Gospel of Judas

Gospel of Judas
Date	before 180 CE Mentioned by Irenaeus
Attribution	Unknown (Judas?)
Location	El Minya, Egypt near Beni Masar,
Sources	no academic consensus
Manuscripts	Codex Tchacos, references in early Christian writings
Audience	Cainites, a gnostic sect
Theme	Judas

The Gospel of Judas is a document that was in use among the Cainites, an early Christian gnostic sect, which was published in 2006 after being partially reconstructed.

Background

There are roughly 50 works that purport to be "gospels" of the early church, but there exists further information for only 20 of these gospels, four of which are the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Gospel of Judas is one of the 16 other gospels about which some information has historically been preserved in early church writings.

The only known manuscript that included the text of the Gospel recently (as of 2006) surfaced after 1700 years in the desert of Egypt as a leather-bound papyrus manuscript. The papyri on which the Gospel is written are fragmentary with some sections missing, in some cases scattered words, in others many lines. This is most likely due to the wear and tear associated with the elements and the passage of time. According to Rodolphe Kasser, the codex originally contained 62 pages; but when it came to the market in 1999, only 26 pages remained because individual pages had been removed and put up for sale. From time to time, these missing pages appear and are identified.

The Gospel of Judas manuscript was radio-carbon dated to the 3rd or 4th century by Timothy Jull, a carbon-dating expert at the University of Arizona's physics center. However it is believed to be a copy of an older work dating to 130–170 C.E. Much criticism directed against its implications has concentrated on the fact that this is 100–150 years after the biblical date of the death of Jesus. However, the generally accepted dating for the canonical Gospel of John is only a few decades earlier — around 95–110. Similarly, while it is clear that the author of the Gospel of Judas was almost certainly not Judas, the Authorship of the Gospel of John has been questioned by a majority of academics for some time.

The earliest known mention of the Gospel of Judas was by Irenaeus of Lyons writing around 180 C.E.. Although the earliest known manuscript of the Gospel of Judas dates from the 3rd century, the earliest known entire manuscripts of the canonical gospels, (the Codex Sinaiticus), date from the fourth and fifth centuries — the manuscript of the Gospel of Judas predates them.

It was probably written originally in Greek, but the only known manuscript to have survived is written in Coptic.

Content

The content of the Gospel of Judas was referred to by Irenaeus, an early Bishop of Lyons, in Adversus Haereses, written in about 180 C.E., who said that some

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… 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 earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictional history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.(A.H. I.31.1)[1]

This is likely a reference to the Cainites, a sect of gnosticism that especially worshipped Cain as a hero. The Cainites, like a large number of gnostic groups, were semi-maltheists believing that the god of the Old Testament — Yahweh — was evil, and a quite different and much lesser being to the deity that had created the universe, and was responsible for sending Jesus. Such gnostic groups worshipped as heroes all the Biblical figures which had sought to discover knowledge or challenge Yahweh's authority, while demonising those who would have been seen as heroes by more standard interpretations.

Some two centuries after Irenaeus' complaint, Epiphanius of Salamis, bishop of Cyprus, criticized the Gospel of Judas for treating whom he saw as the betrayer of Jesus as commendable, one who "performed a good work for our salvation."

The portion of the manuscript that could be translated by later scholars tells of Judas being the favourite disciple of Jesus, possibly intended to be interpreted as the beloved disciple. Like much gnostic writing, which was written only for those who had attained a certain level of initiation, the Gospel of Judas claimed to be a secret account, specifically the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.

While over the ages many philosophers have contemplated the idea that Judas was required to have carried out his actions, in order for Jesus to have died on the cross, and hence fulfill theological obligations, the position was frequently condemned as heresy, and was not supported by any canonical account. However, the Gospel of Judas not only asserts that the actions of Judas were necessary, but that Judas was acting on the orders of Jesus himself.

The Gospel of Judas states that Jesus told Judas You shall be cursed for generations. It then adds to this conversation that Jesus had told Judas you will come to rule over them, and that You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me. ^[1]

Another part shows Jesus favoring Judas apart from other disciples, saying, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom," and later "Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star."

Rediscovery

Origins

"The Kiss of Judas" is a traditional depiction of Judas by Giotto di Bondone, c. 1306. Fresco in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua.

No trace of the fabled manuscript had been known until a Coptic Gospel of Judas turned up on the antiquities "grey market", first seen under shady circumstances in a hotel room in Geneva in May 1983, when it was found among a mixed group of Greek and Coptic manuscripts offered to Stephen Emmel, a Yale Ph.D. candidate commissioned by Southern Methodist University to inspect the manuscripts. How this Codex Tchacos was found has not been clearly documented. However, it is believed that a now-dead Egyptian antiquities prospector discovered the codex near El Minya, Egypt in the neighborhood of the village Beni Masar, and sold it to a Cairo antiquities dealer known only as "Hannah."

Around 1970, the manuscript and most of the dealer's other artifacts were stolen by a Greek trader named Nikolas Koutoulakis, taken out of Egypt and smuggled into Geneva. Hannah managed to recover the codex by coordinating with antiquity traders in Switzerland. He then showed it to experts who recognized its significance, but it took him two decades to find a buyer who would pay the asking price of $3 million.

Sale and study

Through the decades the manuscript was offered about, very quietly, but no major library felt ready to purchase a manuscript that had such questionable provenance. Eventually the 62-page leatherbound codex was purchased by the Maecenas Foundation in Basel, a private foundation directed by lawyer Mario Jean Roberty. Its previous owners now claimed that it had been uncovered at Muhafazat al Minya in Egypt during the 1950s or 1960s, and that its significance had not been appreciated until recently. It is worth noting that various other sites were mentioned in other negotiations.

