The discovery of a leather-bound book made of 66 papyrus sheets may shed new light on one of the Bible’s most infamous characters – Judas Iscariot.Judas, a man viewed as a traitor by most Christians, plays a new role in the events leading up to the death of Jesus Christ in a newly-discovered writing known as the gospel of Judas.
In the text Jesus tells Judas, “you will be cursed by the other generations – and you will come to rule over them. In the last days they will curse your ascent to the holy [generation].”
“Who knows what really happened,” said Father Charles Calabrese, Roman Catholic minister at TCU. “It’s a recorded interpretation of events and obviously in the early community there was a controversy about what really happened and what parts people played.”
Carolyn Osiek, the Charles Fischer Catholic Professor of New Testament at the Brite Divinity School, said there’s “not a chance” the text was actually authored by Judas. However, Osiek said many canonical gospels were authored around that time.
“This must have been a flourishing time for Christian literature,” Osiek said.
Katie Low, associate United Methodist minister at TCU, said she brought the text up with her Monday night Bible study class.
“It didn’t seem to cause much controversy among my group,” Low said.
Non-canonical gospels “have existed for quite some time and haven’t caused too much controversy among ordinary readers as much as they have in academics,” Low said.
The date of authorship of the work is estimated between 130-170 A.D., over 100 years after Judas’ death, said Claudia Camp, a religion professor.
As to the historical reliability of the document, Camp says that all biblical writings face authenticity issues.
“Is there a problem with historical credibility? Well yes, but that’s a problem we’ve got with all the canonical gospels,” Camp said. “We don’t have anything in the Bible that’s an eyewitness account.”
In 2000, Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos, a ZÂrich-based antiquities dealer, bought the text and turned it over to the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Basel, Switzerland in 2001 due to the deteriorating state of the manuscript.
Herb Krosney, co-author of “The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot,” told NPR.com that when the book was originally discovered, nobody realized its significance because it was written in an ancient Coptic language. Krosney believes the original document was written in Greek and later translated to Coptic.
Osiek said, “It should be another piece of evidence of the great variety of Christian reflection on the mysteries surrounding the life of Jesus. Those reflections did not stop with the writing of the New Testament.”
Because of the language barrier the text was not actually identified as the gospel of Judas until 2000. The same calligraphy that created the language barrier however also helped experts identify the document as authentic.
Krosney also told NPR.com that the document’s authenticity is furthered because of a condemnation of the document written in 1880 A.D. by St. Iraneus who lived in modern-day Lyon, France.
“We know that original document written in Greek was a valid document – [that it] was in currency in the early Christian world,” Krosney said.
The text, recorded in Coptic about 300 A.D., was unearthed in the 1970s in the Egyptian desert. After passing through multiple antiquities traders, the document eventually ended up in Long Island, N.Y. in a safety deposit box where it stayed for 16 years, according to the National Geographic Society.
The text has gained notoriety through the society’s two-hour television special that aired on the National Geographic Channel Sunday. Also, two books entitled “The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot” and “The Gospel of Judas” that were released on April 6 have further added to the document’s notoriety.
“I think it’s a good thing that this introduces people to the notion that Judas could’ve been a good guy,” said Ryan Motter, a junior religion and English major. “The gospel of Judas should be respected for what it is – an ancient work.”
The manuscript opened as an exhibition at the society’s New York headquarters on April 7.
