“Does it go back to Judas? No,” [James M.]Robinson told The Associated Press
On April 1st (fools day) National Geographic will be releasing studies (in either book, movie, magazine or other form, possibly scrolls) about a codec written around 180CE (or 180AD for you religious zealots). This codec is a text entitled the Gospel of Judas. And all the fools are jumping aboard the HMS Echo and are repeating the same thing over and over. The news of how this is not news is likely to make this bigger news than the News people thought this news was going to be. Here are the fools talking about the Fools day release.
- FoxNews
- ABC News
- WebIndia123.com
- Christian Science Monitor
- Washington Times
- Washington Post
- Seattle Times
- Time
And the quote at the top of the article? That is quoted in pretty much every news source even though he has not even seen the documents. Even though he has not seen images of the documents. And he is a leading “expert.”
In my estimation an expert should have some sort of, I don’t know, facts to back up his “expert” claim. Or else it is just conjecture. And unless he is an expert in conjecture, I would not call him an expert. He may know Coptic texts backwards and forwards but he does not know this text.
But this Gospel of Judas text is undisputedly authentic. Or so I am lead to believe. In fact the early church fathers were discussing the Gospel of Judas as early as 120CE. What does it take to be considered “authentic”?
The Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John were written after the fact with Mark, possibly, having been kept more as a “on the go” account of Jesus’ life. And the Gospel of Thomas being discredited because of the many Gnostic overtones. Even though some of the sayings appear to be more authentic than the Canonized Gospel versions.
- Gospel of Matthew – 60-65 CE
- Gospel of Mark – Before 68 CE
- Gospel of Luke – 60 – 100 CE
- Gospel of John – 90-120 CE
- Gospel of Thomas – circa 40 CE or 140-200 CE
- Gospel of Judas – circa 120 CE
It appears that the Gospel of Judas (and possibly Thomas) were written in the same basic time period as that of John. And John IS basically the Bible for many Christians. Consider the texts used most often by Christians (in, at least, so far as the Gospels are concerned). John 3:16, for instance.
It is unlikely, in my opinion, that Judas wrote the Gospel of Judas just like Thomas likely did not write “his” Gospel. Neither is it likely that Matthew, Luke or John wrote theirs. Mark possibly did.
To discredit something before even reading or seeing it is, in my opinion, a little premature.
Plus, does Thesselonians go back to Tess? Do the Chronicles go back to Narnia? And why is Amos not Famous Amos?
