What is the Gospel of Judas?

this episode is sponsored by wandrium make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for some great video recommendations for those who have grown up reading the traditional or canonical gospel accounts about the life of Jesus it can be quite jarring to read some of the non-canonical texts that didn't make it into the Bible they often include stories and teachings that are very different from what became Orthodox Christianity and perhaps nowhere is this ass chew whereas when we read one of the most famous and interesting of all the non-canonical books The Gospel of Judas foreign [Applause] out of all the amazing archaeological finds in the 20th century when it comes to ancient Christian and Jewish writings one of the most recent was the discovery and publication of the Gospel of Judas a text that turns the teachings of a mainstream Christianity on its head and represents a very different interpretation of the famous figure of Judas Iscariot the story of the manuscript is a fascinating one in itself it only exists currently in a single manuscript written in Coptic the actual Discovery is a bit uncertain but it is believed that it was discovered sometime in the 1970s in Egypt similar to the nagamati texts that were discovered in the 1940s the dry and arid desert climate of Egypt is very good for preserving all Papyrus which is why we have found so much stuff there the manuscript that included the Gospel of Judas changed hands a few times after its Discovery in the 20th century and was sold on the Antiquities Market both in Egypt it's about eventually also in places like Europe and the United States without anyone really realizing its significance some Scholars had been allowed to see the documents just a few sections from it and did kind of realize how significant this could possibly be if it was authentic but it was never allowed you know people the people who owned this document wanted a lot of money for it that the academic institution simply didn't couldn't afford and so for a long time the manuscript just circulated in different uh hands into in the in the sort of Antiquities dealership markets without being looked at properly by by archaeologists or Scholars or people who could preserve the document properly among other things it was kept in a safe deposit box in Long Island in New York for 16 years which was a disaster for its preservation unlike the dry climate of Egypt Long Island is not that so sadly the text was terribly damaged and many parts of it are lost because of this maltreatment it wasn't until the early 21st century when the text became accessible to Scholars for the first time who after confirming its authenticity realized what they were actually looking at so even though the text had technically been discovered decades before it wasn't until 2006 that the National Geographic published the findings for the first time along with a translation the text obviously made quite the splash not only in these scholarly Community but also Among The Wider public which is not surprising given how significant its contents are the content of the Gospel can be truly surprising to those who are used to the stories and teachings from Mark Matthew Luke and John just like with the Gospel of Thomas we have known about a Gospel of Judas for a long time the early proto-orthodox Church Father irenaeus famously wrote a word called against the heresies in which he calls out groups that he sees as heretical including what we call the so-called gnostics and in that discussion he mentions a Gospel of Judas as one of the texts belonging to this heretical Gnostic Group quote and Judas the betrayer they say had got a thorough knowledge of these things and he alone knowing the truth above all the others accomplished The Mystery of the Betrayal through him all things both Earthly and Heavenly have been dissolved as they say and they reduce a composed work to this effect which they call the Gospel of Judas just by reading this we get an idea of the uniqueness of this text and many scholars today believe that the current Gospel of Judas that we have is the same that irenaeus is talking about here because when we read the actual text we find that at least from one interpretation it fits rather well into his description so what is actually in this gospel then there is a tendency among people sometimes to call basically all non-canonical gospels Gnostic Gospels which is often not very accurate especially given how contested that term is in a previous episode we talked about the Gospel of Thomas which is often called precisely agnostic gospel but should actually or probably be seen as belonging to a unique movement of its own in early Christianity sometimes referred to by Scholars as thomasine Christianity so to call the Gospel of Thomas a Gnostic Gospel According to probably the majority of scholarship day is kind of inaccurate because it doesn't really fit into that category of Gnostic teachings but when it comes to the Gospel of Judas this is a text that most Scholars agree can actually be characterized as in Gnostic text now we should remember that the terms Gnostic and especially gnosticism are highly contested historians disagree if these terms can be used at all to refer to any kind of movement in Antiquity and if so than who or what should it be applied to I discussed this topic at length in my dedicated episode on gnosticism but we saw there that irenaeus