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Gospel of Judas rattles beliefs
Newly translated, ancient documents challenge orthodox teaching on Jesus and his betrayer
From wire services
Originally published April 7, 2006
Judas Iscariot, long reviled as history’s quintessential betrayer, was actually the best friend of Jesus and turned him over to authorities only because Jesus asked him to, according to the Gospel of Judas, a long-lost document revealed yesterday by the National Geographic Society.
The document purports to record conversations between Jesus and Judas - conversations in which Jesus shared religious secrets not known by the other disciples.
It was ruled heretical by early church leaders because of its disagreement with the conventionally accepted Gospels. Most copies were destroyed.
The discovery in the desert of Egypt of the leather-bound papyrus manuscript in the 1970s, and its translation, were announced at a news conference in Washington. The 26-page text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made about A.D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, which was written in Greek the century before.
Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the geographic society, said the manuscript, or codex, is considered by scholars and scientists to be the most significant ancient, nonbiblical text found in the past 60 years.
“The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian Apocryphal literature,” Garcia said, based on extensive tests of radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging and studies of the script and linguistic style. The ink, for example, was consistent with ink of that era, and there was no evidence of multiple rewriting.
“This is absolutely typical of ancient Coptic manuscripts,” said Stephen Emmel, professor of Coptic studies at the University of Munster in Germany. “I am completely convinced.”
The most revealing passage in the Judas manuscript begins, “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover.”
The account goes on to relate that Jesus refers to the other disciples, telling Judas, “You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”
By that, scholars expert about early Christian thinking said, Jesus meant that by helping him to get rid of his physical flesh, Judas would act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus.
Unlike the accounts in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the anonymous author of the Gospel of Judas believed that Judas Iscariot alone among the 12 disciples understood the meaning of Jesus’ teachings and acceded to his will.
In the diversity of early Christian thought, a group known as Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.
Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics, said 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.”
The Gospel of Judas is one of many texts discovered in the past 65 years, including the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, believed to have been written by Gnostics.
The Gnostics’ beliefs were often viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox, and they frequently were denounced as heretics. The discoveries of Gnostic texts have shaken up biblical scholarship by revealing the diversity of beliefs and practices among early followers of Jesus.
As the findings have trickled down to churches and universities, they have produced a new generation of Christians who now regard the Bible not as the literal word of God but as a product of historical and political forces that determined which texts should be included in the canon and which edited out.
For that reason, the discoveries have proved deeply troubling for many believers. The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus, but as his most favored disciple and willing collaborator.
Scholars say that they have long been on the lookout for the Gospel of Judas because of a reference to what was probably an early version of it in a text called Against Heresies, written by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, about the year 180.
Karen L. King, a professor of the history of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School and an expert in Gnosticism who has not yet read the manuscript released yesterday, said the Gospel of Judas might well reflect the kinds of debates that arose in the second and third century among Christians.
Newly translated, ancient documents challenge orthodox teaching on Jesus and his betrayer
From wire services
Originally published April 7, 2006
Judas Iscariot, long reviled as history’s quintessential betrayer, was actually the best friend of Jesus and turned him over to authorities only because Jesus asked him to, according to the Gospel of Judas, a long-lost document revealed yesterday by the National Geographic Society.
The document purports to record conversations between Jesus and Judas - conversations in which Jesus shared religious secrets not known by the other disciples.
It was ruled heretical by early church leaders because of its disagreement with the conventionally accepted Gospels. Most copies were destroyed.
The discovery in the desert of Egypt of the leather-bound papyrus manuscript in the 1970s, and its translation, were announced at a news conference in Washington. The 26-page text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made about A.D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, which was written in Greek the century before.
Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the geographic society, said the manuscript, or codex, is considered by scholars and scientists to be the most significant ancient, nonbiblical text found in the past 60 years.
“The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian Apocryphal literature,” Garcia said, based on extensive tests of radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging and studies of the script and linguistic style. The ink, for example, was consistent with ink of that era, and there was no evidence of multiple rewriting.
“This is absolutely typical of ancient Coptic manuscripts,” said Stephen Emmel, professor of Coptic studies at the University of Munster in Germany. “I am completely convinced.”
The most revealing passage in the Judas manuscript begins, “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover.”
The account goes on to relate that Jesus refers to the other disciples, telling Judas, “You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”
By that, scholars expert about early Christian thinking said, Jesus meant that by helping him to get rid of his physical flesh, Judas would act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus.
Unlike the accounts in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the anonymous author of the Gospel of Judas believed that Judas Iscariot alone among the 12 disciples understood the meaning of Jesus’ teachings and acceded to his will.
In the diversity of early Christian thought, a group known as Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.
Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton who specializes in studies of the Gnostics, said 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.”
The Gospel of Judas is one of many texts discovered in the past 65 years, including the gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and Philip, believed to have been written by Gnostics.
The Gnostics’ beliefs were often viewed by bishops and early church leaders as unorthodox, and they frequently were denounced as heretics. The discoveries of Gnostic texts have shaken up biblical scholarship by revealing the diversity of beliefs and practices among early followers of Jesus.
As the findings have trickled down to churches and universities, they have produced a new generation of Christians who now regard the Bible not as the literal word of God but as a product of historical and political forces that determined which texts should be included in the canon and which edited out.
For that reason, the discoveries have proved deeply troubling for many believers. The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus, but as his most favored disciple and willing collaborator.
Scholars say that they have long been on the lookout for the Gospel of Judas because of a reference to what was probably an early version of it in a text called Against Heresies, written by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, about the year 180.
Karen L. King, a professor of the history of early Christianity at Harvard Divinity School and an expert in Gnosticism who has not yet read the manuscript released yesterday, said the Gospel of Judas might well reflect the kinds of debates that arose in the second and third century among Christians.
