sign in sign up
<<
Home , Gospel of Judas, Judas Iscariot

An Historian's View of the " of Judas" Author(s): David Frankfurter Source: Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 70, No. 3 (Sep., 2007), pp. 174-177 Published by: The American Schools of Oriental Research Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20361323 . Accessed: 01/12/2014 13:02

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Near Eastern Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 75.32.237.230 on Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:02:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the range and depth of early Christian diversity from An Historian's View of manuscript discoveries like the , the an extensive cache of ancient revelatory documents Gospel of]udas most of them Christian in orientation-that had been

hidden in jars in a cave as a result of some fourth- or fifth-century library purge. The Nag Hammadi Library The general public may be forgivenfor thinking that was rediscovered in the mid-twentieth century and is the newly released has meaning now widely available in several paperback editions. only for the historical discussion of s betrayer,

Judas Iscariot. Are we to believe from this document that

the poor guy, vilified through history,was simply railroaded What is the Gospel of Judas? The of Judas is the most remarkable of like all those death-row inmates suddenly saved through Gospel four ancient texts bound together in antiquity new DNA evidence? Or, conversely, is this sympathetic and discovered in the late 1970s in . Having picture of Jesus s erstwhile simplymeant to confuse been stowed away in a Swiss bank vault for were rediscovered and the -observant Christian public, today as in early decades, they only recently subjected to critical study. People have marveled Christian times, with heretical notions nourished byThe at the existence of the Judas Gospel, for it presents Da Vinci Code? With some scholars in on the weighing not only as Jesus's betrayer but as Judas Gospel as a radical new picture of the historical Judas, his enlightened, favored disciple. This of iswritten in the others denying any popular significance, and finally pundits Gospel Judas language of Coptic, that is, a late form of using and prelates declaring the obvious superiorityof theGospels Greek letters, but it seems to have been originally Matthew and on all an interested of John Judas matters, composed inGreek. In fact, a church father of the second of mentions a secular reader might well wonder how to evaluate the text. century CE, Lyons, Gospel of Judas that was read by his theological Is it interesting or just weird? opponents. So historians believe the Gospel of Judas goes back to the second century, even though Ifwe set aside the historical reconstruction of Jesus's the version just discovered is a fourth- or fifth last as in itself the relative days problematic (even given century copy. By contrast, the canonical of our earliest and the of the antiquity gospels) history of Mark, Matthew, Luke-Acts, and John come vilification of the character Judas as a separate topic from the late- first and early-second centuries. a (one closely linked to the history of anti-Semitism), we It is unlikely that the Gospel of Judas contains or more authentic of than are then leftwith a typical, yet fascinating, document separate picture Judas the canonical story. of the late-second century of Christianity. This was a The text itself is quite brief, opening on Jesus time, as historians know well, that Christian teachings among his disciples. Jesus enrages the disciples by were diversifying as quickly and creatively as Darwin's criticizing their piety but then takes Judas Iscariot finches in the Galapagos, even while certain writers aside as favored disciple. He predicts Judas's like Irenaeus of and Eusebius of Caesarea Lyons vilification by the others and proceeds to reveal to were insisting, speciously, on the essential unity of him secrets about the creation, the universe, and Christianity. We know of this diversity first from the the Temple of Jerusalem. At the end of the text, testimony of various Christians of that time, like fulfilling the canonical story of betrayal, Judas takes and hands over to scribes. and Clement of Alexandria, as well as from money Jesus Temple The restoration, and of the many mysterious apocryphal texts preserved over purchase, publication the Gospel of Judas were funded by the National the centuries in the Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic, and Slavonic churches. But we also have come to know

174 NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY 70:3 (2007)

This content downloaded from 75.32.237.230 on Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:02:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Judas Gospel is similar to the various compositions? How were people reexamining Jesus's reexaminations of Jesusa life found in the Nag life and nature? Why were they developing the Hammadi Library, like the Gospel ofMary Magdalene, characters of disciples and apostles that the earlier, theGospel of Philip, and theApocryphon of John. canonical gospels had left in the shadows? What is exciting for the historian of early Christianity, Ifwe dispense with terms like and orthodoxy then, is not the issue of which texts offer historically and even , which scholars have increasingly authentic biographies, but rather the question, found imprecise for classifying ancient ideas, ifwe what was going on at this time to motivate all these instead engage sympathetically with the intellectual

