The Gospel of Judas

 

By Moses Flores

 

            “Christianity turned on its head!”  This and many other similar statements are being made by the press and even some academics in the Western world.  What is causing all the commotion?  The discovery of an ancient codex that has been identified as the “Gospel of Judas.” This discovery has left some with mixed feelings, especially since it is barely coming to light.  Has the church been “hiding” this document?  Did the Church deceptively suppress this work?  Questions like these are running rampant through the minds of Christian and non-Christian alike.  From an exclusively Christian perspective, it’s easy to see how material like this can cause many to wonder about the authenticity of the Christian faith as we have known it through the centuries.  It raises questions about the Bible that we have and how we have the books in the Bible as we know it today. 

            It is the author’s contention that the discovery of the Gospel of Judas is nothing that the orthodox Christian community should fear.  Rather, it should be looked upon as an opportunity to strengthen one’s faith and to come to understand the way in which God has historically guided His Church through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, as we delve into the Gospel of Judas, it will become clear that the Gospel of Judas is nothing more than a text used by an ancient Church heresy known as Gnosticism.  In order to prove this we must examine the teachings of the Gnostics, in particular what they teach about God, Christ and salvation, in order to be able to understand the Gospel of Judas and see it for what it really is.     

There will be two parts to this study.  First, we will explore the teachings of the movement known to the apostles and early Fathers of the Church as “Gnosticism” along with the “Gospel of Judas”.  Their basic theology will be explained as well as their basic view of salvation.  This will allow us to delve into the actual text of the Gospel of Judas and prove that the Gnostic ideas are inherent in the text.  Through this we will see the new perspective given to Judas and why this was seen as “good news” for Judas.  The contrary must also come into full view here as well though.  Thus, it is necessary to cover what the Scriptures say about God, Christ, salvation and even Judas.  The second part of the lesson will concern itself with the Canon of Scripture, or those books which were accepted as Scripture and those books which were rejected.  This process will be looked at theologically and historically.  We will see what the early fathers thought of such works and why they rejected all of the Gnostic writings as Holy Scripture from God. 

            Without further hesitation let us delve into our topic. 

 

The Gnostic Heresy

 

            Christianity was a very rapid spreading religion.  Why not even 50 days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, thousands of souls were added to its numbers and this would not be the last time that such a feat happened in its history.  But Christianity was not the only religion of that day.  There was the Jewish religion which now found itself opposed to their own covenant in that they rejected their very own Messiah.  But there were also the religions of Rome and Greece around, not to mention other Eastern religions like strains of Baalism and other pagan idolatry.  Some religions even spawned as mixtures of several other religions around this time.  One such religion was known as “Gnosticism”. 

            The term “Gnostic” comes from the Greek word “gnosis” which means “knowledge”.  Thus, the Gnostics were those people who “knew” something that nobody else knew.  Gnostics were the only ones who had the secrets of the universe and it was that knowledge that gave them salvation and not their faith in Christ or an atoning work.  For the Gnostic, it was knowledge of the world that we live in, about who the one true God is and who we are as well.  In particular, the knowledge that saved could be classified as a self-knowledge about who we are, where we came from and how to return to our true heavenly home.  For those Gnostics who hid themselves behind Christianity, they taught that Christ was the revealer of this knowledge. 

            So what exactly is this knowledge that is so secret?  What did the Gnostics believe?  What is it that is so important to know?

First, Gnosticism taught that there is a dualistic existence of opposing forces which are spirit and matter.  For Gnosticism, spirit alone is the ultimate good and matter is the embodiment of evil.  Contrary to Judeo-Christian thought, the one true God is not the God we know in the Bible.  In fact, according to Gnosticism, the god who created this world is not the only God, nor the most powerful.  Instead, he is a far lower god than the one true God who is pure spirit, thus not in any way involved with the “evil” material world created by the god of this world, whom they refer to as “El”. 

