 |
 |
| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Judas Iscariot: Hero? Written April 09, 2006 For the Standard Today, April 11 issue The world has not yet had enough of Dan Brown�s novel, The Da Vinci Code - 40 million copies sold, and the movie has not yet even been released � and out comes another potential blockbuster that threatens to undermine yet another traditional image from early Christianity. While one of the net effects of The Da Vinci Code has been to rehabilitate the historical image of Mary Magdalene, from lowly prostitute and fallen woman, to alleged companion and wife of the historical Jesus, and mother of his child, the newly publicized Gospel of Judas would tend to rehabilitate the historical image of Judas Iscariot, from traitor and betrayer of Jesus, to close confidant of the assumed Messiah who specifically tasked him (Judas) to betray him to enable him (Jesus) to fulfill his messianic mission. The major difference is that The Da Vinci Code was 21st century historical fiction that strung historical facts, from 800 to 2,000 years ago, together with speculations, myths and unproven hypotheses, to create a stunning, not entirely credible conclusion. The Gospel of Judas, on the other hand, seems to be an authentic document coming from less than 300 years from the Biblical era of which it speaks, and presents partial portraits of the historical Jesus and the historical Judas that are totally at variance with the portraits of the two that have come down to us through the canonical Gospels of the New Testament. And Dan Brown is not even involved, although he may now be strongly tempted to write a novel about it. As every literate person in the Christian world is now aware, the Gospel of Judas is a 13-page papyrus document, inscribed on both sides with a Coptic translation of an earlier Greek original, discovered in the 1970s in a cave near the town of El Minya in southern Egypt. For about 30 years, it changed hands from one antiquities dealer to another, spending 16 of those 30 years inside a bank safety deposit box in, of all places, Hicksville, New York, until the crumbling remnants were rescued by the National Geographic Society, which had them carbon-dated, restored and translated into English. (This parallels an earlier discovery in 1945 of a much bigger papyrus trove in Nag Hammadi, not too far from El Minya, of similar Coptic translations of Greek originals, that go back to the same era [second to fourth century AD] and which make up the so-called Gnostic Gospels. These Gnostic Gospels, considered heretical, were excluded from the canonical Gospels that make up the New Testament, as decided by the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.) According to Biblical scholars, the Gospel of Judas has long been known to them from negative references to it by Bishop Irinaeus of what is now Lyon (France) in 180 AD. So the Greek original goes back earlier than 180 AD, but almost certainly nowhere near as far back as the Gospels of Mark, Mathew, Luke and John (which are said to date back to 60 to 100 AD). I have not had the chance to read the entire English transcript of the Gospel of Judas, but what has come out in The New York Times and the two-hour National Geographic TV docu last April 9 leaves no doubt that it was an integral part of Gnostic thinking that was prevalent in Europe and North Africa even after the council of Nicaea had ruled it to be anathema and heretical. The Albigensian heresy, for example, was widespread in Provence, southern France, up to the end of the 13th century, which led to the wholesale massacre of heretics estimated at anywhere from 100,000 and one million. (The National Geographic docu made the additional assertion that the demonization of Judas, especially in Mathew and John, contributed to the growth of anti-Semitism by blaming the death of Jesus on the Jews, even though Jesus was actually executed by the Romans, with a Roman form of punishment, for political crimes against the Roman Empire. The docu pointed out that the most famous Passion Play in medieval Europe was the Oberamergau in Bavaria, the hotbed of Nazism in Hitler's time. (To which I will add that the Lavabo section of the Catholic Mass has memorialized for the past 2,000 years an incident mentioned by John [but apparently not by the other Gospels] in which Pontius Pilate ritually washes his hands - and by inference the hands of the Roman Empire - of the blood of the soon-to-be-executed Jesus, thus tacitly putting all the blame on the Jews. One of the choice epithets hurled against Jews for centuries is "Christ-killer!" It can be argued that there is a direct line between the New Testament and Hitler's Auschwitz.) The Gnostics, including the Albigensians, believed it was possible to "know" God through personal intuition and self-knowledge, without the intervention of a Church hierarchy; that all matter was intrinsically evil and that the purpose of all life is to transcend matter. They welcomed death as the final liberation into a higher state of existence. A fuller treatment of the Albigensian heresy follows in a future article. In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus is said to have told Judas: "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal.....Let the perfect person in you step forward and approach me. Only Judas can understand......Your brilliance will eclipse the others. Your star will lead the way.....You have been told everything. You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me...." The inference is