The Gospel of Judas

‘Much ado about nothing’

By Msgr. Pedro Lopez-Gallo

The publication of the Gospel of Judas has made much noise for nothing, because this apparently new information about Judas, the villain, and the other disciples, the heroes, was already known and pronounced heretical about 150-180 years after the death of Jesus by the Church Fathers.

There were many other gospels similar to this that more or less resembled the inspired books of the Old and New Testament; they appeared about 40 to 60 years after Jesus rose from the dead. There were the gospels of James, of Bartholomew, of Nicodemus, of St. Thomas, of Mary, and a myriad more.

These books are called apocrypha, and include those books written by Jews for the purpose of continuing their tradition, for instance, the Assumption of Moses, the Sibylline Oracles, etc. Christians also wanted to complete other facts or miracles of the New Testament. Many heresies were scattered through these books. I want to describe, briefly, three of the most deplorable at the beginning of Christianity.

Gnosticism, which comes from the Greek word meaning knowledge, is the esoteric cognition of spiritual truth, a cult of the pre and early Christian centuries distinguished by the conviction that matter is evil and its emancipation comes only through this knowledge, not by the Redemption of Christ.

Manichaeism, from its founder Persian Manes (215-276 AD), is the belief that there is an eternal struggle between good and evil, darkness and light, and that God is the maker of evil. Before his conversion, St. Augustine was an enthusiastic adherent for nine years.

Docetism, a belief opposed as heresy in early Christianity, taught that Christ had an only apparently human body and only apparently suffered on the cross, since, as God, He was unable to suffer. Therefore, during His crucifixion He was laughing, since no torture could reach him. The believers were called Doketas, derived from the Greek word doketai, meaning a show, a theatrical performance with no real existence.

Because of all these errors it was necessary to decide which books were divinely inspired, and could therefore be called canonical. This was accomplished by the Fathers of the Church, especially by St. Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, who is considered an intermediary link between the apostolic age and the patristic. He knew St. John and others who had actually seen the Lord.

St. Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, France, considered the first great Catholic theologian, was a vocal defender of Christian orthodoxy and author of Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies), one of the most important defences of the faith.

In it he unequivocally rejects the Gospel of Judas and denounces it as heretical, because it was openly supported by the Gnostics, who believed that salvation depended on secret knowledge. It was clear that their heresy was based in Hellenic mythology, according to which there were several gods, with Zeus the father of them all, good and wicked.

According to Gnostic doctrine, Jesus was a god, not God, and was encapsulated in a body that freed him from all human instincts and bad inclinations. Jesus needed Judas as an instrument to be freed from his body.

Through the four canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we are aware of the bickering and various quarrels the apostles often brought to Jesus. One of the most acrimonious disputes was the request of the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee, for them to be seated one at the right hand of Jesus, one at the left, in His kingdom.

“When the other 10 heard this, they became indignant at the two brothers” (Mt. 20:24). The real maxim of Jesus was always the first will be last and the last first: “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be the slave of all” (Mk. 11:44).

After The Da Vinci Code, The Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and The Jesus Papers, this Gospel of Judas seemed to be a welcome manna for conspirators like Dan Brown and Michael Baigent, who want to destroy with vicious fantasies the tradition of the Last Supper, the virginity of Christ, and the work of Opus Dei.

These new, spurious commentators are avid sensationalists, taking advantage of the credulity of some of the faithful, wanting to discredit the Church in the eyes of non-believers by claiming to have rediscovered a secret deception. They want to elevate Judas above the other apostles, giving him an innocent face and proclaiming him an obedient disciple of Jesus.

This contradicts the teaching of Jesus Himself: “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born” (Mt. 26:24).

This Gospel of Judas, a 26-page manuscript probably originally written in Greek, was first unearthed by looters. From the moment of its discovery it was the object of serious speculation; one dealer asked for US$3 million.

The papyrus is written in Coptic and is estimated to be 1,700 years old. It was found in 1970 in a cave of El Minya, in Egypt, and was titled THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS.

The Coptic religion is an Egyptian Christian sect with two branches, the Uniate Coptic Church and the Coptic Orthodox Church, founded, according to tradition, by St. Mark the Evangelist. The Copts have been well respected for their traditions and wisdom but recently have endured local persecution. They refused to acquire the Gospel of Judas, knowing it was apocryphal.

After restoration, since it was badly damaged and in thousands of pieces, it was translated by skilled linguists. The media, always exhilarated by novelties, presented the discovery as if it posed a direct challenge to Christianity, giving a new version of Judas’s role. They tried to vindicate Judas as a faithful and highly favoured disciple of Jesus.

The desire to elevate Judas to preferred status is spurious, since we know that John, the youngest of the apostles, was considered by all the apostles to be the disciple that Jesus loved the most (Jn. 13:22). He alone remained beneath the cross with Mary, who became his new mother, according to the last words of Jesus.

