Gospel of Judas back in spotlight

[Kulapavana]

Source: Middle East Online

Published: March 30, 2005 Author: Patrick Baert

 

Gospel of Judas back in spotlight after 20 centuries

 

Swiss foundation seeks to shed light on controversial Christian text named after apostle said to have betrayed Jesus.

 

By Patrick Baert - GENEVA

 

About 2,000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among early Christians, a Swiss foundation says it is translating for the first time the controversial text named after the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus Christ.

 

The 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text was uncovered in Egypt during the 1950s or 1960s, but its owners did not fully comprehend its significance until recently, according to the Maecenas Foundation in Basel.

 

The manuscript written in the ancient dialect of Egypt's Coptic Christian community will be translated into English, French and German in about a year, the foundation specialising in antique culture said on Tuesday.

 

"We have just received the results of carbon dating: the text is older than we thought and dates back to a period between the beginning of the third and fourth centuries," foundation director Mario Jean Roberty said.

 

The existence of a Gospel of Judas, which was originally written in Greek, was outlined by a bishop, Saint Irenee, when he denounced the text as heretical during the second century.

 

"It's the only clear source that allows us to know that such a Gospel did exist," Roberty explained.

 

The foundation declined to say what account Judas is said to give in his alleged gospel.

 

According to Christian tradition, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ by helping the Romans to find him before he was crucified.

 

"We do not want to reveal the exceptional side of what we have," Roberty said.

 

The author of the text is unknown.

 

"No one can clearly state that Judas wrote it himself," Roberty said, while pointing out that the other gospels were probably not written by their supposed authors either.

 

The four recognised gospels of the New Testament describe the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are said to record his teachings from the eyes of four of his disciples, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

 

The Roman Catholic Church limited the recognised gospels to the four in 325, under the guidance of the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine.

 

Thirty other texts - some of which have been uncovered - were sidelined because "they were difficult to reconcile with what Constantine wanted as a political doctrine," according to Roberty.

 

The foundation's director said the Judas Iscariot text called into question some of the political principles of Christian doctrine.

 

It could also to some extent rehabilitate Judas, whose name has often come to symbolise the accusation of deicide - God-killing - levelled by some Christian teachings against the Jewish people, he added.

 

After the manuscript is restored, the text is due to be translated and analysed by a team of specialists in Coptic history led by a former professor at the University of Geneva, Rudolf Kasser.

 

Jean-Daniel Kaestli, an expert on gospels who has seen the manuscript, said the discovery was "very interesting", although the papyrus was in a bad state.

 

He added that it was not going to lead to a revolutionary change in the vision of the Bible, although it could shed some new light on parts of Christianity's holy text.

 

The Maecenas Foundation, which aims to protect archaeological relics found in poor countries, hopes to organise exhibitions around the manuscript and to produce a documentary on the process of unravelling the text.

 

The full launch is due in Easter 2006.

 

[krsna]

Life of Judas

 

 

Disciple's defining role as traitor betrays complexity, scholars say

 

By Jean Gordon

jmgordon@clarionledger.com

 

 

Greg Jenson/The Clarion-Ledger

 

John Maxwell, who portrays Judas Iscariot, says his understanding of the disciple changed during the course of writing his one-man play.

 

Dressed in a white button-down shirt and a pair of Levi's, actor John Maxwell entered the sanctuary at Clinton's Episcopal Church of the Creator as his newest character: Judas Iscariot.

 

"I'm more interesting than the other disciples," he said at the opening of his monologue. "I am not an evil man despite what you might think."

 

Since the time of Jesus, Judas has been regarded as the ultimate betrayer: the man who sold out the savior for 30 pieces of silver. But Maxwell and others say Judas is one of the most complex characters in the New Testament and his position in the Easter story offers lessons about human nature.

And in the events leading up to Jesus' arrest, Judas played a pivotal role.

 

"Without Judas, the story doesn't go forward," said Steven Sheeley, a New Testament scholar at Shorter College in Rome, Ga. "Without Judas, there is no plot movement toward Jesus' arrest, trial, crucifixion and resurrection."