that Jesus chose Judas from among his 12 apostles to be the instrument for Jesus' own liberation from the world of matter into the world of the spirit. Rather than the traitor and betrayer that he has been made out to be for the past 2,000 years, Judas is portrayed as the hero, or at least the anti-hero, in the Passion Play. Without Judas, there would have been no Passion, no Crucifixion, no Resurrection, no Salvation. In the 1960 novel "The Last Temptation of Christ" by the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis (made into a film in 1988 by the American director Martin Scorsese, but banned in Manila by Manoling Morato), Judas Iscariot also plays a heroic role. As he hung on the cross dying, Jesus imagines for a fleeting instant what it would have been like if he had lived a normal life, married Mary Magdalene, had children with her and lived to a ripe old age. This was the last temptation from Satan, the temptation to be normal and mediocre and ordinary. It is an angry Judas who shouts at his vacillating master "Traitor!" and shames Jesus back to his messianic mission. Elaine Pagels, professor of Religion at Princeton University (whose book "The Gnostic Gospels" I read about four years ago) writes in The New York Times that �many regarded these secret (Gnostic) gospels not as radical alternatives to the New Testament Gospels, but as advanced-level teaching for those who had already received Jesus 'basic' message. Even the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus explained things to certain disciples in private, entrusting to them alone'the mystery of the Kingdom of God.' Whatever the ultimate truth about the Gospel of Judas, it has at least jolted tens of millions of devout but uninformed Christians, as The Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood, Holy Grail have done, into paying some decent attention to the origins of their faith. And that could not but be an enrichment of their spiritual lives. ***** TONY ON TV (14). Tony Abaya and film-critic Lito Zulueta were interviewed by Ricky Carandang and Pia Hontiveros on the subject of The Da Vinci Code on ANC last Monday. The taped-as-live interview will be telecast on Thursday evening, April 13. ***** ADDITIONAL ARTICLES IN www.tapatt.org. We have received the following articles recently and have incorporated them into the Reference Material section. (The notations in parentheses indicate the sub-section in which each article can be found.) The Eagle Will Not Fly Without the Poor. Commencement address given by Antonio P. Meloto, founding chair of Gawad Kalinga, before the graduating classes, Ateneo de Manila University, March 25, 2006. (On Filipinos and the Philippines). The Truth about Opus Dei. Translated (badly) from the Spanish by the Maria Auxiliador Prayer Group, apparently a Peruvian organization, "whose aim is to make known Opus Dei characteristics." The group accuses Opus Dei founder Jose Maria Escriva de Balaguer of being a fascist and a psychopath and goes into details about their accusations, quoting extensively from Escriva�s writings and actuations. We invite the Opus Dei to submit a rebuttal article. (On the Opus Dei). Where has the hope gone? By A. Lin Neumann, in The Weekly Standard (Feb. 18, 2006) Foreign correspondent Neumann, who was present at the creation of People Power in February 1986, recalls the hope and optimism 20 years ago and wonders where it all has gone since. (On EDSA People Power). ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Reactions to "Judas Iscariot: Hero?" Hi Mr. Abaya, You wrote: "The Eagle Will Not Fly Without the Poor"Commencement address given by Antonio P. Melato, founding chair of Gawad Kalinga, Just a small correction, I think the Gawad Kalinga guy's name is Meloto not Melato. Tony Basa, [email protected] April 11, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww I think it is great that many alternative views on literature are coming out. It is time that these stories are told and that the people, specifically Filipino Catholics in the Philippines, realize that Catholicism is not what it presumes it is. Great article, Tony. Louie Eguaras, [email protected] Valencia, California, April 11, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Try looking up the play "A Supper of Ashes" Ross Tipon, [email protected] Baguio City, April 12, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Good work Tony. You are one of God's blessings. Keep on informing us about these insidious heretics. We are commanded by the Lord to defend the FAITH. And let us defend it. Jun Apolonio, [email protected] Singapore, April 12, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Thanks for the sending. Keep on. It challenges us to read the Bible and compare it. Mike Delgado, [email protected] April 12, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony These guys (and gals afraid of anything related to or involved with "patriarchal") should instead investigate what happened to St. Joseph--the "father." Not a line said about him after that temple affair. I always look forward to reading your columns. Domingo Arong, [email protected] April 12, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hello, Tony, I have read the Da Vinci Code and I intend to see the movie as well. I am Catholic and I can say neither the book or the movie will have any effect in my faith. I would like to point out, though, the stark difference between how the media in general and National Geographic in particular, treat contrarian or gnostic gospels that challenge