The Bible,The Qur'an and Science - Islamicbook.ws

lllrcRow@h'Sorrca ordfilffit tU 55
bywhichonemighthaverecognlgedaeollecfronofgvsngpllc
ODe have recognised a collection of evangelic
#tings". writings". firie This stat€m€nt statement is the opposite of what A. Tricot TricOt
writ€E writes (1960) in thecomlnentaty commentary to his translation of the New
Tegtoment: Testament: "Very eerly early on, from the begiinning th9 it 'Goapel' beginning of the Second
century A.D., it became a habit to say 'Gospel' meaning thet 160 h8d aleo 'Ttre the books
that Saint Justin around 150 A.D. had also called 'The Memoirs
of the Apoetles'." Apostles'." Unfortunately, assertions of this kind anc are
sgfrciently sufticiently common for the public publie to have ideas on tfie the date of
the Goepels Gospels which whieh ere are mistaken.
The Gospels did not form a c'omplete complete whole 'very 'very eerly early on';
it did not happen until more than a centurt' centurY after the end of
Jesus's mission. The Ecrtmertcal Ecumenical Ttawlntimt Translation of the Bible Bibln esti' estimates
the date the four Gospels acguired aequired the status of canonic canonie
literature at arsund around 10 170 A.D.
Justin'g Justin's statement which calls the authors 'Apostles' ·Apostles' is not
acceptable aceeptable either, as w€ we shall see.
As far as the dste date the Gospgls Gospels were written is concerned, eoncerned, A' A.
Tricot Trieot states ststes that Matthew's, Mstthew'g, Mark's and Luke's Gospels were
written before 70 0 A.D.: but this is not acceptable, exeept except perhaps
for Mark. Following many others, this thie commentator goes out of
his way to present pres€nt the authors of the Gospels as the apostles or
the companions companiotts of Jesus. For this reason he suggests dates detes of
writing that tttst plaee place them very near to the time Jesus lived. As for
John, whom *tto* A. Tricot has us believe lived until roughly 100 A.D., A.D.'
Christians christians have always slways been used to seeing him depicted as being
very near to Jesus on ceremonial ceremonisl occasions. It is very difficult
however to assert sssert that he is the author of the Gospel that bears
his name. For A. Tricot, as for other commentators, the Apostle
John (like Matthew) was the officially offieislly qualified witness of the
facts fects he recounts, although the majority of critics do not support
the hypothesis which says he wrote the fourth Gospel.
If however the four Gospels in question cannot reasonably be
sup-
regarded as the 'Memoirs' of the apostles or companions of
Jesus, where do they theY come from
O. o. Culmann, culmann, in his book The New Testament (Le Nouveau
Testament)', \ says seys of of this that the evangelists were only the
"spokesmen ,,spokesmen of of the early Christian christian community eommunity which wrote
down the oral tradition. For thirty or forty years, years' the Gos-
1. 1. Pub. P"b. Preases FreEE€s Universitaires Univereitsires de de France, Fr'nce, Paris, 1967