himself the Church Father we mentioned earlier does refer to a specific group with the term gnostics and with the implication that they seem to use this term to refer to themselves so with this in mind we can kind of use that term as a designation for a particular School in early Christianity which is often Otherwise Known identified as the sethians or the sethian gnostics and when we look at the Gospel of Judas we can see that it seems to align with the teachings and cosmology of the sethiannostics in particular and it is indeed often considered among the writings by this group along with other fascinating texts like the apocryphon of John the reality of the rulers and zostianos just like the name suggests the gospel is to some degree centered around the figure of Judas is scary periods and secret conversations between him and Jesus the text obviously wasn't written by Judas but it is named as such more so based on its contents and while the canonical gospels and all of mainstream Christianity basically sees Judas as the great betrayer right the person who gives Jesus away to the Roman authorities which results in his execution he is of course therefore probably the most hated figure in all of Christianity but in the Gospel of Judas a very different view of this figure emerges one that gives a new perspective on the passion narrative as well as a new picture of the Apostles and the purpose of Jesus's mission the gospel begins with words quote the secret revelatory discourse that Jesus spoke with Judas Iscariot in the course of a week three days before his passion we then read a rather striking account when Jesus walks up to his disciples as they are praying and doing rituals of Thanksgiving perhaps even doing the Eucharist which is weird given the fact that that event hadn't happened yet but we'll see why this kind of makes sense soon in any case he walks up to his disciples as they are performing these rituals and praying and he simply starts laughing at them and the disciples perhaps understandably you are pretty confused and so they ask Jesus quote Master why are you laughing in our prayer of Thanksgiving what is it that we have done this is what is proper to which Jesus then replies quotes I'm not laughing at you you aren't doing this out of your own will but because in this way your God will be praised this is a striking quote because Jesus says your God does that mean that the apostles are worshiping some other God from Jesus yep that's exactly right and this is the first indication that we are dealing with a gnostic text here the apostles here at least the eleven that are not Judas in a way represent the many Church fathers at the time when the gospel was written that represent the sort of proto-orthodoxies such as irenaeus and which according to the gnostics are Heretics that worship a false god if you've seen my episode on the gnostics you'll remember that they reject the god of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible as a false and ignorant pseudo deity called yaldabaoth or saklas who fashioned the material world along with his lower rulers or archons the world is a kind of prison in which the human being is trapped and Jesus is sent as a savior from the true God of the so-called invisible Spirit to help us reach Beyond this material world and go to the true world of the entirety through knowledge or gnosis in Greek and to the gnostics the ones who composed this gospel the other Christians these so-called proto-orthodox were leading their followers astray by worshiping the false Creator God rather than the true God thus completely misunderstanding Jesus who he was and for what he was sent and the 11 Apostles in the Gospel of Judas represent these false Doctrine indeed throughout the text Jesus informs them and us that they are misguided by the false god that they worship and that none of them understand who Jesus truly is except for one when I take a guess who it is that's right it's Judas Iscariot the man who at least according to the canonical gospel accounts is the great betrayer who was led and misguided by Satan to betray Jesus and have the son of man the Son of God killed this person this Apostle this disciple in the Gospel of Judas is the only one who truly knows Jesus's identity and has the most complete knowledge out of all the apostles when Jesus asked who among them is strong enough to stand before his face only Judas does so and while he can't look directly into Jesus's face instead looking away he utters the very telling words quote I know who you are and from what place you have come you have come from The Immortal Realm of barbalo and I am not worthy to pronounce the name of the one who has sent you this quote tells us a lot not only that Judas does truly know Jesus's identity but also further confirms the Gnostic nature of this text the so-called Immortal Realm of barbello refers to one of the characteristic features of Gnostic Thoughts with the barbello being the first Eon created by God thus the highest being in the Divine realm and when he says that he is not worthy of pronouncing the name of quote the one who has sent you he is most likely referring to the invisible Spirit which is the name for the true God not the false god of the Old Testament but the true highest God who has sent Jesus to help mankind the rest of the Gospel recounts conversations between Jesus and his disciples as well as secret conversations between Jesus and