your sceptre in Zion.Royal dignity was yours from the day you were born,
on the holy mountains, royal from the womb,
From the womb of the morning star I have begotten you.Yahweh has sworn an oath which he will never retract,
'You are a priest of the order of Melchizedek, for ever.(Psalm 110:3)
The morning star, moreover, is known in Hebrew as the 'Pillar of the Dawn', which allows a connection with the 'Pillar' symbolism associated with the pre-existent Wisdom. From this association comes the idea of a 'herald of the Messiah', one who signals the coming of the Messiah as the dawn star signals the coming of the new Sun. In the canonical gospels this describes the relationship between Jesus (the Messiah) and John the Baptist (the herald).
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came for a testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light...
John 1:6-8
The Gospel of Barnabas maintains this relationship (Messiah and herald) but places Jesus in John's role. This switch is done on the basis of the Balaam prophecy. The underlying reasoning is: it is the star that shall come out of Jacob's line; the star is the morning star; the star is not the Messiah but the herald of the Messiah; the herald of the Messiah is a prophet born to the House of Israel, so the Messiah himself must be born out of a different (earlier) lineage.
The stellar parallels then continue in this way: the morning star is short-lived, but the Sun that follows it endures. The herald who comes first will be rejected but the faith of the Messiah will be embraced and shall live forever. Allied to this is the idea that the Messiah will right the wrongs done to the herald. This configuration is found in the Paraclete passages in the Gospel of John:
It is for your own good that I am going
because unless I go
the Paraclete will not come to you,
but if I do go I will send him to you.
And when he comes, he will show the world
how wrong it was about sin,
about who was in the right,
and about judgement; about sin;
proved by their refusal to believe in me;
about who was in the right;
proved by my going to the Father
and your seeing me no more;
about judgement, proved by the prince of this world
being already condemned.(John 16:7-11)
The Paraclete idea is itself built upon the pre-existent 'Wisdom', because the Paraclete is "the Spirit of Truth" (John 15:26) who "when he comes... will lead you to the complete truth" (John 16:13) and who is "the Holy Spirit...who will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you." (John 14:26). This Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost where the Exodus motif of guiding "pillars of flame" is repeated in the idea that "flames" descend over the heads of the Apostles, "those pillars" of the first Church. It is the Holy Spirit (like Barnabas' Messiah) that comes to the "nations". The testimony of Jesus was to Israel - the Holy Spirit 'translates' this for the world.
The Holy Spirit also comes - in Paul's doctrines especially - as the second agent of Baptism. This idea follows from the above parallels. The herald is the morning star who baptises with water (dew) while the Messiah is the sun who baptises with light (Spirit). Paul's vision of the Holy Spirit (at midday) blinds him.(Acts 22:11) Receiving the Holy Spirit - like 'Wisdom', the very spirit of prophecy - is greater than the baptism of John:
Paul made his way overland as far as Ephesus where he found a number of disciples. When he asked, 'Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?' they answered, 'No, we were never even told there was such a thing as the Holy Spirit.' 'Then how were you baptised?' he asked. 'With John's baptism," they replied. 'John's baptism, ' said Paul, ' was a baptism of repentance; but he insisted that the people should believe in the one who was to come after him - in other words Jesus.' When they heard this they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy.
Acts 19:1-7
The Christian's 'Holy Spirit', then, is that function which Barnabas identifies as the 'Messiah'. It is connected with Pentecost because the coming of the 'Wisdom' Messiah was associated with the end of the Pentecostal Jubilee cycle (7 x 7 + 1 = 50). From Psalm 110 we know that the 'Wisdom' Messiah's priestly aspect was associated with Melchizadek (priest to Abraham). In the Dead Sea Scrolls this Melchizadek shall proclaim a final Jubilee:
In this year of Jubilee each shall return to his property... "God's release has been proclaimed..." He will assign to them the sons of heaven and to the inheritance of Melchizadek; for He will cast their lot among the portions of Melchizadek, who will return from there and proclaim to them liberty...And this thing will occur in the first week of the Jubilee that follows the nine Jubilees. And the day of atonement is the end of the tenth Jubilee, when all the Sons of Light and the men of the lot of Melchizadek will be atoned for...for this is the moment of the Year of Grace for Melchizadek.
(11Q Melch)
The root idea here is that the priestly Messiah will proclaim a great Jubilee with eschatological significance - a great reckoning and a great release. In Christianity, this is the Pentecost of the Holy Spirit that released men from the "slavery of the law". In Barnabas, this is the uinversal Jubilee that the Messiah makes in every year and every place, because he is a 'Prophet to the Nations' to whom the 'star out of Jacob' (i.e. Jesus) is herald.
From these connections we can explain every major aspect of the Barnabas Messiah. We also have a number of points of contact that suggest how other material in the Gospel of Barnabas may have been attached to the Messianic portrait:
* The cloud symbolism (and the 'Spirit of Prophecy', rain = prophecy analogy) invites the connections with Elijah.
* The Christian claim that the Paraclete came at Pentecost invites Barnabas' arguments with Luke.(and Paul).
But a more telling connection can be made through the Samaritan Messiah 'Dositheus' who is supposed to have followed John the Baptist. The story of Dositheus stems from the same mythology. His name means "Gift of God" - the most common appelation given to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. The 'Prophet to the Nations' theme in Barnabas - where pre-existent 'Wisdom', the Spirit of Prophecy, the Consoler, the Holy Spirit will come to the nations - is clearly connected with the Samaritan sections of the work. Debates about the Messianic status of this 'Dositheus' were current in Samaritan circles until at least the 6th C. CE. and Dositheans were known until at least the 10th C. Since Barnabas' approach to this mythology is Samaritan, we must conclude that his Messianic portrait probably stems from the Dositheus story. The motif of "only thirty faithful remaining" establishes a connection, for Dositheus (like John the Baptist who was his herald) is said to have had thirty disciples.
Notes ©Copyright R.Blackhirst, 1999-2002. Back to Main Index