The Gospel of Judas

By now you have likely heard some of the hoopla over the “Gospel of Judas,” touted by some as “the lost gospel.” A book was recently published and a national Geographic special aired last night that suggest that the discovery of this document hidden for centuries under the Egyptian sands will revolutionize understandings of Christianity. So… what’s the deal?

It is true that there is a document known as “The Gospel of Judas” was found in the late 1970’s and that has fairly recently been presented to the world. This document was “authenticated” only in the sense that it was dated in antiquity-- at or about the fourth century. That means that it isn’t a recently-forged fraud. But that only means that it is an ancient fraud! This document has nothing to do with the Judas of the New Testament. The “Gospel of Judas” is one of many documents written by Gnostics in an attempt to shore up their heretical claims. In fact, the particular Gnostic group that produced this book was the Cainite Gnostics, called that because of their peculiar habit of rehabilitating disgraced biblical figures such as Cain, the Sodomites, and, yes, Judas Iscariot.

While the discovery of this document will provide resources for understanding second and third century Gnosticism, it certainly provides no threat for the Christian faith. The book was a fraud that was written long after Judas committed suicide. It was written to promote the heresy of Gnosticism that denied the central teachings of the Christian faith—the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. An illustration of that fact can be seen in one excerpt where Jesus tells Judas that he must betray him, “You will exceed all of them for you will have sacrificed the man that clothes me.” Gnostics believed that Christ had “possessed” the body of the man Jesus and that Christ did not die on the cross or raise from the dead. Thus the “Gospel of Judas” is no gospel at all. In fact, it cuts the heart out of the gospel.

I have heard it suggested that the release of the book and television special so near Easter was an attempt to undermine the Christian faith. (Did anyone record the TV show? I missed it because, as my daughters like to point out, we don’t have cable.) I am not much of a conspiracy theorist; I don’t know if the timing was sinister. I tend to think it has more to do with the upcoming release of the movie based on Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code which is all about alternative views of scripture and the church’s cover-up of the truth. It is easy to see Dan Brown's bank account and want in on some of that!

Anyway, don’t fret that you going to have to buy a new Bible that includes the Gospel of Judas. There nothing there that has anything to do with Jesus.