Injeel = Good News! Where’s it? What’s it?
The ‘Injeel’ was given by God to Jesus. It existed and was reliable in the 7th century:
“So let the people of the Gospel judge by what Allah has revealed in it. And those who do not judge by what Allah has revealed are ˹truly˺ the rebellious.” (Surah 5:47)
Say, ˹O Prophet,˺ “O People of the Book! You have nothing to stand on unless you observe the Torah, the Gospel, and what has been revealed to you from your Lord.” (Surah 5:68)
The Quran is called “Book” in Surah 2, verse 2, before it was completely revealed and written down.[3] Similarly, the Gospel was revealed in stages too. History proves, the word was used to describe one Gospel, four of them together and the whole New Testament.[4]
A comparison between early manuscripts with today’s copies of the Gospel, confirms that they have remained substantially the same.[1]
Therefore, the question, “what’s the Good News?”, can be summarised with certainty:
God’s the Good News! He created us for a personal relationship with Himself. We are to glorify and enjoy Him forever by loving, honouring and worshipping Him through our lives. Starting with Adam and Eve, everyone has disobeyed Him. To satisfy his attributes of Love and Justice and to enable us to fulfil our purpose, God paid our punishment of death in Jesus![2] Repent and believe in him to get guaranteed forgiveness and cleansing from your shame, a fulfilled life now and to spend eternity with God in heaven!
“If We ever abrogate a verse or cause it to be forgotten, We replace it with a better or similar one.” Surah 2, Al Baqarah, verse 106.
This astonishing Good News is not abrogated, otherwise it would have to be replaced with something better. What better could be offered, than God personally dealing with our sins, shame, guilt and fear? In Christ he guarantees us a way of freedom from it to know, see and savour God personally for eternity.
As of September 2024, the whole Injeel has been translated into 2482 languages.
https://www.wycliffe.net/resources/statistics/ (accessed April 2025)
What stops you from reading or listening to it? If you like to study it together with a follower of Jesus please get in touch:
info@christianityexplained.net
[1] It is highly unlikely that the Scriptures could have been altered after the death of Muhammad for the following reasons:
-The first translations of the Injeel were made beginning at the end of 2nd century AD into the Syriac, Latin, and Coptic languages. Any attempts to change the Scriptures in the 7th century, the advent of Islam, would have been found out quickly.
-By 600 A.D., Christianity had spread into Asia, Africa, and Europe. There is no evidence of a worldwide council that met for the purpose of altering the Scriptures.
-Since Muslims revere the Holy Books too, converts from Judaism and Christianity would have retained the true texts; however, such texts are nowhere to be found.
-Manuscripts still exist from the 2nd to 7th centuries (Muhammad lived in the 6th and 7th century). These manuscripts line up with today’s translations of the Scriptures and any variant readings (none changes a doctrine) are noted and accepted by the Quran, Surah 5:47 etc., as reliable. For more details see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDFA-FXhKz0: Is What We Have Now What They Wrote Then? By Dr. Daniel B. Wallace, executive director of Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts: https://www.csntm.org/ (search here, adjusting filters on the left to centuries and books you are looking for: https://manuscripts.csntm.org/ especially consult codices Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, since they have the complete texts of the Gospels and both date to the 4th century: https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/ https://digi.vatlib.it/view/MSS_Vat.gr.1209 https://apologika.blogspot.com/2014/04/comparing-bible-and-quranic-manuscripts.html https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/the-big-question-what-is-the-codex-sinaiticus-and-what-does-it-reveal-about-the-bible-1734439.html https://codexsinaiticus.org/en/ https://abramkj.com/2012/12/27/new-scholarly-edition-of-the-greek-new-testament-2/ (see “the critical apparatus” a kind of shorthand.) https://www.jdavidstark.com/ecm-for-acts-online/
[2] 2 Corinthians 5:18
[3] Jesus was not given a physical book. Similarly, Muhammad was not given a physical book either. Surah 2:2 uses the word “book” in the sense of message, law. Ibn Kathir a classical Quran commentator from the 14th century said:
It seems that what is meant by Book here is writing. Tafsir al-Quran il-‘Azeem. But we do not have any evidence that the revelation was written down at the time of ‘Isa (peace be upon him). The fact that the Gospel is called “a Book” in the Holy Quran does not indicate that it was written down on pages at the time it was revealed. The fact that it is called a Book only refers to that which is with Allah in al-Lawh al-Mahfooz (the Preserved Tablet), or that it was something that could be written.