Church historian, Phillip Schaff describes, in detail, the origin of God and Christ in his work, “History of the Christian Church”:

 

“The system starts from the absolute primal being.  God is the unfathomable abyss, locked up within himself, without beginning, unnamable, and incomprehensible; on the one hand, infinitely exalted above every existence, yet on the other hand, the original aeon, the sum of all ideas and spiritual powers…the abyss opens; God enters upon a process of development, and sends forth from his bosom the several aeons;  that is, the attributes and unfolded powers of his nature, the ideas of the eternal spirit-world, such as mind, reason, wisdom, power, truth, life.  These emanate from the absolute in a certain order…The further they go from the great source, the poorer and weaker they become…the whole body of aeons forms the ideal world, or light-world, or spiritual fullness, the Pleroma, as opposed to Kenoma, or the material world of emptiness.  The one is the totality of divine powers and attributes, the other the region of shadow and darkness.  Christ belongs to the Pleroma, as chief of the aeons; the Demiurge or Creator belongs to the Kenoma…the material world is the abode of the principle of evil.  This cannot proceed from the one true God; else he were himself the author of evil.  It must come from the opposite principle.  This is Matter.[1]”

 

Where do we fit into all this?  There are some of us who are creatures that are simply created by El.  These creatures, much like dogs, or mosquitoes, etc…will die and that will be the end of their existence because they were pure material.  However, there are some of us who are material yet who contain a spark of the divine, or light-world, within them.  Thus, some of us are like “trapped divinities”.

So how do we come to the knowledge that we need in order to be “released” from our material bodies?  Obviously, one could not do this by looking at the world around us since it is a material world that we need salvation from.  Instead, there needs to be a messenger, or an emissary from the spiritual realm.  Jesus is such a one.  He is the one who came to tell us about the truth of our origin and our final destination.  It should be noted that within some Gnostic sects, Jesus was not truly in human flesh, but only had the appearance of flesh (known as Doceticism[2]), while other taught that Jesus had flesh but had more than the usual “spark” of the divine than most others had.  Several other Gnostic  variations exists as well.

Several propositions need to be made for clarification purposes about the teachings of the Gnostics compared to orthodox Christian beliefs.  First, in regards to Christ, there is a denial that Christ was fully human in nature.  Secondly, there is the denial of Christ as creator (cf. John 1:1-3, Col. 1:15-18).  There is also a denial of the doctrine of the Trinity since Christ is not of the same nature as the one God (cf. John 1:1, Hebrews 1:8-12).  In regards to God, Gnosticism is saying that the God of this world is not truly the most powerful God, but is really an evil Demiurge.  In regards to salvation, one is not saved through faith alone but through a “secret knowledge” or a “living voice” (viva voce) that only came to a few through the words and teachings of Christ.  This knowledge has been secretly passed on from generation to generation.

 

 

The Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism

 

Now we come to the text of the Gospel of Judas and ask if these elements are contained within the writings.  For if they are, then it is clear that the Gospel of Judas is nothing more than a deceptive attempt of this heretical group to use Christian lingo in order to promote their own religion and not the one that was taught by Christ or the apostles.  This will not be an exhaustive examination of the text but only of certain areas of the Gospel of Judas that bring out the Gnosticism contained within it.

From the opening line we are immediately captivated by the fact that we are reading something that is “secret”;

 

“The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot…”

 

We see that this account is to give a knowledge that one cannot find anywhere else and it is not for everyone.  It is for those who are in the “know”; it is for the Gnostics.  Interestingly enough, Judas is the only person to whom Jesus reveals the “mysteries of the kingdom” because he alone understand truly who Jesus is. 

In fact, not too far into the Gospel of Judas, the disciples are having a thanksgiving meal while Jesus is watching.  As he is watching, he begins to laugh at their ceremony and they wonder why, to which Jesus replies, “I am not laughing at you [You] are not doing this because of your own will but because it is through them that your god [will be] praised.”  Notice already, within the response that the God of the disciples and Jesus are not the same for their god is classified as “your god” as opposed to “our god”.    The disciples say to him in response, “Master, you are…the son of our god.”  The account, so far, is almost parallel to the Matthew 16 account in which the disciples are asked who they think Jesus is.  But Jesus responds to them, “How do you know me?  Truly [I] say to you, no generation of the people that are among you will know me.”  The disciples become infuriated and begin to even “blaspheme him in their hearts”.  Now at this point, Jesus lectures them about their nature for a moment and their inability to attain to the true heavenly home.  Here, Judas tells Jesus that he knows his true identity.  Judas tells Jesus,

 

“I know who you are and where you have come from.  You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo.  And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you.”

