'Gospel of Judas' gives new view of Jesus' betrayer

Reuters ^ | 4/6/06 | Deborah Zabarenko

[freedom44]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Judas Iscariot, vilified as Christ's betrayer, acted at Jesus' request in turning him over to the authorities who crucified him, according to a 1,700-year-old copy of the "Gospel of Judas" unveiled on Thursday.

In an alternative view to traditional Christian teaching, the Judas gospel shows the reviled disciple as the only one in Jesus' inner circle who understood his desire to shed his earthly body.

"He's the good guy in this portrayal," said Bart Ehrman, a religion professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "He's the only apostle who understands Jesus."

The Judas gospel's introduction says it is "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot." Later, it quotes Jesus as saying to Judas, "You will exceed all of them (the other disciples) for you will sacrifice the man who clothes me."

"The idea in this gospel is that Jesus, like all of us, is a trapped spirit, who is trapped in a material body," Ehrman said. "And salvation comes when we escape the materiality of our existence, and Judas is the one who makes it possible for him to escape by allowing for his body to be killed."

Rev. Donald Senior, president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said the document revealed the diversity and vitality in early Christianity.

"The question becomes ... does this tradition, this alternative story, if you like, in the gospel of Judas have a claim that in some sense is equal to the rival claim of the gospel tradition?" Senior said.

It is not known who wrote the Judas gospel. The copy unveiled on Thursday is of a document mentioned critically in the year 180 in a treatise called "Against Heresies," written by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in what was then Roman Gaul. It spoke out against those whose views about Jesus differed from those of the mainstream Christian Church.

In the Bible's New Testament, Judas is portrayed as the quintessential traitor, accepting 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus by identifying him to Roman soldiers. The biblical Gospel of St. Matthew says Judas quickly regretted his treachery, returned the silver and hanged himself.

The New Testament contains four Gospels -- of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- but many more so-called apocryphal gospels were written in the first centuries after Christ's death, attributed to such disciples as Thomas and Philip and to his female follower Mary Magdalene.

HIDDEN IN EGYPTIAN DESERT

Ehrman, Senior and other experts on Christianity spoke at a briefing at the National Geographic Society, which unveiled a translation of the Judas gospel and which helped authenticate, preserve and translate the document.

The leather-bound copy of the gospel was written in Coptic script on both sides of 13 sheets of papyrus, and spent most of the past 1,700 years hidden in a cavern in the Egyptian desert, said Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society.

This document was probably copied from the original Greek manuscript around the year 300, Garcia said. Discovered in the 1970s near Minya, Egypt, the volume -- including the gospel and other documents -- was sold to an Egyptian antiquities dealer in 1978.

The dealer offered it for sale without success, and eventually locked it in a bank safe deposit box in Hicksville, New York, for 16 years, which hastened its decay. In images displayed at the briefing, the papyrus looked like brown, dry autumn leaves.

Garcia said it had crumbled into more than 1,000 pieces.

In 2001, the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Switzerland began an effort to transcribe and translate the volume from the Coptic. In the next years, scientific tests -- including radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging -- showed the document was copied down around 300.

The Judas gospel is being published in book form by National Geographic and pages from the papyrus manuscript will be on display at the society's museum in Washington starting on Friday. The manuscript will ultimately be housed at the Coptic Museum in Cairo.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

Remember .. Paul and Peter warned about others teaching " another Gospel " other than the Gospel that they were teaching.
God is the author and originator, and inspirer by the Holy Spirit to write the Bible, and the Bible we have today that has lasted through out the centuries is God's inspired word,, nothing more, nothing less.
This new Gospel is nothing but heresies.
There was even a Gospel of Thomas that was being circulated a few decades ago, it's nothing but to confuse people and doubt God's word.
It's the same trickery or lies that they were trying to pass 3 years ago of THE FACE of JESUS by taking a human skull that they " think,, maybe ,,, could be " from the 1 st century when Jesus was alive, but, they mistook one important fact ? Jesus went to the father in bodily form, how could they could have made a true accurate face of Jesus if they never had his skill ?
Also, Jesus was a Nazerite, or Nazarene, with long hair who most likely took the nazarene oath.
MHO ,, the face we see on the shroud of Turin is Jesus face, and a painter painted a painting from the shourd back in the 1930's 40s, and I believe that is the closest to what Jesus looked like.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

" I'll stick with the King James of 1611 the version that has the anointing. "

Amen !

[InvisibleChurch]

i doubt that NG will ever come up with a show about the prophet mohhamed's neighbor dissing him

[AnnoyedOne]

Well, perhaps it is, if you go by Stanfords definition "Pantheism is a metaphysical and religious position. Broadly defined it is the view that (1) "God is everything and everything is God … the world is either identical with God or in some way a self-expression of his nature"

But I am unsure whether that description of God would be in contradiction to accepted gospels. In any event, the church interpreted it's meaning as saying that anywhere one sought Christ, one could find him. Doesn't the bible say something along the line of Christ being present anytime people gather in His name? I do not know of anything written which states one must have priests or the Mother Mary as our intercessor. According to Christ, you shall only come to the Father thru him, however, according to the Church, you can only come to the Father thru the Church.

