On Thursday, April 6, 2006, the National Geographic Society held a press conference at its Washington, DC, headquarters and announced to some 120 news media the recovery, restoration, and translation of the Gospel of Judas. The story appeared as headline news in dozens of major newspapers around the world and was the topic of discussion in a variety of news programs on television that evening and subsequent evenings. A two-hour documentary aired on the National Geographic Channel Sunday evening, April 9, and has aired several times since. What is the Gospel of Judas?

Why all the fuss, and what should Christians and others think about it?

The Discovery of the Gospel of Judas

As best as investigators can determine, a leather-bound codex (or ancient book), whose pages consist of papyrus, was discovered in the late 1970s, perhaps in 1978, in Egypt, perhaps in a cave. For the next five years the codex, written in the Coptic language,1 was passed around the Egyptian antiquities market. In 1983 Stephen Emmel, a Coptic scholar, acting on behalf of James Robinson, formerly of Claremont Graduate University and well known for his work on the similar Nag Hammadi codices, examined the recently discovered codex in Geneva. Emmel was able to identify four tractates, including one that frequently mentioned Judas in conversation with Jesus. He concluded that the codex was genuine (i.e., not a forgery) and that it probably dated to the fourth century. Subsequent scientific tests confirmed Emmel’s educated guess.

The seller was unable to obtain his asking price. After that the codex journeyed to the United States, where it ended up in a safe-deposit box in Long Island, New York, and suffered serious deterioration. Another dealer placed it in a deep freezer, mistakenly thinking that the extreme cold would protect the codex from damaging humidity. Unfortunately, the codex suffered badly, with the papyrus turning dark brown and becoming brittle.

Happily, the codex was eventually acquired by the Maecenas Foundation in Switzerland and, with the assistance of the National Geographic Society, was recovered and partially restored. I say “partially restored” because an unknown number of pages are missing (perhaps more than forty) and only about 85 percent of the much-talked-about Gospel of Judas has been reconstructed.

The National Geographic Society wisely commissioned a series of tests to be undertaken, including carbon 14, analysis of the ink, and various forms of imaging, to ascertain the age and authenticity of the codex. Carbon 14 dates the codex to AD 220-340. At the present time most of the members of the team incline to a date between 300 and 320 (but Emmel thinks a bit later).

In 2005, the Society assembled a team of biblical scholars to assist with the interpretation of the Gospel of Judas. Most of them were present at the aforementioned press conference and made statements.2

The Publication of the Gospel of Judas

An English translation of the Gospel of Judas has been published by the National Geographic Society in an attractive volume edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst.3 This volume includes very helpful introductory essays by the editors and translators, explaining the condition of the codex and the relationship of the Gospel of Judas to early Christian literature, including other Gnostic texts.

The Gospel of Judas is found on pages 33-58 of Codex Tchacos, but there are three other tractates (or writings): Pages 1-9 preserve a version of the Letter of Peter to Philip, which is approximately the same text as the second tractate of Nag Hammadi’s codex 8. Pages 10-32 preserve a book of James, which approximates the third tractate of Nag Hammadi’s codex 5, which there is entitled the First Apocalypse of James. Pages 59-66 preserve an untitled work, in which the figure Allogenes (“Stranger”) appears. This tractate, which is quite fragmentary, does not appear to be related to the third tractate of Nag Hammadi’s codex 11, which is titled Allogenes. And finally, a fragment not related to these four tractates has surfaced very recently, on which may appear the page number “108.” If so, then we may infer that at least 42 pages of Codex Tchacos are missing.

The Gospel of Judas and Judas as “Hero”

The Gospel of Judas begins with these words: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot” (page 33, lines 1-3). The tractate concludes with the words: “The Gospel of Judas” (page 58, lines 28-29). These lines are stunning enough, but what happens in between is what has given rise to most of the controversy—the idea that Judas is a hero of sorts. In what follows I will summarize the message of the Gospel of Judas, as understood in the first edition published by National Geographic.

