Posted on 04/06/2006 12:41:01 PM PDT by Justice
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Lost for almost 1,700 years, a manuscript entitled "Gospel of Judas" is putting a new spin on the case of the biblical bad guy, maintaining that Jesus actually asked disciple Judas to betray him.
The third- or fourth-century ancient Coptic manuscript -- authenticated, translated and displayed Thursday at National Geographic headquarters here -- paints a different picture of Judas and Jesus.
The papyrus manuscript known as a codex maintains, as the bible does not, that Jesus requested that Judas "betray" him by handing him to authorities, something it says pained Judas greatly.
"The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature on five fronts: radiocarbon dating, ink analysis, multispectral imaging, contextual evidence and paleographic evidence," said Terry Garcia, executive vice president for Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society.
"This dramatic discovery of an ancient non-biblical text -- considered by some to be the most significant in the past 60 years -- enhances our knowledge of the history and theological viewpoints of the early Christian period, and is worthy of study by historians, scholars and theologians," Garcia said.
"This process will take time and ongoing dialogue which has just begun."
The leather-bound papyrus text believed to have been copied down around 300 AD was located in the 1970s in the desert near El Minya, Egypt. It then moved among antiquities traders from Egypt to Europe and the United States.
It was purchased by Zurich-based antiquities dealer Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos in 2000, and now was to be returned to Egypt and housed at Cairo's Coptic Museum.
If Judas did indeed betray Christ as part of Christ's plan, then the suicide makes even more sense.
FWIW I believe the 66 books of our Christian Bible is a closed issue. In other words no other books can have the same authority or will be added to the group we already have.
The article makes one point that I find interesting: The manuscript may shed light on some of the beliefs held by some early Gnostic or other heretical sects.
Yep...could be! The "church"...especially around the time people were leaving England to come to the "New World"... was NOT a pretty picture. From what I've read in Fox's Book of Martyrs, I think the correct term to describe it around that time would be "apostacy", or something close to it.
True...and folks need to be reminded that there is good reason for many writings to not be included in the Canon, mainly because they were discarded over the years as not being trustworthy records.
shalom
This may be of interest to you.
IF it's really from 300 A.D. then it will indeed be interesting to examine! Gnostics?....as in nicolatians?...and such?
This was my very first thought when reading the article.
This was my very first thought when reading the article.
Must have been written by the same guy that wrote "The Hitler Diaries."
I don't understand. Why is this post zot-worthy?
"He might also have wanted to join his beloved Jesus in the afterlife."
being jewish, would he have believed in an afterlife?
"I don't understand. Why is this post zot-worthy?"
It's not. It's an interesting post, and we'll hear more about it as time goes on. There's great interest in non-canonical manuscripts just now.
I think it's because earlier today (just a little while ago) a troll posted the same thing (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1610334/posts). Justice isn't a troll though...as best we can tell. :-)
I finally gave up my National Geo subscription last year. I had been a subscriber since the early 80s and had been reading the mag since my school days in the 60s and 70s, but their ever-increasing leftward tilt was just too much. 30 and 40 years ago they printed some fascinating articles relating to the Bible and the Holy Land, but their recent stuff all seems to have a political axe to grind.
It's a shame, really. They used to be a good resource. They probably still are, if any homeschoolers wish to visit thrift stores and pick up stacks of the old Nat'l Geos from the 50s, 60s, and early 70s.
I have one question:
Would you trust an authentic document that was written now to accurately depict the founding of this country? And we are only 230 years away from that event.
I don't doubt the manuscript is authentic. I just wonder about the agenda of the author.
First, its existence was attested to by St. Irenaeus and Tertullian and both ancient sources also attest its inauthenticity.
That is, no one truly believes that it was written by Judas or represents any authentic link to Jesus or the actual Apostles.
Instead it offers a pagan theological viewpoint well-known before and after Jesus - namely the notion that the world was created by an evil demon or Demiurge in order to trap souls in the physical world.
This bizarre cosmology was given a Christian tinge or a Jewish tinge or a Persian tinge or a Greek tinge depending on which pagan cultists held to these specific beliefs.
Thus in a Christian context, Judas is the hero and the enlightened one. In Egyptian versions it is the god Set instead of Osiris. In Jewish versions, it is Cain who is the righteous one. Etc.
This document is a look into the theological strategy pursued by Demiurge believers ensconced in the Christian host culture of circa 200 AD Alexandria.
It has absolutely nothing to do with the world of the canonical Gospels - it is a later, partisan commentary on them.
Would that be the Holly Bibble or the Ishkabibble?
This was written 200 years after the Gospels and it is supposed to be more valid than the Gospels.
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