Posted on 12/07/2007 1:13:57 PM PST by blam
Gospel Truth
By APRIL D. DECONICK
Published: December 1, 2007
Houston
AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.
It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.
Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. For example, in one instance the National Geographic transcription refers to Judas as a “daimon,” which the society’s experts have translated as “spirit.” Actually, the universally accepted word for “spirit” is “pneuma ” — in Gnostic literature “daimon” is always taken to mean “demon.”
Likewise, Judas is not set apart “for” the holy generation, as the National Geographic translation says, he is separated “from” it. He does not receive the mysteries of the kingdom because “it is possible for him to go there.” He receives them because Jesus tells him that he can’t go there, and Jesus doesn’t want Judas to betray him out of ignorance. Jesus wants him informed, so that the demonic Judas can suffer all that he deserves.
Perhaps the most egregious mistake I found was a single alteration made to the original Coptic. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas’s ascent to the holy generation would be cursed.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
GGG Ping.
The so-called gospel flagrantly contradicts the rest of NT scripture. It’s a fake no matter how it’s translated.
Delusions of grandeur to the max!
I wonder if Pseudo-Dionysus is behind this silly story too. He sure fooled a lot of gullible people over the centuries.
As she says, it’s still a Gnostic gospel, written with the intention of attacking and undermining Christianity.
That’s why these false gospels are so appealing. National Geographic is not immune to the anti-Christian currents of our time.
It’s reported by the BY Slimes so it has to be true(sarc on).
Makes me think of Dan Rather.
Did the NIE include a review of the Gospels too?
The Gnostics WERE Christians. They just were not Pauline Christians.
Were the Arians Christians? Were the Cathras Christians?
If it’s not in that Black Book, it’s not true.
But if so, why would anyone take it seriously? Might as well trust the story of George Washington cutting down the cherry tree rather then documents from the actual time of George Washington.
A sizable portion of the NT was written to contradict incipient gnostic “Christianity”. Gnostic "Christianity" may have been done in Jesus name, but it was not his gospel.
How is it handled when Judas hangs himself and his insides pop out and that’s according to the Bible?
I guess delusional people think that if you rewrite history it can change reality. It can’t.
It is a well known Gnostic fraud. The value of the text, is that we now have a copy, to go along with early church fathers writings that exposed it as a fraud.
The basic positions of the Gnostics could be summed up by three basic points:
1) The biblical God, or Jahweh, who created the world was an evil demon. The real God is inaccessible.
2) Gnostic means secret knowledge. You have insiders who know what is going on, and the rest of the peons are expected to serve and worship them.
3) Matter is evil, spirit is good. (Which is why the creation of the world was evil.)
Sorry, but I don’t think that’s Christian, in any meaningful sense of the word.
If you look into the Arians and Cathars you find some considerable problems, too, from a Protestant as well as a Catholic perspective.
Are Unitarians Christian? No, not in any meaningful sense. Are Muslims Christian? They think that Jesus was a prophet, but they certainly are not Christians.
No. They were not.
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