The Lost Gospel of Judas

I first read about this earlier this year in an issue of the excellent National Geographic magazine. Now, having seen an audio-visual presentation of pretty much the same information by Channel Four, as a Bible-believing Christian, I feel compelled to comment as follows:

The Gospel of Judas is indeed a very revealing insight into the early development of Christianity. However, I do not see any justification for claiming that within 30 years of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the early Christians had become anti-Jewish to such an extent that they would deliberately set out to demonise Judas. Nevertheless, I am willing to accept that, many centuries later, the character of Judas has been used by those wanting to pursue an anti-Semitic agenda.

In the long run, however, I am certain that the emergence of documents such as the Gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Thomas, and other ancient manuscripts will be of great benefit to believer and skeptic alike. This is because, no matter what the message, they help to cement the foundations of Christianity in the remarkable and historical person of Jesus Christ.

Both National Geographic and Channel Four make far too much of the existence of the Gnostics. You do not have to be a post-doctoral research fellow in theology to know about Gnostics (a cursory glance at the NIV Study Bible will suffice). Yes the Gnostics were one of many groups that existed in the 1st and 2nd Century AD, but it is ludicrous to paint Irenaeus, an early Bishop of Lyon, as some kind of anti-Semitic conspirator. All he was doing was trying to ensure the clarity of the message of the Church. Gnostics were mystics who believed that salvation lay in "the divine spark within each one of us", but St Paul said that we should see our physical bodies as the Temple of the Holy Spirit. So, clearly, there must have been more to it than that.

I suspect that the Irenaeus (i.e. the Early Church) took objection to Gnosticism because, a bit like the modern-day Jehovah's Witnesses, they replaced the the all-inclusive "gospel" (i.e. good news) with a "only-those-in-the-know" message. Whereas, the latter does not fit easily with Jesus' commanding his followers to "go unto all nations..." (see Matthew 28:18-20).

However, there is a world of difference between the mysticism of the Gnostics; and their rejection of the notion of the Trinity - and those that peddle the myth that Jesus did not die on the Cross and that Mary Magdalene had his love child. (I must admit though, the Vicar of Dibley, yesterday, was extremely funny!).