I was sent this article and wanted to see what you all think. I found it crazy how easy people are accepting this piece of work as Scripture? At this time I have found no comments on this subject by any Christian organizations stating their response...I will update as updated!
So here it is from National Geographic Magazine
Lost Gospel Revealed; Says Jesus Asked Judas to Betray Him
He is one of the most reviled men in history. But was Judas only obeying his master's wishes when he betrayed Jesus with a kiss?
That's what newly revealed ancient Christian text says.
After being lost for nearly 1,700 years, the Gospel of Judas was recently restored, authenticated and translated.
The Bible's New Testament Gospels-- Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- depict Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus, as a traitor. In biblical accounts Judas gives up Jesus Christ to his opponents, who later crucify the founder of Christianity.
The Gospel of Judas, however, portrays him as acting at Jesus' request.
"This lost gospel, providing information on Judas Iscariot -- considered for 20 centuries and by hundreds of millions of believers as an antichrist of the worst kind -- bears witness to something completely different from what was said [about Judas] in the Bible," said Rodolphe Kasser, a clergyman and former professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
Kasser, who is regarded as one of the world's preeminent Coptic scholars, led the effort to piece together and translate the Gospel of Judas. The National Geographic Society and the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery funded the project, and it will be profiled in the May 2006 issue of National Geographic magazine.
For the whole story click the link below:
Click here: AOL Research & Learn: National Geographic - Lost Gospel Revealed; Says Jesus Asked Judas to Betray Him
So how do we defend this? What does the Bible say about these claims? How does this change or not change how oyu view the Bible? Let me know!
You can also catch a piece of video shown on Nightline tonight http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/
Check out
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060406.wmanu0406/BNStory/International/home
for a lively discussion on the document -- including my two cents worth!
Hi Joe,
ReplyDeleteLove the blogger and it's nice to join the conversation in your territory.
I'm not expert, but after reading an article on the "Gospel of Judas," I have to say that it is pretty clear that it is not consistant with the rest of scripture. Here's the thing. As you know, all of the Old Testament points to Jesus. Marriage points to Christ's relationship to the church. All of the feasts and sascrifices point to the New Testament theology of atonement. Slavery points to our unwilling slavery to sin, and then to our willing slavery to God. Sodom, the flood, the plagues, etc point to the New Testament view of judgment. On the other hand, the theology expoused in the Gospel of Judas fits into the scripture like oil in a glass of water. Basically, if you and I made up a new religion from scratch right now, and blamed it on Jesus, then it would be worth about as much as the Gospel of Judas.
Both history and Scripture support Jesus' fulfillment of many of the Old Testament Prophecies (Scripture supports all of the fulfillments, but History only records some of the bullet points). My question to the modern Gnostics is this: Why would God go through so much trouble to announce the ministry of Jesus beforehand, fulfill numerous prophecies concerning His life, and then disregard the Theology that these prophecies point to? It's silliness. The Gnostic gospels were discredited in their generation because their were incredible (as in not credible) then, and it is foolishness to tout them as some great spiritual or theological discovery today. Yesterday's trash is today's tressure for the hellbound world I guess :( - They'll listen just as long as it gives a salve for those aching in disbelief of the true God :( I can begin to relate to Christ's longing to gather these lost people like a hen gathers her chicks (I say begin because Christ's heart was far purer than mine and His love far greater, which I say to my shame, yet I rejoice that every servant shall be as his Master).
That's my blunt, snap, non-expert assessment. Sorry if it sounded kind of ranty, I'm coming off my overnight shift on no sleep and am not mincing words. Anyway, I know you're looking for ways to combat the Divinci fueled interest in the ancient Gnostic movement, and I hope you find these thoughts helpful in some way.
I'll try not to wear out my welcome. :) I just reallized that I may have over-generalized some of my type-fulfillment statements, so I just wanted to correct by saying, I was generalizing concerning shadow categories and got careless with my wording. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteYeah I heard the debate... It was so disheartening to hear Barker's own testimony concerning himself. I'm still grieved by it after hearing it around 2 pm today (guess it's on my heart to pray about him then)
ReplyDeleteI liked the way that Todd opened with a gospel presentation and kept coming back to it. He will never regret preaching/arguing that way.
The only suggestion I had was that I would have liked to hear more about the empty tomb and about the prophecies from the Old Testament that are fulfilled in Christ's life. It really presents a strong argument for the supernatural when we look at the fulfilled prophecies and the way that the Old Testament shadows the New. Wouldn't that have been more tangible than a he-said she-said about what happened in the beginnig?
Anyway, all in all it was well done. I don't mean to detract at all by my suggestion. (In fact those very prophecies are one of the things I should get to understand better myself. Really beyond Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, I am guilty of underutilizing prophecy and I don't even go to those two texts that often. So I am taking my own comment to heart.)
Grace and peace,
Ben
This one's pretty easy, IMHO. By all accounts, the "Gospel" of Judas was written at least 60 years after the last canonical book, so even by secularist standards, it's not as good historical evidence as the books that were deemed canonical.
ReplyDelete