Error No. 56:

The Name of Herodias’ Husband

We find in Matthew:

For Herod had laid hold on John and bound him, and put him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife.” [Matt. 14:3]

This statement is also historically wrong, because the name of Herodias’ husband was Herodius, as is stated by Josephus in Chapter 12 of Vol. 8 of his history.

Error No. 57

It is stated in Matthew:

“But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were with him;

How he entered into the house of God and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him.” [Matt. 12:3,4]

The phrase “neither for them which were with him” is clearly wrong as will be discussed under Error No. 92.

Error No. 58

Matthew contains this statement:

“Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value.” [Matt. 27:9]

This statement is also wrong as will be shown later in the book.

Error No. 59:

The Earthquake on Jesus’ Crucifixion

Once more we find in Matthew:

“And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;

And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose.

And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and appeared unto many.” Matt. 27:51-53]

This is a concocted story. Norton, the famous scholar, though he favoured the gospels, said, proving the falsity of this story with several arguments, ”This is a totally false story. It seems that such stories were prevalent among the Jews at the time of destruction of Jerusalem. Possibly someone might have written this story as a marginal note in the Gospel of Matthew, and later on it might have been included in the text, the translator might have translated it from that text.

The falsehood of this story is evident for several reasons:

1. The Jews went to Pilate, the day after the Crucifixion of Christ, and said to Pilate:

“Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive. After three days I will rise again.

Command therefore, that the sepulchre be made sure until the third day.” [Matt. 27:63-64]

Moreover, Matthew, in the same chapter expressly states that Pilate and his wife were not pleased at the crucifixion of Christ. The Jews would not dare go to Pilate in these circumstances, especially when there was an earthquake and the graves opened and the rocks rent. The fact that Pilate was not pleased at the crucifixion of Christ, would have put him into a rage against the Jews. They could have not gone to Pilate to say that Christ was a ’deceiver’, God forbid.

2. In the presence of such miraculous signs a great number of people of that time would have embraced the new faith without hesitation, whereas, according to the Bible, three thousand people did accept the new faith, but only when the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples and they spoke several languages before the people. This event is explicitly mentioned in Acts. [Acts 2:1-40]

The events described by Matthew were obviously of a much more compelling nature than the disciples speaking in several languages.

3. Is it not surprising that none of the historians of that time and of the time succeeding it, and none of the evangelists except Matthew, has written a single word about these events of so great an historical importance

It is of no avail to say that opponents have deliberately avoided any reference to these events. But what do they have to say of the absence of any account of these events in the books of those Christian historians who are considered to be advocates of Christianity. In particular the absence of any description of these events in the Gospel of Luke is very surprising, as he is generally known for reporting the rarities of the life of Jesus, as is clear from the first chapters of his gospel and of the Book of Acts.

We cannot understand why all the evangelists, or at least most of them, have not referred to these events when they have given full account of events of no or lesser, significance. Mark and Luke, too, only speak of the splitting of the veil and not of anything else.

4. Since the veil in question was made of silk, we cannot understand how a soft curtain of silk could be torn like this, and if it was true, how the building of the temple could remain unaffected. This objection is forwarded equally to all evangelists.

5. The bodies of the saints coming out of the graves happens to be in clear contradiction to the statement of Paul, in which he said that Christ was the first to rise from the dead.

The learned scholar Norton truthfully said that this evangelist seems to be in the habit of making his own guesses, and is not always able to sort out the truth from the available stock of events. Can such a man be trusted with the word of God?

Errors No. 60, 61, 62:

The Resurrection of Jesus

The Gospel of Matthew reports Jesus’ answering to some scribes:

“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas:

For Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” [Matt. 12:39-40]

We find a similar statement in the same gospel:

“A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the Prophet Jonas.” [Matt. 16:4]

The same is understood from the statement of the Jews reported by Matthew:

“Sir, we remember that, that deceiver said while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.” [Matt. 27:63]

All these statements are incorrect for the fact is that according to the gospels Jesus was crucified on Friday in the afternoon and died at about nine in the evening. Joseph asked Pilate for his body in the evening and arranged his funeral, as is clear from the Gospel of Mark. He was therefore buried in the night of Friday, and his body is said to have disappeared on the morning of Sunday, as described by John. According to this detail, his body did not remain in the earth for more than one day and two nights. Therefore his statement of staying in the earth for three days and three nights is proved incorrect.

