The Gospel According to Judas
It was a USA Today headline that caught my eye. It lead to a story about a supposed find of the long lost Gospel of Judas. It seeks to vindicate him and give a better light. According to this find he betrayed Jesus because Jesus instructed him to do so.
Oh Man ... (sigh)
I remember when I was in college there was a book that liberal theologians were raving about called I Judas by Taylor Caldwell. It was basically the same idea except it was supposed to be a thought provoking work of fiction that made no claim to authority. Still a stupid book.
Actually there are many, many books from the first 3 centuries of the Christian Church that were rejected outright, or esteemed, but not as inspired. The Didache is quite good and was considered Scripture by many early Christians though it was rightly rejected when the New Testament Cannon was decided upon. Others such as Protovangelion of James (centering on the conception, birth and childhood of Mary) or The Infancy Gospel of Thomas are simply astounding, and were taken seriously by very, very, very few people.
Here is a website that has numerous apocryphal New Testament Books, all of which were rejected by the Church for very good reasons. Some are of them are inspiring. Some are insightful. Some are amusing. Some are sickening.
I note that this site also has material on but not the text of the Gospel of Judas.
Oh Man ... (sigh)
I remember when I was in college there was a book that liberal theologians were raving about called I Judas by Taylor Caldwell. It was basically the same idea except it was supposed to be a thought provoking work of fiction that made no claim to authority. Still a stupid book.
Actually there are many, many books from the first 3 centuries of the Christian Church that were rejected outright, or esteemed, but not as inspired. The Didache is quite good and was considered Scripture by many early Christians though it was rightly rejected when the New Testament Cannon was decided upon. Others such as Protovangelion of James (centering on the conception, birth and childhood of Mary) or The Infancy Gospel of Thomas are simply astounding, and were taken seriously by very, very, very few people.
Here is a website that has numerous apocryphal New Testament Books, all of which were rejected by the Church for very good reasons. Some are of them are inspiring. Some are insightful. Some are amusing. Some are sickening.
I note that this site also has material on but not the text of the Gospel of Judas.
posted by shoprat at 7:59 PM
2 Comments:
Hi Shoprat!
Supposedly they have carbon-dated this parchment... but I'm still in the "wait and see" mode. Haven't made up my mind one way or the other.
There has been so much bogus crap out there that I don't buy anything hook, like and sinker anymore, except for my faith in Jesus. And they have only transcribed one itty-bitty part of the parchment so far.
So... like I said, let's wait and see.
You know... it would sort of be rather nice to really know that Judas was a "good guy" after all. But as for now I'm taking this entire thing with a grain of salt.
I just had to laugh when I heard all of the hoopla on this. There is a reason like you said why the books we have in the Bible are inspired and others were left out.
Post a Comment
<< Home