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Judas 'gospel' is pure fiction Rev. Sam Luptak Jr. New Castle News, 4-12-06 Today, we remember the arrest, trial and crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ. While Christ went willingly to the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind, his arrest came as a result of one of the greatest betrayals in history. One of Jesus' disciples, a member of his inner circle, betrayed him with a kiss. For this action, Judas Iscariot was forever condemned as a traitor. For centuries, that has been the story that we have all known and accepted — until a few...

Welcome to Holy Week, American style. Just as millions of Christians are preparing to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, the media is once again out to debunk historical Christianity. Just last weekend I was in an airport bookstore and saw the new book counter filled with numerous editions of The Da Vinci Code. Then I picked up the New York Times, and there I was greeted with the headline on the front page that read, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal.” You probably have seen the hype, including a one-hour National Geographic TV spectacular: After seventeen hundred years, the...

Suppose I wrote down a story I made up in which George Washington has a series of conversations with some associate and secretly imparts to him a detailed exposition of Marxist political and economic theory. Now, suppose I hide this document and 200 years from now, one of my descendents finds it and turns it over to the National Geographic Society. Would a 23rd-century issue of National Geographic run an article touting "a long-lost document that gives us new insights into the political thought of George Washington and influences upon Karl Marx?"

The Judas Code Father Raymond J. de Souza National Post Monday, April 10, 2006 In the year 4006, an enterprising team from Global Geographic announces that experts in late second-millennium languages and data retrieval have pieced together an authentic copy of the long-rumoured-to-exist Da Vinci Code. Religious experts say that the discovery challenges traditional Christian doctrine, as the widely circulated document shows that early-21st-century Christians believed that Jesus was not divine, had married Mary Magdalene, founded a royal dynasty, etc ... It is believed that early fourth-millennium Vatican officials suppressed the sacred text. That is more or less the...

From Traitor to Hero? Responding to ?The Gospel of Judas? Headlines around the world are announcing the publication of a "long lost" and "suppressed" ancient document, known as The Gospel of Judas. The National Geographic Society announced the publication at a major media event on Thursday, just in time to boost publicity for its Sunday night special on the National Geographic Channel. The announcement led to a frenzy of media coverage, ranging from responsible reports to outrageous sensationalism. According to some commentators, the publication of this new document will force a complete reformulation of Christianity and our understanding of both...

Story is not gospel Toronto Sun Sunday, Aprol 9, 2006 By FR. THOMAS ROSICA This past week, a third-century papyrus manuscript containing the long-lost “Gospel of Judas” was presented to the public in Washington, D.C. amid much media frenzy. This is certainly interesting for those who study Church history and ancient manuscripts. But it changes nothing about how the Catholic faith views the figure of Judas Iscariot. Let’s get the facts straight: This version of a Gnostic “gospel” appeared about 30 years ago on the Egyptian antiquities market. The text had last been heard of in 180 AD, when...

ROME, APRIL 5, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The National Geographic Society has announced its intentions to publish an English translation of an ancient text called "The Gospel of Judas" later this month. The 31-page manuscript, written in Coptic, purportedly surfaced in Geneva in 1983 and has only been translated now. ZENIT asked Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, to comment on the relevance of the discovery. Q: What is the "Gospel of Judas"? Father Williams: Though the manuscript still must be authenticated, it likely represents a fourth- or fifth-century text, and is a...

1. Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both...

The Gospel Of JudasIn a many dark hour I've been thinkin' about this That Jesus Christ Was betrayed by a kiss But I can't think for you You'll have to decide Whether Judas Iscariot Had God on his side.

It seems like every year right before Easter the mainstream media highlights a major "new discovery" which discredits the central Christian beliefs about the betrayal, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. One year it was an ostensible Christian theologian proclaiming "the death of God" In other years it has been academics "proving" that Christ was only a man and/or that the Resurrection never happened. Of course, this is the year of the "gnostic gospels". The best-selling novel, The DaVinci Code, is about to be made into a movie. The novel seeks to make the case that Christ didn’t die on...

Well what do you know. Another pseudogospel, namely the Gospel of Judas, has been dug up from the ancient circular file and is now being flogged by tendentious media hype. Look, I find noncanonical writings interesting. Heck, I own the two volume Old Testament Pseudepigrapha by Dr. James Charlesworth (a prof of mine during my Duke days, by the way) . . . and I’ve actually read some of it! And such writings give interesting insight into the religious isms and spasms of their day. But to flog the Gospel of Judas and such as undermining the validity and historicity...

The Gospel of Judas debuted Thursday in Washington, D.C. What's the Gospel of Judas, you ask? Well, it's not a gospel. And it's not written by Judas. But it's still important, if not the most important nonbiblical text discovered during the last 60 years, as a National Geographic Society executive told The New York Times. The text, a copy of the document written during the second century, reveals some big news. Turns out Judas wasn't the renegade disciple who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide after remorse overwhelmed him. No, this Judas was just doing what Jesus told him to do....

The National Geographic Society released the manuscript of what is called "The Gospel of Judas" yesterday. By National Geographic's own account, a team first assembled by the Maecenas Foundation has been working on the text since 2001. As a result of press releases tied to publication of the text, widespread coverage has repeated the claim that this is an authentic and unique representation of the historical relationship between Jesus and Judas, and that Jesus encouraged Judas to betray him. Despite the careful work by scholars that has gone into a document of obvious interest, I have to express disappointment when...

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...

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...

NEW YORK - An expert on ancient Egyptian texts is predicting that the "Gospel of Judas" — a manuscript from early Christian times that's nearing release amid widespread interest from scholars — will be a dud in terms of learning anything new about Judas. James M. Robinson, America's leading expert on such ancient religious texts from Egypt, predicts in a new book that the text won't offer any insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. His reason: While it's old, it's not old enough. "Does it go back to Judas? No," Robinson told The Associated Press on Thursday. The text,...

JUDAS ISCARIOT, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican scholars. The proposed “rehabilitation” of the man who was paid 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, comes on the ground that he was not deliberately evil, but was just “fulfilling his part in God’s plan”. Christians have traditionally blamed Judas for aiding and abetting the Crucifixion, and his name is synonymous with treachery. According to St Luke, Judas was “possessed by Satan”. Now, a campaign led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the...

The heresy-fighting bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, France, mentioned the Gospel of Judas about 180 AD, linking the writing to a Gnostic sect. Some two centuries later, Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, criticized the Gospel of Judas for treating the betrayer of Jesus as commendable, one who "performed a good work for our salvation." Until recent years, no copy of the text was generally known to exist. It was not among, for instance, the 46 different apocryphal texts of the Nag Hammadi Library discovered 60 years ago this month in Egypt. Other fragmentary texts, such as the Gospel of Mary, were discovered...

2005-03-30 Gospel of Judas back in spotlight after 20 centuries Swiss foundation seeks to shed light on controversial Christian text named after apostle said to have betrayed Jesus. By Patrick Baert - GENEVA -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- About 2,000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among early Christians, a Swiss foundation says it is translating for the first time the controversial text named after the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus Christ. The 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text was uncovered in Egypt during the 1950s or 1960s, but its owners did not fully comprehend its significance until recently, according...

Early frontrunner for the most preposterous political analogy of the year . . . On today's Morning Joe, Tina Brown said Rick Santorum was "like Judas Iscariot." And just what was Santorum's sin that merited comparing him to the man who betrayed Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver? That Santorum, 15 years after the fact, now regrets having supported Arlen Specter when his then-fellow Republican senator from Pennsylvania ran for president. View the video here.