Judas Gets a Break

Well, 1700 years is a long time between drinks, but poor old Judas Iscariot, Christian whipping boy for centuries, at last sees a little sunshine.

A manuscript, The Gospel of Judas, dating to about 300 A.D. has surfaced which, if believed, would show that Judas was only following Jesus' directions when he betrayed Him to the Romans. What's more, in this book Judas turns from the goat to the Super Sheep, the only Apostle holding the ultimate secret knowledge given to him by Jesus Himself.
Oops. There's the rub. "Secret knowledge". Sounds like our old friends the Gnostics and, by golly, it is. Unfortunately, the Gnostics, best known through the Nag Hamadi papers discovered in 1948, have long since been discredited as factual competitors to the traditional four Gospels.

Let me try an analogy. Imagine that in 2006 a single, partially illegible document of unknown authorship written in Spanish was found in a library in Mexico. This document is entitled The Testimony of Benedict Arnold and experts say it is probably a copy of an earlier English language document.

The Testimony indicates that Arnold was directed by George Washington to betray American secrets to the British and, further, was Washington's closest friend and the sole holder of Washington's true vision for the future United States.

How much history would you be willing to rewrite on the basis of a single anonymous, questionable document weighed against the rest of the historical record ?

Stay skeptical and

Stay Naked
jd