Page 141 - Prophet Jesus (Pbuh): A Prophet Not A Son, Of God

HARUN YAHYA 139

From oral to written; from Aramaic to Greek; from the end of time to
the middle of time; from Jewish to Gentile; from the Galilee and
Judea to the Empire. 33
A great deal of research has been done on how the Gospel texts de-
veloped. The vast majority of the researchers share the ideas given
above. In other words, they agree that the actual authors of the Gospels
are unknown, that the Gospels may or may not contain Prophet Jesus'

(pbuh) actual words, and that the authors were not his contemporaries.
For example, Elaine Pagels of Princeton University's theology faculty,
states that "the gospels of the New Testament – no one knows who actu-
ally wrote any of them." Randel McGraw Helms, author of Who Wrote
34
the Gospels?, says: "Mark himself clearly did not know any eyewitnesses
of Jesus." 35
A research file called "Who Wrote the Bible?" by Jeffery L. Sheler,
was published in the 10 December 1990 edition of U.S. News & World

Report magazine. According to Sheler, who interviewed many Biblical
scholars: "Other scholars have concluded that the Bible is the product of
a purely human endeavor, that the identity of the authors is forever lost
and that their work has been largely obliterated by centuries of transla-
36
tion and editing" and:
Yet today, there are few Biblical scholars — from liberal skeptics to
conservative evangelicals — who believe that Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and John actually wrote the Gospels. Nowhere do the writers
of the texts identify themselves by name or claim unambiguously to
have known or traveled with Jesus… Some scholars say so many re-
visions occurred in the 100 years following Jesus' death that no one
can be absolutely sure of the accuracy or authenticity of the Gospels,
especially of the words the authors attributed to Jesus himself. 37
Many other scholars share this view. Jerome Neyrey of the Weston

School of Theology's faculty, for instance, says: "The bottom line is we re-
ally don't know for sure who wrote the Gospels." This subject was given
38