"It's the most important ancient manuscript discovery of the past 50 years!" That's one scholar's assessment of the newly recovered early Christian gospel in which Judas Iscariot is not the villain, but the hero. Indeed, in this gospel Judas is the most loyal and learned of all Jesus's disciples!
The news about the "Gospel of Judas" broke into the headlines of the secular press some three weeks ago, just as we Christians were preparing to observe Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, with their solemn scriptural accounts of "Judas, the traitor." And the controversy launched by this alternative portrait—of "Judas, the faithful"—has created quite a stir and, therefore, quite "a teachable moment," a moment when people have an aroused interest in early Christian history and a greater openness to learning about it.
So here's my contribution to this teachable moment!
The manuscript that scholars have recently pieced together and published—with photographs and an English translation—is a leather-bound book with 62 papyrus pages. It's datable to around the year 300 A.D. When this book, or codex, first resurfaced, in the 1970's, it was relatively intact, for it had been lying buried in the hot, dry sands of Egypt, which are quite conducive to preserving such materials. But, because this great treasure was badly mishandled by a whole series of greedy antiquities dealers, it has subsequently disintegrated into nearly 1,000 fragments. So scholars have had their work cut out for them as they've tried to restore and reconstruct its contents.
But it's now known that this codex contains four writings, the most fascinating of which is the one we're focused on today, a translation into Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language, of an earlier Greek work entitled "The Gospel of Judas," a work whose opening line is: "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover." (The other three texts found in this codex are: The First Apocalypse of James; the Letter of Peter to Philip, and the Book of Allogenes [the Stranger].)
That an ancient gospel of this name, originating in Greek, actually existed already in the second century has long been known because of references to it in the writings of some of its ancient detractors. (cf. Irenaeus, Against Heresies, I.31.1, ca. 180 A.D.) But its actual content—its actual text—had been lost to human sight for over 1,600 years.
Now, what do we already know about the disciple named Judas Iscariot?
Well, according to the four gospels found in the New Testament—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the ones we call the canonical gospels because they're "in the canon," in the Bible—this man Judas is one of the twelve apostles chosen by Jesus to serve as leaders among his followers. Otherwise, we learn nothing at all about Judas until we find him among the disciples who accompany Jesus to Jerusalem for a final Passover celebration. In that context, the Gospel of John speaks of him as the disciple who keeps the group's common purse, and regularly steals from it! (12:4-6). Then, too, all four of these gospels tell us, that by the time the twelve apostles gather with Jesus in the upper room to celebrate with him his last meal on earth, Judas has become a betrayer. He has reached an agreement with the chief priests to "finger" Jesus, that is, to lead the authorities by night to the quiet garden where, under the cover of darkness, they will be able to find and arrest Jesus without upsetting the crowds who by day encircle him.
As for the conclusion to Judas's story, the Gospel of Matthew tells us (27:3-5) that after betraying Jesus he feels remorse. So he flings down the thirty pieces of silver the priests had given him, and he goes out and hangs himself. So, in today's First Lesson, also from Matthew, when, after Easter, the now gloriously risen Jesus appears to his apostles on that mountaintop in Galilee, Judas is already dead and no longer to be found among them. And whereas during Jesus's ministry, he had addressed the Twelve, the risen Jesus now addresses only the Eleven, (28:16), the missing twelfth being, of course, Judas.
A quite different account of the conclusion to Judas's story is found in today's Second Lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, a book written by the same person who penned the Gospel of Luke. First of all, in the account in Acts, Judas shows no remorse for having betrayed Jesus. And far from returning the priests' money and refusing all benefit from it, he uses "the reward of his wickedness" to buy for himself a nice farm (1:18). But then quite suddenly an act of divine retribution overtakes Judas, a payback for his act of perfidy. For as Judas is walking across his field, he stumbles, falls, ruptures his abdomen, and suffers an agonized death, as his bowels and blood spill out onto the ground. And now that this twelfth apostle is no longer alive, he must be replaced. So Peter proposes a plan for how to designate a new twelfth, and the man Matthias is chosen to replace the missing Judas.
Thus, Judas Iscariot is portrayed in the four gospels and Acts as a villain. In every listing of the twelve original apostles, he's named last, and his name is accompanied there by some such identification as: the one "who betrayed [Jesus]" (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; John does not list the Twelve, but cf. 6:70-71, 12:4); or, the one "who became a traitor" (Luke 6:16). Yet, intriguingly, none of these four gospels or Acts tells us anything else about the life of this man. And none of them ever really suggests the motive that lies behind Judas's infamous act. Perhaps that's because the tradition really hadn't conveyed to them all that much about him, so thoroughly had the memory of any other deeds of his been consigned to oblivion.
Well, that's what's told about Judas in the four canonical gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, all of which date to the first century A.D. But the now recovered Coptic Gospel of Judas, a translation of an earlier Greek work dating, please note, to the second century—this gospel has quite a different take on things.
Oh, in this gospel Judas still turns Jesus over to the authorities, and he still receives some money for doing that. But here's the shocking claim advanced in this book: Judas turns Jesus over to the authorities only because Jesus has explicitly asked him to do so.
