I am continuing the series by first dealing with the reaction to last week’s column from D. C. Ajare (080-3565-0218), who advised me not to waste my precious time over the derisive comments on Jesus Christ and the Books in the New Testament by Professor Douglas Anele of the Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos. Because, to him, what the don needs is pity and prayers to change from his antichrist and ungodly disposition before it is too late, so that he doesn’t land in hell fire on the Day of Judgment.
Believing in God and accepting Jesus Christ as His Son and Saviour of His followers or not, is the personal decision of each adult being. So, it is not my business if Professor Anele believes in the Heavenly Father or not, or if he denigrates Jesus, the Christian Holy Bible and Christianity. It is left to professional clerics, Christians or Muslims to go and preach to him, if they are so inclined, to win him over into their religion.
But as a Christian and columnist, I cannot ignore his false claims that the authors of the 27 Books in the New Testament were people who did not witness what they wrote about and that they were written between 83 and 133 AD. When there is evidence in the New Testament that all the authors, with the exception of Apostle Paul, John Mark and Luke, were the disciples or relatives of Jesus Christ.
Apostle Paul was alive when Jesus was on his missionary activities, only that he, then known as Saul, was persecuting Christians (Acts of the Apostles 9: 1-31). He became a Christian about two or three years after the passage of Jesus Christ. John Mark, who wrote the Gospel of Mark, as I would prove later, was an associate of Apostle Peter and Paul, while Luke, the author of the Book of Luke and Acts of the Apostles was a companion of Apostle Paul.
Most of the Christians, who read his column in the Sunday Vanguard, have not been coming out to challenge Professor Anele because they do not know the facts to counter and disprove the lies he has been dishing out on Christmas and Easter and his contempt for Jesus Christ, Christianity and Christians. Although he is a professor who lectures at the University of Lagos, the problem with Anele is that he is not aware that the biographies of all the authors of the 66 Books in the Holy Bible (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament) and the year each of them was written are available on the Internet. All he depends on are books written by communists like Hungarian-born Alfred Reynolds and other non-Christians before the computer era set in and who as a result had no correct information on the authors of the books in the Christian Holy Book.
To say the least, it is unfortunate that an academic of Professor Anele’s standing and experience is ignorant of the fact that the biographies of the authors of the Books in the Bible are available on the Internet. It goes without saying that if he had been aware, he would have gone online to read them and would not have come out to make his false claim and get himself embarrassed when presented or confronted with the facts. It is a different matter if he had known the facts and dismissed them with superior arguments.
I am coming out with the facts to educate Professor Anele and stop him from continuing to misinform and mislead people, especially the younger ones, particularly university students, undergraduates and post-graduates alike. And in doing this, I am providing information from the New Testament on the author of each of the 27 Books from Mathew through Revelation. From the profile on Mathew, its author was Apostle Mathew, who, on the list of the 12 disciples of Jesus in Chapter 10:1-4, is described as a tax collector.
His profession is said to have influenced his using money issues in telling the story of how people can enter the Kingdom of God. Like in Chapter 18: 23-24 where he talked of a king who ordered a servant who owed him ten thousand talents (or silver coins) to be sold into slavery to recover his money. But when the man fell on his knees and begged to be given more time to look for the cash to pay up, his royal master forgave him. Another money related story is in Chapter 25:14-15.
Tax collectors in biblical times were said to have been experts in writing shorthand and as a result, Mathew was able to record more words spoken by Jesus than the other authors who wrote Books on him. This is said to be responsible for his ability to come up with 28 chapters in his book as against 24 chapters by Luke, who also started the story of Jesus from his birth through the ascension into heaven after his resurrection. Mark and John who omitted his birth, had 16 and 21 chapters respectively. And contrary to Professor Anele’s claim that Mark was the first Book written in the New Testament and that this happened in 83 AD, Mathew in one account is said to have been produced between 55 and 65AD and in another in the 60s AD.
Next Week: My reply to Professor Anele’s claim in the concluding part of his series that his critics are religious bigots.
Yoruba/Benin ancestry dispute (6)
Let’s admit that the servants of King Owodo succumbed to the blackmail of his wife that they should say the oracle picked Prince Ekhaladeran as the source of the monarch’s problem, to stop her from stripping half-naked and claiming her situation was caused by their attempt to rape her. Knowing that death would be the punishment for the innocent prince, would the king’s aides on getting back to the palace not have told their monarch the truth and requested him to summon the oracle man to confirm their report or otherwise.
I believe it was to make his story believable and accepted that made His Royal Majesty Erediauwa, the Oba of Benin, to have said that instead of killing the prince, the executioners told him to go and settle in a distant land, so that King Owodo and his chiefs would not know his life was spared.
To be continued.