A Wild Story From a Gospel Excluded from the Bible | Gospel of Judas

in early 2016 I was working at a Christian women and children shelter in my college town I was just out of college and my boss was only a couple years older than me one day in her office she frustratedly began recounting a conversation she had with a more liberal family member she had discovered a totally new concept in that conversation or at least one that was totally new to her it was very troubling stressed and defeated she looked up from her desk where her eyes had thus far been locked and over at me she asked have you ever heard that there are other books that didn't make it into the Bible yeah non-canonical Gospels and all that I tried to say as gently as possible see I had just become an atheist hardly a month prior and I knew that if anyone at work doubted my Christianity I'd be fired immediately I almost was fired for believing in evolution actually I couldn't take the chance of coming off sceptical of the Bible as she knew it my boss replied no one ever told me about those did anyone ever teach you about them no I honestly answered then how did you find out about them she asked I just read about them online I admitted not willing to give up too much information she leaned back in her chair and threw up her hands and said why wouldn't anyone teach us about this crap as kids I'm not even going to look it up I don't want to know anything about that I just want to live my life and love Jesus and not be worried about all of that I knew exactly how she felt I had felt the same fear for months before leaving the faith sitting in her office at that moment I understood that she was at a crossroads I had encountered months before except where she had chosen to simply believe I had decided to learn instead to those of you who have made that choice alongside me I'm glad that you're here now that I don't limit myself and what I can learn about I find a lot of happiness and learning about the things that I missed out on growing up think evolution or non canonical Gospels it's almost like I'm gaining secret knowledge that allows me to transcend into something more more on that later so since a lot of us myself included are so cooped up at home that we're missing haircuts and having to change our hairstyle to compensate I thought that it would be fun to try to spread some joy and some religious literacy by telling you all the story of perhaps the wildest gospel not included in the Bible the Gospel of Judas a bit of preliminary information the Bible is a collection of multiple different books written by multiple different authors across well over a millennium that said the books that make up what we now recognize as the Bible are called canonical as they make up the biblical Canon today's some different sects of Christianity have slightly different biblical canons from others but the vast majority of books that exist within one contemporary version of the Canon exist in all others this hasn't always been the case though there are a lot of books in the Christian mythos that were never accepted into the biblical canon the Gospel of Judas is one of them our story begins as far back as 180 C II with a Christian church father named IRA Gnaeus in his work which translates to against heresies he wrote about a Christian sect who believed that the disciple Judas betrayed Jesus because he had secret knowledge about him I Renea said that those in this sect produce a fictitious history of this kind which they call the gospel of judas yeah calling it fictitious outright seems a little odd by today's standards maybe it's a little harsh but something we have to remember is that the scholarship of that day was very different IRA Gnaeus was a heresy ologist and the very title of his field lived a dedication to orthodoxy an indication that it was not the study of what theology existed but a study of theology presumed to be wrong in light of the one true theology ironies his own unfortunately for centuries writings like this were all we had on the Gospel of Judas at some point several centuries back the book itself was lost lucky for us though it was found again in the 1970s back then treasure hunters found several ancient looking documents in a cave in Egypt including the codex which contained the Gospel of Judas in my opinion they did miss a serious opportunity by not pulling a Joseph Smith and just starting a whole new religion by claiming to be able to translate the documents with a magic rock in a hat but instead they decided to sell their loot - and antiquities dealer Cairo Egypt the dealer Hana ossible put the text up for sale for three million dollars but never found a buyer so in 1984 he decided to store the ancient delicate text in a safety deposit box in Long Island New York they stayed there for 16 years disintegrating in the humidity of the area 10 to 15 percent of the manuscript will cover here was actually destroyed in this time unfortunately in 2000 freedom s Berger chocos another antiquities dealer bought the text and got them to manuscript conservators who could actually preserve them luckily finally in 2006 National Geographic published a translation and pictures of the rediscovered Gospel of Judas it was translated from the ancient Egyptian language of siddik Coptic and dated to the third