Jesus and the bible

INTRODUCTION
The task of writing about Jesus and the Bible from a logical perspective is, as I have
come to find out, an incredible undertaking. There is so much information that has to be
processed that it seems impossible to include every piece of historical and scriptural
information in the study. Therefore, I will narrow down the scope of this endeavor by
simply focusing on a few key issues using the Bible as my main source of reference. This will
consist of the four canonical Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) with a few crossreferences
to select verses in the Old Testament. The only other major source of
information concerning the person and message of Jesus Christ is The Qur’an. There are
those who would say that only a Muslim would use the Qur’an as a source of information
about Jesus. The same argument however, can be used concerning Christians and the Bible.
Indeed, this is the reason such a study should be done. For it is the inconsistency of
The Bible itself that renders its information suspect and therefore it is a poor source of
reference to use against the Muslim and The Qur’an. The Qur’an, the book of Islam,
describes in a much more consistent manner the life and message of Jesus. One element that
adds to the consistency of the information about Jesus in The Qur’an is that it is told in one
voice. That is to say, there are no ‘alternative perspectives’ included in the Qur’an. The New
Testament contains the four canonical Gospels, which all supposedly tell much of the same
story. When we read the Gospels however, we find that not only do these four different
versions come to us from different sources, but they stand in complete contradiction to one
another in some key areas. In addition to this, there are even contradictions within the
individual Gospels themselves. The Qur’an is free of those elements. Hence, we must
include The Qur’an as reference if we are to remain logical in our approach. The key is logic.
In an American court of law, evidence is presented to make a case. Witnesses are called to
corroborate the evidence. However, if the witness’ testimony is proven inconsistent under
cross-examination, the case has been severely weakened. If the foundation of the ‘case’ of
present day Christianity is the Bible and the Bible is shown to be inconsistent in it’s
‘testimony’ , then those who preach the Bible and read the Bible must seriously reconsider
their source of information concerning their faith. This is not an attack on Christianity or
those who call themselves Christians. Nor is it an attack on scripture from God. It is a study
of logic and reason concerning Jesus and his mission. Many of the sayings we find in the
Bible attributed to Jesus are consistent with that found in The Qur’an. In fact, it is the
sayings and sermons attributed to Jesus in the Bible that form the biggest argument against
the way Christianity is practiced today. We intend to examine those briefly, God willing. The
reason it is necessary to point out some inconsistencies in the Bible itself is to prove that; 1.)
The present day versions of the Bible are flawed and do not warrant the notion of
infallibility; 2.) It becomes necessary to look for other sources of information and be open to
them; 3.) Prove that if man can add and delete or revise divine scripture, it will naturally lose
some of its authenticity.
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There are actually some other sources of information concerning Jesus that are probably
unknown to the average Bible reader such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and the large amount of
collected and authenticated Hadeeth (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad P.B.U.H) available
for anyone to read. For the purpose of this study, we will mostly deal with the Bible and
Qur’an. Lastly, the entire objective is to properly understand and appreciate Jesus in the
manner which is most appropriate. We want to use the Bible to prove that Jesus is not and
did not claim to be Divine. Nor did Jesus claim to be the literal son of God. Jesus never
spoke of the Trinity. We intend to use the Bible to prove this. The book of Christianity will
prove this. The problem lies with the fact that most Christians follow those that came after
Jesus and in the name of Jesus rather than actually following the teaching and guidance of
Jesus. The self-appointed Apostle Paul has influenced the teachings of Christianity more
than Jesus himself. There are more books in the entire Bible written by Paul than anyone
else. This includes Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah, AND Jesus. All of these were messengers
from God, yet Paul has more writings in the Bible than the Prophets! Paul was neither a
prophet nor a messenger from God. All the prophets brought essentially the same message.
Paul’s writings were radically different from the messages the Prophets brought. This,
however, is a different study unto itself. It is quite peculiar that Jesus is the only major figure
in the Bible who does not have one book attributed to him. There is no ‘Gospel of Jesus’ or
‘Book of Jesus’. There are only books written by someone other than Jesus attempting to
convey something of what Jesus spoke.