Reformed Christianity

The Gospel of Judas

By J. Wesley ⋅ June 4, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

The Chronicle of Higher Education has done some good reporting on the Gospel of Judas and its resulting controversy. If you remember, National Geographic bought a copy of the previously lost Gospel of Judas and assembled a “Dream Team” of scholars to translate it. In 2006, National Geographic released its findings with a great deal of fanfare. Their findings were quite sexy. The Judas which the Dream Team discovered was a Good Guy; he was Jesus’ closest disciple and he handed him over to arrest only because Jesus asked him to.

Since the work was written after 150 AD by a sect of Gnostic heretics, the findings weren’t exactly world-rocking for Biblical Christians who were paying attention. Sadly, many Christians don’t pay attention. The media portrayal of the findings often gave the impression that Judas himself had penned the work or that it originated at the time of the other Gospels and was a legitimate competitor with them. The media strongly implied that the Gospel of Judas invalidated historic Christian teaching.

Well, as it turns out, not only was the Gospel of Judas written late and by heretics, but the “Judas as Good Guy” thesis seems to be unraveling. April DeConick, a Coptologist and professor of biblical studies at Rice University, has nailed several key points of the Dream Team translation. In her view, the team skewed their translation in order to make headlines.

“She started the next day on her own translation of the Coptic transcription, also posted on the National Geographic Web site. That’s when she came across what she considered a major, almost unbelievable error. It had to do with the translation of the word “daimon,” which Jesus uses to address Judas. The National Geographic team translates this as “spirit,” an unusual choice and inconsistent with translations of other early Christian texts, where it is usually rendered as “demon.” In this passage, however, Jesus’ calling Judas a demon would completely alter the meaning. “O 13th spirit, why do you try so hard?” becomes “O 13th demon, why do you try so hard?” A gentle inquiry turns into a vicious rebuke.”

Then there’s the number 13. The Gospel of Judas is thought to have been written by a sect of Gnostics known as Sethians, for whom the number 13 would indicate a realm ruled by the demon Ialdabaoth. Calling someone a demon from the 13th realm would not be a compliment. In another passage, the National Geographic translation says that Judas “would ascend to the holy generation.” But DeConick says it’s clear from the transcription that a negative has been left out and that Judas will not ascend to the holy generation (this error has been corrected in the second edition). DeConick also objected to a phrase that says Judas has been “set apart for the holy generation.” She argues it should be translated “set apart from the holy generation” — again, the opposite meaning. In the later critical edition, the National Geographic translators offer both as legitimate possibilities.

Other scholars have since piled on, and according to the Chronicle, they’re carrying the day. So Judas is back in the doghouse. No rest for the wicked, as they say.