The Gospel of Judas
I’ve been receiving quite
a lot of questions about the recently published manuscript of The Gospel of Judas. With all the media attention,
I’m sure most of you either have heard or have read at least something about
the discovery, and I thought it might be worth while to offer my comments here
online, rather than by responding to emails or by chasing too many rabbits in
the religion classes (which I admit, I am prone to do).
For starters, let me say
that The Gospel of Judas will be a work discussed almost exclusively in
academic circles once the media buzz fizzles out. The
gospel, in other words, has no significant bearing on traditional
Christian belief about Jesus, Judas, or the story of the Passion. What it does offer are some interesting
implications for our understanding of church history, specifically issues
relating to the development of the New Testament and what has been called Gnosticism.[1]
What does the gospel actually say?
In regards to the content of the gospel, it contains a series of supposed conversations between Jesus and his twelve disciples at the time of the final Passover meal – or Eucharist. Conversation turns particularly to Judas, and through motifs of secrecy and divinely revealed mysteries, Jesus discloses to Judas his role as imminent betrayer. Jesus assures Judas that although future generations will consider him cursed, he nonetheless will receive future glory for his actions rather than eternal damnation because his role is a necessary and mysterious part of God’s plan for redemption.
If you’re interested, let
me encourage you to look at the gospel text for yourself (if you haven’t
already). As the media has mentioned,
you can read it in an English translation on the National Geographic Society
website (you will need to download it as a PDF file: select “Entire English Text
[PDF]” located at the bottom left of the page): http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/document.html
It is a short text, and
although a bit challenging to understand, it only will take you about ten
minutes to read.
What kind of text am I reading?
With respect to the
nature of the text, and as you will see on the National Geographic website, it
is a third to fourth century manuscript, and a copy of a text originally
written in the Greek language. As I’ve discussed
with students in the Bible and Western Culture classes, a manuscript refers
simply to a document written or copied by hand (as opposed to post-Renaissance
printed documents using movable type).
The text, furthermore, is a translation of an original copy into a
language known as Coptic -- a late form of the Egyptian language which used the
Greek alphabet for most of its script.[2] Furthermore, it is written on a popular
ancient type of writing material, called papyrus,[3]
a material manufactured only in ancient
How does all of this
relate to the New Testament?
If you read the work, I
think you’ll be able to see just how different this gospel is from the four in
the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). Take just a moment to skim through the New
Testament gospels and get a sense of how each tells the story of what Jesus did
and what he said – look at the narrative style each employs. You can access the gospels here:
I suggest typing in
Matthew 1 in the Bible Gateway search box, and then selecting the forward arrow
located at the top of the passage to continue skimming through chapter 2, and
so on. To go on to Mark, Luke, and John,
simply follow the same procedures respecting each gospel.
Finally, take a look at
the versions of the Eucharist and Judas’ betrayal of Jesus in each of the four
gospels. You can read them rather
quickly at the above website. Here are the
references you’ll need to type in the search box:
Matthew 26-27:6
Mark 14:1-51
Luke 22
John 18
What did you notice about
the nature of the various gospels -- that is, the way Matthew, Mark, Luke, and
John read as narrative in comparison to The Gospel of Judas? Also, how many stories and sayings of Jesus
are recorded in the four New Testament versions as compared to The Gospel of
Judas?
What you probably noticed
is that The Gospel of Judas differs substantially from those of the New
Testament. It contains only a series of
conversations between Jesus and his disciples, particularly Judas. Moreover, it reads with more difficulty and
contains a lot of seemingly mysterious and deeply philosophical jargon, such as
repeated references to secret mysteries, revelations, dream interpretations,
aeons, humans and angelic beings, luminaries, and mysterious realms, etc.
At the risk of
oversimplification, I think it’s not too difficult for you to imagine how an
early church bishop such as Irenaeus noticed these differences just as you have
(Irenaeus was the one who originally made reference to this gospel, among many
similar ones, in about 180 C. E.).[5] Furthermore, he and other later church
fathers recognized its other apparent features: the deeply philosophical and
secretive jargon. These ideas stem from
a type of spirituality they were familiar with called Gnosticism, an
influential type of spirituality that promoted very different ideas about
Jesus, the nature of God and humanity, among other theological and broader
philosophical thought. Irenaeus and
others in the church saw these ideas as stemming from questionable and
unreliable sources, as the writings were not only in stark contrast to the four
gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (and the traditions current in the
churches founded by the original apostles), and because they claimed to come
from “secret” traditions – as you’ve noticed from the very opening comments of The
Gospel of Judas. One might compare
this struggle between the early church fathers and the ideas promoted in such
Gnostic gospels to the teachings of Freemasonry, as it claims to have secret
spiritual traditions. Freemasonry,
though it has many adherents who consider themselves Christians, contrasts with
Christian doctrine as found in the orthodox churches of Roman Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.
The discovery of the
manuscript of The Gospel of Judas is very significant indeed, just as the media has pointed out. It is significant, first and foremost, simply
because it is an ancient manuscript, and any discovery such as this gives us a
look into the ancient world of which so little evidence survives, particularly
literary evidence. Secondly, it is a text
that is explicitly named by a late second century bishop (Irenaeus) when
writing about heresies and gospel texts he thought should be excluded from
Christian attention in the churches (and apparently he was one of many who felt
this way, as the text was eventually excluded, among other similar works, from
what became the New Testament). It
represents a work, in other words, that was lost to the church for centuries
but is found, and this in its own right is incredible. Based on the content of the manuscript, the
work also reveals from the outset that it is the product of a particular
religious philosophy, Gnosticism, that was influential among some early
Christians – and this is valuable. The
Gospel of Judas in sum, then, gives us further insight into the reasoning behind the early
church’s decision to exclude it from its list of sacred books, as well as a
fresh look into the nature of the unorthodox philosophy behind it. In my opinion, this is all The Gospel of
Judas provides, despite the hype in the media suggesting that it offers an
important alternative to the traditional gospel accounts of Judas and his role
in the betrayal of Jesus.
©Stuart D. Chepey for the Parish Episcopal School
[1] My discussion relies on a number of resources, most significantly that provided by the National Geographic Society: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/document.html; A few other helpful sources are listed in the following footnotes.
[3]
See the following
[4]
The Oxyrynchus Online project (
[5] You can read his comments here in the compilation created by Glenn Davis: http://www.ntcanon.org/Irenaeus.shtml