The existence of the text was made public by Rudolf Kasser at a conference of Coptic specialists in Paris, July 2004. In a statement issued March 30, 2005, a spokesman for the Maecenas Foundation announced plans for edited translations into English, French and German, once the fragile papyrus has undergone conservation by a team of specialists in Coptic history to be led by a former professor at the University of Geneva, Rudolf Kasser, and that their work would be published in about a year. Roberty, the Foundation's director, announced that carbon dating put the Coptic manuscript in the third or fourth centuries, a century earlier than had originally been thought from analysis of the script. Over the decades, the manuscript had not been meticulously handled: some single pages may be loose on the antiquities market, and the text is now thought to be less than three-quarters complete. "After concluding the research, everything will be returned to Egypt. The work belongs there and they will be conserved in the best way," Roberty has stated ^[2].

Scholarship

Results and reactions

Professor Kasser revealed a few details about the text in 2004, the Dutch paper Parool reported ^[3]. Its language is the same Sahidic dialect of Coptic in which Coptic texts of the Nag Hammadi library are written. The text is probably a translation from Greek. The Codex has three parts: an Epistle to Philip that is ascribed to Peter (a variant is in the Nag Hammadi collection), the Revelation of Jacob (also known from Nag Hammadi), and the Gospel of Judas. Up to a third of the codex is currently illegible.

A scientific paper was to be published in 2005, but was delayed. **Currently, publication is expected for April 2006, accompanied by a television special. Indeed, in some markets, the National Geographic Channel will be airing a special program, entitled The Gospel of Judas on April 9, 2006 at 8 pm EDT.

The completion of the restoration and translation was announced by the National Geographic Society at a news conference in Washington, D.C. on April 6, 2006, and the manuscript itself was unveiled then at the National Geographic Society headquarters.

Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the National Geographic Society, asserted that the codex is considered by scholars and scientists to be the most significant ancient, non-biblical text to be found since the 1940s. However, this announcement was met with some doubts and an overall lukewarm response.

James M. Robinson, one of America's leading experts of such ancient religious texts, predicted that the new book would not offer any insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus because, though the document is old, being from the third century, the text is not old enough. According to Robinson, it was probably based on an earlier document. The extant document was known before its discovery because Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, assailed it in 180 C.E. as heretical. Irenaeus said the writings came from a "Cainite" Gnostic sect that jousted against Christianity as the sect was becoming orthodox. In his criticism, Irenaeus accused the Cainites of lauding the biblical murderer Cain, the Sodomites and Judas, whom they regarded as the keeper of secret mysteries. However, Robinson also suggested that the text would be valuable to scholars concentrating on the second century C.E., but not because it provided a greater understanding of the Bible.

National Geographic responded to Robinson's criticism by saying that "it's ironic" for Robinson to raise such questions since he had "for years, tried unsuccessfully to acquire the codex himself, and is publishing his own book in April [2006], despite having no direct access to the materials."

Robinson describes in The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and His Lost Gospel (2006) ISBN 0061170631, the secretive maneuvers in the United States, Switzerland, Greece and elsewhere over two decades to sell the Judas manuscript, while in a novel by Simon Mawer, The Gospel of Judas (published in 2000 (UK) and 2001 (US)), revolves around the discovery of a Gospel of Judas in a Dead Sea cave and its effect on a scholarly priest.

Footnote

In commenting on the acquisition of the Codex by the Maecenas Foundation, the president of the foundation, Mario Roberty, suggested that it was possible that its copy was not the only one in existence; rather it was the only known copy in existence. Roberty went on to suggest that the Vatican likely had a copy locked away, saying:

“In those days the Church decided for political reasons to include the Gospels of Luke, Matthew and John in the Bible. The other gospels were banned. It is highly logical that the Catholic Church would have kept a copy of the forbidden gospels. Sadly, the Vatican does not want to clarify further. Their policy has been the same for years – ‘No further comment.’”

There is no evidence that the Vatican does, in fact, possess an additional copy and this suggestion may be wishful thinking by Roberty. The Vatican has not provided any comment one way or the other about the existence of additional copies. However, despite the canonization process of Christian texts and the development of early Christian orthodoxy being well documented by early church historians, the Vatican library is notoriously secretive, to the extent even of deliberately not maintaining a catalogue of its own content.

Notes

^ Text might be hidden 'Gospel of Judas', CNN, April 6, 2006
^ The hunt for the Gospel of Judas
^ The Mysteries, The Official Graham Hancock Website

References

Wilford, John Noble & Laurie Goodstein. (April 6, 2006) "'Gospel of Judas' Surfaces After 1,700 Years." New York Times. [2] - accessed April 6, 2006

External links

Download of the Gospel (PDF)
The Lost Gospel - online feature from National Geographic
Early Christian Writings: Gospel of Judas
The Coptic Gospel of Judas (Iscariot): overview, with further links. Also unofficial in-progress translations have surfaced on this site as of April 2005.
Patrick Baert, "Gospel of Judas back in spotlight after 20 centuries"
(Michel van Rijn) "The Hunt for the Gospel of Judas"
Template:De icon FACTS News-Magazine, the earliest story about the manuscript: "Judas, der Held"
Judas stars as 'anti-hero' in gospel - Julia Duin, Washington Times - April 7, 2006
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot? - NPR
The Gospel of Judas- an alternative interpretation from the perspective of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga and Patrizia Norelli-Bachelet's Supramental Cosmology]