Seeing the error in these statements, Paley and Channer admitted that the statement in question was not of Jesus but was the result of Matthew’s own imagination. Both of them said words to the effect that Jesus would have meant to convince them only through his preachings without their asking a sign from him, like the people of Nineveh, who embraced the new faith without a sign from Jonah.

According to these two scholars this statement was proof of a lack of understanding on the part of Matthew. It also proves that Matthew did not write his gospel by inspiration. His not understanding the intention of Jesus in this case, shows that he could well have written similarly erroneous accounts in other places.

It is, therefore, a natural conclusion that the gospel of Matthew cannot, in any way be called revelation but is rather a collection of accounts influenced by the local environment and the result of human imagination.

Error No. 63:

The Second Coming of Jesus

It is stated in Matthew:

“For the son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.” [Matt. 16:27,28]

This statement has definitely been wrongly attributed to Jesus, because all those ’standing here’, died nearly two thousand years ago, and none of them saw the Son of Man coming into his kingdom

Error No. 64:

Another Prediction of Jesus

Matthew reports Jesus saying to his disciples:

“But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the son of man be come.” [Matt. 10:23]

Again this is obviously wrong as the disciples have, long, long ago, done their duty of going over the cities of Israel, but the S on of Man never came with his kingdom.

Errors No. 65 - 68

The book of Revelations contains this statement:

“Behold, I come quickly:” [Rev. 3:11]

The same words are found in chapter 22 verse 7 of the same book. And verse 10 of the same chapter contains this statement:

“Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.”

Further in verse 20 it says again:

“Surely, I come quickly.”

On the basis of these statements of Christ, the earlier followers of Christianity held the firm belief that the second coming of Christ would be in their own time. They believed that they were living in the last age and that the day of Judgement was very near at hand. The Christian scholars have confirmed that they held this belief.

Errors No. 69 - 75

The Epistle of James contains this statement:

“Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth near.” [James 5:8]

It also appears in I Peter:

“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” [1 Peter 4:7]

And the First Epistle of Peter contains these words:

“Little children, it is the last time.” [1 Peters 4:7]

And the First Epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians states:

“For this we say unto you, by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” [1 Thess. 4:15-17]

And Paul said in his letter to Philippians:

“The Lord is at hand.” [Phil. 4:5]

And in his First Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul said:

“And they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the worlds are come.” [1 Cor. 10:11]

Paul also said later in the same letter:

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” [1 Cor. 15:51,52]

The above seven statements are the arguments for our claim that the early Christians held a firm belief in the second coming of Christ during their own lifetime, with the result that all the seven statements are proved false.

Errors No. 76 - 78:

The Signs of the End of the World

Matthew describes in Chapter 24 that the disciples of Jesus asked the Messiah, when they were on the Mount of Olives, about the signs of the destruction of the Temple and the Second Coming of Jesus and about the end of the world. Jesus told them all the signs, first of the destruction of the House of the Lord, of his own coming to the earth again and of the day of Judgement. The description up to verse 28 talks of the destruction of the Temple; and verse 29 to the end of the chapter consists of the events related to the second coming of Christ and the Day of Judgement. Some verses of this chapter according to the Arabic translation printed in 1820, read thus:

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

And then shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heaven to the other.” [Matt. 24:29-31]

And in verses 34 and 35 it says:

“Verily I say unto you. This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.”

The text of the Arabic translation printed in 1844 is exactly the same. However, the Persian translations of 1816, 1828, 1842 contain:

“Immediately after the trouble of those days, the sun shall be darkened.”

Verse 34 of these translations is identical to the one quoted above. It is, therefore necessary that the day of Judgement should come at the time when the House of God has been destroyed and Jesus has reappeared on the earth, ”...immediately after the trouble of those days,” according to the statement of Jesus. Similarly it is also necessary that the generation contemporary with Christ should not have died until they saw these event with their eyes, as was the belief of the early Christians. However they did die centuries ago and heaven and earth still continue to exist.

