Scholars have long known of the existence of the Gospel of
Judas (Bishop Iraneus denounced it in the year 180), but this
is the first time we've been able to read the document itself
in well over a thousand years. The statement you quoted, "you
will sacrifice the man that clothes me," shows the dualistic
view held by the Sethian Gnostics who produced the Gospel of
Judas. They viewed spirit as good and matter, including the
physical body, as evil. I don't share that view (I like
bodies!) but as a theology geek I'm fascinated with this
newly found "lost gospel." You can download the English text
as a pdf file at
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/about_coptic_text.html
There is a noir quality to presenting history's "ultimate
villain" as being a good guy after all. As in a good noir
novel, there's moral ambiguity here: the good guys, the
disciples, aren't all good (they're rather thick-headed) and
the bad guy, Judas, isn't all bad. And the way the gospel
ends -- abruptly, with Judas receiving the pay-off and
handing Jesus over to his executioners -- is rather noir,
too.
Darrell
(fan of lost gospels as well as Hard Case Crime & Perry
Mason)
----- Original Message -----
From: Tim Wohlforth
To: Rara Avis
Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 12:18 PM
Subject: RARA-AVIS: Judas
Okay, so it's a rather old story. However, now we
can understand it
in a new light. Nothing like a new twist after
2,000 years. It is
difficult to discuss noir writing without sooner
or later touching on
the theme of betrayal. That is, dealing with
Judas. We now learn
that it is possible that Judas was a good guy,
Jesus' most loyal
disciple, the betrayal orchestrated by Jesus
himself. There are even
hints of the tradition gospels that suggest this:
that the
crucifixion was part of some divine plan. Think
about it for a
moment. If we are to accept for the moment the
Christian concept that
Jesus was the son of God then when the Gospel of
Judas says "For you
will sacrifice the man that clothes me" Jesus is
expressing a
determination to free himself of his human
characteristics. Now that
is a rather noir comment on the human condition.
He was relieved to
be done with being like us. If, on the other
hand, Jesus was a
mortal, then this casts him in a rather dark
light. That is he wished
to be martyred in order to be remembered as such.
Sort of like
Moussaoui.
I am not testifying to the accuracy of the Gospel
of Judas, nor
trying to say anything about religious belief as
such. I am trying to
say something about story. To see Judas as a good
guy does not put a
period to the story of betrayal. One way or
another betrayal is part
of the broader human narrative along with
salvation. We live now and
always have in a manichaean world. The noir tale
feeds on this and
explores, so to speak, one side, the dark side,
of this larger
story. The Gospel of Spade.
Tim Wohlforth
tim@timwohlforth.com
www.timwohlforth.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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