Coming Soon: The Gospel According to Judas (Sort of)

An article in The Christian Century (via Tertullian.org) reports that publication of a “Gospel of Judas” is at hand. It will appear in April, showcased by a blaze of publicity from the National Geographic Society, which is financing a television special and three books about the discovery.

As I’ve noted before, this addition to the stock of New Testament pseudepigraphia is, outside of a narrow circle of specialists, an event noteworthy mostly for its curiosity value. The Coptic manuscript, dated to the 4th or 5th Century, may translate the “Gospel of Judas” that was lambasted by St. Irenaeus (fl. c. 180) in his Refutation of All Heresies and known to other Church Fathers. On the other hand, it could be a different work entirely, to which no ancient reference survives.

The National Geographic Society has sworn those involved in the project to secrecy, but the article assembles a few scraps about what “Judas” has to say:

Hardly anything is known about the document’s contents “other than a few personages” it names, said [Prof. James] Robinson [general editor of the English edition of the gnostic “Nag Hammadi Library”], identifying them as the mythological figure Allogenes (literally, “the stranger” [better, “the foreigner”]) known from some Nag Hammadi texts, and Satan, Jesus and Judas.

Another scholar, Charles Hedrick, who recently retired from Missouri State University, saw photographs of six damaged pages from the gospel in 2001. . . .

Hedrick said the last six pages of the Judas document describe a heavenly scene in which Allogenes is being tested and tried by Satan, followed by an earthly scene in which Jesus is being watched closely by scribes. At one point Judas is told, “Although you are evil at this place, you are a disciple of Jesus.” The last line of the text says, according to Hedrick: “And he [Judas] took money and delivered him [Jesus] over.”

So, Hedrick said, “it appears that Judas is working at the behest of God when he betrays Jesus as part of the divine plan.” When translations of the Gospel of Judas are released with accompanying analyses, Hedrick expects that “there will be a lot of sensationalism, but it will dribble out, leaving only the scholars interested.”

In an era that doesn’t instantly and unanimously dismiss The Da Vinci Code as raving lunacy, I suppose that plenty of New Agers will thrill to the revelations of Allogenes. The idea that Judas was doing God’s work is strangely attractive to spiritually muddled people. It was a major theme of the popular though deplorable rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Our Lord anticipated that some men would think that way. “The Son of Man is going to His fate, as the Scriptures say He will, but alas for the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!” [Matthew 26:24] Judas willed betrayal freely. That good came of his evil demonstrates that the Providence of God can, as Paul Claudel said, write straight with crooked lines, not that evil is merely a variant form of good.

Update (4/8/06): Now that the text of the new “gospel” has been made public, it appears that Professor Hedrick’s recollections conflated the “Gospel of Judas” with a separate document (not yet published) in the same codex, in which “Allogenes”, who is also known from the Nag Hammadi manuscripts, appears. You can find my first thoughts on the “Judas” document here.

Comments

[Robert Landbeck]

Like the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi discoveries, this latest 'gospel' increases the amount of new scriptural material only available this century making the concept of 'canonical scriptures' and the traditions built upon them even less convincing. What would 'Christianity' look like if all these resources were available from the beginning? Check this link: www.energon.uklinux.net

[Inquisitor]

It is truly sad what is happening. The article, and general information about the Judas Gospel has not been around for long and already, as predicted, fancy and elaborate answers are being developed by Christian apologetics. However, it is my firm conviction, that as with so many other material not considered "suitable" for Christian readers, this new development will not cause major havoc amongst christians. As in the past, the far greater majority of the readers will rely on the opinions and advice of their respective church leaders, and will never really understand the history and the true facts. This has been the manner in which religion in it's many diverse forms has propagated itself throughout it's own sordid history, and I am confident that it will do the same with this development.

[steve]

Well put.
"...an era that doesn’t instantly and unanimously dismiss The Da Vinci Code as raving lunacy..."
We'll weather this stupidity without complete derision for the self deceived because we hope that there will some who love truth enough to try thinking first.
Every time I hear about this stuff I just get more tired.