The Gospel of Judas "HYPE"
This is a post from Rev Cwirla, a Confessional Lutheran Minister in the USA. (To go to his blog site click on the title of this post.) And I forward it to you due to the hype the media has given "The Gospel of Judas" in Australia in recent days.
To use the word of a famous rooster, Foghorn Leghorn, "Well BBQ my ham hocks!" Looks like we'll now have to grill those hocks over a couple pages of papyrus!
Friar Puk
Holy Monday
National Geographic is hyperventilated over the recent publication of the so-called “Gospel of Judas,” a gnostic gospel which vindicates Judas, the betrayer of Jesus.
Timing, of course, is everything in our media age. The National Geographic special announcing the blessed event will be aired on Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. This puts National Geographic in the same category as that great scholar and social critic Bill Maher who took delight in bashing Christians on Christmas Eve on his moronic talk show “Politically Incorrect.” The LA Times, southern California’s leading supplier of bird cage lining, gives The Gospel of Judas front page first column coverage this morning. Given the media’s penchant for being “fair and balanced,” I will look for a special from National Geographic on the immorality of Mohammed around the start of Ramadan.
For those who think the Da Vinci Code is scholarly and who get their historical theology from National Geographic specials, let me remind you that the Gospel of Judas is not exactly news in Christian circles. Irenaeus (AD 130-202), the bishop of Lyon and a student of Polycarp (who studied under the apostle John), mentions it in his encyclopedic “Against All Heresies,” where he writes:
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. Irenaeus goes on to describe a bit of Cainite theology for the unenlightened: I have also made a collection of their writings in which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera. Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the nature of the action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying, "O thou angel, I use thy work; O thou power, I accomplish thy operation !" And they maintain that this is "perfect knowledge," without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is not lawful even to name. The Gospel of Judas is one of many “gospels” written under the name of an apostle, like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip. They may as well be the Gospel of Moe, Larry, and Curly for all their authenticity. These are the works of various sects of gnosticism, a pernicious heresy that crept into Christianity like a virus in the latter part of the first century and turned into a full blown disease in the second and third. The Gospel according to St. John (I’m talking about the actual Gospel according to the real St. John) has the beginnings of gnosticism in full view, as do the later epistles of Paul along with Jude and Peter. The Cainites were a fun bunch whose hero was Cain, the murderer of his brother Abel. It only stands to reason that they would come up with a Gospel of Judas, making the cursed betrayer of our Lord into a martyr for the cause. The caustic lawyer turned theologian Tertullian of Carthage turned his acidic pen on the Cainites in the opening paragraph on his treatise “On Baptism” where he writes:
Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! A treatise on this matter will not be superfluous; instructing not only such as are just becoming formed (in the faith), but them who, content with having simply believed, without full examination of the grounds of the traditions, carry (in mind), through ignorance, an untried though probable faith. The consequence is, that a viper of the Cainite heresy, lately conversant in this quarter, has carried away a great number with her most venomous doctrine, making it her first aim to destroy baptism. Which is quite in accordance with nature; for vipers and asps and basilisks themselves generally do affect arid and waterless places. But we, little fishes, after the example of our Ichthus Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water; so that most monstrous creature, who had no right to teach even sound doctrine, knew full well how to kill the little fishes, by taking them away from the water! Apparently, the Cainites didn’t think much of Baptism. I especially like how Tertullian refers to believers as little fish swimming in baptismal water with their Great Fish, and he calls the Cainite female preachers “vipers, asps, and basilisks” who hang out in dry, waterless places. Darned good writer, that Tertullian. Expect the usual blather from the ignorati who pass themselves off as religion editors in the media, not to mention enough hot air emanating from anti-Christian circles to ween us from dependence on foreign oil. The LA Times glowingly reports, “Many consider it the most important archaeological find since the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed in the 1940’s.” That might be a bit overstated. In general, the gnostics