or fourth century this means that if it's the same gospel which irony is spoke of the version that we have is probably a third or fourth century copy of a text from the second century given all that context it's obvious that it was not written by the long-dead Judas now I know what you're probably thinking at this point that's cool drew but what does it actually say I hear you so I'm going to read through portions of the text which I'd like to focus on here it's about to get pretty weird one day he Jesus was with his disciples in Judea he found them sitting together practicing their piety when he came up to his disciples sitting together praying over the bread he laughed the disciples said to him master why are you laughing at our prayer what have we done this is what's right he answered and said to them I'm not laughing at you you're not doing this because you want to but because through this your God will be praised they said master you are the son of our God Jesus said to them how do you know me truly I say to you no generation of the people among you will know me that's pretty strange if you've ever read the canonical Gospels apparently this Jesus thinks that not even his own disciples know who he truly is also what's up with him saying your god to his disciples as if they're worshiping something other than him or his heavenly father when his disciples heard this they started to get angry and furious and started to curse him in their hearts but when Jesus noticed their ignore he said to them why are you letting your anger trouble you has your God within you and his stars become angry with your souls if any of you is strong enough among humans to bring out the perfect humanity stand up and face me all of them said we're strong enough but their spirits weren't brave enough to stand before him except judas iscariot he was able to stand before him but he couldn't look him in the eye so he looked away Judas said to him I know who you are and where you've come from you've come from the immortal realm of bar below and I'm not worthy to utter the name of the one who sent you I told you this got really weird it's apparent the narrative here is totally different from anything in the canonical Gospels first of all the disciples are painted very negatively they might not even be worshipping Jesus at all but some other God Judas is apparently the only one of them who actually knows who Jesus is and who sent him to earth secondly with that realm of bar below comment I think it's safe to say that this Gospels understanding of the structure of the cosmos is pretty different from that of the canonical Gospels we'll pick the story back up days later in the narrative because there's a lot of extra details here and a few places where the text was damaged enough to lose a few words I'm going to editorialize just a bit for clarity another day Jesus came up to them they said to him master we've seen you in a dream because we had great dreams last night and they said we saw a great house with a great altar in it and twelve people we'd say they were priests and a name and a crowd of people was waiting at the altar until the priests finished receiving the offerings we kept waiting to Jesus said what were they like and they said some fast for two weeks others sacrificed their own children others their wives praising and humbling themselves among each other others sleep with men others murder yet others commit many sins and do criminal things and the people standing before the altar invoke your name and in all their sacrificing they fill the altar with their offerings when they said this they fell silent because they were troubled jesus said to them you are the ones receiving the offerings on the altar you've seen that's the god you serve and you're the twelve people you've seen and the animals you saw brought in to be sacrifice are the crowd you lead astray it's been said to the human generations look God has accepted your sacrifice from the hands of priests that is the minister of error but the Lord who commands is the Lord over everything on the last day they will be found guilty all right that's a pretty graphic image Jesus says the disciples will lead people astray in his name and will be unknowingly serving a different god one that delights in degeneracy and violence it sounds like Jesus is even saying that ritual sacrifice isn't right and that those who have been relying on that for communion with God or salvation will be punished for it next up Judas also has a vision Judas said master just as you've listened to all of them now listen to me too because I've seen a great vision but Jesus laughed when he heard this he said to him why are you all worked up you 13th demon but Speak Up and I'll bear with you okay what in the world does thirteenth demon mean and why would he call Judas that well when we get to the part where they discuss cosmology pay close attention it'll all be explained by the end Judas said to him in the vision I saw myself the twelve disciples are stoning me and chasing me rapidly and I also came to the place where I had followed you I saw a house in this place and my eyes couldn't measure its size great people surrounded it and that house had a roof of greenery in the middle of the house was a crowd Master take me in with these people jesus answered