The gospel of Judas
I should have posted up this before but I must admit I was thinking that I didn’t think it would attract much attention. Yesterday though I was siting in my office trying to do some work when my skype program pinged me and it was the co-founder of the podcastnetwork wanting to get me on the show he was recording at that time. Cameron wanted to talk about the gospel of Judas. Unfortunately my skype headset wasn’t working properly
Here is an overview from the New York Times:
“An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of what is known as the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years. The text gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him, scholars reported today. In this version, Jesus asked Judas, as a close friend, to sell him out to the authorities, telling Judas he will “exceed” the other disciples by doing so.”
I caught up with Cameron yesterday and he said he is getting some expert from Macquirie University to join a forthcoming show - sounds like more of an expert than me!
So, if you guys were interviewed regarding the gospel of Judas what would you say?
April 12th, 2006 at 9:10 am
I think the biggest temptation is for Christians to get defensive for correct doctrine once again. While our various stances on minor doctrines continue to waste energies, the big picture remains unaffected. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, he bore our sins, offers a transformed life and has a charter for us to follow his footsteps today in both making him known and serving human need. I don’t see why it has to get anymore entrenched than that.
April 12th, 2006 at 9:19 am
It’s a tough one. How often do you end up hearing Christian commentators being asked about the latest development, and they sound like they just want to kill the party. But at the same time it’s pretty clear that there’s some very dodgy stuff in this “gospel”.
If the main point of excitement about this journal is just that Jesus told Judas to go betray him, then there’s not a huge theological impact - my faith is based around Jesus choosing to die for the sins of the world at any rate, so this is not a big problem.
I don’t know much about the gnostics, other that that Paul was already onto them, so they were obviously pretty out there. I’d throw in a bit of info about them too!
April 12th, 2006 at 9:33 am
This isn’t new and completely contradicts the gospels.
It was around when the canon was established!
April 12th, 2006 at 10:28 am
As a tool for renewing the way you look at your faith, there can never be too many tools for this (a person can be caught in constantly looking at their faith, this doesn’t mean there are too many tools just a poor workman)
As a tool for prooving that the church has got everything wrong, its missing the point.
April 13th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
If anyone has ever read any of the other gnostic gospels they have always been “out there”. The Gospel of Judas is no exception. At the end of the day, faith in Jesus means we are redeemed from our sins and we no longer experience this huge gap with God. It means we are made into new creations and anyone who has become Christian knows how powerful such a declaration and testimony is. Nothing is going to deter us from our beliefs. Well that is how I feel anyhow.
April 14th, 2006 at 1:43 am
The issue of the gospel of Judas is certainly one that the Church can not back away from. The media has made such a big deal concerning this new discovery that the Church has to have a response.
It is evident that the evangelical church will contest the reliability of the Gospel of Judas. The Church and all believers within the church should carefully critic the Gospel of Judas. The discovery of the manuscript should be treated like any of the other books in the Bible. The NT canon was chosen by church leaders based on authority, reliability, accuracy and historical evidence. Before the Gospel of Judas can be either accepted or denied it should be examined and put through the same tests of qualifications. The media has made it seem as though the Gospel of Judas should automatically be considered trustworthy this is however not the case. The twenty seven books of the New Testament were carefully chosen. The New Testament was deemed authoritative because of the writer’s creditability and the fact that when many of these Gospels were written there were still eyewitnesses to the accounts written.
The Gospel of Judas must be compared to the books of the Bible that have proven to be authoritative. A previous bloger stated that they believed that once the Gospel of Judas is critiqued and compared to the Bible it will prove to be un-authoritative. I would concur with this statement based on a brief critique of what is known of the Gospel of Judas. The claim that Jesus asked Judas to betray would seem to contradict the very nature of who Jesus was. If Jesus is the Godman than he can not possibly encourage one to commit a sin this in itself would go against the very nature of who God is. Secondly when one compares what is said about Judas in the Gospel of Judas to what is said in the Gospels in the New Testament there is a contradiction. In the Gospel of Judas Jesus tells Judas that he will be considered great for his action whereas in the Bible Jesus states that Judas will be condemn because of his betrayal of the Christ. There is no way in which to reconcile these two statements. And due to the fact that the Bible has proven to be authoritative and was written so close to the actual events it is safe to assume that the Bible is correct in this matter. That then would leave the Gospel of Judas as inaccurate. This is further supported when one looks at the fact that the Gospel was written well after eye witness would have died. The Gospel of Judas also seems to hold a Gnostic view which at times seems contradictory to many Christian doctrines.
April 18th, 2006 at 12:15 pm
We cannot base something as truth simply because it is old. The reason why the Gnostic Gospels were NOT considered Canon is because they do not coincide with the Hebrew Prophecies concerning Messiah. We must line up all things with Scripture. Since the Gnostic passages DO NOT line up with the Hebrew Scriptures, they are considered false. It was prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures that Judas would, of his own free will, betray the Messiah. Read this link for more details
God bless.