JUDAS: HIS ROLE AND GOSPEL
THE "GOSPEL OF JUDAS"
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Overview:
Many people assume that the Gospel of Judas states that it was written
by Judas, one of Jesus' disciples. In fact, it makes no such claim. It was
apparently written by a follower of Gnostic Christianity
sometime during the second century CE. 7
A copy of the gospel which was recently found in Egypt is
in the Coptic language and dates from the third or early fourth century CE. It
was based on an earlier work, probably in Greek, written before 180 CE. It deals
with the relationship between Jesus and Judas.
The gospel teaches that Judas was not a
traitor. He did not betray Jesus as described in the four gospels Mark, Matthew,
Luke and John which were accepted into the official canon of the Bible. Rather, according to this Gospel,
Judas was the
most enlightened and knowledgeable of Jesus' disciples. Both Judas and Jesus
realized that for Jesus to attain his purpose in life, his soul had to be
liberated through the death of his body. Both worked out a plan by which Judas
would hand over Jesus to the Jewish authorities in the expectation that he would
be subsequently executed.
The Gospel has raised some interesting debates about the role of Judas, the diversity of
belief in early Christianity, and the relationship between passages in the
Christian Scriptures (a.k.a. New Testament) and anti-semitism. 1
Very early Christianity:
By the middle of the second century CE, more than a century after Jesus' execution, there were three
main movements within early Christianity:
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Jewish Christianity They
rejected the virgin birth, and taught that Jesus
was a man -- i.e. a prophet, not a God or a son of God. This was the original
Christian group and was centered in Jerusalem and led by James, a brother of Jesus.
Some members may have moved to Pella about 70 CE; others were wiped out by the Roman Army's
attack on Jerusalem in 70 CE. The movement never recovered and eventually
disappeared from history. |
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Pauline Christianity, which was founded by Paul and later
became what has been referred to as "proto-Christianity, " It eventually
morphed into the Catholic Church. They taught that Jesus was a man-god. |
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Gnostic Christianity, which was, and
remains today, a diverse movement. Some Gnostic groups promoted Docetism,
the belief that Christ was pure spirit and only had a phantom body. Jesus
merely appeared to be human to his followers. Some Gnostic groups teach that Jesus
had both male and female disciples. Gnostics were heavily oppressed by other
Christians and were almost wiped out. A small group remains in the Middle
East. Gnostics in the West are experiencing rapid growth. |
The Gospel of Judas:
The Cainites, the ancient Gnostic group which produced the Gospel of Judas, taught that Judas was not
a betrayer or traitor. Rather, he was a hero who was the only disciple who
really understood Jesus. He and Jesus jointly conceived a plan that
resulted in
Jesus being arrested and subsequently executed by the Roman Army. The Gospel of Judas was written in the mid-second century, at
about the same time as the canonical books James, 2 Peter
and Jude, according to liberal Christian theologians -- or a few generations
after these three canonical books were written, according to conservative
Protestants.
This gospel was attacked by St. Irenaeus circa 180 CE as
a heretical book. He wrote:
"[The Gnostics] declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted
with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did,
accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly
and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion....They produce a fictitious
history of this kind...[from] which they style the Gospel of Judas." 2
It is important to realize that heresy was, and remains, a relative term: A heretical
belief to Irenaeus'
is an orthodox belief in Gnosticism; What Iranaeus considered orthodoxy is a Gnostic heresy.
A translation
of the gospel in the Coptic language, was discovered during the 1970s in
a cave
near El Minya, Egypt. It was in a codex -- a book similar to modern-day format
-- which also included "...a text called James [a.k.a. the First
Apocalypse of James], the Letter of Peter to Philip and a fragmentary
document dubbed the Book of Allogenes." 6
Called the Codex Tchacos, it was passed among a series of antiquities
traders. Unfortunately, the gospel was not properly cared for. Portions of the
papyrus on which it was hand-written disintegrated. Some sections have been forever
lost. The remains were finally obtained by National Geographic. It was
restored, translated and published in book form in early 2006-APR. It will
eventually be returned Cairo, Egypt where it will be housed in the Coptic
Museum.
