The "Gospel" of Judas: Reflections & Thoughts

The "Gospel" of Judas: Reflections and Thoughts

Christians throughout the world celebrated the bodily resurrection of Jesus the Nazarene yesterday (April 8). I have decided as a follow up there could be no better way to highlight the "Easter" message than by contrasting it with Gnosticism that has perpetually plagued the Church. What follows is part of a larger presentation that I did on May 13, 2006 on The "Gospel" of Judas at Southside Church of Christ for area ministers and other interested parties. There is a great gulf between historic Christianity and Gnosticism. I will follow this blog up with at least one more and possibly more depending on the interest. It should be known that I am not a disinterested person here--I have little sympathy (actually none) for Gnostic theology.

The New York Times headlines of April 6, 2006 read “Gospel of Judas’ Surfaces After 1,700 Years.” The Times article claims this is the “most significant ancient, none biblical text to be found in the past 60 years.” Perhaps even more amazing than the Dead Sea Scrolls. The document is declared to be “authentic.” Elaine Pagels is quoted as saying “these discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion, and demonstrating how diverse - and fascinating - the early Christian movement really was.” The Times further claims this find has “shaken up Biblical scholarship.”

Codex Tchacos

According to Rudolphe Kasser, the document’s editor, Codex Tchacos was discovered accidentally around 1978 in upper Egypt about sixty miles north of Al Minya. The document went through an amazing odyssey between then and its coming into the hands of the Maecenas Foundation in 2001.

From a historical standpoint and from a cultural standpoint the discovery of Codex Tchacos is wonderful and amazing. Anytime a piece of the human story is recovered we learn more about ourselves. It is a priceless treasure. However, it is not a treasure in the sense that it is going to revolutionize our understanding of ancient history, Christian or otherwise. Indeed it does not even revolutionize our understanding of Gnosticism. There is actually nothing in the Gospel of Judas that we did not already know about the basic contours of Gnostic thought.

Codex Tchacos is actually an ancient anthology of sorts. The Codex has 66 folios (ancient pages) with four different works bound together by old tax receipts. Those works are:

1) The Letter of Peter to Philip. This document was previously known from the Nag Hammadi
find.

2) A document being called “James” that closely parallels another previously known document
from Nag Hammadi.

3) The Gospel of Judas covers folios 33-58 of the codex and was previously unknown except through Irenaeus and Pseudo-Tertullian.

4) The last document is badly damaged is being called The Book of Allogenes, which seems to be unknown as well.

The other three documents have not been translated into English yet. The National Geographic Society was however in a hurry to get Judas out by Easter {of 2006}

Codex Tchacos as a manuscript dates to around A.D. 300 though the works within it are earlier than that.

The Gospel of Judas

The "Gospel" opens with these words, "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover."

Theology and Judas

(Contrary to some popular opinions Theology really does matter . . .)

Many Christians confess the Nicene Creed each Sunday. In a day when there were no pocket Bibles or NT’s the Apostle’s Creed and the Nicene Creed were important summaries of what Christians believe. The Nicene creed opens

We believe in one God, the Father, the almighty
maker of heaven and earth,
of all things visible and invisible.

Immediately this creed has makes some radical claims. There is only one God. He is the Father of Jesus Christ. He is the Creator of all things seen and unseen. There is a reason why the early Christians felt the necessity of including this confession in the creed . . . because Gnosticism denies this basic point. That is they deny that "God" is the creator of this world nor is he the Father of Jesus Christ. These two themes are intimately connected btw.

The affirmation of Nicea stands is radical contrast to the Gospel of Judas. Bart Erhman, hardly a conservative scholar, writes “At the outset of the gospel {of Judas} it is clear that the God of Jesus is not the creator god of the Jews” (The Gospel of Judas, p. 104).

In fact the disciples are in “pious observance” of the Passover and are praying to God. In the Gospel of Judas Jesus mocks the disciples . . . which of course offends the them.

“Why are you laughing at our prayer of thanksgiving? We have done what is right?”

“I am not laughing at you. You are not doing this because of your own will but because it is through this that YOUR god will be praised . . .” (GofJ 34).

The Jesus of the Gospel of Judas continues:

“Your god who is within you . . . have provoked you to anger within your souls. Let anyone of you who is strong enough among human beings bring out the perfect human and stand before my face . . .” (35).

The disciples fail to have the strength except for Judas. Judas confesses that Jesus is from the realm of Barbelo and Jesus takes him aside to instruct him privately. In this private discussion Jesus offers a very complex mythology of the origin of the world.

"Judas said to him, 'I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you."

Because Judas exhibits superior insight, the "Gospel," says "Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him, 'Step away from the others and I will tell you the mysteries of the kingdom."

The disciples had confessed that Jesus was “the son of our God.” But as it turns out in the Gospel of Judas this is not the case. Jesus wants nothing to do with their god, much less be his son.

Their god is the rebel Waldabaoth or the fool Saklas. It is these two gods that are primarily responsible for the desecration of the pristine cosmos--that is one without flesh and materiality. Rather the real world is one of pure spirit.

Jesus comes to reveal a super secret god (though the Gospel of Judas suggests that the term “god” may not be appropriate for him). He is so transcendent that he has nothing whatsoever to do with this planet, or the universe in any fashion. He does not reach into this world to deliver humanity. The cross of Jesus is simply a means for him to shed the material body and free his pure spirit. However there are on this planet those, like Judas, that have a spark of divinity (gnosis) that lets them know the secret truth. That truth is: The God of the Jews is not the real God. That we are not meant, and never were meant, to live on this planet or have materiality. We were never intended to be here in the first place this place is a cosmic accident and evil itself. It is the work of the foolish and evil god of the Jews. That true knowledge is understanding these mysteries and such knowledge is the path to enlightened salvation , i.e. a return to the realm of Barbelo ... the realm of pure spirit.

Thus even Jesus who is encased in flesh needs ultimate liberation from the body. “For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” Thus Judas plays the part of betrayer but only in order to save, that is deliver, Jesus from his fleshy body so he can return to Barbelo, free from materiality.

“Their high priests murmured because he had gone into the guest room for his prayer. But some scribes were there watching carefully in order to arrest him during the prayer, for they were afraid of the people, since he was regarded by all as a prophet.

“They approached Judas and said to him, ‘What are you doing here? You are Jesus’ disciple.”

Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money and handed him over to them.”

Evaluation

Ben Witherington III writes this about the Gospel of Judas:

“I was on the phone yesterday with my close friend Dr. A.J. Levine who teaches at Vanderbilt Div. School. She was called in late in the game to give a bit more balance to the group of scholars unveiling the Gospel of Judas. I asked her point blank: " Well A.J. is this document of any importance at all in helping us understand the historical Jesus or the historical Judas and their relationship?" She said unequivocally--- "none whatsoever". In other words, we need to all have our baloney detection meters set to 'heightened alert' as we watch the special on the Gospel of Judas tonight. While this document will tell us more about the split off movement called Gnosticism, and so is of considerable interest as we learn more about church history in the period from the late 2nd century through the fourth century, it tells us nothing about the origins of Christianity or the beginnings of the Jesus movement.” (Blog, April 9, 2006)

More to Come,
Bobby Valentine