Posted on 05/04/2006 10:20:30 AM PDT by churchillbuff
the idea of a sacred Judas always seemed rational to me, at least in Christian terms. The New Testament tells us firmly that Jesus went to Jerusalem at Passover to die and to fulfill certain ancient prophecies by doing so. How could any agent of this process, witting or unwitting, be acting other than according to the divine will? ...[snip]
Now we have, recovered from the desert of Egypt, a 26-page "Gospel of Judas," . ...[snip]
The Judas gospel puts legend's most notorious traitor in a new lightas the man who enjoyed his master's most intimate confidence, and who was given the crucial task of helping him shed his fleshly mortality. And you can see why the early Christian fathers were leery of such texts. This book has the same cast but a very arcane interpretation. Right before Passover, as the disciples are praying, Jesus sneers at their innocence. Only Judas has guessed the master arightand has discerned that he comes from the heavenly realm of the god "Barbelo." In the realm of Barbelo, it seems, earthly pains are unknown and the fortunate inhabitants are free from the attentions of the God of the Old Testament. The Judas gospel would make one huge difference if it was accepted. It would dispel the centuries of anti-Semitic paranoia that were among the chief accompaniments of the Easter celebration until approximately 30 years after 1945, when the Vatican finally acquitted the Jews of the charge of Christ-killing. ...[snip]let us all therefore give thanks for our deliverance from religion, and raise high the wafer that summons us to the wonders and bliss of the faraway realm of Barbelo and brings us the joyous and long-awaited news that Judas saves.*
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Brilliant! Let us do evil that good may come of it.
Poor Christopher. He seems like a good guy, but he's just asking to fry.
Another example that Christopher Hitchens seems to hate Christianity and Catholicism. Yet a lot of freepers love him because he's pro-Iraq-invasion. But so is Hillary. Favoring the Iraq invasion dosn't make you a conservative, just as opposing it (as I do) doesn't make you a liberal. Indeed, Hitchens is very liberal. He has said despicable things about Reagan, Mother Teresa and other people I, as a conservative, regard as heroes.
Some people will believe anything.
But I have no interest in his religious views. He's not on the right team.
IOW somwone 1500 years ago came up with a cool forgery which was discredited.
Now National Geographic admits they can prove it is real and admits it is prrooooobably a forgery, so we have useful idiots like this buy the fraud a millenia later.
Stuck on Stupid for certain.
Let's bring back Gnosticism and call it Hitchenism.
Isn't it one of the rules of writing that a person should write on topics that he knows something about?
"Isn't it one of the rules of writing that a person should write on topics that he knows something about?"
Not on Free Republic. [grin]
This is a vile anti-Christian smear. East was an occasion for anti-Semitic paranoia up until 1975? I was well into adulthood by 1975, and never heard of such paranoia. Rather, Easter was a time of joy because of Christ's Resurrection. Hitchens is hateful. Interesting, though, that you - Petronski- smear me as a Nazi-lover, simply because I disagree with Hitchens on the Iraq war. You, with your smear tactics (the NEville photo) are in good company, with this hateful person.
I compare Hitchens to Stalin. Stalin wanted to destroy Hitler. Whatever Stalin's motives for wanting that, the result was an absolute good. In all other respects, Stalin was an evil being.
Hitchens supported the Iraq operation? Great. He's still an evil person in many other respects.
Stck to your last, bud. Have you bothered to read this thing?
This is a vile smear. Easter was an occasion for anti-Semitic paranoia up until 1975? I was well into adulthood by 1975, and never heard of such paranoia. Rather, Easter was and is a time of joy because of Christ's Resurrection. Hitchens is hateful. Interesting, though, that you - Petronski- smear me as a Nazi-lover (that NEvill photo you invariably trot out), simply because I disagree with you and Hitchens on the Iraq war. You, with your smear tactics are in good company with this hateful Hitchens.
If I'm not mistaken Hitchens is an athiest.
Of course, Hitchens IS a Stalinist, so the comparison is all the more apt.
Like Michael Schiavo then? 'Helping' Jesus to die was his task and we should thank Judas? Alrighty.
Hitchens has come unhitched. I guess for the abortion, love the sinner and his sins, euthanasia, culture of death crowd, this is the perfect answer. A 'new' twist on Christianity to fit their ideas, their culture of death lifestyle.
I like Hitchens, but you have a point. Yes, he's a liberal, but I think he tries to think through things and not blindly drink his kool-aid. I respect that. And he's a patriot. He's a good thinker and I can read him even when I disagree because he does think. But he has a hatred which gives him a very blind side--Christianity. So while I may scan what he has to say about it, it's the one area that I don't try to read and consider his thoughts.
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