Judas Iscariot is singled out as Jesus’s greatest disciple. He alone is able to receive Jesus’s most profound teaching and revelation. Jesus laughs at the other disciples’ prayers and sacrifices. They do not fully grasp who Jesus really is and from whom and from where he has come. But Judas is able to stand before Jesus (page 35, lines 8-9). “I know who you are and from where you have come. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you” (page 35, lines 15-21). After this confession Jesus teaches Judas in private.

At the conclusion of this private teaching, in which Judas is invited to enter the cloud (and be transformed?), Jesus utters his most startling instruction: “You will exceed them all. For you will sacrifice the man who clothes me” (page 56, lines 18-20). That is, while the other disciples are wasting time in inferior worship and activity (sacrificing animals in the Jewish fashion, presumably), Judas will carry out the sacrifice that truly counts, the sacrifice that will result in salvation: he will sacrifice the physical body of Jesus, thus allowing Jesus to complete his mission. In this way, Judas does indeed become the greatest of the disciples.

Accordingly, the narrative concludes with the handing over of Jesus to the ruling priests: “The ruling priests murmured because he [Jesus] had gone into the guest room to pray. But some scribes were there watching carefully, in order to arrest him during the prayer, for they were afraid of the people, for Jesus was regarded by all as a prophet. They approached Judas and said to him, ‘What are you doing here? You are the disciple of Jesus.’ Judas answered them as they wished; and Judas received some money and handed him [Jesus] over to them” (page 58, lines 9-26).4 There is no mention of a trial, execution, or resurrection. The Gospel of Judas seems to teach that Judas has assisted Jesus in fulfilling his salvific mission.

Is this what the Gospel of Judas really teaches? We will turn to this question later.

The Real Meaning of the Gospel of Judas

Writing in AD 180 Ircnaeus inveighs against a group he and others call the Cainites, evidently because this group makes heroes out of biblical villains, from Cain, who murdered his brother Abel, to Judas, who handed Jesus to his enemies. Irenaeus has this to say:

Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.5

In other words, the so-called Cainites identify with the villains of the Old Testament. They do this because they believe that the god of this world, in stark contrast to the God of Light above, is evil. Accordingly, anyone that the god of this world hates and tries to destroy—such as Cain, Esau, or the people of Sodom—must be good people, people on the side of the God of Light. The Gospel of Judas evidently shares this perspective.

The Gospel of Judas seems to be a very early exemplar of Sethian Gnosticism, a form of Gnosticism that may have roots in Jewish pessimism that emerged in the aftermath of the disastrous wars in AD 66-70 and 115—-117.6

Media hype notwithstanding, it is highly unlikely that the Gospel of Judas preserves for us authentic, independent material, material that supplements our knowledge of Judas and his relationship to Jesus. No doubt some popular writers will produce some fanciful stories about the “true story,” but that is all that they will produce—fanciful stories. Father Donald Senior, a Roman Catholic New Testament scholar, stated at the press conference that in his opinion the Gospel of Judas will have no impact on Christian theology or on Christian understanding of the Gospel story. Other scholars have expressed similar opinions.7

Months after the publication of the Gospel of Judas a number of scholars began to express serious reservations about the reconstruction, translation, and interpretation offered by Kasser, Meyer, and Wurst. The scholars raising these concerns were not clergy and laity, but scholars with expertise in Coptic Gnostic texts. These scholars include, among others, April DeConick, Louis Painchaud, Birger Pearson, and John Turner, all of whom observed doubtful reconstructions, inaccurate translations, and highly questionable interpretations.8 DeConick was the first to publish a full-length treatment, in which these errors are clearly and systematically identified.9