The evangelists, Mark and Luke also included similar descriptions in Chapters 13 and 21 respectively of their gospels. The three evangelists are equally responsible for this historically proved false statement.

Errors No. 79 - 81:

The Reconstruction of the Temple

The Gospel of Matthew reports this statement of Christ:

“Verily I say unto you. There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” [Matt. 24:2]

The Protestant scholars have therefore said that any construction to be built on the foundations of the temple would be razed to the ground as had been foretold by Jesus. The Author of Tehqeeq-e-Deen-ul-Haq, (Inquisition into the True Faith) printed in 1846, said on page 394:

“King Julian, who lived three hundred years after Christ and had become an apostate, intended to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, so that he could thus refute the prediction of Jesus. When he started the construction suddenly a fire jumped out from its foundations. All the workers were frightened and fled away from there. No one after him ever dared to refute the saying of the truthful, who had said, ”The heaven and the earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass away.”

The priest Dr. Keith wrote a book in renunciation of the disbelievers in Christ which was translated into Persian by Rev. Mirak entitled ”Kashf-ul-Asar-Fi-Qisas-e-Bani Israel” (An exposition of the Israelite Prophets) and printed in Edinburgh in 1846. We produce the translation of a passage from page 70:

“King Julian allowed the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. He also promised that they would be allowed to live in the city of their ancestors, the Jews were no less grieved than the king was pleased. They started the work of the Temple. Since it was against the prophecy of Christ, the Jews, in spite of their best efforts and all the possible help from the king could not succeed in their mission. Some pagan historians have reported that the huge flames of fire burst out of this place and burnt the workers stopping the work altogether.”

Thomas Newton, in vol 3 (pages 63 and 64) of his commentary on the prophecies of the Holy Scripture printed in London in 1803 said, which we translate here from Urdu:

“Omar, the second great Caliph of Islam, spread corruption all over the world. He reigned for ten and a half years. In this short period he made great conquests and conquered all the countries of Arabia, Syria, Iran and Egypt. The Caliph personally besieged Jerusalem and in 637 A.D. signed the treaty of peace with the Christians who were tired of the prolonged siege. The Christians surrendered and handed over the city to Omar.

Omar offered generous terms to the Christians. He did not take any church into his possession, but he requested the high priest for a piece of land to build a mosque. The priest showed him the room of Jacob and Solomon’s temple. The Christians had covered this place with dirt and filth out of their hatred for the Jews. Omar, himself, cleansed the place with his own hands. Following the example of Omar, the great officers of his army thought it their religious duty and cleansed the place with religious zeal and built a mosque there. This was the first mosque ever built in Jerusalem. Some historians have also added that in the same mosque Omar was murdered by a slave. Abdul Malik, son of Marvan, who was the twelfth Caliph extended this mosque in his reign.”

Though, the above description of this commentator is not true in several places, he has admitted that the first mosque built at the place of Solomon’s Temple was that built by the Caliph Omar, and that it was extended by Abdul Malik and still exists in Jerusalem after over 1200 years. How would it have been possible for Omar to succeed in building a. mosque there if it had really been against the prophecy of Christ?

Since this statement of Jesus is also reported by Mark and Luke, they are equally responsible for this false description.

Error No. 82:

A False Prediction

Matthew reports this statement as having been said by Jesus to his disciples:

“And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you,

That ye which have followed me, in regeneration when the son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” [Matt. 19:28]

It is quite apparent from this that Jesus assured his twelve disciples, of eternal success and redemption promising them to sit upon twelve thrones on the Day of Judgement. This prophetic witness of eternal success has been proved wrong by the gospels themselves. We have already seen that one of the disciples of Jesus, namely Judas Iscariot, betrayed Jesus and became an apostate, how, then is it possible for him to sit on the twelfth throne on the Day of Judgement?

Error No. 83

We find in the Gospel of John:

“And he (Jesus) saith unto him, Verily, verily I say unto you. Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man.” [John 1:51]

This is also historically false and incorrect, for, this was said by Jesus after his baptism and after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon him, while we know that nothing like this ever happened in history after this. These prophetic words have never come true.