 

Beyond a plot device, Judas also has come to represent the Benedict Arnold of the Bible, said Sheeley, who authored the chapter on Judas in Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (Eerdmans Publishing, 2000).

 

But the depths of his betrayal and feelings of regret varies depending on New Testament accounts.

 

In Mark, Judas leads the authorities to Jesus and then disappears from the story.

 

Matthew's portrayal describes Judas as racked with guilt and driven to suicide by hanging.

 

The Book of Acts tells a different story. That account has Judas buying a plot of land with the money he earned turning Jesus over to his captors. He meets a grisly death when he falls on the land and is disemboweled.

 

"He is not repentant and is punished by God," said L. Michael White, director of the Institute for the Study of Antiquity and Christian Origins at the University of Texas at Austin. "Matthew makes him a good guy in the end and shows he's sorry."

 

 

Greg Jenson/The Clarion-Ledger

A bad rap

 

So why has Judas gone down in history as the ultimate traitor?

 

Look to the Middle Ages, White said.

 

As Christianity evolved, it set up Judas as the foil to Peter, the disciple who denied Jesus but was forgiven.

 

"They become symbols for the way you should or should not respond to Jesus," White said.

 

Maxwell's take on Judas compares the fate of both disciples by asking the audience to consider the difference between denial and betrayal.

 

"If Judas had asked for forgiveness, certainly Jesus would have forgiven him as well," said the Rev. Luther Ott, rector of the Episcopal Church of the Creator, which recently hosted Maxwell's one-man show.

 

When Maxwell set out to write his monologue, he wanted to give Judas a logical argument for selling out Jesus beyond "he did it for the money."

 

His interpretation of the character reveals an arrogant man who believes he understood Jesus' mission better than Jesus himself.

 

"I don't think Judas ever expected Jesus to die," Maxwell said. "They were looking for an earthly messiah to lead them to victory against the foreigners."

 

Tool or traitor?

 

In many ways, Judas was a mystery man.

 

Outside of the New Testament, there are no historical accounts of the disciple's life.

 

Translated from Greek, Judas means "Jewish man."

 

White said the Gospel of John renders Judas most harshly and his betrayal in the book is meant to represent the betrayal of all Jews.

 

"John's Gospel isn't really worried about what really happened," he said, explaining the book was written during a time when the Christian movement was breaking away from its Jewish roots. "It's interested in scoring points against opponents — mainly Jews."

 

White said the name "Iscariot" may indicate Judas came from the town of Kerioth in southern Judea. The other disciples came from Galilee, in the north.

 

Scholars generally agree he was a zealot.

 

"That seems to be more of his portrayal in Mark," the earliest Gospel written, White said. "Mark seems to portray him as some sort of rebel sympathizer who honestly believed Jesus was the messiah — but a political messiah."

 

In Mark, Judas turned Jesus over to the authorities because he wanted to force him into political action against the Romans oppressors, White said.

 

And he said one lesson in Mark is that Judas is guilty of trying to make Jesus into a political savior, rather than a spiritual one.

 

That lesson is relevant today, Ott said.

 

"We like the idea of Jesus, but what do we trust?" Ott said. "We still trust the empire. We believe in military strength and wealth and power."

 

In the course of writing his one-man play, Maxwell's understanding of Judas changed.

 

Though he intended to illuminate the Bible's ultimate villain, his rendering portrayed the disciple as a tool God used to make human redemption possible.

 

So is Judas a traitor?

 

"Wow, what a question," Maxwell said. "You can call him a traitor, a betrayer, but God used him just like he did everybody in that story."

[Kulapavana]

Judas is indeed a complex character. Christians think God WANTED Jesus to die on the cross so they will often see Judas as a mere tool in His hand (and a traitor of course).

 

There can be other interpretations as well. It is probably more acurate to say, that God merely USED the crucifiction in His plan. In that case Judas is more of a tool used by the high priests to silence Jesus, after he caused "disturbance" in the temple by throwing out money changers and other merchants from temple grounds.

[Guest guest]

Is that Judas was a childhood best friend of Lord Jesus, and his doubts were because of familiarity only, thinking in affection that his buddy could not really be LORD. Also, Judas did not offer jesus up for assassination, he was betrayed as much as Jesus, and it is also recognized that Lord Jesus was very saddened upon hearing of Judas'suicide. In fact, peters offence was greater, he denied Christ, while Judas showed exactly where he was at the time when asked.

 

And Pilate was innocent as well, and Tiberius, the roman emperor, was actually a follower. The culprit is religion. Religion could not tolerate love of God being preached, so it was the religious leaders who conspired, made Pilate wash his hands, made the roman emperor follow jewish custom in dealing with heresy (of Lord Jesus creating a huge scene in the temple by driving the materialists in the guise of religionists out by force.)

 

It is true, the Vaisnava leaves by his own will, and Lord Jesus allows the event to take place. His uncle, Joseph Arithemia, had enough power, via both wealth and politics, to stop the mess at once. In fact, Jesus had the power to usurp the temple fully with all the people in favor, but things went the way they did by the will of the Supreme, the play was cast that way, and the actors all played their roles.

 

hare krsna, ys, mahaksadasa

[Guest guest]

Did the Pope's influence help shake down the'evil empire'?

 

krsna das /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Kulapavana]

of course! he was a MAJOR force in that battle. there were many, many conferences (often secret) between Pope or his confidants and the leaders of Solidarity and other anti-communist organizations.

 

I suspect he was chosen precisely for that reason: to destabilize the communist block.

[Guest guest]

This is what I've heard about Judas. First off his name wasn't Iscariot, just like Jesus' original name in hebrew is Yeshua, anglicized as Joshua.

 

Iscariot is a mistake, plain and simple. There were many mistakes as the new testament was written and re-written throughout the ages. Judas was supposedly a sicari. Sicaris were what would be called today terrorists. They would assassinate whomever they thought they should in their quest for independence from Rome. They carried a dagger called a sica, and they were known as sicaris, and or zealots.

 

From thehope.org

 

 

Josephus Flavius, the Jewish historian who lived at the end of the first century, speaks extensively of this group. He says that they were proponents of a fourth philosophy, after the three of the Essenes, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees. Like these last, the Zealots held a nationalistic-theocratic ideal, but differently from the Pharisees, they were tenacious in the political application of their ideals. They came from an ancient tradition, to the point that Mattathias, father of the Maccabees, had charged his sons to be "the Zealots of the Torah." And in fact, his five sons were all killed on the altar of the nationalist-religious cause.

 

This intransigence was still alive during Jesus' time. In fact, when the son of Mary was about 13 or 14 years old, Judea was still inflamed by the revolt led by Judas the Galilean against the Roman-imposed census. The revolt was put down, but the fame of Judas the Galilean endured. Also, after the defeat, the Zealots sharpened their tactics and began striking individual targets, armed with a small dagger called a "sica" by the Romans. Thus the Zealots were also called Sicari, and the meaning of Iscariot, Judas's name, derives from the Latin "sicarius."

 

 

From other sources the story goes that the story of Judas betraying Jesus was cooked up by Roman authorities in order to discredit the judean revolutionary leadership. They had Judas the Galilean, who was a revolutionary leader, being the person who betrayed the jewish messiah. In this way they hoped to discredit the revolutinary leaders who were trying to rile up the common people to revolt.

 

From my study the story of Jesus was created as a propaganda effort by the Romans in order to stop the continual popping up every few years of new jewish "messiahs". Messiahs (including Judas of Galilee) were not seen in the jewish tradition as spiritual saviors. Rather the messiah, or moshiach in the judean tradition, was expected to be a savior of the judean people from foreign rule, as well as a sage. He was expected to be a revolutionary figure, a person who would free the jews from oppression, and then rule as a righteous king over them in the new kingdom he would bring about.