the sacred beliefs of billions of Christians as against how they treat contrarian views about Islam. I wonder how a similar show regarding Islam would be greeted by Muslims? Just an observation. Lino Ongteco, [email protected] April 14, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Antonio Abaya! Thought you might be interested in reading this web page: http://www.tfp.org/TFPForum/catholic_perspective/the_great_fraud.htm Jose Maria P. Alcasid, [email protected] April 15, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Reactions to "Holy Blood, Holy Grail" (April 02, 2006) I've always known since I was kid that something was wrong with the Catholic Church, most especially when our religion teacher answered difficult questions about God with "That is why it is called faith; you believe in it without proving it." or words to that effect. A case in point is the apocryphal story of St. Augustine who, when queried what God was doing before He created everything, roared "Creating hell for people who ask pesky questions (such as the one being asked)!" Nevertheless, like many politicians, I am a church-going Catholic but I'll be darned if like St. Lorenzo Ruiz, I'll lay my life for Catholic doctrines which as we all are finding out, are not infallible. By the way, why are there so many saints from other countries (i.e. Europe, China, Japan, etc) while we, one of the world's largest Catholic countries and have been Catholic much earlier than many countries, have only one? Anyway, back to our main topic. I also read DVC twice and greatly enjoyed it. I also took it as seriously as I did the works of some great sci-fi writers who make me think and ponder. I don't think books like these will damage the Catholic Church. I believe that whatever will seriously harm this church is self-inflicted and will not be abrupt. This is already on-going in RP where many Catholics are transferring to other religions for one reason or another. Thank you for this opportunity to air my views. God bless! Herminigildo Gutierrez, [email protected] April 10, 2006 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us. Document Is Genuine, but Is Its Story True? By Laurie Goodstein April 7, 2006, The New York Times In 1959, when the Gospel of Thomas was first published in English, many Christians were shocked to learn that any gospels existed other than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic Society via Associated Press This image, provided by the National Geographic Society, shows the last page of the codex. The final words read "Gospel of Judas." It was also the first time that most Christians had ever heard about the Gnostics ? Christian communities in the second through fourth centuries whose scriptures and spiritual beliefs barely resemble what is now thought of as traditional Christianity. But the Gospel of Judas, another piece of Gnostic scripture, has been released in a very different era. It is a time when many Christians have been bombarded by competing claims about their faith and its history, and some are grappling with how to absorb it all. Gnosticism has become practically a household word, largely thanks to the novel "The Da Vinci Code," as well as to scholars of early Christianity like Elaine Pagels, who write for a popular audience. Many more Gnostic Gospels have been translated and distributed " Mary Magdalene, Philip, Thomas and even "The Gospel of Truth." Some churches are holding study groups to pick over books on the "historical Jesus." The Gospel of Judas is only the latest crumbling parchment to surface in the sands of Egypt like an ancient time capsule. Even before its formal introduction at a National Geographic Society news conference yesterday, scholars have been part of a debate that will soon be echoing in churches, on the Web and in Christian publishing. The real debate is whether the text says anything historically legitimate about Jesus and Judas. Some of the scholars on National Geographic's advisory committee said the text should prompt a reassessment of Judas. In it, Jesus speaks privately to Judas, telling him he will share with Judas alone "the mysteries of the kingdom." Jesus asks Judas to turn him over to the Roman authorities so that his body can be sacrificed. Craig Evans, a professor of the New Testament at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and a scholar on the National Geographic panel, conjectured that some of the dialogue between Jesus and Judas may have been spoken in private, and so did not make its way into the New Testament Gospels, which are more likely to treat Jesus' public statements. "It is possible that the Gospel of Judas preserves an old memory that Jesus had actually instructed Judas in private, and the other disciples did not know about it," Dr. Evans said. Ms. Pagels, a religion professor at Princeton, said the discoveries of the Gospel of Judas and other Gnostic texts were "exploding the myth of a monolithic Christianity." The reaction of other scholars is that the Gospel of Judas is interesting but no challenge to the New Testament. "The manuscript tells us nothing about the historical Jesus or the historical Judas," said Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Ky. "It tells us a lot about a group that were labeled heretics in their own day." Scholars on all sides agree that the text was probably produced by a scribe in a Gnostic community of Cainites " early Christians who regarded the traditional villains of the Bible, including Cain and Judas, as heroes. "There is no evidence that any of these documents ever represented mainstream Christianity," Professor Witherington said. "The Cainites were always on the fringes of their own movement." He said that unlike the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which were written in Christianity's first century, Gnostic works were produced in the second century and afterward. To say that the Gospel of Judas reveals anything factual about Judas, Dr. Witherington said, "is like saying a document written 150 years after George Washington died tells us the inside truth about George Washington." Another member of the National Geographic panel of scholars, the Rev. Donald Senior, said the Gnostic gospels could undermine Christianity only if many Christians were to adopt the kind of conspiracy thinking that undergirds "The Da Vinci Code": that an "orthodox elite" of early church authorities suppressed the free-thinking, spiritual Gnostics "for the sake of uniformity and conformity." Father Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which advises the pope, said the Vatican was unlikely to regard the Gospel of Judas as a threat. He said that the Roman Catholic Church's likely response would be to "affirm the canonical texts" in the New Testament, rather than seeking to refute each new discovery. "If the Gospel of Judas suddenly became something that hundreds of thousands of Christians were claiming as their revelation and scripture, perhaps the church would come out with some kind of statement," Father Senior said in an interview. "But mostly I think it's just not even on the radar screen." He added, "I'm just glad it wasn't found in a bank vault in the Vatican." ***** Wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us. In the beginning, a burst of light Between 900 and 200 BCE, breakthroughs in several parts of the world led to the foundation of today's major traditions. By Jane Lampman April 04, 2006, Christian Science Monitor In times of violence and upheaval, people historically have turned to religion to ground and guide them. Yet today, religious voices often seem strident and provocative. Does it make sense to think that people of faith can point a way through the unprecedented tensions of an unsettled, globalizing world? Karen Armstrong is better positioned than most to answer that question. As author of a string of bestsellers on various religions (including "The Battle for God," a history of fundamentalisms), she has dedicated herself to understanding the most prominent world faiths and explaining them to a secular/post-secular society. In her view, the one hope for surviving today's challenges lies in a spiritual revolution, one that recaptures the essential wisdom found at the roots of contemporary traditions. The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions is a masterful survey of the historical period that German philosopher Karl Jaspers named "the Axial Age," for its pivotal role in the spiritual history of humanity. Between about 900 and 200 BCE, breakthroughs occurred in several parts of the world that created the foundations of today's major traditions: Buddhism and Hinduism in India; Confucianism and Daoism in China; monotheism in Israel; and philosophical rationalism in Greece." During this period of intense creativity, spiritual and philosophical geniuses pioneered an entirely new kind of human experience," Armstrong writes. These thinkers, she adds, "can still fill us with emotion because they show us what a human being should be." What is remarkable about this age is not simply that profound religions were born, but that their essential teachings were so similar. At the core, in astonishingly similar language, stands the Golden Rule. In fact it was Confucius, she writes, who first articulated the rule, emphasizing the import of treating others with absolute respect. In antiquity, religious rituals focused on the external world. But amid periods of war, intolerance, and disruptive social change, gifted individuals in diverse cultures began to seek the essence of the human being and explore the inner world. That search spawned the struggle to rise above suffering and to go beyond egotism to empathy. Armstrong sees a crucial element in those original teachings that she says has since been submerged or lost. Contrary to today's emphasis on doctrine, "what mattered [then] was not what you believed but how you behaved." Indeed, seeking absolute certainty was considered ill-advised; it was only through living a compassionate life that one could hope to experience the transcendent reality one desired. This is where contemporary faith has gone astray, Armstrong says, with the rigid adherence to doctrines that foster exclusivist thinking and a demonizing of "the other." In this tour de force, Armstrong describes developments in four major civilizations side by side chronologically (century by century) as they pass through the Axial Age in different stages. Again and again, it becomes apparent that major breakthroughs come amid crises. In the 9th century BCE, in revulsion against societal violence, Brahman priests in India eliminate violent elements from traditional sacrifical rites. Ritual instead becomes a reconstructive act for the individual, focusing on a changed mental state. In the 8th century BCE, Jewish prophets insist that ritual is meaningless without ethical behavior, and call for introspection, integrity, and pursuit of justice. Some philosophers remain skeptical of Jaspers' theory and question the categorizing of such worldviews as Confucianism as religion. Armstrong