SAINT ANDREW’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH - LAKE WORTH, FLORIDA
THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS and EASTER – AN INSTRUCTIONAL ADDRESS
[a compilation of information from many reliable sources]The current public fascination with the Gospel of Judas challenges us to review its origins and possible impact on our familiar understanding of Christianity. In lieu of a sermon, I’ll do what I can to address the issue informatively within a sermon’s time frame. You might want to read along in the provided script, in order to keep track of all the details. (As well, you might want to reread this address more than once; it is rather demanding!)
Basic Biblical Themes Within Jesus’ Bible
As a child and as an adult, Jesus was immersed in the traditions of the conventional Judaism of his day. As with all religions, Judaism had its schools of thought. Nevertheless, there was a core of fundamental convictions that permeated his heritage and life. For example, (1) the personal God self-disclosed to Abraham, Moses, and the other prophets is the God of Creation. (2) Our entire cosmos is a real and good creation - the handiwork of God. (3) Human existence begins in the physical world, each individual as a basically good “flesh-animated-by soul, the whole conceived as a psychophysical unity."1 Each faithful person is a unique child of God with the capacity to choose ongoing allegiance to the biblical God or to idols. (4) Human beings may learn about, and commune with, God by means of God’s self-disclosures in history (particularly those pivotal disclosures noted in the Bible) and also through corporate prayer supplemented with private devotions. (5) Faithful people are called to live in a communal bond of love and justice with each other and with God. This “covenant community” is called to be a Light to the Nations, a beacon to humanity. By the time of Jesus, these five themes were well in place among those, including our Lord, who viewed the Hebrew Scriptures, what Christians call the “Old Testament,” as their Bible.
An Inaccuracy That Gave Rise to Writings
After the Resurrection of Christ, his disciples expected him to return very soon to establish fully the Kingdom of God. When that did not happen, they realized that their expectations were mistaken. In an effort to share their various experiences of Jesus’ ministry, several wrote letters and summations of their versions of the “good news” of Christ. Many who wrote had no first hand contact with Jesus or his closest disciples. Some at a distance produced writings composed within entirely non-biblical, even opposing, contexts. As a result of individuals close and distant composing their recollections or impressions about Jesus, around thirty gospels and many letters circulated in the region.
The Emergence of the New Testament Canon
Different locales began to use what they believed were authentic writings about Christ’s ministry. It seems that the earliest attempt to establish an official list of authentic writings (i.e., a “canon” or standard edition of the New Testament) was made about the year 150 by a heretical Christian named Marcion; his list included the Gospel of Luke and ten letters of Paul, all edited in a strong anti-Jewish, anti-biblical direction contrary to the well established themes of the Hebrew Scriptures. In opposition to distortions, accelerated efforts rose to establish a genuine canon faithful to Christ. Yet, there were disagreements by faithful Christians as to which writings should be included in the New Testament. To make a long story short, by the year 367, a list of the 27 writings that remain today as the New Testament took hold among most well-respected Christian leaders. This evolving leadership had gathered the writings they truly believed best reflected the heart and mind of Christ. With much soul-searching, prayer, discussion, and collegiality, they excluded those that were not particularly noteworthy as well as others that were contradictory to the fundamental spirit and convictions of the Hebrew Bible and Jesus Christ.
The Gospel of Judas Manuscript
The manuscript of the Gospel of Judas, whose existence has been known for 1800 years, was found in the 1970s and recently brought to light by the group of nine scholars commissioned by National Geographic. The manuscript, which made its way to the National Geographic team after a roundabout path of sales and countersales, is written in Coptic, the ancient language of Egyptian Christianity. It has been radiocarbon-dated to the years between 220 and 340, though historians and literary experts believe that it is a translation of an even earlier Greek text that probably dates to between 130 and 180. As far as we know, The Gospel of Judas was first mentioned (most negatively) by the second century Bishop Irenaeus.
Context of The Gospel of Judas: Gnosticism
No one is contesting that the Gospel of Judas is one of the many writings composed within a Gnostic context. The term (from the Greek gnosis, "knowledge") refers to a loosely defined group of religious sects flourishing near the beginning of the Christian era. They all attempted to combine different systems of thought or practice which incorporated elaborate myths, elements of Greek mystery cults, Greek philosophy and mythology, and features of Christian and Jewish faith. Some gnostic teachers regarded themselves as Christians, but faithful theologians like Irenaeus and Tertullian denounced them as contrary to the mind of Christ.