Geographie Society,which quicklyproduced a little AprilDeConick tellsher storyof discovering a darker book for the general public (TheGospel of Judas: Judas in the same text, one whom Jesus reveals as a Critical Edition, ?d. Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, demonic acolyte of the evil world ruler and whose andGregor Wurst [WashingtonDC, 2007] now in its eventual betrayal of Jesus must therefore be parody second, "criticar' edition) that included an annotated (The ThirteenthApostle: What theGospel ofJudas of the text and essays by senior scholars ReallySays [Continuum,2007]). on the discovery of themanuscript, its representation Scholarly debate will continue about the nature of Judas, and the kind of Christians who would have of Judas's literary vindication, demonization, or read it. From theNational Geographic Society website exploration in theGospel of Judas; about how the text one can also access the Coptic text and translation reflects other historical and doctrinal developments; (http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/). and about the text's relationship to the various Since 2006, several debates have arisen among religious movements once called gnosticism. In fact, scholars over the interpretation of the text (although one international conference not over the historicity of its Judas, which remains volume,LEvangile de Judas:le rather negligible), and a good number of accessible contexte historique et litt?raire trade books have emerged, most with good d'un nouvel apocryphe^ ?d. from the Coptic. Most argue that the Madeleine Scopello (Leiden: Gospel of Judas provides a kind of vindication of Brill), is already in press. the gospel character Judas that fits into the many Delving into the JudasGospel, paradoxical readings of the Jesus story current in its various interpretations, TheBGospeloffl the second century, notably Bart Ehrman's lucid and all the other ancient and historicallyauthoritative Lost Gospel ofJudas depictions of disciples takes Iscariot Press, and Elaine the reader into the thick . (OxfordUniversity 2006) JudasRodolpheKassef Mamn Meyer Gregor Wwst Pagels and Karen King's ReadingJudas: The Gospel of debates in the formative of Judas and theShaping ofChristianity (Penguin, church. Those interested in 2007), which proposes that the book was written more texts of this kind and partly to criticize the cult of martyrdom so dear period might also peruse to many early Christians' hearts. For the reader James M. Robinson, ed., interested in the whole panorama of Judas texts, The Nag HammadiLibrary in Marvin Meyer accompanies his translation with English (3rd ed.; Harper & several other striking documents from the second Row, 1988); BentleyLayton, and third centuries that reconceive Judas, as well ed., The Gnostic Scriptures as other "traitor" stories from antiquity (Judas: The (Doubleday,1987);or Marvin Definitive Collection ofGospels and Legends about the Meyer, ed., The Gnostic InfamousApostle ofJesus [Harper,2007]). Following Gospels ofJesus (HarperSan herNew YorkTimes op-ed piece (December 1, 2007) Francisco, 2005).

NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY 70:3 (2007) 175

This content downloaded from 75.32.237.230 on Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:02:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions worlds behind these texts, then we can encounter other disciples did not? After all, in both the Gospels ancient people thinking very seriously about the of Mark and John, Jesus is quite aware of what he nature of Jesus on earth and the different disciples is supposed to suffer?as his "lifting up," in John's who surrounded him. Already by the end of the words (3:14)? So then, that disciple who most directly first century, while many people in the movement facilitated the "death" and ascension of the Son of we now call "Christian" were discussing Jesus as an Man, would he not have preternatural wisdom? archetypal Jewish martyr whose sufferings had divine The Judas Gospel begins from precisely this sort of meaning, others were speculating that this divine thinking. It clearly knows the stories from the earlier being who came to earth had only assumed human gospels, even mentioning at the end the "blood money" form rather than becoming human in essence. In that Judas received for his betrayal according to the this interpretation of 's nature, which extends (27:3-10). Following a vision in naturally from Paul (Phil 2:6-7) and the Johannine which Judas himself beholds "the twelve disciples gospel (3:13-14; 12:45-46, etc.), the only stoning and persecuting me," Jesus tells Judas that affected the external human "form" of Christ, not his he (Judas) "will be cursed by the other generations." essential divine being, whose purpose was to teach and It is from the traditionally reviled character of the reveal to humanity (or a select group of humanity) traitor-disciple that the Judas gospel builds its novel the truths of the heavenly world. This is the "docetic" reinterpretation, not from some lost early tradition of interpretation of Jesus, after the Greek word for Judas as loyal disciple. Yet the gospel asserts that Judas "[only] seeming [to be flesh]," and by the mid-second has learned from Jesus the "mysteries of the kingdom," century it was as sensible and well-established a while the other eleven disciples merely fulfilled the in the Mediterranean world as those that intentions of the evil god of this world. emphasized Jesus's and healings, his Davidic The Judas Gospel thus lies somewhere between -ship, or his sufferings. In many of the texts a fable, a "what if?" story of a little-known but that promote a docetic interpretation, Jesus appears reviled disciple, and a serious proposition about the to different disciples in different forms according implications of . Out of the inevitability and to the spiritual maturity of the beholder: a child, a symbolism of the crucifixion, the most reviled disciple youth, an old man. From the docetic perspective, his becomes paradoxically the most insightful and most crucifixion served simply as a symbol for the rejection worthy of Jesus's secret teachings. Again, this idea is of the fleshly world and for his triumph over the not so far from the disturbing move in the Gospel of demonic beings who created that world (an idea also Mark to make the historically intimate disciple Peter anticipated in theGospel of John [12:31]). Only the into a blundering, ignorant sidekick who denies his unenlightened, those who cleave to the flesh and relationship to Jesus at the very end. And here too we the luxuries of the created world, would think that might learn something about the types of discussions Jesus was actually crucified, while the enlightened that preoccupied the earliest Christians. In our age believer could receive the eternal "living Jesus" and of banal discussions of the nature of "discipleship" we his of heavenly mysteries. forget that in earliest times Christian thinkers were From this point of view, it is quite plausible to interested in particular disciples and their relationship imagine why the legendary figure of Judas, who even to Jesus: what he told one but not another, how he at this early point in history had probably gained responded to this question or to that answer, and even the reputation as betrayer, might himself become his emotional encounters with each disciple. In the the subject of further speculation. If legend had it Judas Gospel (and several others) we see Jesus laughing that Judas took the initiative of giving Jesus up to at the lack of insight disciples demonstrate and clearly the Romans, then perhaps he perceived something elevating Judas as unique?as of another "generation" about Jesus and his imminent execution that the from the other eleven in thrall to "their god." Indeed,

