Posted on 03/15/2015 9:42:26 PM PDT by Steelfish
The 'Gospel of Judas' 4/6/2006
Interview With Father Thomas Williams, Theology Dean
ROME, APRIL 6, 2006 (Zenit) - The National Geographic Society has announced its intentions to publish an English translation of an ancient text called "The Gospel of Judas" later this month.
The 31-page manuscript, written in Coptic, purportedly surfaced in Geneva in 1983 and has only been translated now.
We asked Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, to comment on the relevance of the discovery.
Q: What is the "Gospel of Judas"?
Father Williams: Though the manuscript still must be authenticated, it likely represents a fourth- or fifth-century text, and is a copy of an earlier document produced by a Gnostic sect called the Cainites.
The document paints Judas Iscariot in a positive light, and describes him as obeying a divine ordinance in handing over Jesus to the authorities for the salvation of the world.
It may well be a copy of the "Gospel of Judas" referred to by St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his work "Against the Heresies," written around A.D. 180.
Q: If authentic, what challenge would this document pose to traditional Christian belief? Will it "shake Christianity to its foundations" as some press releases have suggested?
(Excerpt) Read more at catholic.org ...
The Cainites (not to be confused with the Canaanites) refers to a group of people who were the descendants of Cain whom they believe was the product of a sexual relation between Eve and Satan (the forbidden fruit being sex) This is exactly like the serpent seed theology. The major problem with this teaching is that it requires the offspring of Cain to survive the flood.
It’s a heretical text that got suppressed by the early church.
Nobody should be surprised by it, there’s enough extant Gnostic texts as is.
Was Noah not commanded to take “two of all flesh” with him on the Ark? Where else would have come the other races? Either they survived the flood with Noah, or the story is a myth.
On another note, Judas was found hanging with his guts split open. Did he commit suicide, or was he murdered? He did repent by throwing the coins away, did he not? There is so much we do not know for sure and relying on Church doctrine is seldom much of a help. Read all you can by yourself, filter it with logic and prayer. You will get closer to truth without dogma.
It does more than that. It paints the other Apostles as villains, plunderers, and perverts. It not tiled “The Gospel According To Judas” but rather the “Gospel of Judas.” The Catholic Church rejected these kinds of “gospels” like the other gnostic gospel of Thomas when assembling the canonical texts in AD 382.
Two of the flesh of mankind. The offspring of Satan and the fallen angels according to some are the giants that Genesis refers to. After the flood they are never mentioned again and why would God to purge sin from the earth require Noah to take two of Satan’s offspring on the ark?
No; it clearly says there were eight people: Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their three wives.
Peter reaffirms this in his second epistle:
(2 Peter 2:5)
if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
My point is that all those on the ark (if the serpent seed doctrine is true) would have come from the line of Seth, not from Cain.
The offspring of fallen angels, would not be considered to be part of Creation. On the other hand, Negroid, Asian, Caucasian etc were created as a race. I just think that all races of mankind were saved from the flood. As Noah saved the descendants of Adam, he either saved others or others were tasked to save their kind. If you read the Hebrew texts, THE man from whom the Messiah was to come was created on the 8th day.
Chapter 1 Genesis
23 And there was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.
24 And G-d said: ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind’ And it was so.
25 And G-d made the beast of the earth after its kind, and the cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the ground after its kind; and G-d saw that it was good.
26 And G-d said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth’.
27 And G-d created man in His own image, in the image of G-d created He him; male and female created He them.
28 And G-d blessed them; and G-d said unto them: ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth’.
29 And G-d said: ‘Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed—to you it shall be for food;
30 and to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, I have given every green herb for food’ And it was so.
31 And G-d saw every thing that He had made, and, behold, it was very good And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Chapter 2 Genesis
1 And the heaven and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.
2 And on the seventh day G-d finished His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.
3 And G-d blessed the seventh day, and hallowed it; because that in it He rested from all His work which G-d in creating had made.
4 These are the generations of the heaven and of the earth when they were created, in the day that HaShem G-d made earth and heaven.