Their beliefs included the following themes that are so different from the biblical: (1) the personal God self-disclosed to Abraham, Moses, and the other prophets is not true, ultimate divinity; in fact, the God of the Hebrew Scriptures is despised as the creator of an evil world. True divinity (or “God”) is pure, non-personal spirituality. (2) Our entire cosmos is not a real and good creation; in fact, matter is evil and only the spiritual is real and good. (3) Human existence involves the sinful material body and an inner, good spiritual essence, a “divine spark”; each individual’s divine essence is trapped within the material body and awaiting release. (4) Superior human beings may learn about, and establish mystical deliverance from, or union with, pure spirituality by turning inwardly to their spiritual essence (“divine spark”); achieving such inwardness is knowledge. Such knowledge was usually secret, internal, private, and unverifiable. Historical events convey nothing about religious truth. (5) Enlightened and faithful people - the elite - are called to live in a variety of individualistic ways that accommodate the relative insignificance of human existence. In spite of its opposition to the biblical worldview, the essence of Gnosticism has proved very durable – especially the view that the inner spirit of humanity must be liberated from a world that is basically deceptive, oppressive, and evil. Furthermore, the notion that individualistic spirituality is superior to biblical religion (grounded in historical events and corporate expression) meets with a following in every generation.
Contents of The Gospel of Judas
The Gospel of Judas consists mostly of supposed conversations between Jesus and Judas. Underlying the Gospel of Judas are versions of the five Gnostic themes just mentioned, themes by design in opposition to, or a supposed higher form of, the outlook permeating the Bible. More specifically, the Judas manuscript claims that Jesus revealed secret, mystical knowledge to Judas privately and instructed him to turn Jesus over to the Roman authorities so that Jesus would be killed and his spirit freed from the shackles of his human body. Judas is thereby granted a vision of divine spirituality that is denied to other disciples - who do not know that Jesus has requested his own betrayal. Judas is following our Lord’s orders when he leads soldiers to Jesus. Moreover, Jesus is portrayed as frequently laughing at the other disciples for their failure to embrace Gnostic-like mystical beliefs. Additionally, the Resurrection – the pivotal event of the New Testament - is denied. Scripture scholars have generally cautioned that the Gospel of Judas is of no historical use in casting new light on Judas himself or on Jesus. It is but one of several mythological writings written at a distance from the biblical mindset of Christ, which is the overall standard by which genuine Christian writings are judged.
The Gospel of Judas and Easter
Years ago I concluded a sermon for the second Sunday in Easter with these words: “… Thomas was not touched by a folk tale, metaphor, or some kind of inner enlightenment. He was moved by the visible, exalted presence of Christ. It is within the ongoing Resurrection community, the Church, that we hear about and meet the life-giving Christ, especially in our Eucharistic celebrations. Within this fellowship the Resurrection becomes our own account of the Risen Lord in our lives. Back at daily patterns, duties and relationships, as Christians we choose the Easter perspective of hopefulness, confidence, and triumph rather than a defeatist credo of immovable stones, insecurity, gloom, and failure. Indeed, Easter authenticates and shapes who we are most fundamentally: that together you and I are children of God never separated from God's victorious love and healing grace. For every one of us Easter confirms the ultimate trustworthiness of the one true and personal God disclosed in His Christ.”
No words of mine could be further away from any and all versions of Gnosticism, including the Gospel of Judas. I believe firmly that my words above convey well the actual spirit and experiences of the disciples of the Risen Lord and Christ! You, of course, are free to come to your own conclusions, which I trust would emerge from your careful study of the many issues involved.
1Robert McAfee Brown, "Soul (Body)," Handbook of Christian Theology, p. 355.
Almighty and everlasting God, who in the Paschal mystery established the new covenant of reconciliation: Grant that all who have been reborn into the fellowship of Christ's Body may show forth in their lives what they profess by their faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
John 20:19-31When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
In the Cherbonnier subsite, see “Jerusalem and Athens,” “Mystical vs. Biblical Symbolism,” “The Logic of Biblical Anthropomorphism,” and “The Theology of the Word of God.”
In the Biblical Thought subsite, see “A Synoptic View of Biblical Religion,” “Biblical Religion/Philosophy,” “Core Essentials of ……. ,” and “God As Personal.”
In the Perennial Philosophy subsite, see all items. [“Perennial Philosophy” is an umbrella term that includes versions of Gnosticism.]