 

So the Judean people were always expecting the messiah, and there was a continual stream of messiah wannabees who would attempt to create revolts. This was seen as a problem by both the Romans, and the Judeans who held positions in the Roman business or ruling classes, which many did. The Roman empire was not discriminatory towards Jews or any religion, if you accepted Roman rule, then they were fine with you, you could even become a citizen.

 

The Jesus myth was created in order to stop the jews from hankering for the messiah to come and liberate them from Roman rule. Supposedly Jesus taught that his kingdom was not of this world, which was the exact opposite of the Judean messiah tradition, which was that the messiah would defeat the foreign rulers and then rule over Israel himself.

 

Jesus supposedly taught that it's best to "turn the other cheek", and "the meek shall inherit the earth". The actual judean messiah tradition was that the messiah would rule according to old testament laws which were quite harsh i.e rule by the sword, massacres of gentiles condoned by "God", raping and pillaging of gentiles and their lands condoned and encouraged by "God". Yet we have the jewish "messiah" of the Roman Church preach the exact opposite of what the messiah was supposed to be doing, and conveniently the messiah was telling the revolutionary jewish people to be meek, to not seek a kingdom on earth, to be non violent. And who was the scapegoat for killing the promised messiah of the jews?...a sicari, a zealot, a revolutionary, Judas the Galilean.

 

The Jesus story was probably created after the second great revolt of the jews against Rome.

 

In 66 AD the Jewish Revolt against Rome broke out. The Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, killed over 1 million Jews, took about 100,000 into slavery, and destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.

 

Then the second great revolt led to the dispersal of the jews from Israel by the Romans. The revolt was led by another "messiah", Simon Bar Kochba.

 

From hagshama.org

 

 

The story of Bar Kochba - a hero or a fool?

Few characters are as enigmatic as Simon Bar Cosiba better known as Shimon bar Kochba. Literature and Legends abound. Historians are divided: Some call him a hero who, despite the desperate situation, tried to unite the Jewish people and overthrow the oppression of Rome. Others believe he was an egomaniac with almost Messianic illusions of grandeur. There is little accurate information written about him. Some of what we know are from the Judean Desert Documents found by Yadlin, from Talmudic Legends, the Roman Historian Dio Cassius, and Eusebius a third Century Church historian.

 

Bar Kochba is inextricably tied to another towering personality of the time, Rabbi Akiva. His story reads like a novel: Akiva was the son of a convert to Judaism and worked as a shepherd for one of the wealthiest land owners, Kalba Savuah. Akiva, who was illiterate, fell in love with Calbah Savuah's daughter Rachel and they decided to marry. The enraged father drove them away and vowed never to recognize their marriage.

 

Rachel saw beneath the coarse exterior and encouraged him to begin studying - he was 40 years old. Within 12 years he was renowned, and within 24 years, he was the leading scholar in Judea. It was the support of Akiva which gave Bar Kochba the power to organize the revolt.

 

Setting the Stage

 

Almost 70 years after the destruction of the Temple, the Jews did not cower into submission. For the two years of 115-117CE the Jews of Egypt, Cyrene and Cyprus rose against the Roman dictator. Babylonian Jews as well unsuccessfully raised the banner of rebellion.

 

The date 131 CE is important because the first exile lasted for 70 years, and many people believed that the redemption was approaching. Hadrian was Emperor of Rome, and although he had no enmity to the Jews, he did believe in Romanization of the colonies including the unification of the people. More important, he believed in the worship of the Emperor. Many scholars debated these decrees and the reactions to them. There is an interesting portion of the Hagaddah of Pessach where a discussion is quoted between the leading sages of the era: Rabbis Eliezer, Joshua, Elazar ben Azaryah, Tarphon and Akiva. The discussion is about freedom and its importance. Rabbi Elazar ben Azaryah is puzzled: "I am 'like' a man of 70 and I never understood why we have to tell the story also at night....." Why did he say _like_ 70? It is generally agreed that the Rabbis of that day were planning and deciding whether to take up arms against Rome. Elazar is really saying, "Hey - it is almost 70 years! When are we going to start organizing?"