 

“Barbelo,” according to Gnostic teachings, “Is one of the primary divine beings in the perfect realm of the true God.[3]”  Thus, Jesus is not of an earthly origin.  We note also that he has been sent by a nameless one.  This nameless one, in Gnostic tradition, is the pure spirit from which all other aeons have emanated from. 

Finally, at the end of the account, Jesus tells Judas that he must betray him to his death.  However, in doing this, Judas will exceed the work of all the other disciples.  Jesus says,

 

“But you will exceed all of them.  For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

 

Here the Gnostic element comes out in that Jesus’ true self - his pure spirit - will be released from the body in which it is trapped.  This will allow Jesus, in a sense, to return back to the realm of Barbelo and be done with the material world. 

In short, from beginning to end, there are Gnostic themes and lingo found throughout the Gospel of Judas.  From the beginning it is clear that the knowledge contained is not for all.  Even in the end, the story ends with Jesus’ betrayal and implied death.  There is no mention of the resurrection since Gnosticism taught that material was evil, it would be inconsistent to have Christ raised in a fleshly body.  

 

Judas in the Gospel of Judas versus the Judas of the Bible

 

            The title of the Gospel of Judas is significant.  The Gospel of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all are titled “the Gospel according to…” and then name their respective author.  The Gospel of Judas, however, is not a gospel “according to” Judas though.  Instead, it is the “good news” about Judas, and not about Christ.  Thus, the Gospel of Judas is intended, by the title, to teach us something about Judas and not about a perspective of Christ like the traditional gospels.  What is this work attempting to say about Judas?  How does this perspective differ from what the Bible says about Judas?

            The Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John don’t reveal too much about Judas since that was not their intention.  However, they do reveal to us enough about his character that leads to his betrayal of Christ.  Initially, we know that he was chosen by Christ as one of the twelve disciples (cf. Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16; Acts 1:17).  The Gospel’s further reveal that he was a treasurer for the group.  However, it also reveals that he did not take upon this endeavor from the goodness of his heart, but rather from its corruption for he was a covetous man and would often take out of the treasury for his own personal gain (cf. John 12:6; 13:29).  Two incidents bring out his covetous and greedy character; the incident where the woman anoints Jesus’ feet (John 12:4-6) and his agreement to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver (cf. Matt. 26:14-16; Mark 14:10-11).  Luke 22:3-6 further reveals that “Satan entered Judas” and made use of his already hardened and sinful heart.  How ever we understand Satan’s entering of Judas, we must understand that Judas is not excused.  He was already in a privileged position of being one of the twelve.  He had spent time with Christ and had even been taught directly by Him.  I Peter 5:8-9 exhorts us to resist the devil and he will flee from us.  Obviously, Judas made no attempt to resist Satan and was consumed by a satanic greed for 30 pieces of silver. 

While the betrayal may have been a surprise to the other disciples, even as they were told that one of them would betray Him (John 13:18-30; cf. Matt. 26:17-25), Jesus had known from the beginning whom it was who would betray him.  For instance, in John 6:70-71, Jesus says, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?”  John comments on Jesus’ words and says, “He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray Him, being one of the twelve.”   Even before this, the Old Testament prophesied about the one who would betray the Messiah.  For instance, Psalm 41:9 says, “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”  The obvious reference to the Passover meal and close relationship between Judas and Jesus is noted.  Also, Zechariah 11:12 we read, “Then I said to them, ‘If it is agreeable to you, give me my wages; and if not, refrain.’ So they weighed out for my wages thirty pieces of silver.”  According to Exodus 21:32, 30 pieces of silver was the price paid for a slave who was gored by an ox.  Thus, the price of 30 pieces of silver is an insulting price to take to betray Christ because it is essentially placing the value of Christ in the heart of Judas as that of a slave.  Judas even unintentionally fulfilled verse 13 of Zechariah 11 by throwing the money in the temple (cf. Matt. 27:3-5).  Following the betrayal and remorse, Judas commits suicide by hanging himself (Matt. 27:5) upon which shortly after, he fell “headlong” and “burst open in the middle and all his entrails gushed out” (Acts 1:18). 