and said your star has led you astray Judas and that no person of mortal birth is worthy to enter the house you've seen because that place is reserved for those who are holy just for times sake I'm going to be skipping a few lines here when Judas heard this he said to him what good has it done that you've separated me from that generation jesus answered and said you'll become the thirteenth and will be cursed by the other generations and will rule over them in the last days they'll blank to you and you won't go up to the holy generation I could be wrong but I think that generation here could mean realm or plane of existence so Judas like the other disciples isn't going to go to the Holy Place in the last days either although Jesus says Judas will become or dwell in the thirteenth and rule over the 12 disciples and maybe the realm of humanity in general next Jesus tells Judas about cosmology and it gets crazy it's actually such a long and complex description of reality and the origin of the cosmos that I'm going to whittle it down to just a couple of necessary details read this on your own if you'd like to jesus said come and i'll teach you about the mysteries that no human will see because there exists a great and boundless realm whose horizons no angelic generation has seen in which a great invisible spirit which no angelic eye has ever seen no heart has ever comprehended and it's never been called by any name so there's a realm that not even Angels have seen where there's a great spirit which mankind doesn't even know about that's not the Christian God is the great spirit greater than the Christian God if we keep reading we find the surprising answer to that question I'll summarize because this section is long and pretty confusing the Great Spirit creates several great angels who create angels and powerful beings of their own eventually after dozens of powerful beings come into existence something totally shocking happens and look from the cloud there appeared an angel whose face flash with fire and whose likeness was defiled by blood his name was nem bro which means rebel others called him yaldabaoth and another angel sockless came from the cloud to sow Nebra created six angels and sock losted too to be assistance they brought out twelve angels in the heavens with each of them receiving a portion in the heavens then sockless said to his angels let's create a human being after the likeness and the image and they fashioned Adam and his wife Eve yeah sockless this being that's definitely not the most powerful being in the cosmos is the creator of mankind and the god of Christians and Jews he also came from the same cloud as of being called a rebel and his name sockless scholars actually say means fool suddenly everything just makes sense Jesus last the disciples at the beginning because they're worshiping the foolish God's sake loss he says they're going to lead people astray in his name because the disciples think Jesus is the son of their God but he's not he's from the realm of bar below a place far beyond the realm of sockless the god of the world is Jesus enemy sockless delights in debauchery and violence which is why he commands bloody sacrifices honestly from a non-christians perspective I have to say that this makes all the evil and suffering in the world make a lot more sense God allows suffering he commands holy wars and he demands sacrifices because he's just a heartless fool who enjoys violence Jesus has nothing to do with this God in this text and is on earth in opposition of him finally we come to the end of the story where Judas so called betrayal of Jesus takes on a different meaning then Judas said to Jesus what will those do who've been baptized in your name Jesus said truly I say to you this baptism which they've received in my name will destroy the whole generation of the earthly Adam tomorrow they'll torture the one who bears me truly I say to you no hand of a mortal human will fall upon me truly I say to you Judas those who offer sacrifices to sockless blank everything that's evil but you'll do more than all of them because you will sacrifice the human who bears me immediately there was a disturbance among the Jews their high priest grumbled because he'd gone into the guest room to pray but some scribes were there watching closely so they could arrest him during his prayer because they were afraid of the people since they all regarded him as a prophet and they approached Judas and said to him what are you doing here aren't you Jesus disciple then he answered them as they wished then Judas received some money and handed him over to them so Judas appears to betrayed Jesus but is it really a betrayal Jesus knew it would happen and he allowed it so was it part of his plan to a post-hoc loss what does Jesus mean when he tells Judas but you'll do more than all of them because you'll sacrifice the human who bears me there is a lot of negative rhetoric toward the flesh humans and mortals in this text so maybe Jesus saw being separated from his human body as a good thing somehow I think we could better tell if Jesus thought well of Judas and his betrayal if we could figure out if Judas fate as a ruler within the thirteenth reule is a reward or a punishment here's my final insight into this story remember back when I read this and look