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Posted on Fri, Apr. 07, 2006 Gospel redefines Judas Iscariot SAYS APOSTLE WAS JESUS' BEST FRIEND HERALD-LEADER WIRE SERVICES An early Christian manuscript, including the only known text of the Gospel of Judas, has resurfaced after 1,700 years, and it portrays Judas Iscariot not as a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple and willing collaborator. In this text, scholars reported yesterday, the account of events leading to the Crucifixion differs sharply from the four gospels in the New Testament. Here Jesus was said to entrust Judas with special knowledge and asks him to betray him to the Roman authorities. By doing so, he tells Judas, "you will exceed" the other disciples. "You will be cursed by the other generations, and you will come to rule over them," Jesus confides to Judas in the document, which was made public at a news conference at the National Geographic Society in Washington. Though some theologians have hypothesized the "good Judas" before, scholars who have translated and studied the text said this was the first time an ancient document lent support to a revised image of the man whose name in history has been synonymous with treachery. Scholars said the 26-page document was written on 13 sheets of papyrus leaf in ancient Egyptian, or Coptic, and was bound as a book, known as a codex. It is one of dozens of sacred texts from the Christian Gnostics, who believed that salvation came through secret knowledge conveyed by Jesus. Its anonymous author was "obviously a Christian person very sympathetic to a Gnostic point of view," said Coptic scholar Marvin Meyer, of Orange, Calif.'s Chapman University. The codex was written in the second century when various groups of Christians circulated what they called gospels -- "good news" -- purportedly written by most of the disciples and several other followers of Jesus, among them Mary Magdalene. The entire 66-page codex also contains a text titled James, a letter by Peter and pages provisionally called Book of Allogenes, or Book of Strangers. Most were outlawed during a centuries-long battle to determine which sacred texts would comprise the canon of Christian orthodoxy known today as the New Testament. Already, some scholars are saying that this Gospel sheds new light on the historical relationship between Jesus and Judas. They find strands of secret Jewish mysticism running through the beliefs expressed by some branches of early Christianity. But others say the text is merely one more scripture produced by a marginalized Christian cult of Gnostics, who lived so many years after Jesus' day that they could not possibly produce anything accurate about his life. For these reasons, the discoveries are expected to intrigue theologians and religious historians and perhaps be deeply troubling to some church leaders and lay believers. The discovery in the desert of Egypt of the leather-bound papyrus manuscript, its wanderings through Europe and Long Island, and now its translation, were announced by scholars assembled by the National Geographic Society. The Judas text is believed to be a copy in the Coptic language, made around A.D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, written in Greek the century before. Terry Garcia, an executive vice president of the society, said, "The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature," citing extensive tests of radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging and studies of the script and linguistic style. Unlike the four standard gospels, the Judas document portrays Judas Iscariot as alone among the 12 disciples to understand Jesus' teachings. At least two scholars said the new manuscript did not contain anything likely to change or undermine traditional understanding of the Bible. James M. Robinson, a retired professor of Coptic studies at Claremont Graduate University in California, was the general editor of the English edition of the Nag Hammadi collection. He noted that the gospels of John and Mark both contain passages that suggest that Jesus not only picked Judas to betray him, but actually encouraged Judas to hand him over to those he knew would crucify him. In a key passage in the new-found gospel, Jesus had talks with Judas "three days before he celebrated Passover." That is when Jesus is supposed to have referred to the other disciples and said to Judas: "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." By that, scholars said, Jesus seems to have meant that in helping him get rid of his physical flesh, Judas will act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus. "The manuscript tells us nothing about the historical Jesus or the historical Judas," said Ben Witherington III, professor of New Testament interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore. "It tells us a lot about a group that were labeled heretics in their own day." Garcia, of National Geographic, said at a news conference that the society had contributed "more than $1 million" to the project so far. The organization released two books yesterday: an annotated translation and the story of how the text came to light. The gospel will also generate a magazine cover article, a television documentary, an exhibit and its own Web site. The arrangement between National Geographic and the Swiss-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, the manuscript's current owner, raised questions about how such transactions may effectively legitimize illegal traffic in antiquities. "The Swiss who bought it couldn't sell it for a profit, because of laws that say you can't sell illegal antiquities," said Claremont Graduate University theologian James Robinson, the Coptic scholar first approached to purchase the gospel 26 years ago. "Instead of selling the papyrus, they decided to market the contents." The Foundation said it intends to donate the codex to the Coptic Museum in Cairo once it is fully restored. Gargoyle's Occult Services - http://www.angelfire.com/goth/drgargoyle __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com &&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&& Visit our Psychic/Paranormal message boards at http://www.skatemd.com/forums/index.php Arcade, Journals, Chats, Boards, Fun! Yahoo! 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