Thus, the Gospels portray Judas as the supreme traitor for he was chosen by Christ, heard Christ preached, witnessed the miracles of Christ firsthand, and even shared meals with Christ.  He was in a position to have one of the deepest relationships for he even sat at the seat of honor with Christ (cf. John 13:26).  Christ, though he knew Judas would betray him, never denied him the sweetest compassion.  But Judas was not driven in his ministry by love to Christ but by love for money (cf. I Timothy 6:10).  His love for selfish gain led him to commit one of the most heinous acts in all of history; the betrayal of the Son of God into the hands of sinful men. 

Contrary to the Gospels, the Gospel of Judas presents Judas as essentially the paradigm of a saved person.  In a sense, he is the ultimate Gnostic and is presented as an example for life.  As mentioned before, the “good news” in the Gospel of Judas is about Judas.  It is about his impending salvation because he alone knows the true knowledge that saves.  He alone knows that Christ is not the son of the god of this world but is of the “realm of Barbelo.”  Judas alone is told that he will “exceed them all” and that his star will “lead the way”. 

Certainly, the views of Judas are mutually exclusive of each other.  Contrary to the latest discovery, Judas remains what he was in the end of his life: a traitor to Christ and an example to those who profess to follow Christ outwardly, but whose hearts have not truly experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. 

 

The Gospel of Judas and the New Testament Canon of Scripture

 

            We come now to the second part of the study in which we ask the question of the relationship between the Gospel of Judas and the New Testament canon.  The term “canon” comes from the Greek word “kanon” which means “rule” or “standard”.  Thus, when we speak of the “canon of Scripture,” it is in reference to those standard works that are Scripture.  The questions we essentially ask is why didn’t this work find its way into the New Testament Scriptures as we know them today?  Has the Church known about this work in the past?  How did the books of the New Testament get into the canon? 

            The first question has already been answered essentially.  The Gospel of Judas stands as Gnostic literature and, thus, not as of the Christian faith as commonly recognized and taught by the apostles and their immediate followers of the time.  In fact, several works accepted in the New Testament are actually apostolic responses to the early forms of Gnosticism that they had to deal with including the letter to the Colossians and I John.  Some theologians have even suggested that the Gospel of John is a response to the Gnostic teachings of Cerenthus, a Gnostic whom John often had dealings with during his life.  One of the early Church fathers, Polycarp, had the privilege of learning from the apostle John himself.  It has been recognized that Polycarp was also the teacher of Irenaeus.  Irenaeus, surprisingly, makes a passing reference to the Gospel of Judas in his most famous work, “Against Heresies.”  Irenaeus wrote,

 

“Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.[4]”

 

            It has been surmised that the Gospel of Judas was purposely withheld from the public in order to suppress a truer or simply another form of Christianity.  But this is not the case.  The book was never intended to be included in the canon of Christian Scripture because it was not Scripture.  It was a fictitious account of what took place between Judas and Christ.  Scholars themselves have recognized that this work could not have been produced by Judas nor anyone in the time period.  The date given for the writing of the Gospel of Judas is around 150 A.D., near when Irenaeus wrote “Against Heresies” (182-188 A.D.).  The writing was not given apostolic authorship or origin in any way.  Thus, it was rejected as Holy Scripture. 

 

The nature of the Canon

 

            But now we must ask, why were some books accepted as Scripture and other rejected?  In order for this question to be dealt with, we must recognize two views of the canon of Scripture: the theological canon and the historical canon.  Both canons refer to the same books but the theological canon refers to the nature of Scripture while the historical canon is the historical process by which God directed the Church to recognize the theological canon. 

            Regarding the theological view of the canon, we turn to two clear passages of Scripture in the New Testament that give witness to the nature of Scripture:  II Timothy 3:16 and II Peter 1:19-21.

            First in II Timothy 3:16 we read,

 

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction and training in righteousness.”