Now to understand what underlies this claim, we must come to terms with the strange worldview that characterizes this gospel's presentation of who Jesus really was. So bear with me as I now enter into some deep theological waters!
In our New Testament gospels, Jesus and the Christ are one and the same. The man Jesus is the Christ of God, the Messiah of God. And when Jesus dies on the cross, it is the Christ who dies.
But the early Christian who wrote the Gospel of Judas believed in a radical dichotomy between flesh and spirit, between body and spirit. So in this gospel, Jesus and the Christ are not one and the same. The Christ is pure spirit, whereas Jesus is unclean flesh. The Christ-spirit is simply using the man Jesus as a vehicle that's convenient for becoming visible, convenient for communicating truths about the God who is pure spirit to those very few persons capable of understanding such mystical truths. Indeed, even among the twelve apostles, it is Judas alone who is wise enough to be able to perceive the truth that when the man Jesus dies, the immortal Christ-spirit will not die, but will be freed from its entrapment in flesh to return to the heavenly realm of pure spirit.
So, according to this gospel, because the period of the Christ-spirit's teaching has now been completed and fulfilled, Judas is asked by his teacher and Lord to sacrifice the flesh of the man Jesus in order to free the Christ-spirit from its imprisonment in that flesh. Yes, Judas is told by his teacher and Lord, (quote) "... you will exceed all [the other apostles]. For you will sacrifice the man who clothes me" (end quote)—that is, you will sacrifice the Jesus-man who encloses the real me, the Christ-spirit within.
Judas is the hero of this gospel because Judas alone has the wisdom to understand that there's this radical dichotomy between flesh and spirit, the wisdom to understand that the Jesus-man needs to be killed in order to free the Christ-spirit. And Judas alone has the courage to act on this conviction by doing the right thing, by turning the Jesus-man over to the authorities to be crucified.
Now, the general worldview that's found here in the Gospel of Judas is known to us as well from many other Christian writings of the second century, including another famous gospel that's not canonical, that's not included in the New Testament—the Gospel of Thomas. And I find reading these two gospels an absolutely fascinating intellectual exercise. For they open such a clear window onto the diversity of thought that existed in second-century Christianity.
But here's the truth of the matter for me. Every time I read Thomas, and now Judas, with their strange worldview, I give thanks to God that they were not included in our New Testament. I give thanks to God that they are curious relics from our Christian past rather than formative influences on our Christian present. And let me tell you exactly why.
First, in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the body and spirit of Jesus are seen as being integral to each other, whereas in the Gospel of Judas body and spirit are thought to be in conflict with each other. And I rejoice that it's the teaching of the four canonical gospels, and not that of Judas, that is affirmed by Christian churches.
Second, the four canonical gospels understand that the wisdom of Jesus is meant to be shared with all of humankind, as today's First Lesson clearly tells us. But Judas claims that the teachings of Jesus are meant to be shared with only the most intelligent among us. And I rejoice that it's the understanding of the canonical gospels, and not that of Judas, that stands at the heart of Christian mission and purpose.
Third, the canonical gospels proclaim that the God who created this physical world of ours is the very same God who is made known to us in Christ, whereas Judas proclaims that the god (written with a lower-case "g")—the god who created this physical world of ours is wholly different from and totally inferior to the God who is made known by the Christ-spirit. And I rejoice that it's the proclamation of the canonical gospels, and not that of Judas, that stands at the heart of mainstream Christianity's teaching about the goodness of the physical universe.
Fourth, in the canonical gospels Jesus is shown enjoying parties and making merry with other folk in all good humor, whereas in Judas, Jesus is shown laughing at people, out of disdain for their ignorant worship of that lesser god who created this sorry old world of flesh and blood. Do I rejoice in the canonical gospels' image of Jesus's laughter as opposed to Judas's image of it? You bet I do!
So, to conclude, am I glad that the Gospel of Judas has been recovered and for the most part restored and reconstructed? Yes I am, for it offers us even greater insight first into the diverse understandings of Jesus that existed among Christians in the second century and then into a number of the perversions of Christianity that exist still today. It's a gospel that I find both fascinating and stimulating—intellectually!
But is the Gospel of Judas going to enrich my faith? Well, yes, actually—but in a totally perverse kind of way. For you see, whenever I'm confronted by the flesh-hating worldview that's presented in this gospel, I come to value all the more the images of Jesus that are found in the four canonical gospels—good old Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I come to value all the more these images of Jesus that have served as the mainstays of Christian faith for the past seventeen centuries.
And finally, is the Gospel of Judas going to teach me anything new about the historical Jesus or about the historical Judas? Well, I think not, for I believe that this gospel is simply an all-too-human attempt to take advantage of the mystery surrounding the life of Judas to create a fictionalized figure who can somehow serve to advance the gospel's strange and really quite unacceptable worldview—namely, that the man Jesus and the Christ-spirit were not one and the same.
So let's all read the Gospel of Judas, but believe in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Let us pray:
O God, show us amidst all the diversity of Christian thought throughout the centuries the truths about Jesus that you would have us know. Amen.