Crucifixion demonstrates What dies is only the mortal body, not the living spir

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Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity

Customer Reviews

 

The Spiritual Reviewer Rates this book 8.2 April 2, 2007

By The Spiritual Reviewer (Center Harbor, NH United States)

 

SUMMARY

This book presents us with a content analysis and the actual

translated text of the Gospel of Judas, which was accidentally

discovered by peasants in a burial cave in the 1970's in Middle Egypt

near al Minya. The archaeological find was finally made public by the

National Geographic Society in April 2006. Award-winning authors,

Pagels and King, who study, translate and specialize in early

Christian writings, estimate that the Gospel " was written sometime

around 150 C.E., about a century after Judas would have lived, it is

impossible that he wrote it; the real author remains anonymous. "

 

In addition to its outside-the-box spiritual teaching, this Gospel is

valued because it clearly shows that the early Christian movement was

not characterized by the unified, simplistic and fixed message that

we hear today. Rather, it's yet another piece of evidence that

demonstrates there were many different and controversial messages,

each competing for a position of supremacy, each claiming to be the

divine truth, each messenger asserting to be the most special and

favored one. While many people are comforted by the idea that the 12

apostles worked together and that they unanimously embraced and

delivered the same doctrines, this homogenized and white-washed

picture is a distortion of the historical facts, rivalries and power

struggles that are now being revealed.

 

MESSAGE OF LOVE: Score 10

If God is Love and only Love, He cannot be violence. The Gospel of

Judas renounces violence, sacrifice, martyrdom and even the

cannibalistic practice of symbolically eating the body and blood of

Christ as God's Will. This is in direct contrast to one of the

central messages of Christianity, where sacrifice and suffering is

used as a bargaining tool with God: " With the suffering of just one

hour, you can purchase for yourself eternal life! "

 

The central idea is that " those who imagine human sacrifice pleases

God have no understanding of the Father... " And even more, " By

teaching that Jesus died in agony for the sins of the world and

encouraging his followers to die as he did, certain leaders send them

on a path toward destruction - while encouraging them with the false

promise that they will be resurrected from death to eternal life in

the flesh. " The Gospel of Judas teaches that at the moment of death

the human body dies and there is no resurrection of the flesh.

Eternal life has to do with understanding our spiritual, non-physical

connection to God. Judas says that the crucifixion of Jesus

demonstrates that the death of the body is not an end of our " real "

life. " What dies is only the mortal body, not the living spirit. "

 

INSPIRATION: Score 10

Inspiration from this work does not come in the conventional manner,

as an emotional surge. Rather, it comes as a subtle opportunity to

forgive Judas and to release him from the judgments we hold against

him (and thus, against ourselves)

 

The reader is invited to perceive Judas Iscariot in a new, uplifting

and more loving way. Instead of meeting him as the predictable and

villainous betrayer, we are re-introduced to him as the only one who

really understands and gets the message that Jesus was trying to

deliver: that suffering is not necessary; that suffering has no

value; that suffering can be transcended. Judas is characterized as

the only disciple who is ready and able to hear the mysteries of the

kingdom: " ...that there is another glorious divine realm above the

material world, and an immortal holy race exists above the perishable

human race. "

 

PRACTICALITY OR RELEVANCE: Score 10

Anything that forces us to open the mind and look more closely at

fundamental religious beliefs to see if they still make sense is

highly relevant. This is because our beliefs guide our actions and

our actions determine our life experience. The authors tell us that

over the past 40 years " we have gained access to over forty gospels,

letters, and other early Christian works. " The Gospel of Judas is as

important today as it was when it was written.

 

READABILITY: Score 4

Reading Judas is scholarly, well-written and well-researched. But

that said, the actual reading experience is more like forcing

yourself to take medicine or to do a homework assignment. You know

it's good for you, but you don't really enjoy it. Because of that,

this book would best be suited for those who are more intellectually

inclined than those who are looking for a quick and easy read.

 

TOTAL SCORE: 34

AVERAGE SCORE: 8.2