Judas Gospel has different view of God
The long-lost Gospel of Judas, published earlier this month by the National Geographic Society, gives a180-degree different view of Judas Iscariot than is found in the New Testament.
It also has a totally different view of God than that of orthodox Christianity or Judaism.
The Gospel of Judas, which may date from as early as 180 A.D., is one of some 15 works of Sethian Gnosticism that have been discovered and translated in recent decades.
And, like other Sethian writings, it draws a stark contrast between an ultimate deity that is infinite, eternal and perfect versus a lesser god, evil and corrupt, who created the material world in which we live.
John Turner, professor of classics and religion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is an expert on Sethian Gnosticism. He translated several ancient books that are part of the Nag Hamadi scriptures, a cache of once-forbidden books found hidden in a jar in Egypt in 1945.
When information about the Gospel of Judas began to circulate among scholars, Turner realized that its significance went far beyond the basic story line, in which Jesus identifies Judas as a favored disciple and in effect asks Judas to turn him over to the Roman authorities to be executed.
That view of Judas is totally opposite the New Testament view of Judas as a traitor, who was led by the devil to betray Christ.
“It (the Judas Gospel) may shock some people, but to me it just adds to the Sethian corpus,” Turner said.
He summarized some of the basic beliefs of the Sethians in this way: According the book of Genesis, the first man, Adam, had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, and he and his descendants were marked for that crime. But two passages (Genesis 4:25 and 5:3) state that Adam had a third son “in his own likeness,” who was named Seth. The Sethians believed that while the material world was created by an ignorant, angry and jealous god, Adam himself had a spark of divinity that came from the true God, the Father who exists in the realm of pure spirit.
“Adam is actually smarter and more perceptive than the creator being,” Turner said. The god of this world attempts to deprive Adam and Eve of their immortality, driving them from the Garden of Eden after they eat from the tree of knowledge. But Seth inherits the spark of divinity and a soul that returns to the spiritual realm after death.
Seth is also called the Allogenes, meaning “of a different seed or race,” a term that also was applied to Jesus. “Revealers from the divine world appear from time to time, culminating with the heavenly Seth appearing in the guise of Jesus,” Turner explained.
In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus imparts esoteric teachings to Judas that he does not reveal to the other disciples. In fact, Jesus laughs at the other disciples because they pray to the false god of this world rather than worshipping the true eternal Father, whom Jesus identifies as a “great invisible spirit.”
In a commentary included in the Gospel of Judas volume, Gnostic scholar Marvin Meyer quotes from an essay by Turner describing the “supreme triad” (trinity) of Sethian Gnosticism: Father, Mother and Child. The Father is the infinite, invisible spirit that “seems to transcend even the realm of being itself.” The Mother, also called Barbelo, is “the projected self-reflection” of the Father. The Child, also called autogenes, meaning “self-generated,” is produced from Barbelo “either spontaneously or from a spark of the Father’s light.” The autogenes creates other beings known as luminaries and aeons. Sophia, a personification of divine wisdom, produces a “misshapen” offspring who goes on to create the material world, with the goal of “keeping the divine light of Sophia imprisoned within mortal bodies,” Meyer writes.
In the Gospel of Judas, Judas acknowledges that Jesus is “from the immortal realm of Barbelo” and Jesus takes him aside to impart special wisdom. He tells Judas that by turning him over to be executed, he is actually helping to free Jesus from the physical world so his soul can return to the eternal spiritual realm.
Near the end of the gospel, Judas himself enters a “luminous cloud” linking him with the realm of light.
Publication of the Gospel of Judas gives further evidence of the beliefs of the Sethian Gnostics, who were labeled as heretics by many of the early church fathers. The Gospel of Judas was mentioned by Irenaeus of Lyon, a bishop in the second century, but its existence wasn’t proven until the manuscript (called Codex Tchacos) was accidentally uncovered in a limestone box in a cave in Egypt in 1971. The document was sold in Cairo’s antiquities market and eventually ended up in a safety deposit box in Long Island, N.Y., where it sat disintegrating in the humidity for 16 years.
In 2000 art dealer Frieda Tchacos Nussberger purchased the codex for several hundred thousand dollars, and eventually sold it to another collector, Bruce Ferrini, who damaged it further by placing it in a freezer (which caused the moisture-damaged pages to dry and crumble). Finally, the ancient Coptic manuscript was acquired for $1.5 million by the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, which in turn sold the rights to exhibit and publish the manuscript to the National Geographic Society for $1 million.
“Most of the damage to a codex happens in the antiquities market, not while it’s buried,” Turner said.
The entire Codex Tchacos is 66 pages, including the 26-page Gospel of Judas, plus a version of the letter of Philip which appears in the New Testament, a text entitled “James” which appears to be a version of another Gnostic Gospel from Nag Hamadi, and a text provisionally called “The Book of Allogenes” which appears to be another Sethian work that has not been previously translated.
The major significance of the codex, Turner said, is that it contains two works which were previously unknown. “It doesn’t really alter what we know about the basic ideas of Sethianism, but it does give us an alternate expression of them,” he said.
Sethianism was one of many expressions of early Christianity, Turner noted. “It’s good to be able to compare this gospel with other Sethian documents and try to fit it into the history and development of Sethian thought.”