 

Getting technical for a moment, most translations use the word “inspiration.”  When we think of “inspiration”, we think of having a motivation or emotional willingness to do something.  Thus, we tend to call the writers of Scripture “inspired” and even great works of literature as “inspirational”.  But is this the correct view of the text of Scripture?  In order to answer this question, we must delve into the languages of Scripture for a moment.

            The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin word “inspirare” used in the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible which means “to breathe into”.  This Latin word, however, is insufficient to convey the meaning of the original Greek word used here, which is Theopneustos.  Theopneustos is more properly translated by the NIV as “God-breathed”.  The differences between the words are significant.  For instance, the Latin word “inspirare” is a verb which would function as saying what has been done to Scripture.  The word Theopneustos, however, is a noun and serves as a predicate thus speaking of what Scripture is.  The Latin actually gives the sense that the words of Scripture could have been written and not have been “breathed into”, giving the sense that they become “inspired” after an act of inspiration.  The Greek word, however, gives the idea that the words of Scripture are the very breath proceeding forth from the mouth of God as He speaks in the very writings of Scripture through the writers.  Therefore, theopneustos speaks of the very substance, or nature, of Scripture whereas the Latin would convey how the text has been acted upon.  A huge significance, indeed, for our understanding!

            It is important that we see that Paul is talking about what “all Scripture” is and not merely “some Scripture”.  This is clearly a categorical statement about the true nature of Scripture.  This becomes important when considering the nature of the canon of Scripture. Since only Scripture is God-breathed, it is logical to say that only those writings that are God-breathed are Scripture and those that are not God-breathed are not Scripture, thus not part of the canon.  The canon of Scripture, then, is not revelation itself.  That is, the Church has never claimed to have a “divine table of contents” that was revealed by God that helps us to recognize which books are to be part of the canon.  Rather, the canon is what could be called an “artifact of revelation.”  Thus, the nature of Scripture as God-breathed revelation serves as the foundation for the existence of a “canon of Scripture” – a standard collection of writings.

            Another Scripture that reveals the nature of Scripture is found in II Peter 1:19-21 which says,

 

“And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.”

 

            Here, Peter is exhorting his readers that in light of his upcoming death and the passing away of the apostolic authority, His readers are exhorted to follow the Scriptures as their “light” that shines in a dark place.  However, lest his readers follow Scripture blindly, he wants them to know about the nature of Scripture and the origin of its contents.  Most translations read that “no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation.”  The word “interpretation” here can be a little misleading.  For instance, most take this to say at face value that no one has the right to “private interpretations” of Scripture, but instead should be submitted to an infallible interpreter.  But this is not what the text is saying at all.  Continuing within the context into verse 21, the reader should understand that “being of one’s own interpretation” is meant to say that Scripture does not find its origin in the will of man, but rather Scripture is the product of holy men of God who were moved, or carried along, by the Holy Spirit. 

            Interestingly enough, Peter wants us to know “above all” (NIV) or to know first, about the nature of Scripture.  Particularly that Scripture is not the product of men but of the Spirit of God.  This is entirely consistent with II Timothy 3:16 in that Scriptures are “God-breathed”.  Thus, Peter’s identification, or categorical statement for Scripture, are those writings by men who were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  This statement of Peter’s is synonymous with Paul’s about the Scriptures being God-breathed.  Thus, only those writings of men who were guided by the Spirit to write and speak the things they did are Scripture.

Summing this up, there exists a category of writings authored ultimately by God through the Holy Spirit.  These writings are known to God and comprise what we have called the “theological canon.”  Whether these writings are acknowledged or not by other men, they still remain what they are by nature: God-breathed Scripture.  Thus, the “theological canon” exists whether or not it is recognized by any other. 

In other words, suppose that I have written several works.  The totality of these works comprises what would be called the canon of works.  Whether or not, anybody believes them to be written by me or even reads them.  The fact would remain that I did write those works and they are what they are by nature, and not by recognition from any other external source.