This manuscript appears to have been written sometime between 220 and 340 CE
according to radiocarbon dating and other tests. It is believed to be a translation from an earlier
version probably written in Greek circa 130 to 170 CE. 5
Positive responses to the Gospel of Judas:
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Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the National Geographic
Society, said that religious historians consider the gospel to be the most
significant ancient, non-biblical manuscript to be found in the past 60 years. It
has been given a battery of tests to prove its authenticity, including
radiocarbon dating, analysis of the ink used, multi-spectral imaging, and
analysis of the script and linguistic style. Garcia said: "The codex has
been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal
literature." |
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Elaine Pagels, a professor at Princeton University and well known author of a
number of books on Gnostic Christianity, wrote in a statement: |
"These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion,
and demonstrating how diverse — and fascinating — the early Christian
movement really was."
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Karen L. King, a professor at Harvard Divinity School and author of
other books on Gnostic Christianity said: |
"You can see how early Christians could say, if Jesus's death was all
part of God's plan, then Judas's betrayal was part of God's plan. So
what does that make Judas? Is he the betrayer, or the facilitator of
salvation, the guy who makes the crucifixion possible?"
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The Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, gave a grant of
over one million dollars to the National Geographic Society to
restore, preserve, and make the manuscript available to the public. Ted
Waitt, said:
" I didn't know a whole lot until I got into this about the
early days of Christianity. It was just extremely fascinating to me....You
can potentially question the translation and the interpretation, he said,
but you can't fake something like this. It would be impossible."
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Negative responses to the Gospel of Judas:
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In his April 13th e-letter to readers, Brian St. Paul, editor of
Crisis Magazine, wrote that the Gospel of Judas "sheds no light on
historical Christianity," other than to fill in "the heavenly
pantheon of second-century Gnosticism." He wrote that the Gospel
of Judas and the other Gnostic gospels "offer no reliable historical
insight into the actual events of the first century" and that the Gospel
is "hardly a theological earthquake." 4 | |
The Catholic News Agency engaged in an ad hominem attack against
religious historians who took part in a National
Geographic Special about the Gospel of Judas which was initially broadcast on 2006-APR-12
-- Palm Sunday. The agency's main
concern does not seem to be the Gospel itself. They appear to be more
concerned about whether there have been centuries of anti-Judaic and
anti-semitic oppression on the part of Christians, and -- if so -- whether that
was partly based on the Bible's portrayal of Judas.
The agency criticized:
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Elaine Pagals, author of "The Origin of Satan" and "Adam, Eve and
the Serpent" -- writings which the agency regards as "against the Catholic Church."
She has written that the biblical description of Judas as a betrayer of Jesus
subsequently led to anti-semitism among Christians. They also cited her support
of an artist who produced a piece of artwork that some consider blasphemous. |
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Bart Ehrman because in his book criticizing The Da Vinci
Code, he wrote that certain statements in the novel are accurate. He also
attributes the responsibility for Jesus' death to the Roman Army. |
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Marvin Meyer because he has written a series of books on early Gnostic
writings and because there was a lack of agreement on the program about his
estimates of the age of the Gospel of Judas manuscript. |
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Craig Evans who believes that Jesus was not baptized by John the Baptizer,
was not bodily resurrected; and did not perform miracles. The Catholic
News Agency writes that In Evans' books on early Gnostic Christianity, "he
refers to the supposed anti-Semitism of Christians." |
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Francois Gaudard who said in the program: "This text not only seriously
challenges one of the most firmly rooted beliefs in Christian tradition, but
also reduces one of the favorite themes of anti-Semitism to nothing." 3 |
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Rt. Rev. C. FitzSimons Allison, a retired Episcopal Bishop comments: "The
esoteric (intended for or understood by only a small group) nature of Gnosticism
appeals to our human pride and condescension to others. The great loss that
results from Gnostic gospels like Judas' is that it leads us to believe that we
need no redemption for our sinful wills, only freedom from our material bodies."
"What is lost in the Gnostic 'gospels' is the trust in and knowledge of God,
whom we call 'Father;' that the material world and our bodies are good; that we
sinners have been shown mercy, not just given secret knowledge; that the
suffering of Christ gives hope and fellowship in our suffering; and that as
Christ was raised from the dead, so our deaths are not the last word."
