Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Gospel of Judas

So everyone's been thinking reading blogging commenting writing opining on this Gospel of Judas. Here are the conclusions I've come to so far:

1. Because it is a late 2nd century document, the GoJ doesn't really have a lot to tell us about the historical Jesus or the historical Judas.

2. The GoJ might be useful in furthering our understanding of 2nd century Gnosticism and might prompt us to ask questions such as:

  • why was Gnosticism opposed by the church?
  • what does the development of Gnosticism and its rejection by orthodox Christianity have to tell us about what it means to be orthodox or heretical?
  • what are the specific Gnostic beliefs that we should still be wary of? I'm thinking specifically of dualism and the idea that one needs special knowledge to attain salvation, but there may be others. How do these specific ideas play out in our culture today?

3. The GoJ might prompt us to reconsider our understanding of Judas and his role in the story of Jesus. In particular, why does Judas get singled out as the bad guy, when there were so many who contributed to the whole tragic story? After all, Judas couldn't have betrayed Jesus if there wasn't someone to betray him to. Personally, I don't think that it was Judas's "role" to betray Jesus. One way or another, sooner or later, Jesus was going to end up dead. He confronted people's (our) greed and status-seeking and selfishness and power-mongering and so the death-dealing powers of this world were going to oppose him and do their worst. To blame his death simply on Judas's betrayal is to avoid the uncomfortable reality that all too often, we conspire with the wider forces of evil that Jesus sought to overturn.

4. The GoJ might force us to think again about what we mean by "the Bible" and how we understand the development of the biblical canon. What do we really believe about that process and how do these beliefs inform our reading and living out of the Bible today?

5. The media interest in the GoJ might force us to ask what it is about these texts that hold such appeal for people today. On this I think the Archbishop of Canterbury has some wise and insightful words.

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