The Gospel of Judas

[poliphilo]

Without the crucifixion there'd be no salvation and without the betrayal in the garden there'd be no crucifixion: so why is Judas seen as the villain of the piece? I thought this was a modern idea, but the newly discovered Gospel of Judas (a gnostic text from c. A.D. 300) has Jesus telling Judas to betray him.

The gnostics treated theology as an art form. They were happily irresponsible. They invented, speculated, played games.

Then the Church clamped down and it has taken us something like 1500 years to get those freedoms back.

Read more here

Comments

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

It's funny how Jesus asks god to forgive his crucifiers "for they know not what they're doing", and yet the church has never forgiven Judas. Surely the Judaic kiss is as pardonable a sin as any, and judas himself a pardonable sinner, even when you just take the "regular" gospels. To me, the new gospel doesn't change a thing, really; whether Judas was instructed or not, he remains a central figure and to some extent ought to be the prime example of somebody who trespasses and is forgiven.

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

(If Judas can not be redeemed, then Christianity as a whole looses it's existential point of salvation, redemption and forgiveness...)

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a pleasing medieval legend that Judas is allowed out of hell once a year. I forget why.

Yes. if God witholds forgiveness from Judas on the grounds that "it's personal" then he's nothing but a whimsical, old tyrant.

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

That's the legend of St. Brendan, that he's allowed out of hell every year on Candlemas, to ease his torment on sea.

And yeah! word to everything you said. I am celebrating all this Gospel of Judas kerfuffle by watching Jesus Christ Superstar, or, as Andrew Rilstone says, the apocryphal gospel of Andrew and Timothy. (yay!)

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

!! PS. full text here. It is totally weird so far: Jesus is apparently from 'the immortal realm of Barbarelo' - !!!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The full text? This I've got to see!

Barbarelo?

[thewayupward.livejournal.com]

No kidding! Plus, Eve's real name ('in the clouds') is 'Zoe'. HILARITY ENSUES

Re Barbarelo: ... your guess is as good as mine.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, St Brendan...

I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Well, for the record, the Church to my knowledge (it's been pointed out to me several times over the course of my religious education) has never officially declared anybody to be in hell, even Judas -- Dante of course has him getting gnawed on by Satan along with Brutus and Cassius, but Dante, wonderful as he is, is no theologian. So who knows?

[sorenr.livejournal.com]

I believe the notion of Hell featured quite heavily in mid-Medieval theology, actually, so Dante was certainly leaning on an established theology when he wrote La Commedia. But yes, I think even the theologians who believed there to be a Hell never actually poured out judgments about who had gone where. (Then, of course, the notion of Purgatory was invented - i can't remember when this became standard - and the church suddenly seemed to know a lot about the people there and how one might pay to get one's arse quickly out of there. Different matter entirely, of course, but worth a mention.)

Still; I study comparative literature and not theology, so i'm quite happy to accept Dante's version of the three death realms. Especially the Inferno. (Paradiso is just long-winded and boring... Yada-yada... Beatrice... Yada-yada... Virgin Mary... Yada-yada... Holy Trinity... Gimme Francesca da Rimini, Inferno canto V, any day!)