Dear Manju,
Thanks for your response.
As far as your believe is concern I will not make any comments because that
is the choice each one of us has and should exercise. But Regarding the
National Geography channel programme on "Gospel of Judas". The programme was
made based on the gospel of Judas. But Let me give you the background of
'gospel of Judas'.
1. It was not written by Judas Iscariot, who was one of the disciple of
Jesus, who betrayed Jesus.
2. The original Coptic document has been carbon datedto 280 AD, plus or
minus 60 years. Just wonderring How the man(Judas Iscariot) who handed himself
wrote this book at this time.The Gospel of Judas(Paraphrased) by Bruce Shields
This text claims that in private conversations, Jesus tells Judas he will share
with him alone “the mysteries of the kingdom” knowledge not shared with any of
the other disciples, and asks Judas to hand him over to the authorities so that
his body can be sacrificed. The Coptic text goes on to claim Jesus said to
Judas, “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that
clothes me.”
According to the gospel of Judas, Jesus longed to be set free from this
physical shell, which he considered to be, in good Gnostic fashion, the “prison
of the soul.” Gnostic, or Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which
means ("knowledge"); It is a belief system that flourished in Hellenistic
culture which began in about 323BC.
Gnosticism is a pre-Christian religious tradition defined primarily by the
belief that salvation
can only come through enlightenment or knowledge.
This is the key thinking of 90% of cults. Knowledge will get you to heaven.
Let us condense the discussion into 2 aspects.
1. First we will look at the physical document itself.
2. Then examine its content.
1. First we will look at the physical document itself.
National Geographic, who is currently in control of the document, came out with
the Documentary called “The Gospel of Judas”. They unfortunately did not give
the whole or accurate story about the history behind this document. It is
because the document itself would lose its significance (or value to the world
and National Geographic) as a monumental FIND if its history is that of a
non-Christian origin.
They need this document to be equal to, if not greater than the already
accepted Christian writings of the Holy Bible we have today, otherwise they are
just in possession of another of the many worthless discarded heretical Coptic
Gnostic scripts. Such as other so called great finds that later went into the
circular file cabinet (or trashcan to the layman), like the illustrious gospel
of Mary. This document was found in the 19th Century, and was believed to be
the gospel of Mary Magdalene. Its text told us that it was Mary, who was
especially enlightened with knowledge by Jesus (sound familiar?), and all the
disciples went to her for guidance because the master only shared this
information with her.
Won’t Judas be upset when he find out?
This document also has blatant Gnostic beliefs with Mary as the center
character with the SECRET KNOWLEDGE that Jesus ONLY shared with her. It is
obvious why this document was never included into the Holy Scriptures.
Gnosticism is not Christianity, nor is it Christ centered.
The illusive Gospel of Peter was discovered in 1886. This Gospel was considered
heretical and left out of the Holy Bible for several reasons. Scholars are
nearly unanimous in the belief that Peter himself did not author this work,
despite first person references meant to give that impression.
In 1945 the Nag Hammadi texts were discovered.This library included tantalizing
alternative versions of Jesus’ life and teachings, including the Gospel of
Thomas, Peter, Phillip and the Gospel of Truth. This long hidden trove of
Gnostic writings dramatically increased our contemporary knowledge of these
sects’ ancient Gnostic beliefs. The Nag Hammadi also included a copy of Plato’s
Republic. Obviously this library was left out of the Holy Bible because of its
Gnostic content which was entirely Non-Christian.
In 1945 they discovered the Gospel of Thomas. This Coptic, or Egyptian
Christian, text reflects an emphasis on philosophies, and deemphasizes the
events in Jesus’ life.
The Gospel of the Savior found in 1990AD. This was another Gnostic writing, and
was dismissed because it contradicts Jesus’ work on the cross and salvation
through Christ alone, therefore it contradicted all the other known and
validated works we have in the Holy Bible today.
Gnosticism has been around since before Christianity, and it doesn’t matter
when someone writes a document that contradicts scripture, the point is that it
is a contradiction.
1700 years from now someone may discover a copy of the ‘Da Vinci Code’ someone
threw away after reading, does that make it true? Does simply finding it
validate its content? Just because something is ancient, does not make it fact.
National Geographic has ancient documents about Egyptian gods in their
possession as well, do these gods exist now just because National Geographic
can authenticate their age? No.
The results were all within 300-400 years of each other, which I guess is good
enough for National Geographic. Although the paper was tested for age, the ink
for some reason was not. They tested the chemical makeup of the ink, but not
the age of the ink. The results were the ink was similar to but not a match to
any known ink from that time period.
So, what is the conclusion on the age of the document?
It doesn’t matter how old or new (if it is a counterfeit), the document is
Gnostic in origin and it contradicts the Holy Bible.
2. Let’s Examine its Content.
National Geographic claims that Contextual Evidence proves and authenticates
the age and validity of the document. The only problem with that is, first of
all if I am going to counterfeit a document, of course I am going to mimic the
writing styles and language of that day. Only a fool would do otherwise.
Secondly, the contextual content of the document is Gnostic through and
through, though National Geographic would no dare to label it so.This would
make the document lose its value. The Name “Gospel” of Judas is misleading. It
is unclear by reading the contents of this document how it merits this title.
What does Gospel mean? Mark 1:1(Holy Bible)
“The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” The Gospel is
the good news about Jesus Christ. Neither the literary form, nor the content of
the Gospel of Judas qualifies as “Gospel”. This document does not convey the
Good News about Christ, nor is it truly a Gospel.
The Gospel was neither written by Judas nor does it preserve any authentic
historical information about Judas or his relationship with Jesus. It is the
Gospel of Judas only in the sense that Judas is the main figure featured in
this work. The gospel of Judas may very well be an authentic 3rd century AD
Gnostic gospel. The Gospel of Judas postdates the biblical Gospels by well over
100 years and thus is clearly inferior to them just in the terms of historical
reliability alone.
This was already recognized by Church fathers such as Irenaeus, who in his work
against heresies denounced Gnosticism as heretical and refuted it in the
strongest terms.
We can conclude therefore, that the Gospel of Judas is not truly a Gospel; it
does not go back to the “historical Judas” and does not preserve reliable
tradition about Jesus or the betrayer, and while probably authentic in age, it
contributes to a better understanding of Gnosticism but not the biblical gospel
or the true meaning of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
This Coptic Gnostic script will eventually fade away into obscurity just as the
Gospel of Mary did, just as he Gospel of Thomas did, just as the Gospel of
Truth did, just as the Gospel of Peter & Philip, and the Library of Nag Hammadi.
I hope this will give you the aspects of gospel of Judas background.
Dai Remmei