[ArrogantBustard]

But I am unsure whether that description of God would be in contradiction to accepted gospels.

Then you might want to make sure, rather than going off on weird tangents and conspiracy theories.

In any case, the true Gospels, not to mention the whole rest of the Bible, reveal a transcendent, personal God, who became incarnate in time.

That is, of course, a contradiction of any form of pantheism.

As for the rest, it has been the subject of numerous threads on this forum. Suffice it to say that Christ founded the Church as a visible institution. He didn't do so for no reason.

however, according to the Church, you can only come to the Father thru the Church.

I'm not sure which Church you think teaches that. It's certainly not the Catholic Church; nor any of the Orthodox Churches. The others, I'll let defend themselves.

And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.

[AnnoyedOne]

however, according to the Church, you can only come to the Father thru the Church.

I'm not sure which Church you think teaches that. It's certainly not the Catholic Church; nor any of the Orthodox Churches.

So you are telling me that the Catholic Church does not teach it's members that they must have the Church, and all of it's rituals etc, in order to go to Heaven? Since when? Just about every organized religion I ever heard of tells it's followers precisely that. "We are right, thus everyone else is wrong, and gonna burn".

[AnnoyedOne]

'The Truth' - from the people who brought you the Dark Ages, the Flat Earth, the Childrens Crusade, and the Inquisitions.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

"according to the Church, you can only come to the Father through the Church. "

I don't believe the " Church = Body of Christ " never made any claims of the such.
Yes, maybe some local, or cult churches, or unruly churches, but, as far as the church is concerned that is described in the bible never made any claims that you MUST come through the Church to come to the father.
Jesus said " I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man can come to the father , but by me " and I live by that and stick by that so NO ONE can deceive me.

[Springman]

Bump for later.

[Prophet in the wilderness]

BTW : The church today can say what ever they want, I am only commenting on what it says in the Bible about the church.
You could be right, that some churches have that attitude in that " THEY HAVE THE TRUTH . and NO ONE CAN ABTAIN IT UNLESS YOU COME HERE " yes, there are churches, and pastors like that, but, I am making my comments from what I understand what the BIBLE says, not man.
If I go to a church that has that attitude, I leave, yes, I been in churches like that, and I left.
About coming to the father without the church, priest, intercessor, is true, Jesus told the woman at the well that the time is coming that neither on this mountain or nor in Jerusalem will you have to go and worship the father.

We can come to the father and Jesus on our own, in our car, home, at work, any place we are at, but, we still need to be connected to a church, and fellowship.
The church is the family of God.
John 4
Verses 21- 26

NKJV


21. Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father.
22. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
23. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25. The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.” The Whitened Harvest

But, what Jesus was saying was in no way doing away with the church, but, he was talking about a ( new way to worship ) new way from what they ( Jews ) are accustomed to worship God at a " PLACE " in Jerusalem.
Jesus never made any mention that he was going to do away with the church, but on the contrary, he said to Peter " Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it "
Must people think of the church as a place to go worship, but, the Bible tells us that the " Church " is the body of Christ,. built up of many believers in Christ.

[tenn2005]

"..."Blessed art thou Peter for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but the Holy Spirit"..."

The quote comes from Matt. 16:17.

[AnnoyedOne]

We can come to the father and Jesus on our own, in our car, home, at work, any place we are at, but, we still need to be connected to a church, and fellowship. The church is the family of God.

In this we are in complete agreement. However, you will notice that I refer to the Church with a capital C, and do so when I am referring to the organizational governing body that became Church of Rome (and Greek Orthodox?). The "theological elites and hierarchy" for lack of a better description coming to mind.

[Eastbound]

"Matt. 16:17."

Thanks! Which Bible version?

[AnalogReigns]

By the 4th Century there were dozens of little "alternative" (and fake) "gospels" which presented no gospel (good news) at all. At this time Christianity was making impact on the Roman Empire so everyone was jumping on the band-wagon. Such different gospels (such as Jesus PLUS Judish practice was required in the new faith) were even initiated in New Testament times...and a number of the letters in the bible are targeted at battling such distortions.

This is a yawner--timed by National Geographic to correspond with the release of the (stupid and actually history-less)DaVinci Code movie.

[tenn2005]

It is the same in most versions. He was probably using the King James.

[Eastbound]

Which version were you using? Thanks again.

[tenn2005]

I use the new King James.

[SunkenCiv]

Just adding this to the GGG catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
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[Eastbound]

Okay, thanks. I found the NKJ quote here.

Matt 16:17

"Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."

[floridaobserver]

Judas Iscariot, vilified as Christ's betrayer, acted at Jesus' request in turning him over to the authorities who crucified him, according to a 1,700-year-old copy of the "Gospel of Judas".

This is dynamite stuff. It makes the Da Vinci Code look like child's play. Why was this suppressed all these years? Who profited?

A movie needs to be made of this . . then let the people decide.