The National Geographic Society on Thursday released the first modern translation of the ancient “Gospel of Judas,” which depicts the most reviled villain in Christian history as a devoted follower who was simply doing Jesus’ bidding when he betrayed him.
He asks Judas to help him return to the kingdom, but to do so, Judas must help him abandon his mortal flesh: “You will sacrifice the man that clothes me,” Jesus tells Judas, and acknowledges that Judas “will be cursed by the other generations.”
What I find interesting is this part:
No mention is made of the Crucifixion or Resurrection.
It was written within 100 years or so of Jesus’ death. Don’t you think that part of the story would have been well known by then?!
Wasn’t this a plot point in “The Last Temptation of Christ”?
the most reviled villain in Christian historyfor what its worth, I think most Christians do little to villify Judas and instead see that he played a part that would have been played by someone else were he not to betray Jesus. Jesus had to die to accomplish his mission. No Christian really thinks that history would be better off if Judas hadn’t betrayed Jesus.
The Gospel of Judas is part of a Gnostic tradition of Christianity which the mainline church wiped out long ago. While there were many variants of this tradition (as there were many different types of Christianity at the time), in heneral gnostics believed in a dualist god, split between the evil demiurge (that Old Testament God that tends to lose his temper and blow up people for no good reason) and a free spirit who came to show people the power god-like powers they can achieve.this is represented by the derpent in the Garden of Eden. Yes, he did make Adam and Eve ddefy God, but only to give them knowedge that God feared them to have for he might lose control, and a jealous God he is!
Jesus was another form of the snake, and not the son of God per se, but an ascended master who came to show people what lies beyond the flesh if you achieve “gnosis.” It involves many eastern beliefs including reincarnation and so on. At such time as you ascended you can do miracles yourself, an ability that the demiurge has tried to deny you.
So for them the ressurrection was allegorical, whereas the Trinitarists took it as solid fact.
Fascinating stuff.
Where would Christianity be today without Judas? If Judas hadn’t betrayed Jesus, no one would remember Jesus today. Judas made Christianity possible. Cut the guy a break.
The gospels and other New Testament writings were all written within 60-100ish years of Jesus’ death and there are plenty of references to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. C’mon, you can do better than that.
Joseph Campbell prooves right again when he said that too much is made of the suffering of Christ. The crucifiction, from the mythological point of view is something that had to happen in order for us to be redeemed. Looks like Judas was only doing his job.
“Where would Christianity be today without Judas?”
I always wanted to do a Sci-Fi movie where some radical Christian nimrods would go back in time to “save” Jesus from the Crucifixion. They’d take him forward to our time only to discover that Christianity never existed.
Also, once they got him back there’d be a series of scenes where Jesus would try to end his life while the nimrods would keep trying to rescue him. Kind of a black comedy, so to speak.
In the end one of the nimrods would finally realize his mistake and turn Jesus over to the authorities were he’d be killed. The very end of the movie would be a scene a couple hundred years in future where the nimrods would be seen as apostles of Christianity while the one who saw the light would be reviled as a traitor.
It’d obviously be quite easy to make numerous sequels.
SN – there was a short sci-fi story published in the 50’s where two scientists where on trial for destroying the prototype of a billion dollar time travel machine – it turned out that they had to as one of the cleaners of the facility had taken an automatic weapon and decided to go to Golgotha to save Jesus…
An interesting read.
Does this “book of Judas” mention the fact that Judas hung himself before the Resurrection took place?
Dvorak, you are on a roll! How many posts in the past couple days in regards to Christianity, Creationism, and Intellectual Design? You should change the name of your blog.
Funny how you don’t rant about this crap on TWIT……mmmmm…..
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>> Wasnât this a plot point in âThe Last Temptation of Christâ?
I thought it was “Jesus Christ Superstar.” (The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical)
“Dvorak, you are on a roll!”
There are several guest editors working on this site with a lot of discretion. John is far from an atheist. Considering he is god incarnate, I think it’d be impossible for him not to believe in himself.
It seems to be a misnomer to call it the “Gospel of Judas.” Whereas it’s generally taken for granted that the New Testament’s four gospels were written by their namesakes, this is more like “The Gospel ABOUT Judas.”
Seems kinda sneaky to equate this as some kind of first person accountingâI wonder at which point prior to his suicide he wrote this? (Sarcastic rhetorical question.)
SN re #7, the only problem with your movie idea is that once the nims stopped Jesus from dying, the future would change and they wouldn’t have had the knowledge or reason to go back in time in the first place, so the future of Jesus and Christianity would unfold unaltered.