With such a view and understanding of the nature of the canon, it should be obvious that no external authority, such as a Church Council, nor even the Church itself, can make a book to be God-breathed anymore than someone could make the writings of mere human origin into the Word of God.  Instead, what the Church does is recognize which books are God-breathed Scripture and passively receives those works as part of the canon of Scripture thus, giving us the Holy Scriptures or what we know as the Bible.  Historically speaking, the Roman Catholic Church claims to have authoritively determined the Canon, however, this cannot be the case for it is clear that the God-breathed writings exists as what they are by nature irrespective of our recognition or declarations. 

 

The Canon as an artifact of revelation

 

             

But we still ask the question, how did the God-breathed writings come together to give us the Bible that we have today?  How did the early Church recognize the Canon of Scripture? 

First we should understand how the Old Testament canon came into being.  It is recognized by strict Jewish tradition that body of writings that came to be known as the “oracles of God” was closed by about 400 B.C.  The Jewish historian Josephus acknowledges that there was no more authorative communication from God through prophet to be put on writing after the time of Malachi [5].  Thus, by the time our Lord, Jesus Christ, began his ministry, there was already a generally accepted Canon of Scripture referred to by its three fold division of “the Law, the prophets and the Psalms” (cf. Luke 24:44-45).  It is notable that Jesus never debated with the Pharisees or Scribes what was or what was not Scripture.  It was recognized already that there was a body of writings that were the very words of God.  But how did this happen?  The answer:  God simply led His people to recognize them for what they were.

There was no council that met and discussed which works seemed to be or could be the Word of God.  Rather they were accepted as they came through the prophets or those who penned the words of the prophets which were the very words of God.  Essentially, by about 200 B.C. the Jewish canon was completed with 22 books (which are the same 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament[6]).

But what about those of the New Testament?  How did we come to recognize those writings as God-breathed?  In a very general way, the immediate followers of Christ through the ministry of the Apostles believed that it was the closest followers of Jesus who were divinely appointed to authoritively declare the person and work of Christ.  Thus, in a general way, it was their writings that were accepted as authorative.  Thus, almost immediately, the writings of Paul are accepted as Scripture as acknowledged in II Peter 3:15-16.  This text says,

 

“…and consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation- as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.” 

 

When Peter says that Paul’s writings are twisted with the “rest of the Scriptures”, Peter is showing that he counts Paul’s writings to be on par with the known authorative Scriptures of the time, namely the Old Testament. 

Peter is not alone in acknowledging other writings of the New Testament era as Scripture.  In I Timothy 5:18, Paul is instructing the church to “honor” their elders who labor in the Word and in doctrine.  He substantiates his exhortation by saying,

 

“For the Scripture says, ‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,’ and ‘the laborer is worthy of his wages.’”

 

The first quote is recognizable from Deuteronomy 25:4 while the second quote comes from the Gospel according to Luke 10:7.  It is generally accepted by New Testament scholars that I Timothy was written around A.D 62 – A.D. 64, which would mean that the Gospel according to Luke was already accepted and functioning as Scripture along with the Old Testament as well.  The final writing from an apostle would be the Apocalyptic work of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, written as late as A.D. 95.  This final writing of the last remaining apostle essentially ended the revelation of God in Christ to the Church.  With the coming of Christ and the exposition of His person and work by the apostles, God was fully revealed in Christ (cf. Hebrews 1:1-3).  Thus, those writings written by the apostles that were God-breathed were recognized for what they were, the Word of God.

Two issues need to be dealt with here:  the exploitation of apostolic authority and the geographical locations of Scripture.  First: the misuse of apostolic authority.

The apostolic Church recognized the derivative authority of the Apostles from the Lord.  So did false teachers.  Hence, it was not uncommon for false teachers, like the Gnostics to pretend to be apostles themselves or, eventually, to write epistles under the semblance, or name of apostles.  Hence, there are works like the “Gospel of Thomas” or the “Gospel of Phillip”.  There are even Gnostic works that bear the names of those closely associated with Christ, like the “Gospel of Mary Magdalene.”  A surface examination of these other Gospels will reveal a familiarity with the work of the true apostles, but will also reveal the Gnostic tendencies mentioned above.

