The Gospel of Judas?

[Digitonomy]

Daniel Marsh:

I am hearing that the gospel of Judas is the Gospel of Thomas.

Are you still hearing that? A source would be handy.
Daniel Marsh:

the fact that junk like this exists proves that the church did not surpress this junk.

A poor proof, considering that it was not known to exist anymore until they found it in the desert a few years ago.

 

[katriz27]

FightingFat:

I see lots of clever comments but no one answering a very valid question.
There’s a Gospel of Judas in the texts known as the Nag Hammadi library. These ‘Gnostic’ Gospels were written by a sect of hetrodox Christians who ‘channeled’ the spirit of Judas (or Thomas, or Mary Magdelene, or, indeed Jesus) and wrote a gospel account from their perspective.

The Gospel of Judas is mentioned by St. Irenaeus (i, 31, 1).

Here is the Roberts-Donaldson translation of this section from Irenaeus:

Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For *Sophia * was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They 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, which they style the Gospel of Judas.

Who IS Sophia???

 

[thistle]

Are you still hearing that? A source would be handy.
A poor proof, considering that it was not known to exist anymore until they found it in the desert a few years ago.

This copy may just have been found a few years ago but its a copy made around 300 AD of the “gospel” circulating around 180 AD which was denounced by St Iraneus as a heresy. So its irrelevant if physical copies were not around all this time but it was well known in the second half of the second century. It was not suppressed but openly denounced by Iraneus. If you suppress something you get rid of it and keep quiet about it!!

 

[Digitonomy]

thistle:

but it was well known in the second half of the second century. It was not suppressed but openly denounced by Iraneus. If you suppress something you get rid of it and keep quiet about it!!

I have no particular cite for this, but it would not surprise me if it were well-known in the second century, when Irenaeus felt compelled to denounce it… Upon its being denounced by the Church, copies of the heretical work could have been destroyed whenever Church officials had the chance.

This doesn’t mean that the Church was the sole reason the Gospel of Judas disappeared. This particular branch of gnosticism may have lacked legs, especially after denunciation by the Church proper. Demographically they were disadvantaged, to the extent that they were found more in the desert. And of course Roman persecutions, Decian and otherwise, didn’t care much what sect of Christianity you were a member of.

So it seems likely to me that in this setting, the Church would have tried to stamp out heresy to the extent it could. It may not have been a very strong effort, as the Church was still quite young and not particularly strong. But it was a successful effort due to the weakness of the gnostic movement.