This also applies to the Holy Quran, as Allah calls it a Book. Rather it was transmitted verbally as well as being written down randomly on skins and parchments. In fact, it was not a compiled Book until the time of Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq (may Allah be pleased with him). Indeed, Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And even if We had sent down unto you (O Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him)) a message written on paper so that they could touch it with their hands, the disbelievers would have said: ‘This is nothing but obvious magic!’” [6:7]
Al-Tahir ibn ‘Ashoor said in his commentary on Surat Maryam:: 30: The Scripture refers to the law which is usually written lest it be subject to change. The word Scripture is applied to the Law of ‘Isa (peace be upon him) just as it is applied to the Quran. Al-Tahreer wa’l-Tanweer.
Similarly, the Christians do not believe that there is a book that was written by the Messiah or one of his disciples during his lifetime that was lost after that.
[4] The Injeel is the Arabic equivalent of the Greek word ‘euangelion’. It is normally understood as the Gospel of Hazrat Isa (Surah 57, Al-Hadid, verse 27). However, the Injeel also includes the rest of the books that are found in today’s, 21st century New Testament of the Bible for the following reasons:
In the fourth century AD, Chrysostom wrote, “We assert, therefore, that, although a thousand Gospels were written, if the contents of all were the same, they would still be one, and their unity no wise infringed by the number of writers. — Whence it is clear that the four Gospels are one Gospel; for, as the four say the same thing, its oneness is preserved by the harmony of the contents, and not impaired by the difference of persons” (Schaff, A Select Library of Nicene and Post- Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church: First Series. vol. 8, pg. 7.)
F.F Bruce, Rylands Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis at the University of Manchester, England, wrote: “At a very early date it appears that the four Gospels were united in one collection. They must have been brought together very soon after the writing of the Gospel according to John. This fourfold collection was originally known as “The Gospel” in the singular, not “The Gospels” in the plural; there was only one Gospel… Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, refers to “The Gospel” as an authoritative writing, and as he knew more than one of the four “Gospels” it may well be that by “The Gospel” sans phrase he means the fourfold collection which went by that name. (“The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?” 1943, pg. 23.) About other books in the New Testament Bruce writes:
“The corpus Paulinum, or collection of Paul’s writings, was brought together about the same time as the collecting of the fourfold Gospel. As the Gospel collection was designated by the Greek word Euangelion, so the Pauline collection was designated by one word, Apostolos… (Ibid., p.25.) Augustine, one of the most famous early church fathers wrote in the fourth century, “For I ask them, is it good to take pleasure in reading the Apostle? or good to take pleasure in a sober Psalm? or good to discourse on the Gospel? They will answer to each, ‘It is good’.” (The Confessions of St.Augustine, pg. 144.)
This is close to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 2:9, a book that is part of today’s New Testament: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” Christian theologian B.B. Warfield sums up the whole topic under discussion well when he writes:
“The earliest name given to this new section of Scripture was framed on the model of the name by which what we know as the Old Testament was then known. Just as it was called “The Law and the Prophets and the Psalms” (or “the Hagiographa”), or more briefly “The Law and the Prophets,” or even more briefly still “The Law”; so the enlarged Bible was called “The Law and the Prophets, with The Gospels and the Apostles” (so Clement of Alexandria, “Strom.” vi. 11, 88; Tertullian, “De Præs. Hær.” 36), or most briefly “The Law and the Gospel” (so Claudius Apolinaris, Irenæus); while the new books apart were called “The Gospel and the Apostles,” or most briefly of all “The Gospel.”
This earliest name for the new Bible, with all that it involves as to its relation to the old and briefer Bible, is traceable as far back as Ignatius (A.D. 115), who makes use of it repeatedly (e.g., “ad Philad.” 5; “ad Smyrn.” 7). (“The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible”, p. 413.)
Maududi, a modern Islamic commentator thinks that only the spoken words of the todays Gospels are still reliable (see https://www.alim.org/quran/tafsir/maududi/surah/3/?ayah=3) Even if his assertion was correct the words of Jesus in these passages alone would disprove that theory by contradicting the Quran: Mark 10:45: “. . .give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 9:30-32: He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.”
This article can be downloaded as a pdf here: Injeel = Good News
