backward in time said:
I was just told that there are more books in the bible than we see.....ie. the book of mary? ive never heard of it....maybe im just young and nieve but why arnt those books in the bible too? did the Roman catholics just pick out what they wanted and left the rest for controversy?
Backward in time
Jesus rocked his world. There was a lot of things written about Him after His resurrection from a whole variety of points of view. Not everything that was written about Him, however, was of equal value. A lot of the gospels that had a more fairy tale quality to them that appealed to the poular imagination were omiitted from the list of inspired works that later formed the New Testament.
I think a lot of Baptists and Orthodox would agree with me that a lot of the Fathers of the early church were not strictly speaking Roman Catholic. Even if we Catholics trace our roots back to the Apostle Peter establishing a Church in Rome, the early Christian Church developed from a variety of centers across the ancient world, and which books to include and which to exclude were decided by the Holy Spirit inspiring the early church fathers as a whole into making the correct decision.
It may be an interesting side note that Mohammed and the Moslem religion as well were influenced by some of these extra-scriptural writings. Of some interest is the informationposted below from a previous post:
I found this article on the origins of Islamic religion to be particularily interesting.
http://answering-islam.org.uk/Books/Goldsack/Sources/chap3.htm
Of particular interest to this thread we may read the following:
Another story of the Qur'an which has a distinctly Christian origin is that relating to the childhood of the Virgin Mary. Nothing is more striking to the thoughtful reader than the silence of the genuine Gospels concerning the person of the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ; but in a community where the pure teachings of the Gospel were hidden under a load of superstitious beliefs, and where Mariolatry had taken the place of true worship, it is not surprising to find a number of legendary stories in which, with extravagant detail, the events of the Virgin's life are related. These Apocryphal stories were current amongst the Christians of Arabia, and were almost certainly well known to Muhammad. The latter, however, was too ignorant of the contents of the genuine Gospels to detect their spuriousness, and consequently found no difficulty in introducing them into his 'revelations' as a part of the message sent down to 'confirm the previous Scriptures'.
From Suratu Al-i-'Imran 2 we learn that, in her childhood, Mary was brought to the temple of Jerusalem which was henceforth her home until the birth of Christ. During her residence there, the Qur'an tells us, it was signified by lot who was to be her guardian. Thus we read:-
1 The account is found in a homily in the "Acta Sanctcorum." See Tisdall, "The Sources of The Qur'an," p. 147.
2 Suratu Al-i-'Imran (iii. 39). page 29
"Thou was not present with them when they cast lots with reeds which of them should rear Mary." This story, as every reader of the Gospels knows, is not to be found in the inspired record. It is, however, found in its entirety in the Apocryphal books of the heretical Christians who lived in Arabia in the time of Muhammad. Hence its source is clear. Thus in both the "Protevangelium of James the Less,"1 and in the Coptic "History of the Virgin" the incident of casting lots for the guardianship or, as it is there styled, the right to become the husband of Mary is fully related. In the former we are told that when Mary reached the age of twelve a council of the priests was held to decide upon her future after which "an angel of the Lord stood by him (Zacharias) saying 'Zacharias, Zacharias, go forth and call together the widowers of the people, and let them bring each a rod, and to whomsoever the Lord God shall show a sign, his wife shall she be.'"
Another Qur'anic story connected with the Virgin Mary which Muhammad borrowed from the Apocryphal Gospels, or rather from the lips of his Christian acquaintances, is that of the palm-tree, found in Su'ratu Maryam (xix. 22-5). We there read: -
1 See Tisdall, "The Sources of the Qur'an", pp. 156-8. page 30
"And she conceived him; and retired with him to a distant place; and the pains of childbirth came upon her near the trunk of a palm-tree. She said, would to God I had died before this, and had been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite. And he who was beneath her called to her; 'grieve not thou, thy Lord bath provided a rivulet under thee; and do thou shake the body of the palm-tree, and it shall let fall ripe dates upon thee ready gathered, and eat and drink and calm thy mind.'"
The Gospels on the contrary, tell us that Christ was born in the town of Bethlehem in or near an inn. In this case, again, the source of the story repeated by Muhammad can be clearly traced; for the Apocryphal Christian books contain similar legends and relate many fanciful stories connected with the birth of Jesus. These were popularly repeated amongst the Christians of Arabia, and must often have reached the ears of Muhammad, who doubtless imagined them to be part of the genuine Gospel record. In the Apocryphal work entitled the "History of the Nativity of Mary and the Infancy of the Saviour" the whole story of the palm-tree in its main features may be clearly traced. The few variations in the details may be sufficiently accounted for by the fact that these stories were probably repeated from hearsay; but any careful comparison of the story as found in these spurious Gospels with that repeated by Muhammad in the Qur'an will make it clear that the latter is simply taken from the former, and then represented as a direct revelation from God. That the reader may see how close the resemblances are we give below a quotation from the Apocryphal work mentioned above. After recording the flight of Joseph and Mary with the child Jesus the narrative proceeds, "and Joseph hastened and brought her (Mary) to
1 See Tisdall, "The Sources of the Qur'an", p. 162. page 31
that palm-tree, and took her down off her beast. When Mary sat down she looked up to the top of the palm-tree, and seeing it full of fruit said to Joseph, 'I desire if it be possible, to take of the fruit of this palm-tree.' ..... Then the child Jesus, who with a joyful countenance lay in his mother, the Virgin Mary's bosom, said to the palm-tree, 'O, tree, lower thy branches and refresh my mother with thy fruit.' Instantly the palm-tree at this word bowed its head to the sole of Mary's feet; and they all plucked the fruit which it bore, and were refreshed and the palm-tree instantly stood erect, and streams of very clear, cool, and very sweet water began to come forth from amid its roots."
