Posted on 04/06/2006 7:11:35 PM PDT by freedom44
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Judas Iscariot, vilified as Christ's betrayer, acted at Jesus' request in turning him over to the authorities who crucified him, according to a 1,700-year-old copy of the "Gospel of Judas" unveiled on Thursday.
In an alternative view to traditional Christian teaching, the Judas gospel shows the reviled disciple as the only one in Jesus' inner circle who understood his desire to shed his earthly body.
"He's the good guy in this portrayal," said Bart Ehrman, a religion professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "He's the only apostle who understands Jesus."
The Judas gospel's introduction says it is "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot." Later, it quotes Jesus as saying to Judas, "You will exceed all of them (the other disciples) for you will sacrifice the man who clothes me."
"The idea in this gospel is that Jesus, like all of us, is a trapped spirit, who is trapped in a material body," Ehrman said. "And salvation comes when we escape the materiality of our existence, and Judas is the one who makes it possible for him to escape by allowing for his body to be killed."
Rev. Donald Senior, president of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, said the document revealed the diversity and vitality in early Christianity.
"The question becomes ... does this tradition, this alternative story, if you like, in the gospel of Judas have a claim that in some sense is equal to the rival claim of the gospel tradition?" Senior said.
It is not known who wrote the Judas gospel. The copy unveiled on Thursday is of a document mentioned critically in the year 180 in a treatise called "Against Heresies," written by Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon in what was then Roman Gaul. It spoke out against those whose views about Jesus differed from those of the mainstream Christian Church.
In the Bible's New Testament, Judas is portrayed as the quintessential traitor, accepting 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus by identifying him to Roman soldiers. The biblical Gospel of St. Matthew says Judas quickly regretted his treachery, returned the silver and hanged himself.
The New Testament contains four Gospels -- of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- but many more so-called apocryphal gospels were written in the first centuries after Christ's death, attributed to such disciples as Thomas and Philip and to his female follower Mary Magdalene.
HIDDEN IN EGYPTIAN DESERT
Ehrman, Senior and other experts on Christianity spoke at a briefing at the National Geographic Society, which unveiled a translation of the Judas gospel and which helped authenticate, preserve and translate the document.
The leather-bound copy of the gospel was written in Coptic script on both sides of 13 sheets of papyrus, and spent most of the past 1,700 years hidden in a cavern in the Egyptian desert, said Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society.
This document was probably copied from the original Greek manuscript around the year 300, Garcia said. Discovered in the 1970s near Minya, Egypt, the volume -- including the gospel and other documents -- was sold to an Egyptian antiquities dealer in 1978.
The dealer offered it for sale without success, and eventually locked it in a bank safe deposit box in Hicksville, New York, for 16 years, which hastened its decay. In images displayed at the briefing, the papyrus looked like brown, dry autumn leaves.
Garcia said it had crumbled into more than 1,000 pieces.
In 2001, the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Switzerland began an effort to transcribe and translate the volume from the Coptic. In the next years, scientific tests -- including radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging -- showed the document was copied down around 300.
The Judas gospel is being published in book form by National Geographic and pages from the papyrus manuscript will be on display at the society's museum in Washington starting on Friday. The manuscript will ultimately be housed at the Coptic Museum in Cairo.
i doubt that NG will ever come up with a show about the prophet mohhamed's neighbor dissing him
But I am unsure whether that description of God would be in contradiction to accepted gospels. In any event, the church interpreted it's meaning as saying that anywhere one sought Christ, one could find him. Doesn't the bible say something along the line of Christ being present anytime people gather in His name? I do not know of anything written which states one must have priests or the Mother Mary as our intercessor. According to Christ, you shall only come to the Father thru him, however, according to the Church, you can only come to the Father thru the Church.
Then you might want to make sure, rather than going off on weird tangents and conspiracy theories.
In any case, the true Gospels, not to mention the whole rest of the Bible, reveal a transcendent, personal God, who became incarnate in time.
That is, of course, a contradiction of any form of pantheism.
As for the rest, it has been the subject of numerous threads on this forum. Suffice it to say that Christ founded the Church as a visible institution. He didn't do so for no reason.
however, according to the Church, you can only come to the Father thru the Church.
I'm not sure which Church you think teaches that. It's certainly not the Catholic Church; nor any of the Orthodox Churches. The others, I'll let defend themselves.
And that's pretty much all I have to say about that.
I'm not sure which Church you think teaches that. It's certainly not the Catholic Church; nor any of the Orthodox Churches.
So you are telling me that the Catholic Church does not teach it's members that they must have the Church, and all of it's rituals etc, in order to go to Heaven? Since when? Just about every organized religion I ever heard of tells it's followers precisely that. "We are right, thus everyone else is wrong, and gonna burn".
'The Truth' - from the people who brought you the Dark Ages, the Flat Earth, the Childrens Crusade, and the Inquisitions.
Bump for later.
The quote comes from Matt. 16:17.
In this we are in complete agreement. However, you will notice that I refer to the Church with a capital C, and do so when I am referring to the organizational governing body that became Church of Rome (and Greek Orthodox?). The "theological elites and hierarchy" for lack of a better description coming to mind.
Thanks! Which Bible version?
By the 4th Century there were dozens of little "alternative" (and fake) "gospels" which presented no gospel (good news) at all. At this time Christianity was making impact on the Roman Empire so everyone was jumping on the band-wagon. Such different gospels (such as Jesus PLUS Judish practice was required in the new faith) were even initiated in New Testament times...and a number of the letters in the bible are targeted at battling such distortions.
This is a yawner--timed by National Geographic to correspond with the release of the (stupid and actually history-less)DaVinci Code movie.
It is the same in most versions. He was probably using the King James.
Which version were you using? Thanks again.
I use the new King James.
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Matt 16:17
"Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven."
Judas Iscariot, vilified as Christ's betrayer, acted at Jesus' request in turning him over to the authorities who crucified him, according to a 1,700-year-old copy of the "Gospel of Judas".
This is dynamite stuff. It makes the Da Vinci Code look like child's play. Why was this suppressed all these years? Who profited?
A movie needs to be made of this . . then let the people decide.
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