believed that the material world was created by a bunch of lesser gods who imprisoned the spirit in a material body, from which one must escape through the acquisition of secret knowledge (gnosis, hence “gnostic”) from certain “enlightened” teachers in order to ascend to the Divine. Most gnostic were ascetics, denying the body every possible pleasure. Some practiced a form of “spiritual marriage” in which they did not have sex, though a few managed to produce “spiritual” children nonetheless. They drank water only and abstained from wine, even at their version of the Lord’s Supper. (This was before the days of grape juice, which was invented by Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch in the 19th century). Now you see why Paul advised Timothy “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” (1 Timothy 5:3). In the same letter, Paul referred to the early gnostics (proto-gnostics, actually), when he wrote: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. (1 Tim 4:1-5) Gnostics were very “spiritual,” in all the wrong senses of the word. They saw the body as a pop can from which the real you has to escape in order to become united with the divine. I’ve heard similar sentiments at “Christian” funerals. Gnosticism is by no means dead in our day; it just masquerades as various “spiritualities,” none of which are of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of Judas, Judas is the only disciple “in the know” (gnosis) while the other eleven are in the dark. Jesus tells 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.” So Judas is the enlightened one. Now you understand why John tells us “it was night” when Judas went out to betray Jesus. Jesus also is purported to have said to Judas, “You will exceed all of them [the other disciples]. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” There’s the old body as a pop can business. Jesus had to die in order to escape the prison of his humanity, and Judas was going to give Jesus a helping hand by handing him over to the religious authorities. Now you understand why John makes such a big deal out of “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” You also see why everyone is touching the resurrected body of Jesus and making a big deal about His wounds. No disembodied “spirit” on the first Easter Sunday. There is also no mention of Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection on the third day in the Gospel of Judas. What do you need a resurrection for, when you can be pure spiritual gas? Biblical scholar ("biblical scholar" is academic code language for "people who deconstruct the Christian faith") Marvin Meyer, director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at that bastion of orthdoxy Chapman University in Orange, CA, notes with scholarly optimism, “Hopefully, this will give us more reason to continue that discussion...and to determine what might be the enduring legacy of Judas.”1 I expect his next work will be entitled “The Enduring Legacy of Benedict Arnold.” Meyer, who translated the Gospel of Judas into English for National Geographic, found the work to be deeply inspiring. "It says that to follow Jesus means to waken to one's true humanity and to find that spark of what it truly means to be human before God."2 That would be a very gnostic way of looking at it. Christians need not let such “findings” spoil their Holy Week or dampen their Easter joy. These works were well known in the early centuries and were amply refuted. You may want to spend a little quality time with Irenaeus and check out what he has to say about the various gnostic sects of his day. Also good bedtime reading is Kurt Rudolph’s Gnosis - The Nature and History of Gnosticism. Findings such as the Gospel of Judas are important historic evidence for the various ways in which the Christian Gospel was perverted in the early centuries following the apostles. Scholars have expressed doubt over the veracity Irenaeus’ catalog of heresies. The finding of a genuine copy of the Gospel of Judas from the second century is a powerful vindication of Irenaeus. Irenaeus wasn’t exagerating. There really were wacko groups that wrote and believed this stuff! But hey, who are we to talk? We have UFO cults and Scientology. The Gospel of Judas, Thomas, Moe, Larry, and Curly also remind us of the importance of the apostolic Word, the record of the first century eyewitnesses to the resurrection recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You’ll notice that these are called “The Gospel according to...” not “The Gospel of....” There’s a reason for that. There is but one “Gospel” of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God Incarnate, who died for the sin of the world and rose triumphantly and bodily on the third day. The canonical tradition gives us four perspectives on this one Gospel, not four distinct gospels. There will always be perversions of the Gospel by those who would proclaim another gospel and another way to salvation except through the narrow door of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That’s why we have to be on our toes. Heresies are like viruses. They never really go away. They only go into remission, waiting for an opportune time to flare up again. In these grey and latter days, we can expect the gnostic virus to flare up with a vengeance, along with every other way people have invented to deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and to scandalize the little ones of faith. Have no fear. Jesus has overcome the world and its religion. And that’s no secret. The apostle Paul gets the last word:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel — not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