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
It also has a totally different view of God than that of orthodox Christianity or Judaism.
The Gospel of Judas, which may date from as early as 180 A.D., is one of some 15 works of Sethian Gnosticism that have been discovered and translated in recent decades.
And, like other Sethian writings, it draws a stark contrast between an ultimate deity that is infinite, eternal and perfect versus a lesser god, evil and corrupt, who created the material world in which we live.
John Turner, professor of classics and religion at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, is an expert on Sethian Gnosticism. He translated several ancient books that are part of the Nag Hamadi scriptures, a cache of once-forbidden books found hidden in a jar in Egypt in 1945.
When information about the Gospel of Judas began to circulate among scholars, Turner realized that its significance went far beyond the basic story line, in which Jesus identifies Judas as a favored disciple and in effect asks Judas to turn him over to the Roman authorities to be executed.
That view of Judas is totally opposite the New Testament view of Judas as a traitor, who was led by the devil to betray Christ.
“It (the Judas Gospel) may shock some people, but to me it just adds to the Sethian corpus,” Turner said.
He summarized some of the basic beliefs of the Sethians in this way: According the book of Genesis, the first man, Adam, had two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain killed Abel, and he and his descendants were marked for that crime. But two passages (Genesis 4:25 and 5:3) state that Adam had a third son “in his own likeness,” who was named Seth. The Sethians believed that while the material world was created by an ignorant, angry and jealous god, Adam himself had a spark of divinity that came from the true God, the Father who exists in the realm of pure spirit.
“Adam is actually smarter and more perceptive than the creator being,” Turner said. The god of this world attempts to deprive Adam and Eve of their immortality, driving them from the Garden of Eden after they eat from the tree of knowledge. But Seth inherits the spark of divinity and a soul that returns to the spiritual realm after death.
Seth is also called the Allogenes, meaning “of a different seed or race,” a term that also was applied to Jesus. “Revealers from the divine world appear from time to time, culminating with the heavenly Seth appearing in the guise of Jesus,” Turner explained.
In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus imparts esoteric teachings to Judas that he does not reveal to the other disciples. In fact, Jesus laughs at the other disciples because they pray to the false god of this world rather than worshipping the true eternal Father, whom Jesus identifies as a “great invisible spirit.”
In a commentary included in the Gospel of Judas volume, Gnostic scholar Marvin Meyer quotes from an essay by Turner describing the “supreme triad” (trinity) of Sethian Gnosticism: Father, Mother and Child. The Father is the infinite, invisible spirit that “seems to transcend even the realm of being itself.” The Mother, also called Barbelo, is “the projected self-reflection” of the Father. The Child, also called autogenes, meaning “self-generated,” is produced from Barbelo “either spontaneously or from a spark of the Father’s light.” The autogenes creates other beings known as luminaries and aeons. Sophia, a personification of divine wisdom, produces a “misshapen” offspring who goes on to create the material world, with the goal of “keeping the divine light of Sophia imprisoned within mortal bodies,” Meyer writes.
In the Gospel of Judas, Judas acknowledges that Jesus is “from the immortal realm of Barbelo” and Jesus takes him aside to impart special wisdom. He tells Judas that by turning him over to be executed, he is actually helping to free Jesus from the physical world so his soul can return to the eternal spiritual realm.
Near the end of the gospel, Judas himself enters a “luminous cloud” linking him with the realm of light.
Publication of the Gospel of Judas gives further evidence of the beliefs of the Sethian Gnostics, who were labeled as heretics by many of the early church fathers. The Gospel of Judas was mentioned by Irenaeus of Lyon, a bishop in the second century, but its existence wasn’t proven until the manuscript (called Codex Tchacos) was accidentally uncovered in a limestone box in a cave in Egypt in 1971. The document was sold in Cairo’s antiquities market and eventually ended up in a safety deposit box in Long Island, N.Y., where it sat disintegrating in the humidity for 16 years.
In 2000 art dealer Frieda Tchacos Nussberger purchased the codex for several hundred thousand dollars, and eventually sold it to another collector, Bruce Ferrini, who damaged it further by placing it in a freezer (which caused the moisture-damaged pages to dry and crumble). Finally, the ancient Coptic manuscript was acquired for $1.5 million by the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, which in turn sold the rights to exhibit and publish the manuscript to the National Geographic Society for $1 million.
“Most of the damage to a codex happens in the antiquities market, not while it’s buried,” Turner said.
The entire Codex Tchacos is 66 pages, including the 26-page Gospel of Judas, plus a version of the letter of Philip which appears in the New Testament, a text entitled “James” which appears to be a version of another Gnostic Gospel from Nag Hamadi, and a text provisionally called “The Book of Allogenes” which appears to be another Sethian work that has not been previously translated.
The major significance of the codex, Turner said, is that it contains two works which were previously unknown. “It doesn’t really alter what we know about the basic ideas of Sethianism, but it does give us an alternate expression of them,” he said.
Sethianism was one of many expressions of early Christianity, Turner noted. “It’s good to be able to compare this gospel with other Sethian documents and try to fit it into the history and development of Sethian thought.”
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or at breeves@journalstar.com.
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