 

Akiva played a decisive role, for without his backing there would have been no mass unity of the people.

 

He met with Bar Koziva and was so impressed with the power and sense of destiny which exuded from the man that he proclaimed, "This man is destined to lead us as it is written (Numbers 24:17) 'And a star (Kochba) shall rise out of Jacob and a scepter from Israel and shall smite the corners of Moav and destroy the children of Seth.'"

 

Many of Akiva's disciples flocked to the call of Bar Kochba. Not everyone was calling for open rebellion. In the Valley of Rimonim the was a mass gathering and Joshua ben Chananya, leader of the Sanhedrin (the High Court), did his best to calm the crowd by quoting a fable: "Once there was a lion who was eating and had a bone stuck in his throat. He promised a reward to any animal who would remove the bone but no animal dared. Finally the crane stuck his long beak into the lions mouth and removed the bone. 'Where is my reward?!' demanded the crane. 'Your reward,' growled the lion, 'is that you will be able to tell everyone you put your head in to the lion's mouth and can still talk about it.'"

 

Yet the call for moderation blew past like a wind in the cedars. Even Akiva was not immune from criticism. After proclaiming Bar Kochva the Messiah, Yochanan ben Torta told him "Grass will grow under your cheeks and the son of David (Messiah) will not yet have come."

 

The Talmud relates that at first, Bar Kochva tried to test the courage of the new fighters by daring them to cut off one finger of each hand. The sages criticized him for "making cripples out of the people.Tell me a better way," rejoined Bar Kochba. "Let each conscript, while on horseback tear a ceder tree up with his hands."

 

Bar Kochba's arrogance also began to bother the Sages. When preparing for battle he is alleged to have said to God "Do not help us but do not hinder us." In spite of this there is no evidence that he himself sought to be seen as a messiah. Rather he desired to return the glory that was while throwing off the yoke of foreign nations forever. His strength was legendary. One account relates how he could catch and throw back the rocks thrown in catapults between his knees.

 

The point of conflagration came when Hadrian, while visiting Eretz Israel decided to rebuild Jerusalem - not as the capital of the Jews but as Roman city Aleia (the name of Hadrian) Capitolina (for Jupiter Capitolinus), with the temple site to become a temple for Jupiter. It was further exacerbated by the local Roman ruler Tinneius Rufus and Hadrian's ban on circumcision which was considered abhorrent by the Romans. His departure in 130 seems to be the trigger which set off the revolt.

 

The War

 

Most sources claim that he had between 400,000 and 500,000 troops at the time of the beginning of his revolt. Although centered in Judea, roughly from Beni Brak to Beersheva, it spread to the north as well. The war lasted three and a half years. During the first year they succeeded in pushing back the Roman 10th and 22nd legion as well as taking most of Judea including Jerusalem. Much of the time was spent digging fortification tunnels near crucial road crossings (tel Morashe, Herodion).

 

Hadrian realized almost too late the effect this small revolt could have on the empire. He sent for Julius Severus fresh from putting down the revolt of the Britons and one of his most able generals to quell the uprising. With him he sent the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 10th (renewed), and 11th legions.

 

Rufus was forced to retreat from one stronghold to another. With the Jews controlling most of Judea and parts of the Galilee, Severus wisely did not engage the Jewish army directly unless he needed to. Instead, he began to strangle the supply trail to the beleaguered nation.

 

Bar Kochba in the meantime proved himself an able administrator who concerned himself with minute detail and would allow no disagreements with his orders. He minted coins - some depicting a four column building with a star and some with the inscription "To the freedom of Jerusalem."

 

Unlike the war of the Jews (the first revolt) little is known of the actual battles. One story relates how 100,000 Romans attacked the citadel at Tur Simon where they massacred everyone in sight for three days. Over 50 major battles were fought with the Romans paying steeply for every inch of territory.

 

The Final Battle

 

After three and a half years most of the strongholds were recaptured. The last was the city of Betar located on the road between Bet Guvrin and Jerusalem. It was a large city and according to the midrash there were 400 synagogues there. Jerusalem evidently remained in the hands of the rebels until the very end.