The Gospel of Judas is a product of these Gnostics groups.  The work was not truly written, nor endorsed, by any apostle, much less Judas himself for the date of the work clearly lies beyond the date of his death.  Neither is the Gospel of Judas, nor these Gnostic writings, consistent with the teachings of the prior revelations of God as revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures.  In fact, the first move for a “Christian canon” was actually by a Gnostic, named Marcion, who proposed that the entire Old Testament was not Scripture!  It was actually in reaction to this falsely proposed canon of Scripture that the Church started to concern itself with what was true Scripture, though only for a moment since persecution and issues about the Deity of Christ and his relationship to the Father took more precedence.  Another thing that these Gnostic Scriptures lacked was a general acceptance by the Church, especially those who were either familiar with the apostles themselves or their teachings as they had been handed down either by word of mouth or by Scripture.

Secondly, we must consider the geographical locations of Scripture as well as its transmission.  Scripture was primarily written on Papyrus and arranged into a “codex.”  Due to the lack of printing presses available at the time, the transmission of Scripture took place through scribes.  What would essentially happen is that an apostle, or one sanctioned by an apostle, would deliver a letter to a local Church in a given geographical area.  From there, the letter would either get copied by a scribe and passed on to another Church in the geographical area.  This process took time.  We must also consider that some works did not reach others until much later.  Hence, when it came time to consider some of these letters as Canonical, there were some Churches who had not heard of such works as Revelation, or 2 Peter or Jude.  Hence, the historical disputes of these books.  One book, Hebrews, did not even bear a name, and so it was disputed whether or not it was apostolic in origin, and hence an authorative communication from God. 

Now, this is not to say that the Church did not have a functioning canon before there was ever an official recognition of which books were God-breathed and which ones were not.  On the contrary, there is clear evidence from the writings of the early Fathers and their many appeals to Scripture that though there was no existing formal declaration of what was Canonical and what was not, the Church already knew by the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit what Scripture was and what was not. 

We should not take lightly the word of Jesus when He said in John 10:3-5:

 

“…and the sheep hear [the Good Shepherd’s] voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.  Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”

 

            The verse is certainly a revelation that the Church, the sheepfold of God, knows the voice of their Lord and they have heard him in the writings they recognized as Scripture.  The verse also says that the Church will reject those other “voices” that would come through strange teachings and writings.  Hence, the rejection of not only the Gospel of Judas from the Canon, but hundreds of other works that reveal the marks of Gnosticism and not of the Lord of the Church. 

 

The Gospel for Judas

 

The Gospel of Judas is not new; neither has it ever turned Christianity on its head.  It still stands today as what it was and always has been:  a distortion of true Christianity and a false Gospel! 

What is the true message of Judas?  That there are those who profess to follow Christ on the outside, but inwardly are corrupted; that there are those who profess to be followers of Christ but will perish in the end.  If there was a Gospel for Judas, it is the same Gospel that was once for all delivered to the Church through Christ and His apostles.

That Gospel is that though we are totally unable to neither produce anything righteous nor incline ourselves to the will of God, that though we are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1), God has sovereignly and graciously decided to draw men and women unto Himself through the quickening and regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.  Through this regeneration, we can experience freedom from our sins to be able to truly and savingly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was Jesus Himself who said, “Unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3).  When we are born again, we are able to place our whole faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ as the sinless and perfect atonement for our sins.  Jesus paid the price for all the sins of all His people and will completely forgive any and all who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).  The proof Jesus offers is His resurrection from the grave by the Father.  Since death was not able to hold him, neither will it hold any who receive his life and work on their behalf.

This is the Gospel that Judas rejected when he chose to betray Christ.  Judas refused the greatest news in the world.  That other would not be condemned with him, false teachers have fabricated a Pseudo-Gospel bearing His name.  Do not be deceived.  Judas was condemned as a sinner as we all rightly deserve to be.  But Judas was offered the Gospel, indeed walked with Christ Himself.  The good news lies not in what is falsely called knowledge (cf. I Tim. 6:20).  The Good news lies in Jesus complete atonement and victory over sin on behalf of sinners.  We can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ alone as God come to us in the flesh.  This, much we should take from the example of the true account of Judas.