176 NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY 70:3 (2007)

This content downloaded from 75.32.237.230 on Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:02:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions the Judas Gospel takes aim at those "twelve"? apparently stand-ins for some powerful branch of Christians in the author's time?as fornicators, sinners, Society of Biblical Literature and child-sacrificers, bitter words from the ranks of the gnostics, more typical of their opponents' rhetoric. But the elevation of certain, marginal disciples over other mainstream ones was a common device in stories

about Jesus. In the , it is the unnamed "beloved disciple" who is constantly at Jesus's side, learning things that Peter, Thomas, and others do not understand. In the and the , it isMary Magdalene who is elevated above a rather petulant Peter as the preferred disciple. Other texts make clear that Thomas, Jesus's spiritual "twin," Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt had once had favored status. Elizabeth Frood These matters were not literary or folkloric; This volume offers into insights Egypt's Ramessid were the basis of they very theological teachings the voices of period through forty-five , artists, about the and the nature of the men Jesus, crucifixion, civil officials, and military who served under the world, even the boundaries of true Christianity. If kings of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. texts details of their careers contemporary Christians remain happy to derive Sixty-five biographical give and character. The are metrically arranged translations themselves from the line of Peter (and to some degree introduced by descriptions of the texts' monumental a time when there were contexts careers Paul), they might ponder and, where possible, summaries of the of their owners. an to many other such lines in dialogue and conflict. And The volume provides introduction the historical of theRamessid lest church leaders try to argue that these other lines background period, drawing themes and issues raised the were esoteric and we that together key interpretive by elitist, might appreciate texts and their contexts. the book that held the like originally JudasGospel, Paper $24.95 978-1-58983-210-7 324 pages, 2007 the volumes found at Nag Hammadi, was clearly Code: 061526 Writings from theAncient World 26 Hardback edition www.brill.nl an eclectic compilation of different teachings and authorities: Allog?nes, The Letter of Peter to Philip, Text, Artifact, and Image The First of James. The Judas gospel Revealing Ancient Israelite Religion was not an historical declaration on the position of M. Beckman and Theodore Lewis, editors Judas, then, but a thought-piece, a proposition or Gary J. This collection of examines speculation, among many others of the time. essays the religion of ancient its ancient context: Israel within Egypt, Western Asia, and the is to David Frankfurter Aegean. Particular emphasis devoted the problem of the divine Was the on image. prohibition depicting the University ofNew Hampshire deity expressedin theHebrew followedalready in early Israel and Judah? Was the conception of the divine Israel's as as it is held by neighbors really unsophisticated depicted by theHebrew prophets? Cloth $54.95 1-930675-28-3 368 pages, 2006 Code: 140346 Brown JudaicStudies 346

Society of Biblical Literature P.O. Box 2243 Williston, VT 05495-2243 Phone: 877-725-3334 (toll-free) or 802-864-6185 Fax: 802-864-7626 Order online at www.sbl-site.org

NEAR EASTERNARCHAEOLOGY 70:3 (2007) 177

This content downloaded from 75.32.237.230 on Mon, 1 Dec 2014 13:02:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions