Page 113 - Demo

109of St. Matthew’s. One of the characteristic features of the First Gospel – Matthew – is to show and prove the fulfilment of some particular statement or prediction in the Old Testament concerning nearly every event in the life of Jesus Christ (pbuh) . He is very careless to guard himself against contradictions, and less scrupulous in his quotations from the Hebrew Scriptures. He is certainly not well versed in the literature of his own language. I had occasion to refer in the preceding article of this series to one of his blunders concerning the ass upon which Jesus (pbuh) mounted [1] . This is a most serious point directly touching the authenticity and the validity of the Gospels. Is it possible that the Apostle Matthew should himself be ignorant of the true character of the prophecy of Mālākhī, and ignorantly ascribe to his master a misquotation, which would naturally put to question his very quality of a divinely inspired Prophet? Then, what should we think of the author of the Second Gospel – of St. Mark – who ascribes the passage in Mālākhī to Isaiah? (Mark i. 2). Jesus (pbuh) is reported by Matthew (xi. 1-15), and this too is followed or copied by Luke (vii. 18-28), to have declared to the multitude that John Baptist (pbuh) was “more than a Prophet,” that it was he “about whom it was written: Behold, I am sending My Angel before thy face, and he shall prepare thy way before thee;” and that “none among those born by women was greater than , but the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” The corruption of the text of Mālākhī is plain and deliberately made. The original text tells us that Yahweh Sabaoth, i.e. God of Hosts, is the speaker and the believers are the people addressed, as can be readily seen in the words “whom ye are seeking….whom ye desire,” God says: “Behold, I send My Messenger,[1] See I.R., January 1929, p. 18. (The author).