Brother Blog: The Way.

The MSM news media is a buzz about the historical find of a 1700 year old manuscript entitled "The Gospel of Judas." The find was announced by the National Geographic Society, ergo it lends credence to the legitimacy of the document. In fact there are five criteria that were used to verify the manuscript:

"The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature on five fronts: radiocarbon dating, ink analysis, multispectral imaging, contextual evidence and paleographic evidence," said Terry Garcia, executive vice president for Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society.

I am fairly certain the buzz is related to the recent interest in Dan Brown's novel, "The DaVinci Code." I have not read Brown's book so I do not wish to be overly critical over something I have not personally read. However, I have read accounts of the "The DaVinci Code." I understand the theme is that the Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed as surviving crucifixion and then participating in matrimony with Mary Magdalene. The alleged marriage resulted in the birth of a daughter. This is all enhanced by a conspiracy that the Roman Catholic Church covered up the alleged truth because the Church wanted to maintain the centrality of the Resurrection of the Jesus.

Like I said, I have not read the book so I hope that is the gist of the story.

As fiction I do not have a problem with Brown's book, however he maintains that his sources are factual. This is an implication that the fiction is a dramatization of non-fiction. I guess I am just to orthodox to appreciate that implication.

What does all this have to do with the The Gospel of Judas? I sense the alternative story presented by Brown is a verification to Christian conspiracy theorists that The Gospel of Judas may be an alternative reality as well. The only reality is Christ Jesus Crucified for humanity's sin of rejection of God, the Resurrection of Christ Jesus on the third day and the re-assertion of His Divine characteristics sitting at the Right Hand of the Father (traditional reality anyway).

Within the JournalSpace community is an awesome historian that goes by Healing Rabbi. I don't always agree with Healing Rabbi (and he definitely does not always agree with me), however his scholarship is impeccable. This means what he has to say is something to think about. Here is the take Healing Rabbi gave me on The Gospel of Judas find:

The Gospel of Judas
From: HealingRabbi
Fri, 07 Apr 2006 07:52:25 -0700

I have been hearing about this Gospel from a variety of sources. You have to understand that just because a Gospel was written in an ancient period, that is, during the first century after Yeshua died, it does not necessarily represent the view point of those who were part of the events that surrounded Yeshua.

There seems to be little doubt in the prestiguous minds of the National Geographic Society that the document itself is authentic. It clearly has passed a five point test to prove that the manuscript is from the the third century. There is little doubt that such a gospel once existed as Irenaeus of Lyons speaks against it in Adversus Haeresies. There is little doubt that one ancient Christian community took the Gospel seriously as the Coptics long ago declared Judas a saint. The Coptic Church is the second oldest of the Christian communions, just behind the Armenians.

The last element that must be considered is the alleged Gnostic overtones. The Egyptian tradition or the Alexandrian tradition from the earliest of times had a Gnostic bent. Philo, the uncle of General Tiberius Alexander and Ethnarch of Alexandria for the Jews, wrote very persuasively in uniting Greek gnostic ideas to Jewish concepts. Christian gnosticism despite the claims of Acts, originated in Alexandria. The Gnostic tradition was as strong in the early Church as the Pauline and Nasorean tradition. And with the demise of the Nasorean tradition in 135 C.E., the Gnostics had a free hand to fight the Paulines head to head. The Gospel of Thomas, the premier protoGnostic text, was probably written before any of the Gospels and contemporaneously with Thessalonians and Corinthians. Thomas is an eyewitness Gospel. Most scholars agree on that now. It is therefore possible that Judas is an eyewitness Gospel; however, the lists are just beginning to discuss it and Dr. Trimm has just asked the question on Qumran list.

The fact that Judas was buried like the Nag Hamadi library from which we have gotten Thomas' complete manuscript tells us that it was highly prized by at least one monastic community in Egypt, that it was declared heresy by the Paulines who controlled the Patriarchate of Alexandria after 220, that it was part of the earliest intellectual millieu of Christianity, and that it cannot be dismissed too quickly.

My personal opinion is that the Archangel Gavriel and the Archangel Helel are both arranging the finding of documents right now in the ever intensifying struggle for the hearts and minds of the faithful prior to the great change of the Age. Judas is not the last of the books that will come out. I am anxious to read the Jesus Papers and to understand the claims that that author puts forth. I believe that a war has been going on for the last hour and a half in Heaven (an hour lasts 41 2/3 earth years), that it is spilling over onto earth, that these books are the propaganda war surrounding the physical war, and that the war in Heaven is causing us to look again at the truth about Yeshua.

You are a faithful man. You know that Yeshua is our only hope for forgiveness from our sins. You know at some level that dogma and doctrine are irrelevant, because it is the ever present voice within that leads us to the Truth. You know that our job is to be useful slaves (the words in scripture describe slaves not servants) to the Ruler of the Universe. Whether Yeshua had created a conspiracy around himself, whether Judas was part of it, and whether or not the Apostles or Paul are right about everything does not change your inner Voice of Truth one dot or tittle. Do not become any more concerned about new texts than old ones. Our G-d is not in the Bible; He is in Heaven; and the Lady the Holy Spirit is alive and well.

I will continue to watch with interest the scholar debates.

The blog Fantastic Planet describes himself as a modern Gnostic. With that in mind that blog is somewhat critical of the translation of The Gospel of Judas:

I’ve read through the Gospel of Judas three times now, and thought I’d share a few thoughts. To begin, it’s far more (unfortunately) fragmentary than the hype would have us believe, and I can’t for the life of me imagine a canonical Christian finding much value within its pages. It’s so foreign to canonical thought, imho, that its significance within canonical Christianity will be slim to none. In fact, without context, I doubt that your average Christian would be able to follow the concepts very easily. The publishers would have done a great service to the reader by including a similar text such as The Secret Book of John to provide context.

My thoughts are this: The Gospel of Judas is more a buzz by those who wish to swim in the sea of alternative Christianity and conspiracy theory. After the "The DaVinci Code" movie popularity dies down, so also will the publicity of The Gospel of Judas die down."