ChristianWeek

WOLFVILLE, NS—The Gospel of Judas, an ancient manuscript from the 2nd century discovered recently, has created controversy over its meaning. Craig Evans, professor at Acadia Divinity College in Wolfville, NS, has suggested that the 2nd century Gnostics viewed Judas as a fool and not as a hero.

The National Geographic Society team, of which Evans was a part, presented the heroic view of Judas in April 2006 when the document was unveiled. Evans now believes the initial interpretation of the "Gospel of Judas," portraying Judas as a hero, is inaccurate.

Speaking in Washington, DC in November, Evans stated that he believes "the Gospel of Judas is not lionizing Judas, but seeing him as the best of a bad lot…. All the disciples were misguided and Judas 'exceeds them all' by killing a human. Judas was no good guy."

"This is not just a re-reading of 'Judas'," says Evans. "We now have 85 per cent of the gospel and have reconstructed some of the missing words…Reconsiderations of reconstruction and translation have given us a different view."

Evans shared his new analysis of the Gospel of Judas at a panel discussion at the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting on November 19. He was "very surprised" at the support his dissenting opinion received.

John Turner, professor of classics and religion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an expert on Sethian Gnosticism, agrees with Evans' analysis. He spoke at the same panel as Evans in Washington.

"It was a lot of pressure from the Geographic Society to sensationalize the release of this around Easter and just prior to the release of The Da Vinci Code movie," says Turner.

"The decision was made that this is a truly shocking, revolutionary document that throws into question all of the traditional Christian claims about the figure of Judas. The document simply doesn't support that," he says.

Turner didn't translate or interpret the text for the National Geographic Society, but he has studied the document and concludes it backs up time-honoured New Testament view that Judas was a traitor.

The Nova Scotia scholar is "very wrong," says Elaine Pagels, one of the National Geographic Society's panel of experts, told CBC.

"The reason is that we've never seen a gospel written where the principal figure was turned into a fool," says Pagels, professor of religion at Princeton University.

The Gnostics of the second century were anti-Jewish and anti-early orthodox Christianity, says Evans.

They believed all matter was evil. In an effort to undermine the orthodox second-century Christian, the early Gnostics discredited the teachings of the first disciples and Paul. They portrayed the disciples as "dim wits that do not understand the 'revelation from above'," according to Evans.

"The Gnostics reject that Jesus' sacrificial death is what saves. They believe that Jesus brings special knowledge, real knowledge from heaven above. …Jesus shared that special knowledge with an elite group. Jesus' death [according to the Gnostics] is not saving but only good because he wanted to get rid of the human body and return to God above."