In conjunction with “Easter season:’ the National Geographic Society released an ancient document dubbed the “Gospel of Judas.”<\/p>\n
In their news releases, National Geographic indicated the information in this third-century papyrus codex threatened the “official” doctrine of the church by offering an alternative view of the gospel story as revealed by biblical writers.<\/p>\n
In this “Gospel of Judas,” Judas was given special insight into the plans of Christ, and as His most favored disciple, it was his task to “betray” Jesus so that His plans could be carried out. The text does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.<\/p>\n
It is interesting that the “Gospel of Judas” is supposed to be a secret conversation between Jesus and Judas, although it is written in the third person, and could not have been written either by Jesus or Judas. Since neither Jesus nor Judas could have written it, how did this unknown writer know about this secret conversation?<\/p>\n
The document is a papyrus codex discovered near El Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s. It is no doubt a copy of an earlier Greek text that was condemned by Irenaeus, an early church father, about 180 A.D. It was probably produced by a second-century member of a Gnostic sect. The Gnostics [from the Greek word for knowledge] believed that they had special knowledge not known to others, and taught many things contrary to the Bible.<\/p>\n
The “Gospel of Judas,” like many other ancient documents (Gospel of Thomas, Shepherd of Hermas, and Ecclesiasticus), is interesting, but provides little real insight into the scriptures. Just because it is an old document, it is not necessarily true or valuable.<\/p>\n
“And Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went unto the chief priests, to betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought how he might conveniently betray him<\/em>” (Mark 14:10-11). Judas remains a tragic man caught up in his own greed. He is a warning to us.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bob Prichard via\u00a0House to House, Vol. 17, No. 5 In conjunction with “Easter season:’ the National Geographic Society released an ancient document dubbed the “Gospel of Judas.” In their news releases, National Geographic indicated the information in this third-century papyrus codex threatened the “official” doctrine of the church by offering an alternative view of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[660,130,334],"class_list":["post-60617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-apocrypha","tag-canon","tag-judas-iscariot"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17163,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-of-judas\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":0},"title":"The Gospel Of Judas","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Boyd Jennings Were you alarmed to hear that another gospel has been discovered?\u00a0\u00a0Before we continue, let\u2019s remember what Jesus told the twelve minus Judas. \u00a0\u201cHowever, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into\u00a0all\u00a0truth\u201d\u00a0(John 16:13).\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s why Paul wrote by inspiration of God\u2014twice,\u00a0\u201cBut even if we,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Gospel-of-Judas-389px-Codex-Tchacos-p33.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17168,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/reflections-on-the-gospel-of-judas\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":1},"title":"Reflections on the “Gospel of Judas”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by\u00a0Ethan R. Longhenry While\u00a0The Da Vinci Code mania continues to develop and grow throughout the world and while \"other gospels\" and \"alternative Christianities\" have become popular, we now see revealed to us yet another \"lost gospel,\" the Gospel of Judas. The National Geographic Society has done a good job of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Holding-a-Bible.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17172,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-gospel-of-judas-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":2},"title":"The Gospel of Judas?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ron Lehde Tonight (April 9, 2006) the National Geographic Magazine is scheduled to present a television program that deals with an ancient work known as \u201cThe Gospel of Judas\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It is a 26-page manuscript (ca. AD 300) that is a Coptic translation of a Greek manuscript that is at least\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/12\/Gospel-of-Judas-389px-Codex-Tchacos-p33.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":44940,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/judas-iscariot\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":3},"title":"Judas Iscariot","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jonathan Perz Spreading the Gospel","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":47752,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-to-deal-with-guilt\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":4},"title":"How to Deal with Guilt","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Weliever via\u00a0The Preacher's Word Although it may be fictitious, the story is told of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, who pulled a clever, but a cruel practical joke on twelve of the best-known men in England. He anonymously wrote a short, unsigned telegram with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60762,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-if-judas-had-given-jesus-permission-to-kill-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":60617,"position":5},"title":"What if Judas had given Jesus permission to kill him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: There is a question I have about Judas in the gospels who betrayed Jesus and committed suicide. I was curious that if Judas instead of committing suicide, decided to give Jesus permission to kill him, do you think that Jesus would have done that? 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