Is 'The Gospel of Judas' Believable?
A commentary by Scott Ashley
Managing editor of The Good News magazine
In
early April, news organizations breathlessly reported the "discovery" of
a new Gospel—"the Gospel of Judas," as it is being
called.
Actually the discovery wasn't new, since the ancient papyrus
codex—a small book written in the ancient Egyptian Coptic language—had
been discovered sometime in the late 20th century and was offered for
sale by an Egyptian antiquities dealer in 1983. What was new was that
it had been translated and was now the subject of a TV program, magazine
cover story and two books by the prestigious National Geographic Society.
Could this actually be a document authored by Judas, the disciple who
infamously betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver as recorded in the
Bible? If not, what exactly is it?
An April 7 USA Today cover article stated, "The Gospel
of Judas takes a whole different vision of the life, death and purpose
of Jesus." And indeed it does. To a regular Bible reader, the text
is so strange as to be virtually incomprehensible. Apart from a few names
familiar to Bible readers, the manuscript is utterly foreign.
That's because "the Gospel of Judas" is one of a
number of gnostic writings discovered in Egypt during the last century.
Gnosticism, which takes its name from gnosis, the Greek word
for "knowledge," was a movement that began in the first century
and flourished for several centuries. This particular document has been
dated to A.D. 220-340, when the Gnostic movement appears to have been
near its peak in Egypt.
Gnosticism emphasized special or secret knowledge (hence the name of
the movement) involving mysticism, cosmology, the angelic realm and the
soul. A basic premise of the "Christian" version of gnosticism
was that Jesus was never a real flesh-and-blood human being like us,
but only appeared to be human.
These strange and anti-biblical beliefs permeate "the Gospel
of Judas." The translation of the document provided by the National
Geographic Society is filled with references to mystical gnostic teachings
on cosmology, imaginary spirit realms, and ranks of angelic creatures
and spirit beings called "aeons."
Since it is the work of a strange sect with no real connection to Jesus
Christ or His disciples, it presents a vastly different view of God and
Jesus Christ. For example, it has Jesus mocking the disciples for praying
to "your god," a being who, in Gnostic theology, was inherently
evil and corresponded to the God of the Old Testament.
It contradicts the record of the authentic Gospels of Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John in many ways. It has the disciples seeing visions and Jesus
interpreting those visions. It states that Jesus often appeared to the
disciples not as Himself, but as a child. It has the disciples getting
furious at Jesus to the point that they "began blaspheming against
him in their hearts."
It also bizarrely has Jesus describing Judas, who in reality was a
thief and betrayer whom Jesus called "the son of perdition" (John
17:12), as the disciple who "will exceed all" the other disciples
by playing a role in the killing of Jesus' physical self so His
supposed inner man could be set free.
Regular readers of the Bible are no doubt familiar with the fact that
the New Testament books constantly quote and refer to the Old Testament,
demonstrating the unity found throughout the Scriptures. It is striking
that this manuscript contains no quotes or accurate references to anything
else found in the Bible, other than the last few sentences briefly describing
Judas betraying Jesus for money.
And, of course, it is difficult to imagine when Judas would have written
his story down or told it to someone else, since Matthew records that
shortly after betraying Jesus, Judas was filled with remorse, returned
the money to the priests and committed suicide by hanging himself (Matthew
27:1-5).
It's not surprising that this document should vary so greatly
from biblical teaching. The bizarre philosophies expressed in it simply
didn't exist when Jesus Christ actually lived. These ideas came
along several decades later and weren't fully developed for another
century or two—which is when this "gospel of Judas" was
written.
The Telegraph (London) summed up this incongruity well in
quoting Aberdeen University New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole, who
said: "It is certainly an ancient text, but not ancient enough
to tell us anything new. It contains themes which are alien to the first-century
world of Jesus and Judas, but which became popular later. An analogy
would be finding a speech said to have been written by Queen Victoria,
in which she talked about her CDs" (April 7).
  This so-called "Gospel of Judas" serves no useful purpose
for Christians other than to show how utterly clouded and confused human
thinking becomes when we reject the truth of God and His Word (compare
Romans 1:20-32). If you would like to learn the real truth of Jesus Christ's
life, and why the biblical Gospels are an accurate historical record,
request our free booklets Jesus Christ: The Real
Story and Is
the Bible True?
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