5 No shrub of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for HaShem G-d had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground;
6 but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 Then HaShem G-d formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8 And HaShem G-d planted a garden eastward, in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
9 And out of the ground made HaShem G-d to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam and Eve created after the 7th day...I assume on the 8th day, whatever constituted a day in time to our Creator. The Bible is a book about a family, and only mentions other tribes, races, families or people as they come into contact with that family. It is a biography of the descendants of THE Adam, Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, Moses, David, Yeshua.
“The major problem with this teaching is that it requires the offspring of Cain to survive the flood.”
I don’t think that is the “major problem”.
No. He hit the ground and his guts came out because his body burst open.
Christmas and Easter are the prime times for our media to put out this nonsense to sow seeds of doubt; look for things like “the real Jesus” (where His mission is totally skewed), Mary Magdalene as a pope, and the meteor destroying Sodom & Gomorrah for the pro-deviant pitch (God didn’t really do it)...
Many people believe this nonsense.
I don’t want to get into an argument. I’m just stating my belief. Judas was selected by Jesus to do “what he had to do” to fulfill prophecy. When the other disciples asked Jesus who would betray Him Jesus left it up to Judas to tell them it was him. “It is he who dips his bread in the water when I dip mine.” All Judas had to do was not dip the bread and we would never have heard the story.
The other point is Judas was the treasurer of the group. He would have been the natural choice for the Priests to go to with the bribe.
I believe I will see Judas in Heaven. First, he followed Jesus’ command. He loved Jesus and Jesus said as much when he said “You betray the son of man with a kiss.” I believe that was Jesus’ way of saying Judas was showing his love for Jesus even though he hated what he had to do.
Jesus Christ said from the cross “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” I believe he was talking about all of them including Judas, the Jewish priests, Pilate, the Centurion and all the Romans.
As for what the other disciples said about Judas, some scholars believe they did not like Judas and were jealous of him so they shamed him in death. It’s interesting that Peter denied Jesus three times just like Jesus told him he would yet the whole Christian world holds him in high esteem. Judas did what he was told and the whole Christian world condemns him.
I believe the Christian preachers have been wrong about Judas for 2000 years. And I believed this as a six year old kid. I never could understand why people hated a man who gave his life and knew he would probably be disgraced for eternity for Jesus simply because Jesus asked him to do it.
Again, just stating my beliefs and don’t want to fight about it.
But wait...all scripture is useful for correction... S/
You are not alone...
God is all knowing. Judas was needed to fulfil destiny. Judas as the sacrifice to achieve this.
I believe and look forward to hearing it all, rit or wrong, when i sneak outside the gates ofnheaven and eaves drop.
Every time there is a new translation of some old gnostic book, the media goes crazy in anticipation that “this will finally end or radically change Christianity.” Instead of some new but credible revelation, it always turns out to be some old gnostic document that the church had already examined many centuries ago and rejected.
Yet the Gospels tell us that Satan entered Judas and he did what he did out of sheer greed for money. The same reason he stole from the Apostles common money bag.
1. Christians: Judas the Apostle betrayed Jesus. He was so sorry that he betrayed Jesus, that he committed suicide by hanging himself.
2. Muslims, crucifixion, Koran: According to the Koran, Jesus was not crucified. It only looked like He was crucified.
3. Muslims belief, explanation: Allah, in his power and majesty, would not allow Prophet Jesus to suffer so much by being crucified.
4. Allah did this: So Allah, using his power and majesty, put someone else on the cross, and Allah made that person look like Jesus in order to fool all those people who were standing near the cross.
5. Muslims belief: Where was Jesus? Jesus was hiding nearby watching his followers near the cross mourn his "Crucifixion". In fact, Muslims believe that Jesus has never died. They believe that Allah took Prophet bodily into heaven later in his life, where Jesus is alive today.
6. Judas replacement: So who replaced Jesus on the cross? Many Muslims believe that it was none other than that great traitor Judas! At one Muslim site I visited, a person said that Judas was aware that Allah had made him look like Jesus, but he never complained because he believed he was following Allah's will.
7. Can you believe it? Unbelievable.
8. Again, Judas can't seem to get any respect from either Christians or Muslims. That is why I sometimes can't help feeling sorry for poor Judas.
"Mary Magdalene as a pope"? That's a new one on me!
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