Soli Deo Gloria

The Gospel of Judas has been getting some media attention lately thanks to NBC and the National Geographic Channel. I pulled together a brief little bit of information about it so we can all be well informed on its gnostic background and reasons why these types of gnostic writings are not included in our canon….

Sometime in the 1970's, in a cave in Egypt, a copy of the “gospel of Judas” was discovered. The circumstances of the discovery have been described as shady, with those who possessed the copy asking for exorbitant amounts of money for the codex. For decades, no institution was willing to pay for the purchase due to its dubious origins. Eventually the codex of the gospel of Judas was purchased by a foundation in Switzerland. The existence of the gospel of Judas codex was made public in 2004, but the actual release of the content of the codex has been repeatedly delayed, with the now expected release date of April, 2006. The dating of the gospel of Judas codex is likely the 5th century A.D. Up to one-third of the codex is missing or illegible.

Prior to this discovery, the only reference to the gospel of Judas was in the writings of a 2nd century Christian named Irenaeus. Irenaeus essentially wrote that the gospel of Judas was the “invented history” of a long line of heretics and rebels against God. The essential message of the gospel of Judas is that Jesus wanted Judas to betray Him because it was necessary to fulfill Jesus' plan. If it was Jesus' plan for Judas to betray Him, why would Jesus label Judas the "son of perdition" (John 17:12), and state that it would have been better if Judas had never been born (Matthew 26:24). If Judas was simply following Jesus' instructions, why would he commit suicide once he saw that Jesus was condemned (Matthew 27:5)?

The gospel of Judas is a Gnostic gospel, espousing a Gnostic viewpoint of Christianity. The gospel of Judas is simply a heretical forgery, much the same as the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Mary, and the gospel of Philip. Just as Judas Iscariot rejected Jesus and betrayed Him with a kiss, the gospel of Judas rejects the true Gospel and truth of God with a fraudulent appearance of validity.

Much of the book and upcoming movie "The DaVinci Code" revolves around Gnostic beliefs and their writings. I'm putting together some information we'll be able to share and discuss in our class that will touch on some of the major topics of the book and how we as Christians can best answer the questions of others that may come to us confused by the book/movie.

I'm no expert in this so with the help of Donna and some great resources I think we'll be able to have some great discussions on these contemporary (and historical) issues. If anything, the DaVinci Code and the latest media attention on the gospel of Judas will cause Christians to have a healthy interest in church history!

Apologetics