It was covered in The New York Times, and was talked about on the Today show -- The Gospel of Judas. A manuscript that has been long sought after, since historically it is mentioned by name and its contents have been hinted at or surmised by scholars, a copy was finally tracked down, analyzed, and translated. Read the article that I linked to above to find out the wandering route this document took in recent history before finally landing in the hands of researchers (NYTimes requires you to register to read it now that its past the initial publishing).
I considered posting about this when I first read the article, but hesitated since I wanted to really grapple with the various perspectives that exist. Obviously, the article and the Today feature focused on the more 'warm-fuzzy' aspects that are revealed -- Judas was told by Jesus in private that he would betray him, Judas recognized that Jesus was God incarnate, and that Judas was told he would exceed the other apostles by sacrificing Jesus. I say those are the warm-fuzzies because some of the rest of the gospel's writings get very strange. There is a translation available for download through the NYTimes article, which I grabbed and read through. There is a portion where the 11 other disciples relate a dream they have, which Jesus interprets as their resistance to his true message and their possible hand in leading people astray. That is followed up by Judas relating his own dream of being stoned by the other 12 (the 11 plus his replacement), and then approaching the realm of God. Jesus interprets this as his persecution by the apostles and future generations, but that eventually he will rightly have his place with God as the 13th and greatest apostle. And if that isn't difficult enough for you to struggle with, the manuscript then takes a turn for the truly difficult. What I can only come up with at the moment is that the manuscript records an account of Jesus showing Judas how Creation takes place from a divine perspective, since it has a lot of angels, aeons, generations, Adam, Eve, and continues with the account right on through to the end of days.
Obviously, that kind of information can seem awfully far-fetched, especially when we've had nearly two millennia of church history that makes no mention of any of this -- partly due to early church leaders considering it and other accounts as heresy, you can read a bit about that here. However, what the manuscript does present is further weight to the idea that Jesus had told Judas about the betrayal before the supper with the rest of the apostles -- see John 13:18-30. It would also explain why Judas was so wrought with grief and guilt that he committed suicide (which is oddly only recorded in Matthew and Acts). While a lot of what the Gospel of Judas presents is something that I will probably grapple with for a long while, I think when you boil it down there is a core truth that should pop out to everyone. Jesus knew that Judas would betray him, and knew that because of this he would be hated by many. However, as he taught and as God shows us, Jesus loved Judas before, during, and after the betrayal -- God loves Judas, and it is not our place to denigrate him for his part in bringing about what Christ knew must occur.
Monday, April 10, 2006
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1 comments:
Well done research! A very informative article, I enjoyed it. Please allow me to share some thoughts on this with you.
This extrabiblical work will naturally be "all the rage" for a while like the Nag Hamadi texts were when they were discovered in the 70s. The Church Fathers as well as some New Testament references have made numerous mention of such works (all grouped together as Gnostic or hidden knowledge sects).
It was also not uncommon and also readily accepted for various works to be given the names of historical or mythological-legendary figures (sort of eponymously)with the full knowledge that any one would know that it really wasn't written by the alleged named author. This was an ancient method of lending authority to a work. A kind of accepted forgery, if you will. There are numerous examples of this from antiquity. What I am saying is that I think we should understand that the sect that this work descends from (Cainites?)AUTOMATICALLY would not be claiming that the authorship is Judas at all. They would also have probably kept this text as secret knowledge not open to the public until they were initiated into the sect itself. The actual readership (which would have been extremely limited unlike our NTs) would not have thought it really written by Judas either. This is extremely common. I say this emphatically because I know that there will people suprised by this fact.
In fact, the Irenaus reference, seems to indicate that the sect had received it as divine revelation. The actions of Sophia (the allegorical deity and personification of wisdom) on the cosmic level having given the account in some way.
One of the main reasons why the chuch fathers, as well as the church, rejected the alternative Canons is that they did not hold to the most prime, essential ingredient of Christianity- these sects encouraged the worship of other gods. They told different Cosmology than that of the Bible. When a sect teaches individuals to devote themselves to anyone other that Jesus Christ himself is it automatically disqualified, from an orthodox standpoint? In view Hebrews 1, can we accept that there are other sources? It would seem that history is telling us the Gospel of Judas descends from such a group, and we have an accounting that explains why it was originally rejected. I, for one, am glad that we have it back in our possession so we can study the thing and understand better (for ourselves) what Irenaus was talking about. We must acquire truth for ourselves, not be dependant upon a tradition blindly handed down to us by a source such as Irenaus (whose orthodoxy, having studied his writings for many years, I call into question anyway). The primitive or early Roman Church sect of the 4th Century is the church that rejected this work, but I think for good reason nevertheless.
Also, from the National Geographic special I could tell that the real provenance of the artifact is highly disputable. Just because you get it from an Egyptian man doesn't mean it comes from Egypt. I wonder if pollen analysis has been performed? I didn't catch that. I could also tell by the handwriting that it is a third century work, this important fact at the end of the show was finally mentioned.
Those things being said, the real question for me is: What is this alternative Christianity saying about Christ? What statement is it making? What is its "beef" against the established church?
"Secret Knowledge" based elitism is in some respect still a phenomenon occuring today in Christianity. Whereas, no one has composed a new Gospel account, there still are from time to time intellectual movements of this caliber, even in the modern church (this will be a later post of mine on my site).
This will undoubtedly, once again, call into question the validity of our current Canon. I take this to be a good thing. The more this happens the more we sharpen ourselves, the more we are prepared to answer, the more we can be sure that we have heard the truth.
By the way, I like what you said about Jesus' love for Judas. I think that must have been true. How he loves us all, though we betray.
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