Judas in particular Jesus continues to tell his disciples that they and their successors are basically villains who will lead the people to false worship through a vision that the disciples have Jesus explains how they are like priests who sacrifice cattle that is sacrificed people by condemning them to false beliefs quote they have planted trees in my name without fruit in a shameful way Jesus said to them you are the ones presenting the offerings at the altar you have seen that is the god you serve and you are the twelve men you have seen that is in the vision and the cattle brought in are the offerings that you have seen they are the multitude you lead astray before that altar the 11 disciples really have a rough time in this text but the role of Judas Iscariot is a little more complex in their secret conversations Jesus eventually tells Judas about the complex cosmology of the Gnostic system and many of the famous players are featured here quote Jesus said come that I may teach you about the things that no person will see for there is a great and infinite realm whose Dimensions no Angelic generation could see in which is the great invisible Spirit which no eye of Angel has seen no thought of the mind has grasped nor was it called by a name he then recounts many of the features that we recognize from other Gnostic texts such as the secret book of John but a few things are different in the Gospel of Judas compared to some of those other Gnostic texts Sophia or wisdom does not play as major of a role here so in the secret book of John for example it is Sophia one of the eons in the Divine realm that creates the sort of pseudo dividendity that creates the the world the sort of ignorant false god Sophia wants to create something of her own without asking permission from her male counterparts and asking permission from the invisible spirit and so she creates a kind of deformed creature right which becomes this this figure of the yaldab oath or or of yelda both or saklas who then creates the worlds and the archons and whereas in other texts the names yaldabaoth and saklas are used for the same being the ignorant creator of the universe here they are separated yaldaba oath is a slightly higher being in the hierarchy whereas succlas is an even lower being that is responsible for the creation of the world and thus identified with the god of the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible but the important part is not the details of this Cosmic system but the Redemptive and salvific nature of Jesus there is a generation of people the pure generation perhaps identifiable with the seed of Seth and Gnostic myth that will be saved through their correct gnosis or knowledge whereas all other generations of humans are doomed to perish but unlike the Gospel of Thomas for example which granted should probably not be seen as a Gnostic Gospel to begin with but there as we saw in that episode the crucifixion of Jesus was not really considered it was not an important aspect of the mission of Jesus or the how Jesus saves humankind in the Gospel of Judas the crucifixion does seem to play a pretty important role in the salvation of humanity and what isn't so fascinating about this text is that Judas plays a very important role here and in a quite different way from in the canonical accounts Judas discusses with Jesus how he has had visions of his own where the other Apostles hate him and treat him very harshly this is an indication of judas's important mission indeed because Judas is special and has more perfected knowledge than the other disciples he has been given a very tragic yet important task whereas the other disciples will continue to sacrifice to evil and to the false God Jesus says to Judas quote but you will exceed all of them for you will sacrifice the man who Bears me in other words Judas will help Jesus shed his false material body and accomplish the crucifixion as you can tell this is pretty radically different from the mainstream accounts in the synoptic gospels Judas is the great betrayer as we have said he does there is a similarity in a certain sense in that Judas does accomplish a pre-ordained plan right it is the plan from the beginning for Jesus to be crucified that was what was supposed to happen and Judas of course plays an important role in making that happen but in those canonical accounts Judas still does what he does based on Greed and being misled by Satan right he's unequivocally an evil figure according to those stories in the gospel of judah's it's very different because here Jesus explicitly gives him that mission Jesus tells Judas that this is what you have to do for me to accomplish my mission so Judas doesn't do this for greed or anything like that but rather as the greatest sign of loyalty right it's it's turned completely upside down it really is the greatest sign of loyalty because What Judas does will inevitably lead to him being cursed for all eternity by most people and still he does it because he's loyal to his master or Jesus who gives him this Mission it's kind of a tragic story really indeed the whole gospel concludes with Judas going to the authorities as requested by Jesus and ends with the lingering and haunting words quote and Judas received some money and handed him over to them Judas is here a kind of tragic hero sacrificing himself and his reputation to accomplish Jesus's mission this has led to many interpretations of judas's role in this