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. Irenaeus goes on to describe a bit of Cainite theology for the unenlightened: I have also made a collection of their writings in which they advocate the abolition of the doings of Hystera. Moreover, they call this Hystera the creator of heaven and earth. They also hold, like Carpocrates, that men cannot be saved until they have gone through all kinds of experience. An angel, they maintain, attends them in every one of their sinful and abominable actions, and urges them to venture on audacity and incur pollution. Whatever may be the nature of the action, they declare that they do it in the name of the angel, saying, "O thou angel, I use thy work; O thou power, I accomplish thy operation !" And they maintain that this is "perfect knowledge," without shrinking to rush into such actions as it is not lawful even to name. The Gospel of Judas is one of many “gospels” written under the name of an apostle, like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Philip. They may as well be the Gospel of Moe, Larry, and Curly for all their authenticity. These are the works of various sects of gnosticism, a pernicious heresy that crept into Christianity like a virus in the latter part of the first century and turned into a full blown disease in the second and third. The Gospel according to St. John (I’m talking about the actual Gospel according to the real St. John) has the beginnings of gnosticism in full view, as do the later epistles of Paul along with Jude and Peter. The Cainites were a fun bunch whose hero was Cain, the murderer of his brother Abel. It only stands to reason that they would come up with a Gospel of Judas, making the cursed betrayer of our Lord into a martyr for the cause. The caustic lawyer turned theologian Tertullian of Carthage turned his acidic pen on the Cainites in the opening paragraph on his treatise “On Baptism” where he writes:
Happy is our sacrament of water, in that, by washing away the sins of our early blindness, we are set free and admitted into eternal life! A treatise on this matter will not be superfluous; instructing not only such as are just becoming formed (in the faith), but them who, content with having simply believed, without full examination of the grounds of the traditions, carry (in mind), through ignorance, an untried though probable faith. The consequence is, that a viper of the Cainite heresy, lately conversant in this quarter, has carried away a great number with her most venomous doctrine, making it her first aim to destroy baptism. Which is quite in accordance with nature; for vipers and asps and basilisks themselves generally do affect arid and waterless places. But we, little fishes, after the example of our Ichthus Jesus Christ, are born in water, nor have we safety in any other way than by permanently abiding in water; so that most monstrous creature, who had no right to teach even sound doctrine, knew full well how to kill the little fishes, by taking them away from the water! Apparently, the Cainites didn’t think much of Baptism. I especially like how Tertullian refers to believers as little fish swimming in baptismal water with their Great Fish, and he calls the Cainite female preachers “vipers, asps, and basilisks” who hang out in dry, waterless places. Darned good writer, that Tertullian. Expect the usual blather from the ignorati who pass themselves off as religion editors in the media, not to mention enough hot air emanating from anti-Christian circles to ween us from dependence on foreign oil. The LA Times glowingly reports, “Many consider it the most important archaeological find since the Dead Sea Scrolls were unearthed in the 1940’s.” That might be a bit overstated. In general, the gnostics believed that the material world was created by a bunch of lesser gods who imprisoned the spirit in a material body, from which one must escape through the acquisition of secret knowledge (gnosis, hence “gnostic”) from certain “enlightened” teachers in order to ascend to the Divine. Most gnostic were ascetics, denying the body every possible pleasure. Some practiced a form of “spiritual marriage” in which they did not have sex, though a few managed to produce “spiritual” children nonetheless. They drank water only and abstained from wine, even at their version of the Lord’s Supper. (This was before the days of grape juice, which was invented