Jesus: The false venegeful God demands such needless sacrifice. But the true Go

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

Customer Reviews

 

From Great Deceiver to Bosom Buddy..., June 11, 2007

By ewomack " ewomack " (MN USA)

 

Judas Iscariot has played the role of Christianity's ultimate traitor

for centuries. Tradition, as portrayed in the synoptic gospels,

claims that he handed Jesus over to the Romans for thirty silver

pieces. This vile act led to Jesus' crucifixion and death. So

repugnant was this that his name has become synonymous with deceit

and betrayal. For example, when Bob Dylan abandoned folk music for

electric rock in 1966, an appalled audience member at the Royal

Albert Hall yelled " Judas! " Right or wrong, everyone knew what that

single name implied. Some cheered, some hissed. Pope Benedict XVI

upheld the tradition in 2006 by accusing Judas of greed and power

mongering. And why did the leader of the Catholic Church feel the

need to reiterate this well-worn point in the twenty-first century?

Because the long lost Gospel of Judas had resurfaced. A translation

of this document's extant text appears in Part Two of " Reading

Judas. " Written sometime before 180 CE, the short gospel inverts

tradition by depicting Judas as Jesus' most trusted Apostle, as his

bosom buddy, his confidante. Not only that, Jesus shares

the " mysteries of the Kingdom " with this great deceiver. And only

with him. The gospel portrays the other Apostles as weak and

conniving dolts who, according to Jesus, worship the wrong God

through cruel sacrifice. Jesus' delineation of the " Mysteries " evoke

elements similar to Pythagorianism, Platonism, Vedanta, and Buddhism.

Certain sections of the gospel read more like Plato's " Timaeus " than

the New Testament. In these passages, Jesus outlines a mystical

mathematical transcendental cosmology involving a pantheon of lesser

imperfect gods, one of which, called Saklas, created humanity, and

the all knowing all seeing " Great Invisible Spirit " (the " real God " )

from which everything emanates. Humans have this Spirit within them,

but they must search for it by examining the Self. Jesus' death will

serve as an example to humankind that they can escape their physical

bodies and enter the Heavenly Kingdom via the discovery of this inner

Spirit. Jesus entrusts Judas with initiating this sacred event. Judas

then indentifies Jesus to the accusers as instructed, receives some

copper coins, and the text ends. Thus does Judas become, in this long

lost gospel, the catalyst to humanity's salvation. Judas also sees

the vision of his demise. The other Apostles will apparently stone

him to death. But, as Jesus points out, such is the price for

the " Mysteries of the Kingdom. "

 

Part One of " Reading Judas " analyzes the Gospel in historical

context. Drawing from voluminous sources, including the Bible, other

Gnostic gospels, and various miscellaneous ancient texts, the essay's

authors, Pagels and King, frame the Gospel of Judas as a text infused

with anger. What caused this anger? In the second century CE,

Christianity as we know it was solidifying under the auspices of

bishops and clergy. Recent discoveries show that other

interpretations of Jesus' death co-existed with the now dominate

view. In other words, Christianity was not as homogenous as tradition

suggests. Over time the fringe groups, along with their documents,

were suppressed and outlawed as heretical. The Gospel of Judas, argue

the authors, represents one of these alternate, or dissenting,

ideologies. At the time of its composition Christian persecution was

widespread and expanding. Certain founders of the nascent church,

such as Tertullian, Ireneaus, and Heracleon, began to glorify the

suffering of those who were killed in horrifying and unimaginable

ways by the then pagan Roman government. Others Christians followed

them " to glory " and met similar ghastly ends. Pagels and King argue

that the Gopel of Judas' fervent anger stems from the church's

encouragement of martyrdom. The " false venegeful God, " according to

the Jesus of the Gospel of Judas, demands such needless sacrifice.

But the " true God " never would. Jesus demands that the Apostles

" cease sacrificing! " So was the Gospel of Judas a protest piece?

Maybe. It definitely paints an alternate picture of Jesus and

Christianity.

 

Overall, " Reading Judas " enables general readers to grasp the

document's signifigance. Most helpful are the some forty pages of

commentary that accompany the translation. Though Pagels and King

claim that this gospel doesn't belong in the Christian canon, they

argue that it nonetheless demonstrates that the Christianity we have

today was written by the winners. And those winners suppressed

dissent so effectively that the Gospel of Judas, among others,

remained lost for almost two millennia. All together, these ancient

texts help scholars piece together the story of Christianity's

development. " Reading Judas, " though unlikely to alter anyone's

faith, provides fascinating and provocative glimpses into the history

of western civilization's dominant religion.