couches her discussion of such ethical systems in semi-religious language. It's easy to see, however, why individuals from other cultures might perceive some developments differently. Armstrong's book is a sprawling, highly detailed history that offers readers a stimulating acquaintance with the teachings of figures from Confucius, Mozi, and Laozi in China to Buddha, the Hindu mystics, and Ashoka of India, to the more familiar giants of Greek and Jewish history. Armstrong also briefly discusses Rabbinic Judaism, Christianity, and Islam as latter-day flowerings of Axial Age Judaism. She is deeply serious about the import of learning lessons from the Axial sages. They gave us two important pieces of advice, she writes: "First, there must be self- criticism. Instead of simply lambasting 'the other side,' people must examine their own behavior." (Even as the Jews were being carried off into exile, Jeremiah and Ezekiel insisted they scrutinize their own actions. That led to a great transformation, including the writing of the visionary first chapter of Genesis.) "Second, we should follow the example of the Axial sages and take practical, effective action," Armstrong continues. They "worked vigorously to change their religion ... to eliminate the violence ... and militant egotism." Most of all, she calls for striving to recover the vision and practice of compassion. "The sages were not utopian dreamers but practical men.... They were convinced that empathy did not just sound edifying but actually worked.... They spent as much creative energy seeking a cure for the spiritual malaise of humanity as scientists today spend trying to find a cure for cancer." If we live in an age of technological genius, she says, theirs was one of spiritual genius. There is much talk of a spiritual awakening today. But Armstrong sets a high standard for such a notion as she describes the profound commitment and energies that gave birth to some of the world's great religious traditions. Jane Lampman is a Monitor staff writer. The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious TraditionsBy Karen ArmstrongKnopf469 pp., $30 ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us. The Gospel Truth By Elaine Pagels April 8, 2006, The New York Times The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover. ... Jesus said to him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal." - The Gospel of Judas THE Gospel of Judas, which remained virtually unknown to us from the time it was written 1,700 years ago until its publication this week, says that when Judas Iscariot handed Jesus over to the Romans, he was acting on orders from Jesus to carry out a sacred mystery for the sake of human salvation: "Jesus said to Judas, 'Look, you have been told everything. You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.' " For nearly 2,000 years, most people assumed that the only sources of tradition about Jesus and his disciples were the four gospels in the New Testament. But the unexpected discovery at Nag Hammadi in 1945 of more than 50 ancient Christian texts proved what church fathers said long ago: that Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are only a small selection of gospels from among the dozens that circulated among early Christian groups. But now the Gospel of Judas ? like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene and many others ? opens up new perspectives on familiar gospel stories. Many scholars who first read these gospels had been taught that they were "heretical," which meant they were the wrong gospels. When I was introduced to them as a student, we called them "Gnostic" gospels, the name given to them nearly 2,000 years ago by Irenaeus, one of the fathers of the church, who denounced them as false and "heretical." Yet those early Christians who loved and revered such texts did not think of themselves as heretics, but as Christians who had received not only what Jesus preached publicly, but also what he taught his disciples when they were talking privately. Many regarded these secret gospels not as radical alternatives to the New Testament Gospels, but as advanced-level teaching for those who had already received Jesus' basic message. Even the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus explained things to certain disciples in private, entrusting to them alone "the mystery of the Kingdom of God." If so, Jesus would have been doing what many other rabbis did then, and most teachers do today. Many of the gospels not included in the New Testament claim to offer secret teaching: Thus the Gospel of Thomas opens, "These are the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and Didymus Judas Thomas wrote them down." The Gospel of Mary Magdalene reveals what Jesus showed Mary in a vision, and the Gospel of Judas claims to offer a spiritual mystery entrusted to Judas alone. Irenaeus, however, insisted that Jesus did not teach any of his disciples secretly; such secret revelations, he said, were all illegitimate, and those who revered them heretics. Knowing many such gospels circulated among early Christian groups, Irenaeus wrote that "the heretics say that they have more gospels than there actually are; but really, they have no gospel that is not full of blasphemy." Many of these secret writings, however, were still read and revered by Christians 200 years later when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, an admirer of Irenaeus, wrote an Easter letter to Christians in Egypt. He ordered them to reject what he called those "secret, illegitimate books" and keep only 27 approved ones. The 27 he named constitute the earliest known list of the New Testament canon, which Athanasius intended above all to be a guideline for books to be read publicly in church. The New Testament Gospels, which contain much that Jesus taught in public, were the most obvious books to put on that list. The secret books, which contained paradox and mystery akin to the mystical teachings of kabbalah, were not considered suitable for beginners. What in the Gospel of Judas, published this week by the National Geographic Society (disclosure: I was a consultant on the project), goes back to Jesus' actual teaching, and how would we know? And what else was there in the early Christian movement that we had not known before? These are some of the difficult questions that the discoveries raise for us - issues that historians are already debating. What is clear is that the Gospel of Judas has joined the other spectacular discoveries that are exploding the myth of a monolithic Christianity and showing how diverse and fascinating the early Christian movement really was. Startling as the Gospel of Judas sounds, it amplifies hints we have long read in the Gospels of Mark and John that Jesus knew and even instigated the events of his passion, seeing them as part of a divine plan. Those of us who go to church may find our Easter reflections more mysterious than ever. Elaine Pagels, the author of "The Gnostic Gospels" and "Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas," is a professor of religion at Princeton. ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us.. The "Gospel of Judas" Interview With Father Thomas Williams, Theology Dean, Regina Apostolorum University, Rome April 05, 2006 ROME, APRIL 5, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The National Geographic Society has announced its intentions to publish an English translation of an ancient text called "The Gospel of Judas" later this month. The 31-page manuscript, written in Coptic, purportedly surfaced in Geneva in 1983 and has only been translated now. ZENIT asked Legionary Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, to comment on the relevance of the discovery. Q: What is the "Gospel of Judas"? Father Williams: Though the manuscript still must be authenticated, it likely represents a fourth- or fifth-century text, and is a copy of an earlier document produced by a Gnostic sect called the Cainites. The document paints Judas Iscariot in a positive light, and describes him as obeying a divine ordinance in handing over Jesus to the authorities for the salvation of the world. It may well be a copy of the "Gospel of Judas" referred to by St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his work "Against the Heresies," written around A.D. 180. Q: If authentic, what challenge would this document pose to traditional Christian belief? Will it "shake Christianity to its foundations" as some press releases have suggested? Father Williams: Certainly not. The Gnostic gospels, of which there are many besides this one, are not Christian documents per se, since they proceed from a syncretistic sect that incorporated elements from different religions, including Christianity. From the moment of their appearance, the Christian community rejected these documents because of their incompatibility with the Christian faith. The "Gospel of Judas" would be a document of this sort, which could have great historical value, since it contributes to our knowledge of the Gnostic movement, but it poses no direct challenge to Christianity. Q: Is it true that the Church has tried to cover up this text and other apocryphal texts? Father Williams: These are myths circulated by Dan Brown and other conspiracy theorists. You can go to any Catholic bookstore and pick up a copy of the Gnostic gospels. Christians may not believe them to be true, but there is no attempt to hide them. Q: But doesn't an early document of this sort rival orthodox Christian sources, such as the four canonical Gospels? Father Williams: Remember that Gnosticism arose in the middle of the second century, and the "Gospel of Judas," if authentic, probably dates back to the mid- to late second century. To put a historical perspective on things, that would be like you or me writing a text now on the American Civil War and having that text later used as a primary historical source on the war. The text could not have been written by eyewitnesses, the way at least two of the canonical Gospels were. Q: Why would the leaders of the Gnostic movement have been interested in Judas? Father Williams: One of the major differences between Gnostic belief and that of Christianity concerns the origins of evil in the universe. Christians believe that a good God created a good world, and that through the abuse of free will, sin and corruption entered the world and produced disorder and suffering. The Gnostics blamed God for the evil in the world and claimed that he created the world in a disordered and flawed way. Thus they champion the rehabilitation of Old Testament figures such as Cain, who killed his brother Abel, and Esau, the elder brother of Jacob, who sold his birthright for a plate of pottage. Judas fits perfectly into the Gnostic agenda of showing that God intends evil for the world. Q: But wasn't Judas' betrayal a necessary part of God's plan, as this text suggests? Father Williams: Being omniscient, God knows full well what choices we will make and weaves even our bad decisions into his providential plan for the