You can read the text of the new Gospel of Judas here.
I think the text's nature alone is sufficient proof of its non-authoritative nature regarding the life of Christ (it's bizarre Gnostic gobbley-gook).
Irenaeus (student of Polycarp, student of the apostle John (eyewitness to Jesus' life) disproved the Gnostic interpretations of Jesus' life handily enough a couple thousand years ago. You can read his great work here.
I think it's neat as a historian to see a new text this old uncovered, but it doesn't really have any challenge to the Christian's faith, as claimed by the mass media. Hear The New York Times: "The text gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him, scholars reported today."
Here's a question: if the Gospel of Judas is true, who wrote it? How would they know this truth? If, after the Last Supper Jesus revealed the true nature of his ministry, when did Judas get to tell someone else about it? Remember: even the Gnostic admitted he died very soon after Jesus' death. It must be their ministering angels told them about it: but that assumes a direct divine revelation that, ordinarily, most secular scholars would not respect. And most don't: only a few bizarros believe that the Gospel of Judas is filling in gaps in our understanding of Jesus' life. All it's really doing is filling in gaps in our understanding of old dead heresies. This is good for some academics' dissertations (especially scholars of Irenaeus), but it doesn't really matter very much to the culture or to Christians at large.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Heh, good point.
Actually, I'm not so sure. I don't know what the contents of the 'gospel' are, but they could have been told to others during Judas' life, not just immediately before he commits suicide...
Assuming the contents don't preclude this possibility, of course.
You should read the gospel, it's very short (perhaps because it's decayed) and the conversations Jesus has with Judas occur at the Last Supper. (I say this in my post). It's not that much fun to read because it's so strange, though.
Now, I interpreted the passage at the end of the gospel about Judas being stoned as meaning they admit he got killed. I think that's the more faulty part of my supposition.
Ah, it becomes clear.
Anyways, I have no idea why people would like Gnosticism, assuming they took it to its logical conclusion--being that all life on earth should be eradicated. Pretty sinister. But it does seem to be an off shoot of Neo Platonism, so I can see where it comes from.
I.e. it is kinda easy to interpret Timaeus as saying that creation (not just matter) is the root of all evil, since it is logically less perfect than the One. However, that inserts the category of evil, which I'm not sure Plato used. Plus, it makes the logical outcome of good to be evil, since the Demiurge creates as a logical extension of him being good (from what I remember).
Hmmm...those crazy Gnostics.
Post a Comment