Every reader of the Qur'an knows that it contains several references to the Lord Jesus Christ, and mentions certain stories connected with His birth, some of which are not to be found in the genuine Gospels. These stories, like that of the palm-tree, can also be traced to Apocryphal sources, and show conclusively whence Muhammad drew the materials which he afterwards recast and embodied in the Qur'an. One of these legends has reference to certain miracles said to have been performed by Christ in His infancy. One allusion to them may be found in Suratu'l-Ma'ida (v. 109-110) where we read:-
page 32
"When God shall say, O Jesus! son of Mary! remember My favour upon thee, and upon thy mother; when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit that thou shouldest speak unto men in the cradle and when grown up. And when I taught thee the Scripture and Wisdom and the Law and the Gospel, and when thou didst create of clay as it were the figure of a bird by my permission, and didst breathe thereon, and it became a bird by my permission."
Now the genuine Gospels have nothing of all this; on the contrary, it is distinctly stated that the first miracle of Jesus was wrought after the beginning of His public ministry at thirty years of age. In the Injil (John ii. 11) we read, "This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory." A reference to the spurious Gospel of the Infancy," "The Gospel of Thomas the Israelite," and other Apocryphal works, however, makes it clear that the legend must have been current in Arabia in the time of Muhammad. The latter must often have heard it repeated by his Christian contemporaries, and, imagining it to be part of the genuine Gospels, incorporated it into his Qur'an. On no other theory can the extraordinary likeness between the two narratives be accounted for. Let the reader, for example, remembering the Qur'an version quoted above, read the following from the "Gospel of Thomas the Israelite," a spurious and fanciful work of late date which was never regarded as inspired by any Christian sect. It is there written that "The child Jesus when five years of age was playing by the road by a dirty stream of running water and having brought it all together into ditches immediately made it pure and clean, and all this by a single word. Then having moistened some earth he made of it twelve sparrows, .... Jesus clapping his hands at the sparrows cried aloud to them 'Go off.' So they clucking flew away.1
1 For a further account, see Tisdall, "The Sources of the Qur'an," p. 175. page 33
The 'Gospel of the Infancy,' another fanciful romance, also tells us that when Jesus was in the cradle He spoke to His mother, and acquainted her with His Divine Mission.
Much more could be written to show that Muhammad was indebted not a little to the heretical Christians of his time for the legendary tales and religious conceptions which are now found in the Qur'an; but the limits of this little book compel us to be content with one more example. The reader who desires to study the subject further should consult the learned works of Tisdall, Sell and Geiger whence most of the material for these chapters has been drawn.
We cannot conclude this chapter, however, without a reference to the "balance" so frequently referred to in the Qur'an. Islam teaches that at the Judgment Day a balance will be produced in which the actions of men will be weighed. Those whose good deeds preponderate will enter paradise, whilst those whose evil deeds out-weigh the good will be cast into hell. Thus in Su'ratu'l-'Araf (vii. 7, 8), we read:-
"The weighing on that day shall be just; and they whose balances shall be heavy are those who shall be happy; but they whose balances shall be light are those who have lost their souls, for that to Our signs they were unjust."
This conception of the Qur'an is taken from an Apocryphal work entitled the "Testament of Abraham,"1 which
1 Pub1ished in "Texts and Studies," vol. ii, No. 2, and quoted in Tisdall's "The Sources of the Qur'an," p. 200. page 34
was written in the second or third century of the Christian era. A mythical story is there related of the Patriarch Abraham's ascension to heaven, where he beheld, amongst other marvels, the great throne of judgment. And, the story proceeds, "On it sat a marvellous man .... and before him stood a table like unto crystal, all of gold and fine linen. And on the table lay a book; its thickness was six cubits and its breadth ten cubits. And on the right and left of it there stood two angels holding paper and pen and ink. And in front of the table was seated a bright beaming angel holding a balance in his hand ... and the marvellous man who was seated on the throne was himself judging and proving the souls, but the two angels who were on the right and on the left were registering. The one on the right was registering the righteous acts, but the one on the left the sins. And the one in front of the table, the one who held the balance, was weighing the souls." We might go on to show that many other of the doctrines of the Qur'an such as the denial of the death of Christ, the resolving the Christian Trinity into a tri-theism consisting of the Father, the Son and the Virgin Mary were derived by Muhammad from the Gnostic and other heretical sects of Christians who flourished in Arabia in his time. Enough, however, has been written to show that much of the Qur'an can be traced to Apocryphal Christian sources; whilst the Christian reader will also perceive how false is the claim that the former "confirms" the preceding scriptures - the Taurat and Injil.