from the cloud there appeared an angel whose face flash with fire and his likeness was defiled by blood his name was nem bro which means rebel others called him yaldabaoth and another angel sockless came from the cloud - so nem bro created six angels and sock losted - to be assistants they brought out 12 angels in the heavens with each of them receiving a portion in the heavens this is the dividing of sockless and Neb rows portion of the heavens into 12 realms over which they rule so does that mean the 13th generation or realm where Judas will be sent is the realm of sockless and Nebra the realm of the foolish terrible God and his double the devilish rebellious God a flame and blood if it is is Judas in for the worst damnation of all the disciples or is he to ascend to godhood himself does the secret knowledge which Judas now possesses allow him to become something greater or is it just a curse I don't know and I think that's a question for scholars of texts like these if you'd like to read this gospel for yourself and I recommend you do there's a link to the translation I use in the description I won't make many claims about what this text teaches us about Christianity as a whole or anything because I'm not a scholar of religious studies I will however make a few points that I think I a layperson and still qualified enough to make one this text shows us that Christianity was not united in its theology immediately following its inception we often hear that this denomination or that denomination is closer to the early church than any others but to that I say which early church there was never a single theology from which all Christian sects sprung and splintered off of Christianity was diverse from the very beginning and the only reason we think otherwise is encapsulated in my next point history is written by the winners for a long time the only things we knew about the Gospel of Judas and those who believed it came from people like irony asou opposed them is it any wonder that we've had less trouble finding the text that the like irony is upheld and more trouble finding those they despised it's because by might popularity luck or some combination thereof those who upheld the text we've always had one they gained powers so they wrote the history we learn in our religious Bible classes imagine how much richer a history we'd have if all Christian sects were able to record their perspectives to finally here's my obligatory point as an atheist and skeptic given that from so early on in Christian history theology and practice was so varied and divided the idea that God has made his message clear is just absurd as early as the second century Christians already disagreed on the fundamental points who is God who is Jesus how do we worship is there an afterlife what is the afterlife like those were all points of disagreement among Christians long before any contemporary Christian sects took shape it doesn't seem like God cared to make things very clear so what was the point of sending Jesus at all it's apparent to me at least that God probably didn't have anything to do with the genesis of Christianity at all I hope you all enjoyed listening to this story as much as I've enjoyed telling it it's important for skeptics to be religiously literate as it's a necessity for anyone who aims to confront falsehoods propagated within religion or keep us from propagating myths of our own it also helps us to understand how lore and tradition change over time how history is written how religion shaped society and vice-versa the understanding of all these things adds up to a better understanding of the nature and story of humanity as skeptics I think it's vital for us to strive toward that understanding study of religion included thanks for watching I've been drew of genetically modified skeptic for those who want to learn more about this story and those like it I've created a playlist mostly consisting of videos from my favorite channel religion for breakfast there's so much fascinating stuff I couldn't cover so I think you'd really enjoy checking out those videos as always check out my patreon follow me on social media stop your sacrifices to sock loss or else I don't know you'll burn for all eternity we didn't get to the afterlife stuff I'm not really sure what's going to happen just don't do it until next time stay skeptical you

Channel: Genetically Modified Skeptic

Views: 1,554,620

Rating: 4.7995949 out of 5

Keywords: atheism, atheist, agnostic, skeptic, skepticism, genetically modified skeptic, gm skeptic, Gnostic Gospel, gospel of judas, Nicean Christianity, Early Christianity, Judas Iscariot, Why did Judas Iscariot betray Jesus?, What is Christian Gnosticism, gnostic christian, gospel of thomas, religion for breakfast, bart ehrman, religious studies, atheist bible study, is Christianity true, gospels not, gospels not in the bible, counsel of nicea, canonical gospels

Id: BhQmLFHxsBw

Length: 20min 14sec (1214 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 23 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/RocDocRet]

I also find the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” to be enlightening.

[u/StarshipSentinel]

This vid is 20 mins, but it is well worth a watch. It's almost Lovecraftian in a way. It's fascinating to me as an anti-theist.