Some insinuate that the Gospel of Judas repudiates the accounts of the first Christians and of the evangelists, who distorted history by accusing Judas of being a mercenary, a thief, a traitor, when, in fact, “Judas did only what Jesus ordered him to do.” Let me transcribe the section of the Gospel of Judas that relates this.

“His disciples started getting infuriated and began blaspheming against Him in their hearts. When Jesus observed their lack of understanding, He said to them, ‘Why has this agitation led you to anger? Your god is within you and has provoked you to anger within your souls. Let any one of you who is strong enough among human beings bring out the perfect human and stand before my face.’

“They said, ‘We have the strength,’ but their spirits did not dare to stand before Him, except for Judas Iscariot. He was able to stand before Him, but he could not look Him in the eyes, and he turned his face away. Judas said to Him, ‘I know Who You are and where You come from. You are from the immortal realm of Babelo [Babylon?], and I am not worthy to utter the name of the One Who has sent You.’

“Knowing that Judas was reflecting upon something that was exalted, Jesus said to him, ‘Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal, for someone else will replace you, in order that the 12 (disciples) may again come to completion with their god.’ Judas said to Him: ‘When will You tell me these things, and (when) will the great day of light dawn for generations?’ but Jesus left him.

“Jesus appeared to His disciples again and Judas said to Him, ‘In my vision I saw myself as the 12 disciples were stoning me and persecuting me.’ Jesus answered and said, ‘Judas, your star has led you astray, but you will exceed all of them, for you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.’”

At the conclusion, the narrative ends saying that the high priests and scribes were watching carefully in order to arrest Him during the prayer, for they were afraid of the people, since He was regarded by all as a prophet.

“They approached Judas and said to him, ‘What are you doing here? You are Jesus’s disciple.’ Judas answered them as they wished and he received some money and handed Him over to them.”

It would be a gross disregard of the four canonical Gospels to accept the version of the Gospel of Judas about the deal between Jesus and Judas to give Him up to the high priests. This is totally different from what we learn from St. Luke.

“Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the 12, and Judas went to the chief priests and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. They were pleased and agreed to pay him money (Lk. 22:3-5). “They paid him 30 pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand Him over” (Mt. 26:15-16).

If we consider the pivotal phrase of the apocryphal Gospel of Judas, by which he plays the role of sacrificing Jesus’s physical being (“the man that clothes me”), the belief of Gnostics and Doketas that the body of Christ is only apparent is clear, and its sense is heretical. Judas’s Gospel also supports the heresy of the Cainists, from Cain who killed his brother Abel. This heresy professed that God was good and evil. His children were all whom the Scriptures condemned.

Did Judas write this gospel? Certainly not; he died after the condemnation of Jesus, full of remorse and desperation. Moreover, it was written about 150 AD.

Did it contradict the traditional account? Yes!

Does this gospel put in jeopardy the credibility of our four canonical Gospels? The answer is an emphatic “No!”

In a way, the Gospel of Judas and the Canonical Gospels are in accordance. John repeats the awareness of Jesus that Judas will betray Him: “What you are going to do, do quickly” (Jn. 13:27). This is a more imperative mandate than the phrase of the Gospel of Judas: “You will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

The Gospel of Judas contributes to a better knowledge of the Gnostic sect and has historical value, but it is not a threat to our faith. The Vatican never pretended to hide copies of Gnostic gospels; there are some in its library.

Why did Gnostics want to reevaluate Judas? It was part of their system regarding evil: Gnosticism blames God for the evil in the world, claiming that He created the world in a disordered and flawed manner. Thus, to counter His mischief, the wicked individuals of the Bible must be rehabilitated, such as Cain who killed his brother, or Esau who sold his birthright for a lentil plate, and now, Judas.

If Christ wanted Judas to betray Him, why is Judas guilty for doing the will of God? No, like Cain, he committed his sacrilege through his own free choice. We must not confound the prescience of God. That He knows what will happen does not diminish our freedom to chose good or evil according to our own intentions.

Is Judas in hell? The universal Christian literature is predominant in condemning him to eternal damnation. Very recently, during Holy Week, Pope Benedict XVI said that Judas was “a liar, a double-crossing man who did not care about the truth and refused love. He valued Jesus less than power. Love did not matter. He was greedy; money was more important than communion with Jesus, more important than God.”

Nevertheless, although Jesus qualified Judas’s act as severely abominable, His words were not a formal condemnation to hell.

Remember that between the moment of Judas hanging himself and his strangulation and asphyxia, there was a possible instant of remorse and repentance to make an act of contrition.

The merciful John Paul II supported my thought when he wrote that Jesus’s words to Judas “do not allude for certain to his eternal damnation” (Crossing the Threshold of Hope).

We can be certain of the eternal reward of a saint in paradise, after the process of canonization, but we never can be certain and believe “ex fide” (by a dogmatic act of faith) that somebody is in the eternal damnation of hell.