Note: this topic was posted 04/24/2006. Thanks NYer.
Posted on 04/24/2006 1:25:05 PM PDT by NYer
Washington DC, Apr. 24, 2006 (CNA) - Questions have arisen about the group of scholars who collaborated with National Geographic in its recent T.V. special about the “discovery” and contents of the alleged Gospel of Judas, which attempts to portray Jesus’ betrayer in a positive light.
Elaine Pagels is a feminist who has written several books against the Catholic Church, such as “The Origin of Satan,” written with the initial help of her colleagues at the Hebrew University of Tel Aviv. With the assistance of the openly pro-abortion MacArthur Foundation, she researched and wrote “Adam, Eve and the Serpent,” in which she accused Christianity of offering a distorted image of women.
Pagels admits she was raised an atheist and that her father taught her that religion was “a children’s fantasy.” Her opinion, which was posted on the National Geographic website, is that texts like the Gospel of Judas are “changing the way in which we understand the beginnings of Christianity.” According to Pagels, the story of the betrayal of Judas gave birth to an anti-Semitic sentiment among Christians.
Pagels support for the exhibit “Art, Religion and Resistance,” which featured Andres Serrano’s blasphemous “Piss Christ,” is well known. In an interview, she defended Serrano in the wake of a scandal in the U.S. Senate over the use of public funds for art exhibits, saying, “Any person who studies what I study is doing that (same kind of work) also.” “Serrano comes from a devout Catholic family,” she claimed.
Christians as anti-Semites
Another of the scholars sought out by National Geographic was Amy Jill Levine, a member of pro-abortion feminist groups as well as the Anti-Defamation League. She believes Christians have been generally anti-Semitic since the time of Jesus, as evidenced in a talk she gave entitled, “Christians say the craziest things (about Jews).”
She participated in an analysis of Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ”—before the movie was actually filmed—in which she claimed the movie was anti-Semitic. Levine, who calls herself a “Jewish feminist Yankee,” said at that time that “Hollywood can easily change the truth,” in reference to Gibson’s film.
Levine claimed that those who composed and copied the Gospel of Judas “challenged the traditional characterization of Judas as a villain, espoused a stricter sexual ethic than the canonical gospels, and offered an alternative theology to both the proto-Orthodox church and the Synagogue.
Judas, the closest friend of Jesus
Another expert for the project was Bart Ehrman, head of the Religious Studies Department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In works such as “Does Historical Evidence for the Resurrection Exist?” and “Lost Christianities,” which present information from the Gnostic sects of the first centuries, Ehrman casts doubt on the very existence of Jesus.
He has also written “Truths and Myths of the Da Vinci Code” in which he attributes some truthfulness to the Dan Brown novel. He exempts Jews from guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus and blames the Romans alone because he says Jesus represented a threat for the empire.
Ehrman told National Geographic that the text portrays Judas as “not the evil, corrupt, devil-inspired follower of Jesus who betrayed his master; he is instead Jesus' closest intimate and friend, the one who understood Jesus better than anyone else, who turned Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus wanted him to do so.”
Marvin Meyer is another scholar who collaborated with National Geographic. Several of his works, including “The Gnostic Discoveries”, “The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus”, “The Unknown Sayings of Jesus”, “The Gospels of Mary and Secret Gospels: Essays on Thomas” and “The Secret Gospel of Mark”, were used by Dan Brown as an influence for “The Da Vinci Code”.
Meyer is Griset Professor of Biblical and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California, and director of the Chapman University Albert Schweitzer Institute.
Stephen Emmel, another expert, contradicted himself regarding the age of the Gospel of Judas during a National Geographic press conference. Initially he said the text dated to 400 A.D., but later he said it was written in 300 A.D. The program however, claims the text was penned in 200 A.D.
Emmel is a professor of Coptology at the Institute of Egyptology and Coptology at the University of Münster in Germany. “We can all be grateful to the National Geographic Society for its effort to rescue this unique artifact for the good of science and for posterity," he said.
Craig Evans and Francois Gaudard are two other experts who collaborated with National Geographic. Evans, who has taught a various universities, denies that Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist, does not believe in the resurrection of Jesus or in his miracles and has written several works on the Gnostic sects in which he refers to the supposed anti-Semitism of Christians.
Gaudard, an Egyptologist and research associate at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, told National Geographic, “This text not only seriously challenges one of the most firmly rooted beliefs in Christian tradition, but also reduces one of the favorite themes of anti-Semitism to nothing."
Ignore these dishonest films, and keep your faith strong in the Lord.
The problem is less with practicing christians than with those who have strayed. The DaVinci Code is a magnet, regardless of its status as a novel, to draw the weakened away from our Lord. How interesting that as we approach its film release, National Geographic should compound the 'dilemna' with the Gospel of Judas or that the media should give press to a scientist's suggestion that our Lord walked on water, using a 'rare' ice formation on the Sea of Gallilee. These notions are all laughable to the believer, but raise doubts for the borderline christian.
