The Gospel of Judas

It is Secret Bible Week on the National Geographic channel and the recent conspiracy theory put forth in Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code has led to a wave of curiosity and interest in all things Biblical.

Some of you, like me, may have caught the screening of The Lost Gospel of Judas on National Geographic. Those who did not would probably have read about it in the papers. There's a media hype over it now and if you don't know about it, I suggest you get informed.

Here's a link to the National Geographic's site if you're interested.

And here's another link to an article debunking it, written by Gary Young from the Church of Christ in Melbourne, Australia.

However, if you are too lazy to go straight to the sources, do read on for an extremely brief summary of what is going on.

What is the Gospel of Judas?
Recently, an old manuscript was found, put together and translated into English.

On translation, the manuscript claimed to be the gospel according to Judas. The opening text reads "The secret account of the revelation Jesus spoke ... to Judas Iscariot".

In this gospel, Judas is supposed to be the favourite apostle (not Peter). Jesus apparently instructed Judas to betray Him in order for the crucifixion to be carried out. Judas is described as someone to whom Jesus revealed information not told to the other apostles - secret information. Basically, the whole gospel is trying to say that Judas was not the bad guy, just misunderstood.

Is the Gospel of Judas Authentic?
According to Gary Young, who has a Ph.D. in Roman History and is the foremost archaeology expert among the Churches of Christ, the gospel of Judas is not part of the original gospel. He gives three reasons for this.

1. The terms used in the Gospel of Judas are commonly-seen in Gnostic literature, suggesting that the Gospel of Judas is also a piece of Gnostic literature.
The Gnostics are a sect that believes there is secret knowledge not revealed in the Bible (the tern Gnostic comes from the Greek gnosis meaning knowledge). Gnostic texts were all written around the second century A.D. and therefore they are not reliable sources for information regarding first century Christianity.

2. There is no evidence that the Gospel of Judas was in existence before 130 A.D.
The manuscript found (the official word for the thing they found is codex) is dated between 220 and 340 A.D. The earliest reference to this work is found in a 180 A.D. writing by a Christian scholar named Irenaeus. All the gospels in the Biblical canon are cited and attested to in first century Christian writings, proving their early existence. The Gospel of Judas is not and thus was probably written long after. The Gospel of Judas was never widely accepted in the Christian churches and there is no reason why it should be now.

3. The Gospel of Judas is written in third person
All our four gospels are written as any person would write a story. Luke does not say "and Luke said" in his gospel, Mark doesn't do it either. But the Gospel of Judas refers to Judas in the third person with phrases like "Judas answered them as they wished". Obviously then, the gospel was not written by Judas but by someone else. Whom? We do not know. So how can we know if the person who wrote this was not just inventing it?

So now you know. I hope my version of events has made things clearer for you. Again, if you are interested, read the source texts of my summary in the links above. Comments appreciated.