mythology because it isn't exactly straightforward for sure Judas is portrayed as special and as having more knowledge than the other Apostles after all being the only one who knows Jesus's true identity and from where he came as he said in the quote but other passages also makes it clear that Judas won't be saved and enter Paradise either there have been many interpretations by Scholars some of the earliest ones looked at this text and interpreted Judas as a hero but as more fragments appeared and further study was made opinions started to change some see him as being portrayed entirely negatively in the text while the majority today see him as a kind of neutral figure a figure that plays an important role but is neither heroic nor evil indeed in an early section of the text Judah says that he has had a vision to which Jesus just laughs mockingly and says quote o 13th Diamond why are you so excited speak your mind then and I'll hear you out what does this 13th diamond mean first of all we should understand that the term used here diamond is a Greek word that does not correspond to our modern idea of demon which is today always a kind of negative thing according to Christian theology instead here it is a kind of designation for an intermediary figure between Gods and Men Who are neither inherently good or bad they can be both good or bad so what he is saying here is that Judas is some kind of spirit you could say but things are still very confusing in a later section we find out a little more quote Judah said Master is it possible that my seed is subject to the rulers Jesus answered him and said to him come that I may something the text is lost here but you will go through a great deal of grief when you see the kingdom and its entire generation when Judas heard these things he said to him what advantage is there for me since you have set me apart from that generation Jesus answered and said you will be the 13th and you will be cursed by the other Generations but eventually you will rule over them this is admittedly a very cryptic passage but we can deduce some idea of what he is saying Judas is the 13th Spirit or diamond he has true knowledge of Jesus and will accomplish the mission by handing him over to the authorities which will of course result in him being cursed by all other people as Jesus said but in truth he will actually rule over them as the 13th spirit standing above the other twelve thus ruling the created world after the evil succlas and his archons have been defeated by the true God and the Divine world of the entirety and the pure generation has gone to that paradisal realm Judas at the 13th spirit will rule the created world as a kind of representative of the Divine realm he will never himself reach that realm himself but he has the highest position in this lower created Universe there is a lot more detail and a lot more features to be explored in the Gospel of Judas but just from this very short look into the text you can already see how much it differs from the traditional canonical accounts about Jesus and Judas and and the whole sort of passion narrative but also how much it Alliance particularly with the doctrines and the cosmology of the gnostics and the sethia gnostics to be precise in other words this is a non-canonic text that you can with good conscience call agnostic gospel the text has made quite a splash in biblical scholarship as you can imagine but at the same time all of the ideas expressed in the text can also be found in one way or another in other Gnostic texts too like the apocryphon of John or or the reality of the rulers and all these other texts that belong to that group so the ideas themselves aren't that surprising to Scholars but it's still incredibly valuable and and fascinating that we have this particular gospel that is probably mentioned by irenaeus and might have been a pretty important text to the early gnostics it turns the gospel stories completely upside down portraying the apostles as misguided and ignorant and Judas Iscariot as the most exalted one even eventually giving him a kind of cosmic role as the so-called 13th Diamond it is yet another example of how many different ways people interpreted the life and teachings of Jesus in the early centuries it's really fun fascinating how a preacher from Nazareth managed to create such a significant movement which eventually turned into the largest religion in the world studying the life of Jesus and his teachings from different perspectives is one of the most interesting things in the world to me and now you can 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will see you next time [Music]

Channel: Let's Talk Religion

Views: 242,267

Keywords: gospels, non-canonical gospels, bible, secret bible, secret gospel, nag hammadi, dead sea scrolls, history of the bible, early christianity, spiritual christianity, gnosticism, gnostic, gnostic gospels, mysticism, pantheism, gnosis, Jesus, sayings of jesus, secret sayings of jesus, christian mysticism, what is the gospel of judas, judas, gnostic gospel, gospel of judas, judas iscariot

Id: we2bZd8jjTc

Length: 25min 48sec (1548 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 18 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/GnuAthiest]

It is one of several noncanonical gospels and like the canonical ones, it was was not written by the author it was named for and was written much later than the events/teachings it describes.