The most significant errors include these: (1) They translate the word daimon as “spirit,” instead of “demon,” as it is normally understood in Jewish and Christian texts. In the translation by Meyer and colleagues, Jesus calls Judas the “thirteenth spirit,” implying something positive. But Jesus really calls Judas the “thirteenth demon,” something that is not positive. (2) Meyer and colleagues translate the text to say that Judas has been “set apart for” the holy generation, something for which all true spiritual people aspire. However, the text should be translated “separated from,” that is, Judas will not gain access to the holy generation. (3) Meyer and colleagues translate the text to say that Judas will ascend to the holy generation, but the text in fact says that Judas will not ascend. (4) Meyer and colleagues translate the text to say that Judas will exceed the other disciples in sacrificing the human being whose body Jesus inhabits. The implication is that Judas’s action is positive. However, the text really means that Judas is worse than the other disciples. Whereas they sacrifice animals in the Jewish fashion, Judas will sacrifice a human being, thus exceeding them in folly.

These errors, as well as a few others, distort the true meaning of the Gospel of Judas. A new edition and retranslation has been undertaken.

Conclusion

When the Gospel of Judas is properly translated and interpreted we do not find in Judas Iscariot a hero, the wisest of the disciples, who assists Jesus and then enters glory. On the contrary, Judas is a tragic figure in a dramatic retelling and reinterpretation of the Passion of Jesus, a retelling that is marked by anti-Semitism and a mockery of the apostolic Church. The disciples have failed to understand who Jesus really is. Even the one who came closest to this truth—Judas Iscariot—in the end was the worst of a bad lot, sacrificing a human being to the rulers of this fallen earth. He, like the other disciples, will not escape the corrupt world of darkness that will eventually be destroyed.

However the Gospel of Judas is interpreted, all scholars agree that this second-century writing provides us with no genuine information about the historical Jesus and his tragic disciple who for whatever reasons decided to betray him. The Gospel of Judas is second-century fiction, not first-century history.

Notes

  1. Coptic is the language of Egypt which, after Alexander’s fourth-century-BC conquest of the Middle East, came to adopt the Greek alphabet (along with a few additional letters). The Nag Hammadi books are also written in Coptic.
  2. The convoluted and fascinating history of the codex, now called Codex Tchacos, is narrated by Herb Krosney in his richly documented and insightful book The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot (Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society, 2006). The story is also featured in Andrew Cockburn, “The Judas Gospel,” National Geographic 209, no. 9 (May 2006): 78 95.
  3. Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst, eds. and trans., The Gospel of Judas, with additional commentary by Bart D. Ehrman (Washington, DC: The National Geographic Society, 2006). The English translation and photographs of the Coptic text are available on National Geographic’s website.
  4. The translations are based on Kasser, Meyer, and Wurst, The Gospel of Judas.
  5. Irenaeus Against Heresies 1.31.1. Translation adapted from Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 vols. (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1898; repr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1989), 1:358.
  6. On this interesting hypothesis, see C. B. Smith H, No Longer Jews: The Search for Gnostic Origins (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2004).
  7. [ need to offer a correction to what otherwise I think is a fine piece of journalism. In “The Judas Gospel,” Andrew Cockburn summarizes my assessment of the Gospel of Judas in these words: “This tale is meaningless fiction” (91). No, it is not meaningless fiction; far from it. The Gospel of Judas is loaded with meaning, especially for second-century mystics and Gnostics, who understood the world and mission of Jesus in very different terms.
  8. L. Painchaud, “A Propos de la (re) découverte de I’ Evangile de Judas,” Laval théologique et philosophique 62 (2006): 553-68; B. A. Pearson, “Judas Iscariot among the Gnostics: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says,” Biblical Archaeology Review 34, no, 3 (2008): 52-57; J. D. Turner, “The Place of the Gospel of Judas in Sethian Tradition,” in M. Scopello, ed., The Gospel of Judas in Context (Leiden: Brill, 2008).
  9. A. D, DeConick, The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says (New York: T&T Clark, 2007).