It's a war. We live in evil times. Why doesn't NG put together a documentary on the origins of the Qu'uran? We all know the answer to that question.
No! Who is the other one?
It is not a danger to solid Catholics. Actually parts of it are so blatant in its Christian hate, that even Christian haters may wonder why it is so jagged. The documentary even asks if Judas should be made into a saint.
You're right. But the majority of lapsed catholics or fallen away christians will use this documentary to justify their behavior. That was my original point. The DaVinci Code should prove to be far worse.
Over the past several months, the media have focused their laser beams on stories such as these and they seem to be emerging faster than anyone can counteract them.
It is hardly ad hominem to put out that they belong to the same theological party.
You got that one in the ten ring... Pagels is a fraud, a New Age cover-up artist for the neo-pagans...
Her whole book, The Origin of Satan, can be shown false by just one thing - - the etymology of the word “Satan” itself, which is a Hebrew word...
It is not so much hatred for the Christians (and they do hate Christians), but it is their seething hatred for the Judaic roots of Christendom. They really hate Genesis and Mosaic Law in particular, the Christians are just a proxy for that hatred. Their Jewish enablers are traitors (left wing Jews) who worship the Golden Calf (sort of like those enablers the Maccabees slaughtered along with the pagan Greek occupiers in 164 BC).
Both the Christian Scriptures and the Jewish Scriptures were all written by Jews...
Yahweh and Yeshua are Zionists without exception or compromise... the Bible says so... (Jesus drives a Hummer with a Star of David on the doors.) Shalom.
They as persons [or their "party"] do not even exist for the purposes of the argument about "gospel of Judas" text and its interpretation and correlation to other texts. Their opinions on that text are to be judged on the merits [or lack thereof] - the merits of the opinions, not of their authors.
Thanks for the info.
"You're right. But the majority of lapsed catholics or fallen away christians will use this documentary to justify their behavior. That was my original point. The DaVinci Code should prove to be far worse.
Over the past several months, the media have focused their laser beams on stories such as these and they seem to be emerging faster than anyone can counteract them."
Many people have been influenced by the Da Vinci Code and other such propaganda. It is very evil stuff.
After the Exile, these daily prayer services continued. In the 5th century B.C.E., the Men of the Great Assembly composed a basic prayer, covering just about everything you could want to pray about. This is the Shemoneh Esrei, which means "18" and refers to the 18 blessings originally contained within the prayer. It is also referred to as the Amidah (standing, because we stand while we recite it), or Tefilah (prayer, as in The Prayer, because it is the essence of all Jewish prayer). This prayer is the cornerstone of every Jewish service.Shalom.The blessings of the Shemoneh Esrei can be broken down into 3 groups: three blessings praising G-d, thirteen making requests (forgiveness, redemption, health, prosperity, rain in its season, ingathering of exiles, etc.), and three expressing gratitude and taking leave. But wait! That's 19! And didn't I just say that this prayer is called 18
One of the thirteen requests (the one against heretics) was added around the 2nd century C.E., in response to the growing threat of heresy (primarily Christianity), but at that time, the prayer was already commonly known as the Shemoneh Esrei, and the name stuck, even though there were now 19 blessings.
To use a Hebrew word - Amen!
Shalom.
The National Geographic practices what I would call Gilbert Grosvenor Episcopalianism. They are skeptics, i.e., Pharisees.
But what kind of "faith"
did such people have if films
or books could shake it?
"But what kind of "faith"
did such people have if films
or books could shake it?"
You're missing the point.
They have been showing this over and over again. They want to be sure that every man woman and child sees this.
Well, then, help me out.
If a person's faith is false,
built on lies, unreal,
then why is something
"evil" if it exposes
the faith's shallowness?
You're absolutely right. I stand corrected.
IMHO few scholars, for or against traditional interpretation of the NT, find the Gospel of Judas all that revolutionary.
That's true - the most important question is whether the source text dates from the 2nd century, or whether this 4th century document was a relatively recent composition at the time the text we have is copied.
The one interesting aspect to that is that the text is full of bitter and angry asides describing the orthodox Christians of the time and their institutions - if the source text of the document is as old as Irenaeus suggests, then this Gospel of Judas unintentionally provides insight into the Church of its today.
Also, by directly contradicting the canonical Gospels in a very calculated manner it demonstrates that it is certainly older than the canonicals and that the canonicals were very dear to the Church of the time.
An early dating for the source text would tend to reinforce the orthodox account of the Scriptures.
Note: this topic was posted 04/24/2006. Thanks NYer.
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