4The Gospel of Barnabas is one of the New Testament Apocrypha, which narrates the life of Jesus Christ as seen by Barnabas, who in this book is depicted as of the Twelve Apostles.

Altogether, Barnabas is roughly equal in length to the four canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, it being a biography of Jesus Christ. It is noted for attributing Jesus with a prediction of the Prophet Muhammad, whom he calls 'Ahmad'. Jesus foresees but preemptively rejects his own deification, which is also consistent with the Islamic account of his life. Jesus also makes a direct plea to Barnabas shortly before his crucifixion; asking that he write the Gospel and spread the word of Muhammad's coming.

Many academics and Biblical scholars of the modern day consider The Gospel of Barnabas to be a text written far later than the original New Testament Gospels, perhaps between the 14th and 15th century AD. Its contents combine the narrative of the Biblical gospels, together with the Islamic interpretation of the life of Christ.

Historians have noted a number of inaccuracies; for instance the mention of Rome's armies in Israel totaling some 200,000 men, when at the time the entire standing force of the Roman Empire numbered 300,000. However, many Christians believe there is more than a grain of truth to the text, and accept it as a credible and worthy adjunct to the New Testament.

The translators of the text from Italian to English are Lonsdale and Laura Ragg. Lonsdale was an Englishman who studied theology at Oxford University, and was ordained thereafter. As a priest, he was assigned to preach in a variety of places, living for a time in Venice and thus becoming fluent in Italian. His wife Laura was also a keen student of the language; in 1907 the pair together translated the text, which was published in English for the first time.