world. In his last published book, Pope John Paul II eloquently reflected on how God continues to bring good out of even the worst evil that man can produce. That doesn't mean, however, that God intends for us to do evil, or that he intended for Judas to betray Jesus. If it wasn't Judas, it would have been someone else. The authorities had already decided to put Jesus to death, and it was just a matter of time. Q: What is the Church's position regarding Judas? Is it possible to "rehabilitate" him? Father Williams: Though the Catholic Church has a canonization process by which it declares certain persons to be in heaven, as saints, it has no such process for declaring people to be condemned. Historically, many have thought that Judas is probably in hell, because of Jesus' severe indictment of Judas: "It would be better for that man if he had never been born," as he says in Matthew 26:24. But even these words do not offer conclusive evidence regarding his fate. In his 1994 book, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," Pope John Paul II wrote that Jesus' words "do not allude for certain to eternal damnation." Q: But if anyone deserves hell, wouldn't it be Judas? Father Williams: Surely many people deserve hell, but we must remember that the mercy of God is infinitely greater than our wickedness. Peter and Judas committed very similar faults: Peter denied Jesus three times, and Judas handed him over. And yet now Peter is remembered as a saint and Judas simply as the traitor. The main difference between the two is not the nature or gravity of their sin, but rather their willingness to accept God's mercy. Peter wept for his sins, came back to Jesus, and was pardoned. The Gospel describes Judas as hanging himself in despair. Q: Why is the "Gospel of Judas" arousing so much interest? Father Williams: Such theories regarding Judas are certainly not new. It's enough to remember the 1973 play "Jesus Christ Superstar," where Judas sings, "I have no thought at all about my own reward. I really didn't come here of my own accord," or Taylor Caldwell's 1977 novel "I, Judas." The enormous economic success of "The Da Vinci Code" has undoubtedly stirred up the pot, and provided financial incentive for theories of this sort. Michael Baigent, author of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," now has a book out called "The Jesus Papers," which recycles the old story that Jesus survived the crucifixion. And a newly released "scientific" study asserts that meteorological conditions could have been such that Jesus really walked on ice, when the Gospels say he walked on water. Basically, for those who reject outright the possibility of miracles, any theory, outlandish as it may be, trumps Christian claims. ***** wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The following article was emailed to us. The Origins of Easter From the Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, 2005 When is Easter? According to the New Testament, Christ was crucified on the eve of Passover and shortly afterward rose from the dead. In consequence, the Easter festival commemorated Christ's resurrection. In time, a serious difference over the date of the Easter festival arose among Christians. Those of Jewish origin celebrated the resurrection immediately following the Passover festival, which, according to their Babylonian lunar calendar, fell on the evening of the full moon (the 14th day in the month of Nisan, the first month of the year); by their reckoning, Easter, from year to year, fell on different days of the week. Christians of Gentile origin, however, wished to commemorate the resurrection on the first day of the week, Sunday; by their method, Easter occurred on the same day of the week, but from year to year it fell on different dates. An important historical result of the difference in reckoning the date of Easter was that the Christian churches in the East, which were closer to the birthplace of the new religion and in which old traditions were strong, observed Easter according to the date of the Passover festival. The churches of the West, descendants of Greco-Roman civilization, celebrated Easter on a Sunday. Rulings of the Council of Nicaea on the Date of Easter Constantine I, Roman emperor, convoked the Council of Nicaea in 325. The council unanimously ruled that the Easter festival should be celebrated throughout the Christian world on the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox; and that if the full moon should occur on a Sunday and thereby coincide with the Passover festival, Easter should be commemorated on the Sunday following. Coincidence of the feasts of Easter and Passover was thus avoided. The Council of Nicaea also decided that the calendar date of Easter was to be calculated at Alexandria, then the principal astronomical center of the world. The accurate determination of the date, however, proved an impossible task in view of the limited knowledge of the 4th-century world. The principal astronomical problem involved was the discrepancy, called the epact, between the solar year and the lunar year. The chief calendric problem was a gradually increasing discrepancy between the true astronomical year and the Julian calendar then in use. Later Dating Methods Ways of fixing the date of the feast tried by the church proved unsatisfactory, and Easter was celebrated on different dates in different parts of the world. In 387, for example, the dates of Easter in France and Egypt were 35 days apart. About 465, the church adopted a system of calculation