by Dr. Thomas Bramwell Welch in the 19th century). Now you see why Paul advised Timothy “No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.” (1 Timothy 5:3). In the same letter, Paul referred to the early gnostics (proto-gnostics, actually), when he wrote: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving; for then it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. (1 Tim 4:1-5) Gnostics were very “spiritual,” in all the wrong senses of the word. They saw the body as a pop can from which the real you has to escape in order to become united with the divine. I’ve heard similar sentiments at “Christian” funerals. Gnosticism is by no means dead in our day; it just masquerades as various “spiritualities,” none of which are of the Holy Spirit. In the Gospel of Judas, Judas is the only disciple “in the know” (gnosis) while the other eleven are in the dark. Jesus tells 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.” So Judas is the enlightened one. Now you understand why John tells us “it was night” when Judas went out to betray Jesus. Jesus also is purported to have said to Judas, “You will exceed all of them [the other disciples]. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” There’s the old body as a pop can business. Jesus had to die in order to escape the prison of his humanity, and Judas was going to give Jesus a helping hand by handing him over to the religious authorities. Now you understand why John makes such a big deal out of “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” You also see why everyone is touching the resurrected body of Jesus and making a big deal about His wounds. No disembodied “spirit” on the first Easter Sunday. There is also no mention of Jesus’ death and bodily resurrection on the third day in the Gospel of Judas. What do you need a resurrection for, when you can be pure spiritual gas? Biblical scholar ("biblical scholar" is academic code language for "people who deconstruct the Christian faith") Marvin Meyer, director of the Albert Schweitzer Institute at that bastion of orthdoxy Chapman University in Orange, CA, notes with scholarly optimism, “Hopefully, this will give us more reason to continue that discussion...and to determine what might be the enduring legacy of Judas.”1 I expect his next work will be entitled “The Enduring Legacy of Benedict Arnold.” Meyer, who translated the Gospel of Judas into English for National Geographic, found the work to be deeply inspiring. "It says that to follow Jesus means to waken to one's true humanity and to find that spark of what it truly means to be human before God."2 That would be a very gnostic way of looking at it. Christians need not let such “findings” spoil their Holy Week or dampen their Easter joy. These works were well known in the early centuries and were amply refuted. You may want to spend a little quality time with Irenaeus and check out what he has to say about the various gnostic sects of his day. Also good bedtime reading is Kurt Rudolph’s Gnosis - The Nature and History of Gnosticism. Findings such as the Gospel of Judas are important historic evidence for the various ways in which the Christian Gospel was perverted in the early centuries following the apostles. Scholars have expressed doubt over the veracity Irenaeus’ catalog of heresies. The finding of a genuine copy of the Gospel of Judas from the second century is a powerful vindication of Irenaeus. Irenaeus wasn’t exagerating. There really were wacko groups that wrote and believed this stuff! But hey, who are we to talk? We have UFO cults and Scientology. The Gospel of Judas, Thomas, Moe, Larry, and Curly also remind us of the importance of the apostolic Word, the record of the first century eyewitnesses to the resurrection recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You’ll notice that these are called “The Gospel according to...” not “The Gospel of....” There’s a reason for that. There is but one “Gospel” of Jesus the Christ, the Son of God Incarnate, who died for the sin of the world and rose triumphantly and bodily on the third day. The canonical tradition gives us four perspectives on this one Gospel, not four distinct gospels. There will always be perversions of the Gospel by those who would proclaim another gospel and another way to salvation except through the narrow door of Jesus’ death and resurrection. That’s why we have to be on our toes. Heresies are like viruses. They never really go away. They only go into remission, waiting for an opportune time to flare up again. In these grey and latter days, we can expect the gnostic virus to flare up with a vengeance, along with every other way people have invented to deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and to scandalize the little ones of faith. Have no fear. Jesus has overcome the world and its religion. And that’s no secret. The apostle Paul gets the last word:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel — not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:6-9)
Edited on: April 07th, 2006 6:42 pm; Rev Cwirla
