An ancient gospel seized from smugglers by Turkish authorities in 2000 in a crackdown on a gang smuggling antiquities is worthless, according to the Coptic Pope Tawadros II.

The version of the so-called Gospel of Barnabas, written  in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic, is thought to date from the sixth century and claims to have been written by Paul's companion. It says that Jesus was never crucified, and Iranian press reports claimed that it would trigger the downfall of Christianity because it predicted the coming of the prophet Muhammad.

However, in an address yesterday, Pope Tawadros said that it was "a book full of also historical and geographical errors, the work of a forger", and has no value and no useful advice for life today.

The Gospel of Barnabas is known in other versions dating to the late 16^th century. It is about as long as all four canonical gospels together and much of its material has been drawn from them. However, it has been edited to bring it into line with Islamic doctrine.

Among other variations from Christian orthodoxy it says that Jesus ascended to heaven alive, as a prophet and not as the Son of God. It also says that Judas Iscariot was crucified in his place and that Jesus predicted the coming of Muhammad.

Even if the Turkish version is a genuine copy of the Gospel of Barnabas, it would still have been written some 500 years after Paul's death. It has been stored in Ankara by police and has not been thoroughly studied since it was confiscated 15 years ago.