Could Not Answer

document of transmission, either. Like Mark’s Gospel, it contains
ambiguous and contradictory paragraphs that need scrutiny. For
example:
First, this Gospel does not contain any evidence to prove that
John wrote what he had seen. A judgement will remain valid
unless it is proven to the contrary.
Second, it is stated in the twenty-fourth verse of the twenty-first
chapter of John, “This is the disciple [John] which testifieth of
these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his
testimony is true.” (John: 21-24) As is seen, this statement about
John belongs to the scribe that wrote John’s Gospel. In this verse
John is mentioned with the third person (absent) pronoun ‘his’,
and the scribe who wrote (fabricated) the book mentions himself
with the pronoun ‘we’, which signifies the author. This comes to
mean that the author of John’s Gospel is someone other than
John. The author claims to have knowledge of the trueness of
John’s testimony. In conclusion, the man that wrote this Gospel
obtained possession of some of John’s epistles and wrote this book
after rendering some excisions and additions.
Third, in the second century of the Christian era, when
controversies and objections as to the authenticity of John’s
Gospel appeared, Iranaeus, a pupil of Polycarpe who was a
disciple of John, was still alive. Why did he not answer the
objectors by proving the authenticity of the Gospel he had
transmitted by documents? If his transmission (the Gospel of
John taught by him) had been true, he would have cried out and
said, “My transmission is true.” The predication that “the matter
of authenticity should not have been discussed between Polycarpe
and his pupil Iranaeus” would be far from factual. Would it have
been logically possible for Iranaeus not to have learned anything
about the authenticity of the Gospel they were reading by at least
asking, “Is this Gospel John’s?”, while asking and learning about
many useless matters from his master? His having forgotten
would be an even weaker probability. For Iranaeus is well-known
for full cognizance of his master’s way and habits and his strong
memory to keep well what he learned. Eusebius (of Caesaria), in
the two hundred and nineteenth page of the twentieth chapter of
the fifth book of his history, which was published in 1263 [A.D.
1847], quotes Iranaeus’ statements about the languages in which
John’s Gospel was transmitted, as follows: “As a bestowment of
Allâhu ta’âlâ, I heard and memorized these words. I did not write
them down. This has been my habit since long ago. Thus I have
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