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Mentary, the Gospel of Judas: the Lost Version of Christ's Betrayal

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Mentary, the Gospel of Judas: the Lost Version of Christ's Betrayal Chapter'8 THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS: A PARODY OF APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY April D. DeConick On the evening of 9 April 2006, the National Geographic Society aired a docu­ mentary, The Gospel of Judas: The Lost Version of Christ's Betrayal. The movie showed the scholars who were members of the National Geographic team tell their stories about the recovery, reconstruction and interpretation of the 'found' Gospel of Judas. They said that this gospel presents us with a very different story of Judas Iscariot, one in which Judas is the hero, not the villain. As Jesus' 'soul-mate', Judas was asked by Jesus to kill him in order to release Jesus' spirit and bring about salvation. This opinion formed the basis for the team's book, The Gospel of Judas, released on the same day.1 In many ways, this line of interpretation reclaimed and affirmed the opinion of Epiphanius who said that Judas, in his gospel, betrayed Jesus because he was a strong Power from above whose knowledge was supreme. Judas knew if he betrayed Jesus, that Christ's crucifixion would destroy the Archons, the gods who ruled this world. So Judas carried it out. Epiphanius writes, 'Know­ ing this, Judas made every effort to betray him, thereby accomplishing a good work for salvation. We should admire and praise Judas because through him the salvation of the cross was prepared for us' (Pan. 38.3.1-5). This line of interpretation has been accepted and reaffirmed by many well- known scholars who quickly released their own interpretations, and in some cases translations, of the Gospel of Judas.2 Unfortunately, these studies are based on the faulty provisional Coptic transcription originally posted by the National Geographic Society on its website and the English translation in the original popular English publication.3 In some quarters, however, re-evaluation of the Coptic and a reassessment of the initial reading of the Gospel of Judas 1. R. Kasser, M. Meyer and G. Wurst, The Gospel of Judas (Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2006). 2. Cf. B. D. Ehrman, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006); N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Gospel of Judas (London: SPCK, 2006); E. Pagels and K. L. King, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity (New York: Viking, 2007). 3. Kasser, Meyer and Wurst, Gospel of Judas. The Gospel of Judas: A Parody 97 have been underway since April 2006, and the results.are.shocking. Judas is not a hero or a Gnostic, but is evil as ever.4 1. The Tchacos Codexandthe QararaBooks The Gospel of Judas is one manuscript within a bigger papyrus codex. The modern name of the codex derives from the name of the Zurich antiquities dealer, Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos, who purchased the book after it had been decaying in a bank vault in Hicksville, New York, for many years. In 2001, she brought the codex to Switzerland, met Professor Rudolphe Kasser, and estab­ lished the Maecenas Foundation to aid in the codex's restoration. Eventually the National Geographic Society became involved, purchasing the right to pub­ lish the codex. The Society appointed a team of scholars to complete the restoration, translation and interpretation of the codex. Scholars who became members of the team were required to sign non-disclosure statements to keep the release of the documents secret. Unfortunately this resulted in a situation in which the codex had not been analysed and discussed broadly by a community of scholars before the release of a 'definitive' translation or critical edition. This created an odd situation in which a handful of scholars released the official transcription and interpreta­ tion of a codex that the rest of scholars had not seen. National Geographic released the Critical Edition in the summer of 2007, while refraining from publishing useable full-size facsimile photographs.5 This limited scholars in their ability to evaluate the official transcription and to make their own per­ sonal contributions. The publication of the Tchacos Codex in the Critical Edition released by the National Geographic Society was further complicated by the fact that a 4. L. Painchaud, 'A Propos de la (Re)decouverte de L'Evangile de Judas', Laval theologique et philosophique 62.3 (October 2006) 553-568; A. D. DeConick, The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says (New York: Continuum, 2007); J. Brankaer and H -G. Bethge, Codex Tchacos: Texte und Analysen (Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristli- chen Literatur 161; Berlin: de Gruyter, 2007); G. S. Robinson, 'The Relationship of the Gospel of Judas to the New Testament'and to Sethianism, Appended by a new English translation of the Gospel of Judas', Journal for Coptic Studies (forthcoming, 2008); A. D. DeConick, 'The Mystery of Judas' Betrayal: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says', in Madeleine Scopello (ed.), The Gospel of Judas in Context. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas. Paris, Sorbonne, October 27th-28th 2006, (Leiden, 2008). E. Thomassen, 'Is Judas Really the Hero of the Gospel?', in Madeleine Scopello (ed.), The Gospel of Judas in Context. Proceed­ ings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas. Paris, Sorbonne, October 27th-28th 2006, (Leiden, 2008). J. Turner, 'The Place of the Gospel of Judas in Sethian Litera­ ture', in Madeleine Scopello (ed.), The Gospel of Judas in Context. Proceedings of the First International Conference on the Gospel of Judas. Paris, Sorbonne, October 27th-28th 2006, (Leiden, 2008). 5. R. Kasser, G. Wurst, M. Meyer and F. Gaudard, The Gospel of Judas together with the Letter of Peter to Philip, James, and a Book of Allogenes from Codex Tchacos: Critical Edition (Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 2007). 98 The Non-Canonical Gospels substantial portion of the ancient book, some 50 photographed fragments (a.k.a. the Ohio fragments), remain unpublished because this part of the book is being held hostage in a legal battle over ownership. So it is important for us to remember that we do not know yet the full extent of the contents of the Tchacos Codex. The portion that we do have appears to be the first 66 pages of the codex. The Gospel of Judas is found on pages 33 to 58 of the Tchacos Codex. It is the only surviving copy from antiquity of the Gospel of Judas. The other docu­ ments within the book are another copy of the Letter of Peter to Philip (1-9; cf. NHC 8,2 132.10-140.27), another version of the First Apocalypse of James (10-22; cf. NHC 5, 3 24.10-44.10) and a fragment of the beginning of another work whose central figure is named Allogenes (59-66). Two of the Ohio frag­ ments (Ohio 4578, 4579) from Corpus Hermeticum 13.1-2 have also been identified. It remains to be seen whether they were part of this book. The Tchacos Codex was not discovered alone. In the 1970s, it was found with three other ancient books in limestone box when a tomb near Jebel Qarara just north of Al Minya was looted. Like the Tchacos Codex, the three other books do not survive intact. They were divided into smaller portions by antiq­ uities dealers who wanted to increase profits from their sale. One of these books was a fourth- or fifth-century papyrus codex containing a very important version of Exodus.6 This codex survives in pieces scattered in private collec­ tions and university libraries.7 The second codex, a book containing Paul's letters, has not resurfaced. What we know about it comes from the brief report written in 1983 by Stephen Emmel, who had the opportunity to view the codi­ ces when they were being offered for sale.8 The third book in the limestone box was a Greek geometry book called the Metrodological Tractate. It was torn in half and was sold to two separate buyers - Lloyd E. Cotsen, who has donated his portion to Princeton University, and an anonymous private collector.9 Why was the Tchacos Codex buried in a tomb with these three other books? If nothing else, their burial together points to their privileged place in the life of an early Christian living in ancient Egypt, a Christian who seems to have had esoteric leanings. Whoever was buried with these books had no difficulty during his or her lifetime studying canonical favourites like Paul and Exodus alongside the Gnostic Gospel of Judas. Since both the Hermetics and the Gnos­ tics studied mathematical theorems in order to map their universe, understand 6. D. A. DeSilva and M. P. Adams, 'Seven Papyrus Fragments of a Greek Manuscript of Exodus', Vetus Testamentum 56 (2006) 143-170. 7. A list of the whereabouts of these fragments is kept by Ernest A. Muro, Jr on the World Wide Web. See www.breadofangels.com/geneval983/exodus/index/html (last accessed on 23 September 2007). 8. Reported in J. M. Robinson, The Secrets of Judas: The Story of the Misunderstood Disciple and His Lost Gospel (San Francisco: Harper, 2006) 117-120. 9. H. Krosney, The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot (Washington, DC: National Geographic, 2006) 226-227, reports that both sections of the treatise will be published by A. Jones and R. Bagnall in 2008. The Gospel of Judas: A Parody 99 their place within it and route the spirit's journey home, the burial of the Metro- dologicdl Treatise With them should not come as a surprise. Knowledge of their contents may have provided the deceased assurance that his or her spirit would find the proper path to the divine realm and not become trapped in the hells and purgatories along the way.
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