"Unfortunately, the media too often turn to the 'experts,' many of whom do
not call themselves Christians, to explain the significance of something like
the newly found Gnostic 'Gospel of Judas'." 11 | |
Philip Jenkins is a Professor at Pennsylvania State University and the
author of several books including "Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus
Lost Its Way." He suggests The Gospel of Judas tells us nothing about either
Jesus or Judas. He writes: |
"The reason that many scholars and members of the press have
characterized this ho-hum Gnostic document as a momentous leap in our
understanding is that it fits in with their model of early Christian
history as a battle between competing understandings of who Jesus was.
The Christians who called themselves 'orthodox' had the four canonical
gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John that appear in today's New
Testament. Other Christians, including the Gnostics, had their own
gospels, but neither the orthodox nor the Gnostics had truer insights
into Jesus. The orthodox just happened to win the battle....
In short, the 'Gospel of Judas' tells us nothing about the historical
Jesus or Judas; it adds next to nothing to our knowledge of early
Gnosticism or of sectarian Christianity; and it actually adds very
little indeed that was not already known from texts published a century
or more ago. And this is 'one of the greatest historical discoveries of
the twentieth century'?" 10
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Ben Witherington III, a professor at Asbury Theological Seminary and one
of the most respected evangelical scholars in the world, writes in his blog: |
"This document reflects the same sort of dualism that we find in many
other Gnostic documents -- matter or flesh is evil or tainted, spirit is
good....This of course is miles from early Jewish theology about the
goodness of creation and the flesh, much less the belief that God
intends to redeem the flesh by means of resurrection. Much of what Jesus
is depicted as saying in the Gospel of Judas the historical, thoroughly
Jewish, resurrection believing Jesus could never have said. In other
words it is revisionist history being done by a splinter group of
Gnostics. This group was at variance with the theology and praxis of the
church whose beliefs could in fact be traced back to Jesus and his
earliest disciples. 12
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Brandon Wasoh, a student in classics at California
State University wrote in his blog:
"In reality, however, it's just one more of a whole list of Gnostic gospels,
which doesn't bring us any closer to understanding the historical Jesus. And
when did Judas have the time to write this gospel between the betrayal and
suicide?"
This reflects a commonly held misunderstanding. Some assume that since
the manuscript is called "The Gospel of Judas," that it must have
been written by Judas. Actually, the text does not claim Judas to be its
author. 9 |
References used:
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Radolphe
Kasser, et al., "The Gospel of Judas," National Geographic Soc., (2006)
Read reviews or order this book
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St. Irenaeus, "Adversus haereses (Against Heresies)," 1:31:1, 180 CE.
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"Questions arise about scholars who collaborated in National Geographic’s
Gospel of Judas presentation," Catholic News Agency, 2006-APR-24, at:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com
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"Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel of little value to Christians, says
analyst," Catholic News Agency, 2006-APR-16, at:
http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/
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"Gospel of Judas," Wikepedia, at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
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"Explore the document," National Geographic, at:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/
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A translation of The Gospel of Judas is online at:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ This is a PDF file. You may require software to read it. Software can be obtained free from:
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John Wilford & Laurie Goodstein, " 'Gospel of Judas' Surfaces After 1,700
Years," The New York Times, 2006-APR-06, at:
http://www.nytimes.com/
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Brandon Wasoh, "The Gospel of Judas," Novum Testamentum, at:
http://www.novumtestamentum.com/
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Philip Jenkins, "All Gospels Are Not Created Equal. The 'Gospel of Judas'
tells us nothing about the historical Jesus or Judas. Why the furor?"
Beliefnet, 2006-APR, at:
http://www.beliefnet.com/
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C. FitzSimons Allison, " 'Gospel of Judas' reflects Gnostic denial of
Jesus' suffering," The Post and Courier, Charleston SC, 2006-APR-12, at:
http://www.charleston.net/
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Ben Witherington, "The Gospel of Judas et al.," 2006-APR-07, at:
http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/
Copyright © 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious
Tolerance.
First published: 2006-APR-08
Most recent update: 2006-APR-25
Author: B.A. Robinson
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