 

The siege lasted almost a year. It was the heart of summer, the river beds were dry and supplies were low. Despite this, Severus was discouraged. According to talmudic sources, Betar was supplied from a subterranean secret passage. One night a Samaritan went to Hadria (or his general) and told him "as long then hen cackles in ashes, Betar cannot fall".

 

He was referring to Eleazar of Modin who sat in sack and ashes within the fortress of Betar and prayed for God to keep the stronghold firm. According to b00oth Midrashic and Samaritan sources, a Samaritan approached Eleazer while he was praying and pretended to whisper in his ear. Some of the officers distrusting Samaritans (I wonder why) caught him and asked him what he told him. His reply was "I would rather face the wrath of my master than that of yours, so kill me if you like." Naturally, when they asked Eleazer he didn't even known what they were talking about. Bar Kochba, in a fit of rage, kicked Eleazer aside. Due to the weakened condition of the Rabbi he died on the spot. A voice immediately came out of heaven: "Bar Kochba - you blew it!"

 

What we do know is that a traitor (according to some a Samaritan) showed the Romans a secret entrance to the fortress. The results were catastrophic. On the 9th of Av 135 CE. the anniversary of the destruction of the Temple, Betar fell.

 

According to some sources the Romans destroyed 52 strongholds, 985 villages and killed over 580,000 people, not including incidental deaths e.g. from starvation, fire, or disease.

 

What happened to Bar Kochba? One Midrashic source relates that since no human had the power to kill him he was killed by a snake. An eager Samaritan cut off his head and brought it to Julius for a reward where he was brutally rebuffed being told that he was wanted alive.

 

The losses to the Roman army were staggering. They were so great that for the first time in Roman history, when the Emperor presented the news to the Senate, he omitted the traditional, "I and the army are well." They did, though, mint a coin with the inscription "Exercitus Judaicus."

 

Most of the men were hunted down and killed. The women and children were herded into the slave markets in Hebron and Azza.

 

And the Rabbis? Hadrian banned the study of the Torah, Shabbat, Circumcision, as well as many of the basic Jewish tenets. Violation of these new persecutions had one outcome - death.

 

Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Ishmael, Rabbi Chanania ben Teradion, and seven more of their colleagues were condemned to death for teaching the Torah, with Rufus as the executioner. We read in detail on Yom Kippur and on the 9th of Av how each was tortured, but more how each faced death knowing there are fates worse then death.

 

So ends the story of Bar Kochba. Heroism or Folly? Who knows

 

 

 

So why all this concern over Judea by the Romans?

 

Israel had always been important. The Phoenicians had much earlier recognized the importance of Canaan, or Israel. It was the central trading for the much of the ancient world and especially the mediterranean. Europe gained it's refined goods, spices, silks, jewels, manufactured goods, from the east, from Persia, Babylon, Yemen, India, etc. The best trade route from the east to west was through Judea and Samaria, and then by boat to europe.

 

Israel was extremely important to Rome economically. Adding to the importance of Israel itself was the fact that the Jews controlled much of the trade coming from the east. There were large jewish communites in persia, babylon, syria, yemen, all throughout the middle east. They used their religious association with the jews of Israel and they set up a trade association which dominated the trade coming from the east to europe.

 

So both Israel and Jews were very important to the Roman economy. The last thing they needed was exactly what the jews were constantly doing, trying to revolt. The jews wanted independence. There were religious jews who saw the Romans as an affront to their religion, and there were merchant jews who didn't want to share the spoils of their trading position with their Roman rulers.

 

So the Jesus story was probably created for the purpose of trying to change the jewish people, after they had been kicked out of Israel after the second great revolt of 132-135 a.d.

 

The jews may have been kicked out of judea, but there were still large communites of jews all over the middle east in control of trade. And this is why Christ became the new religion for the Roman empire. They simply invented a conveniently dead and gone jewish messiah, and they added onto that the philosophy and life stories of previous deity savior figures who were popular among the various peoples of the Roman empire.