Ancient manuscript vindicates Judas

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UmanH-ay

Ancient manuscript vindicates Judas

Unread post by UmanH-ay » April 29th, 2006, 11:47 pm

Ancient manuscript vindictes Judas



A long-lost manuscript dating to the early Christian era tells the Easter story from a strikingly different perspective: Judas Iscariot, long reviled as the man who betrayed Jesus, was really a good guy.

The "Gospel of Judas," as the document has been titled, portrays Judas as Jesus' favourite, entrusted with secrets withheld from the other disciples. It depicts his role in the crucifixion was laudable, for it enabled Jesus to escape the limitations of the flesh.

In this version, "Judas is the good guy," said Bart Ehrman, a University of North Carolina professor of religious history.

The 3rd or 4th century manuscript, written in Coptic on sheets of papyrus, was discovered in Egypt in the 1970s only to vanish again into an underworld of smugglers and shadowy antiquities dealers.
Book, film

It was unveiled on Friday by the National Geographic Society, which partnered with a Swiss foundation to publish the text, while the manuscript is to be returned to Egypt.

National Geographic is reported to have put up more than $US1 million - which it will seemingly try to recoup through book sales and a film version of the manuscript's scholarly detective story.

Carbon-dating of the Judas gospel shows that the manuscript, 13 sheets with writing on both sides, dates to between 220 and 340 AD. The text itself probably goes back to an earlier version written in Greek, the common language of educated classes in the Eastern Mediterranean world at that time.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/latest/20 ... 15/d375333

MiChuhSuh

Unread post by MiChuhSuh » April 30th, 2006, 4:09 pm

It's really up to which "side" you believe because the Judas script and several others, like teh Gospel of Mary, are very different in the "bottom line" message.

The 4 Gospels of the Bible, along with all the other letters and books, say salvation is through Jesus (God's forgiveness)

These books say it is by self knowledge and releasing your "inner divinity/intuition", which is why they are called Gnostic books (Gnostic = wisdom in Greek)

The Gnostic books are closer to Buddhism and 5% type thinking more than it is to Christianity, so basically it's a whole other religion...

Old Shatterhand
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Unread post by Old Shatterhand » May 3rd, 2006, 6:06 pm

Guys this “new” gospel was rejected by early Christian leaders and falls into the category of “Gnostic” writings.

It was discovered in Egypt in the 1970’s and it is believed to have been shopped around for sale until a Swiss foundation purchased it. The pages are reported to be rather damaged and fragmentary consisting of 62 pages, 31 pages of which make up the Gospel of Judas. Two other works take up the rest of the pages: The Epistle of Peter of Philip, and The First Apocalypse of James. They are part of the Gnostic “canon”.

The document is described as a Coptic text. Coptic refers to the Egyptian language at that time. The gospel was written in a language called Sahidic, which was established as the standard literary dialect of Coptic by the 4th century AD. A handwriting expert working for the National Geographic dates it to between the 4th and 5th centuries (300-400 AD). The carbon dating tests give it the date range of 220-340 AD.

It is basically a running fake conversation between Jesus and Judas and the content is similar to many Gnostic texts of the 2nd century AD. In this particular work, Jesus deems only Judas of all his disciples as worthy of receiving this secret knowledge and then Jesus asks Judas to betray him so that his mortal body will be killed and he can rejoin the spiritual world. Judas agrees and goes to the high priests to betray Jesus: That's the end of the gospel.

National Geographic states in the release that the document "has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature".

However, no scholar associated with the find argues this is a first century document, or that it derives from Judas.

National Geographic says the document dates to between 300 and 400 AD, but they like to make it sound earlier, while at least one of their experts puts it at the later date. The best we can say is that the Gospel of Judas is an authentic Gnostic writing. It does not have strong links to the first century AD.

Scholars say that they have long been on the lookout for the Gospel of Judas because of a reference to what was probably an early version of it in a text called Against Heresies, written by Irenaeus, the bishop of Lyons, about the year 180 AD. Irenaeus was a hunter of heretics, and no friend of the Gnostics. He wrote, "They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas."

It's classic Gnosticism, which "taught that salvation is achieved through special knowledge (gnosis)." Likewise, a core tenet of the Gnostics was the "feverish craving to be freed from the body." Both teachings jump out of the descriptions of the Gospel of Judas.

Gnosticism denies the incarnation of God as Jesus, his son. It also challenges whether Jesus could have atoned for the sin of all mankind, if he was not God. Gnosticism has an element of dualism to it – in that there is good and evil, spirit and matter, light and dark, etc. in the universe. This concept is very present in today’s new age movements.

It's not at all in line with the authentic teachings of Christ and is typical gnostic heresy whom the real authors often faked authors names to lend them credibility as they attempted to integrate paganism into Christianity. From an authentic Christian perspective: it's not worth the papyrus it's written on.

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Unread post by whoknows » May 6th, 2006, 9:08 am

:roll:

MICK_CHECK
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Unread post by MICK_CHECK » May 7th, 2006, 1:16 am

You shouldnt be doing ^^ plain old Emotiocons,

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Unread post by Old Shatterhand » May 7th, 2006, 3:31 pm

Maybe he can't spell?

:P

whoknows
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Unread post by whoknows » May 8th, 2006, 1:51 am

MICK_CHECK wrote:You shouldnt be doing ^^ plain old Emotiocons,


:?: :o :idea: :lol:

whoknows
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Unread post by whoknows » May 8th, 2006, 1:54 am

Old Shatterhand wrote:Maybe he can't spell?

:P
:lol:

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