proposed by the astronomer Victorinus (fl. 5th cent.), who had been commissioned by Pope Hilarius (r. 461?68) to reform the calendar and fix the date of Easter. Elements of his method are still in use. Refusal of the British and Celtic Christian churches to adopt the proposed changes led to a bitter dispute between them and Rome in the 7th century. Reform of the Julian calendar in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, through adoption of the Gregorian calendar, eliminated much of the difficulty in fixing the date of Easter and in arranging the ecclesiastical year; since 1752, when the Gregorian calendar was also adopted in Great Britain and Ireland, Easter has been celebrated on the same day in the Western part of the Christian world. The Eastern churches, however, which did not adopt the Gregorian calendar, commemorate Easter on a Sunday either preceding or following the date observed in the West. Occasionally the dates coincide; the most recent times were in 1865 and 1963. Because the Easter holiday affects a varied number of secular affairs in many countries, it has long been urged as a matter of convenience that the movable dates of the festival be either narrowed in range or replaced by a fixed date in the manner of Christmas. In 1923 the problem was referred to the Holy See, which has found no canonical objection to the proposed reform. In 1928 the British Parliament enacted a measure allowing the Church of England to commemorate Easter on the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April. Despite these steps toward reform, Easter continues to be a movable feast Christian Origins Easter is the annual festival commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the principal feast of the Christian year. It is celebrated on a Sunday on varying dates between March 22 and April 25 and is therefore called a movable feast. The dates of several other ecclesiastical festivals, extending over a period between Septuagesima Sunday (the ninth Sunday before Easter) and the first Sunday of Advent, are fixed in relation to the date of Easter. Connected with the observance of Easter are the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday, the day before Easter Sunday; Holy Week, commencing on Palm Sunday, including Good Friday, the day of the crucifixion, and terminating with Holy Saturday; and the Octave of Easter, extending from Easter Sunday through the following Sunday. During the Octave of Easter in early Christian times, the newly baptized wore white garments, white being the liturgical color of Easter and signifying light, purity, and joy. The Christian festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which is derived Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets. Pagan Origins Easter, a Christian festival, embodies many pre-Christian traditions. The origin of its name is unknown. Scholars, however, accepting the derivation proposed by the 8th-century English scholar St. Bede, believe it probably comes from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon name of a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility, to whom was dedicated a month corresponding to April. Her festival was celebrated on the day of the vernal equinox; traditions associated with the festival survive in the Easter rabbit, a symbol of fertility, and in colored easter eggs, originally painted with bright colors to represent the sunlight of spring, and used in Easter-egg rolling contests or given as gifts. Such festivals, and the stories and legends that explain their origin, were common in ancient religions. A Greek legend tells of the return of Persephone, daughter of Demeter, goddess of the earth, from the underworld to the light of day; her return symbolized to the ancient Greeks the resurrection of life in the spring after the desolation of winter. Many ancient peoples shared similar legends. The Phrygians believed that their omnipotent deity went to sleep at the time of the winter solstice, and they performed ceremonies with music and dancing at the spring equinox to awaken him. The Christian festival of Easter probably embodies a number of converging traditions; most scholars emphasize the original relation of Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover, or Pesach, from which isderived Pasch, another name for Easter. The early Christians, many of whom were of Jewish origin, were brought up in the Hebrew tradition and regarded Easter as a new feature of the Passover festival, a commemoration of the advent of the Messiah as foretold by the prophets. An article from Funk & Wagnalls New Encyclopedia. 2005 World Almanac Education Group, A WRC Media Company. ***** OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |
| Mr. Abaya, If this people think that St Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer is a fascist and a psychopath, he shoud not be proclaimed saint by the great pope John Paul II. Please think first before you write. If you want to know more about Opus Dei, you are free to go to its website. www.opusdei.org. Arlene de la Cruz, [email protected] UP Diliman, April 17, 2006 MY REPLY. It was not I, but the Peruvian authors of that article, who called Fr. Escriva a fascist and a psychopath, quoting Escriva�s own writings. And being proclaimed saint is not really a proof of saintliness. In its own inventory of saints about 15 years ago, the Vatican admitted that some of those who had been canonized saints probably never even existed at all. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww |