The Vatican has confirmed that a 2,000-year-old Bible recently discovered in Turkey says that Jesus Christ was not crucified as it is believed, yournewswire.com reports.
The Bible, which is now kept in the Ethnographic Museum of Ankara, contains the Gospel of Barnabas, one of Christ's forgotten disciples. The Gospel says that Jesus was not a direct son of God, but was in fact a prophet.
Natives-today.com reports: “The book also calls the Apostle Paul the 'Pretender'. The book also states that Jesus ascended to heaven alive, and that Judas Iscariot was crucified in his place.
A report from the Turkish National Museum says the Bible was confiscated from a gang of smugglers during an operation in the Mediterranean. The report said the gang was charged with antiquity smuggling, illegal excavation and possession of explosives. The books themselves are estimated at 40 million Turkish lira (about $ 28 million).
Authenticity
Techram experts and religious authorities are reportedly insisting that the book is genuine. The book is written in gold letters on loosely knitted leather in the Aramaic language of Jesus Christ. The text supports a vision similar to Islam, which contradicts the New Testament teachings of Christianity. Jesus also foresees the coming of the Prophet Muhammad, who founded Islam after 700 years.
It is believed that during the Nicene Council, the Catholic Church collected the gospels that make up the Bible as we know it today, omitting the Gospel of Barnabas (among many others) in favor of the four canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Many biblical texts have emerged over time, including the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels. But this book is of particular concern to the Vatican.
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What does the Catholic Church want?
What does this mean for Christian religions and their followers? Quite a bottleneck. The Vatican asked the Turkish authorities to allow them to study the contents of the book together with the Holy See. Now that the book has been found, will they accept it and its evidence? Do they deny it at all? Call it a "Muslim lie," as Truth Magazine did in 2000? For many, this book is a beacon of hope that believers will soon realize that their object of worship is arbitrary and that the entire text, especially the religious text, is subject to interpretation.
What does this mean for atheists / agnostics / secular thinkers? Not much … Is the text real? Not real? Does it matter? Not really … But undoubtedly, this news will inspire believers to ask many questions, instead of pointing fingers at texts or believing something blindly.
The greatest danger of faith arises when people believe what they want to believe, defending themselves against any evidence. Especially when this proof revolutionizes their views to the core and they have to start from scratch. And the biggest culprit in this danger is the ego trap: rejection / criticism of others for being different from me.
For centuries, a commitment to blind faith has driven peoples to war, violence, discrimination, slavery, and the emergence of the "automaton society" we are today. And just as long, it was justified by lies. If you know and understand better, then act according to your understanding.