“that once the nims stopped Jesus from dying, the future would change and they wouldnât have had the knowledge or reason to go back in time in the first place”
Gee, you haven’t watched much sci-fi have you?! đ
When the nimrods altered the future, they were safely in the past. Thus the alteration of their timeline never affected them.
The Final Words: “Eli, Eli, lamma sabaqtani ?” make no sense
any longer as He actually commited suicide with Judas his
willing accomplice and therefore they both committed a mortal sin. “Father, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? ” is a lament
of a soul in distress. Obviously the logic of the episode is non
existent.
Judas is the best beer ever! If only I could find in the States.
SN in regards to that 50’s novel you mentioned in your comment, what would that story be? does sound like an interesting read.
Look like they were spinning thing even then.
#10: Fact? According to the bble there was two different fates for Judas. One he hung himself (Gospel of Matthew), and in Acts of Apostles it says he bought a field (to farm, I guess, or maybe becuase he knew what was coming and did not want to make a mess) with the money he got for turning Jesus in, then proceeded to blow up, spilling guts everywhere.
Just goes to show you, sequels always have to up the odds.
Also, guys, there is a cool funny book by Gore Vidal called Live from Golgotha in which a TV network uses a time machine to go back and broadcast the crucifixtion! Christ is no all they expected: he’s a little on the fat side.
This *gospel* was written around 160 or 180 a.d., but the copy they found was a copy from 300 a.d.
It’s kind of interesting. They also found the *gospels* of Mary Magdalen and several others from immediatly after Jesus’s death. But the church suppressed all but the four we have today. Kind of like early editing. It’s been know for centuries that other gospels were written, but rejected around 150 a.d. or so, and the church actively stamped out all mention of them.
I always thought Judas got a bum rap. But this puts Jesus’s powers of prophacy into doubt, since he set himself up.
Exactly – seeing as Judas died well b/f 100 years after Jesus – as in, before his crucifixion …
Hey John ! Thats a bottle of Belgian beer on that post . Good to see you have good taste ( ps : we also have DUVEL : Devil beer VERBODEN VRUCHT : forbinnen fruit beer ) Want me to send ya a crate ?
Joe – that was me, not SN.
It was a short story in an old collection I had. I think it was a Robert Sheckly Omnibus, but that doesn’t mean it was by him. I remember it had a wierd “icecream sundae monster” on the cover (basically a sundae with a big freaky eye in the place of one of the dolops…
One of the interesting points about it was that it was written like a court transcript of the trail afterwards… đ
Itâs been know for centuries that other gospels were written, but rejected around 150 a.d. or so…
I ran across these in a bookstore, a few years ago, published as “Banned books of the Bible” [or some such dramatic title].
The book contained chapters/books that the church did not consider to be “canonical”, i.e.
Council of Trent: http://www.wayoflife.org/fbns/trent.htm
The Council of Trent was a Catholic council held from 1545-1563 in an attempt to destroy the progress of the Protestant Reformation. This council denied every Reformation doctrine, including Scripture alone and grace alone. Trent hurled 125 anathemas (eternal damnation) against Bible-believing Christians.
FOURTH SESSION: DECREE CONCERNING THE CANONICAL SCRIPTURES: “If anyone does not accept as sacred and canonical the aforesaid books in their entirety and with all their parts [the 66 books of the Bible plus 12 apocryphal books, being two of Paralipomenon, two of Esdras, Tobias, Judith, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, Sophonias, two of Macabees], as they have been accustomed to be read in the Catholic Church and as they are contained in the old Latin Vulgate Edition, and knowingly and deliberately rejects the aforesaid traditions, LET HIM BE ANATHEMA.”
A nitpick re: SN’s title using “… discovered…”
As the article states: “The National Geographic Society on Thursday released the first modern translation of the ancient âGospel of Judas…â
On our website, we deal with this subject of Judas. We have two articles concerning him, according to the bible.
NG is promoting this “Gospel of Judas” as an “alternative view” but one cannot base something as truth simply because it is old. The reason why the Gnostic Gospels were NOT considered Canon is because they do not coincide with the Hebrew Prophecies concerning Messiah. We must line up all things with Scripture. Since the Gnostic passages DO NOT line up with the Hebrew Scriptures, they are considered false. It was prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures that Judas would, of his own free will, betray the Messiah. Our article on this subject is found here:
Gospel of Judas Not Truth