http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/gospel_of_judas/
Just do a search for Gospel of Judas in the news. You will find every major news source touting that “Judas didn’t betray Jesus, he was obedient”
People, alas, do not understand how the Bible works. The documents of the Bible are verified to be the inspired Word of God, to the best of our understanding. There are quite a number of books that were written near the same period that are nothing but fiction – there is a whole book about the youth of Christ. It is well written and interesting, but it is fiction.
Did you know that people have been writing fiction since before Jesus was born?
Apparently these ignorant scholars don’t either. And the reporters are even worse. Big headlines that are going to ruin the faith of thousands who lack the resources to investigate it properly.
The dead sea scrolls are not a part of the Bible. They are not God’s word. They are interesting peieces of historical literature, but not much else.
The “Gospel” of Judas was unlikely to have been written by Judas, and in the first few paragraphs it is obvious that these are not the words of our Saviour, nor the words of our beloved misfit disciples. Jesus did not speak of Eons, nor of any chosen people. This single piece of questionable literature runc contrary to everything in the Bible – old and new testament. It doesn’t fit.
It is unfortunate that the early Church was to block-headed about heresy (they were VERY much like the pharisees Jesus condemned.) They did not feel it needed any explanation – it was contrary and thus to be destroyed.
Now our news media makes it sound like it was rejected as legitemate for only these reasons. What fools.
Most likely the gospel of judas was written by Apopheses (hebrew for Joe Bloe) (just kidding, I don’t know hebrew), who happened to know Judas and was sympathetic to his plight. It could have been anything. The point is, there is no – negative even – evidence that this document was written by Judas at all. And even if it was, why do we assume it is truthful just because it is old?
The cannonical documents are assumed to be truthful because we believe they are God-breathed words. No book – regardless how good it sounds – can be taken as truth, or have any weight upon our faith if it was not directly inspired by God (or some analysis thereof) – meaning interpretation and clarification – not new information.
The “Gospel of Judas” is a lie, a work of fiction that will teach you about writers of the day, but nothing about Jesus of Nazareth. Wait for the real analysis by people who know what they are talking about. It won’t be on the front page of any newspaper I can assure you, but it will be reassuring.
A quote from that page later on – by some Theology professor in the netherlands:
“It was known from ancient times that there had to be a Gospel of Judas. Irenaeus of Lyons spoke about it in his Adversus haereses (Against Heresies) in around 180 A.D., but his real source is Justin Martyr, and that takes us to around 140 A.D. I would guess that the Gospel of Judas would have to be dated at about 120 A.D.” The original, at least. The papyri that appeared in the hands of shady dealers at the end of the last century (see photo) were probably a copy from the end of the fourth century. What is spectacular for science is that the Gospel of Judas has at last been found, or at least a part of it. Van Oort does not rule out that it involves the missing codex from the Nag Hammadi codices. What he does rule out is that Judas himself wrote it. “There is no reason whatsoever to assume that he did this. Nothing points to that.”
The Gospel of Judas is a codex from the Gnostics, a movement that was denounced by the Church in the early days. “They set themselves against the established order, and thus also against the Creator. That’s why Judas was their hero.”
In other words, it is known that it was written by a religious sect well after the life of Christ. They exalted Judas, and wrote works to praise him.
News media, go to hell. Oh wait, I didn’t need to say that, you would have anyway 😛 How about you happily go to hell and stop trying to take everybody else with you.
Goodnight.
-Jason