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The Gospel of Judas
✦ Scholars recently translated the ancient text of the Judas Gospel. ✦ Early Christian Writings quotes Dr. Bart Ehrman (Distinguished Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill): ...it portrays Judas quite differently from anything we previously knew. Here, he is not the evil, corrupt, devil-inspired follower of Jesus who betrayed his master; he is instead Jesus’ closest intimate - a friend, the one who understood Jesus better than anyone else, who turned Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus asked him to do so.✦ This ancient manuscript suggests the arrest of Jesus in Jerusalem was of human design and not supernatural destiny. ✦ As is discussed in the comparison of the Apostle Paul’s seven letters with the Synoptic Gospels, it is possible some of the stories in the Synoptic Gospels may have basis in human events rather than being completely fictional. Many of the events described - the quick sequence of the orchestrated betrayal and arrest on the same night of the Lord’s Supper, personally meeting with Pilate, the odd sequence of the 'crucifixion’ (no nails mentioned, removed on the same day per Pilate’s authorization, no stabbing in the Synoptics, all Jesus’ acquaintances watching from a distance in the Synoptics, a Roman centurion at the crucifixion site), guards at the tomb per Pilate’s direct involvement - can be explained by the simple premise of Pontius Pilate being in control. In addition, the story of the betrayal is multiply attested in the Gospel of Judas, the Canonical Gospels, and in the Apostle Paul’s seven letters (1 Corinthians 11:23): ...the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread...✦ Ryan Fleming speculates in Hail Judeas Caesar that the arrest sequence was pre-arranged between Jesus and Judas. Jesus’ statement, “one of you will betray me”[1] was either supernatural pre-cognition or a simple command. The Gospel’s account of Judas leading an arresting party to a wilderness location (Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives) in the middle of the night strongly suggests preplanning. The Garden of Gethsemane is outside the fortified walls of Jerusalem and about one mile’s walk from the traditional 'upper room’ of the Last Supper. Luke 22:39 and John 18:2 state the Garden of Gethsemane was a place that Jesus and his disciples frequented, but certainly this would have been during the day. And after having been in Jerusalem for only one week? If Judas left during the Last Supper (as the story goes), Judas would have brought the arresting party to the place he left Jesus and the disciples - the building or room associated with the Last Supper, and not a wilderness location - unless it was preplanned. The Judas Gospel provides written documentation from that time period that directly supports the obvious conclusion of pre-arrangement. ✦ There are many reasons the arrest would have been pre-arranged. Fleming speculates a formal arrest would eventually place Jesus in the protective custody of Roman authority and away from the increasing threats against his life in the streets of Jerusalem.[2] ✦ The wildly different accounts of Judas’ 'suicide’ in the Canonical Gospels adds to the strangeness of the betrayal story. ✦ In the Judas Gospel, Jesus laughs when entering a pious gathering of his disciples. Why? |
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