The gospel according to Judas?

Mannie Garcia, the Associated Press
An exhibit of the artifacts in Washington opens to the public today.


Ancient text challenges story of disciple's betrayal
By Lilly Rockwell
Cox News Service
WASHINGTON (Apr 7, 2006)
An ancient Egyptian manuscript lost for 1,700 years and unveiled publicly for the first time yesterday challenges the long-held view that Judas was a treacherous disciple who betrayed Jesus.

Religious scholars consider it the most important theological discovery in the last 60 years. It illuminates early Christian beliefs and contradicts biblical teaching concerning Judas' role in Jesus Christ's death.

The brittle 26-page papyrus manuscript had been painstakingly preserved and translated over the last five years as part of a massive undertaking by the National Geographic Society, the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery.

It was discovered buried along the Nile River near the city of El Minya, about 160 kilometres south of Cairo, in the 1970s, and languished on the black market until 2000, when the preservation and translation process began. The authenticity of the manuscript was verified using carbon dating.

This highly controversial "Gospel of Judas," written around A.D. 300, details a secret interaction between Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ in which Jesus singles Judas out for special status and asks him for help in escaping his physical body to liberate his spiritual self.

The leather-bound manuscript ends by abruptly describing Judas turning over Jesus to authorities who would later kill him, casting that as what Jesus wanted in order to enter the spiritual world.

"He is the good guy in this portrayal," said Bart Ehrman, a religious studies professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "In fact, he is not only the good guy, he is the only apostle who understands Jesus."

The discovery of this lost gospel is highly controversial because it clearly challenges an accepted fact of the Christian faith, based on the written teachings in the Bible.

In the Bible, Judas is portrayed as a close friend to Jesus who helps turn him over to Jewish authorities, an act that leads to his crucifixion, for money.

"This is obviously one of the most unusual and contrary gospels written in Christian antiquity," Ehrman said.

While religious scholars are heralding the discovery of this rare manuscript as a look into what early Christians believed, other religious authorities dismiss its importance.

The Rev. Donald Senior, a Catholic priest and featured speaker at the National Geographic press conference yesterday, said he doubts the manuscript will be taken seriously enough to rival New Testament writings.

"There is no independent historical tradition behind this text," Senior said.

Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of the Churches of Christ, a large umbrella group for various Christian-based religions, said the manuscript needs to be studied more before any conclusions are made. He said scholars should determine "whether it was written by disgruntled factions of Christians at the time to shape the way the world looked at Christianity."

Edgar predicted this new gospel would get a lot of attention for a few days and then receive about the same weight as other Christian texts that are not considered part of the Bible.

The Gospel of Judas manuscript is written in Coptic, an Egyptian text. Experts say the manuscript was a translation of a Greek document.

In it, Jesus tells Judas, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. ... You will be cursed by the other generations -- and you will come to rule over them."

This gospel originates from an early Christian sect called Gnostics, who held a wide-ranging religious belief that did not have the support of the Orthodox church. Gnostics believe the way to salvation was through secret knowledge delivered by Jesus to his inner circle, not by his death and resurrection. Religion experts said it is similar to a Jewish mystic belief system known as Kabbalah.

This gospel shows only Judas, and not any of the other disciples, understood this meaning. This Gnostic belief was suppressed by the Orthodox church and the gospel was buried in an attempt to discredit them.

Scholars say the discovery and translation of this text will shed light on what early Christianity was like. "The Gospel of Judas highlights the diversity of expression in the early Christian movement," said Marvin Meyer, a professor of Bible and Christian studies at Chapman University in California.

It will be housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt, after a brief exhibit at the National Geographic headquarters in Washington, D.C.