The Gospel of Judas

A documentary film that looks at the alleged discovery of what appears to be the missing gospel written by Judas Iscariot. Starting with the history of the document and how it was passed around the black market as various attempted sales failed, this looks at the popular conception of Judas within the bible while the attempted restoration continues, threatening (if it is genuine) to challenge all that we know about the character.

You can thank airport novels perhaps but it is certain that questioning the history of biblical times and the conventional religious teachings is certainly in vogue over the last few years. With many "secret" gospels doing the rounds and various other documents found, it is indeed an interesting subject. For Christians I am not sure how the impact is as there has never been a doubt that these documents exist but that they believe that a divine power guided the selection of the books in the bible and just because others exist doesn't mean they are correct, true or sacred.

Of course this does not mean that the documents have no interest because to me personally they do. Judas in particular is an interesting character because of his role – to complete the fate of Jesus, someone had to betray him so was this a role he did because he was greedy, one he did as a sacrifice or one he was fated to do? It is interesting because if he had done the "right" thing then how would things have worked out? Sadly this film does not really get to the core of this revelation of a document. We spend most of our time hearing about the accepted history of Judas and also about the recent history of his document. In regards details of the gospel it is very light – to the point that it feels like a trailer for another film where we will learn this. It is a real shame because this is what we all came for and it doesn't actually deliver a great deal.

Instead we get terrible re-enactments with stiff actors and the experts are not given enough time to discuss content so much as the challenge of getting to it. A disappointing film then that feels like it spends 90% of its time skirting around the issue and barely 10% discussing the content of this document we are told is a biblical revelation.

I'm an atheist. I don't believe in any gods whatsoever. I no more believe in Yaweh than I do in Thor, Zeus, Ra, or Quetzalcoatl or the Thunderbird.

But, I'm always happy to see history unraveled, and things explained to iron out centuries of misunderstanding. So it is with the gospel of Judas. I first heard about it on NPR some ten years ago, or thereabouts, and thought to myself "Ah, maybe Christianity can straighten itself out now."

Well, wishful thinking is just that. Still, it's nice to see and hear the what seems to be a tale that's very much in line with the pro- humanist message of the philosophy that was transported from India's Krishna to Imperial Roman occupied Judea (and beyond).

As historical documents go, this really isn't much of one, so much as it is a document of thinking through parables of right action, or what was considered right action in a very forward thinking way.

Rome is a military oligarchy. Caesar rules with the senate suggesting policy. The days of Cincinatus, the famed Roman general who was once a farmer and then returned to his humble life once having saved Rome, are long over. The phalanx dictates policy. And this new cult is eating into the fabric of Roman society. The gods are losing power to this imported "god" with a philosophy that, like all things, taken to a breaking point, becomes unhealthy.

The Romans realize this, but fail to realize their own shortcomings, and address this cult's shortcomings unsuccessfully by ignoring their own and playing into Krishna's (Christianity's) hand. The idea was that if the people did not sacrifice chickens and other animals or things to appease the gods, then the people would ignore the teachings and fray the social fabric that held Rome together; namely the slaves.

Sound familiar?

Regardless, the story of Judas is one that has been ignorantly bastardized, and now that new scholarship has shed light on this figure, it may be that the Krishna/Christian cults can begin to get their bearings.

At least that's the final point of the piece. There's a lot of story and exposition put into the film, and a good deal of scholarly talking heads bringing up heart felt thoughts on their philosophies of both their passions and scholarship. Some good meat for those inclined to revel in the Krishna/Christian mythology.

All in all a good watch, and something interesting to listen to in the background. If you like tidbits of history, then this should entertain.

Those olds scrolls found in Egypt in last century gave us another interpretation over this cursed man called Judas, several Universities on United Kingdom, USA and Germany are studying this olds apocryphal texts with help of most bright intellectual leading experts on this field, the matter exactly explored is about an endless kind of differents texts allowed to study, all them have many sort of directions,in fact it's hard to follow a simply track, it's explained why the church threw away majority them available in 180 A.D. and choose only four gospels, pleased me a Juda's redemption, however it's impossible to apply today over such diffused old scrolls, there are the key to understand all puzzle, more the language used was another crossway to overcame by experts, in my humble opinion no one will get in anywhere with such kind of materials, they were wrote between 50 to 150 years after Jesus Christ's death by others people who pass on verbally spoken until somebody put it in the paper finally, many things probable were added or forgotten!!!

Resume:

First watch: 2011 / How many: 2 / Source: DVD Rating: 8

I found this documentary very interesting and eye-opening. While interesting, I was disappointed in what the documentary actually tells us. In trying to put together the ancient text of the Gospel of Judas, the experts tell us that they were able to recover 85% of the text, making it readable for the first time in thousands of years.

Unfortunately, they only gave us a "glimpse" of what is written in the Gospel of Judas. The only written words confirmed were "Gospel of Judas." As far as I could tell, no other original quotes were mentioned. This seems unusual and I tend to question why? I'm going to the Internet to see if I can find more information on the actual words of this Gospel.

This so-called documentary is yet another attack on Christianity by the National Geographic Channel.

Ostensibly an authentic Christian text which was suppressed by the Catholic Church, it is, in reality, a Gnostic text and has nothing to do with Christianity.

Gnosticism predates Christianity and proposes that there are actually two gods, one of the spirit (and thus good) and one of the physical world (and thus is evil).

Having seen the effectiveness of Christianity, the Gnostics usurped practically every Christian character and theme in order to make their claims "valid" in the eyes of the early Christian followers. Thus the god of the old testament was made to correspond to the "god of the physical world" and the Christ as the "god of the spirit".

In the Gnostic world Jesus was not even physical (for being of spirit, he could have no flesh, viz. flesh=evil) and thus could not have been really crucified. As to Christ's spiritual nature, only those of "the true faith" had the secret knowledge (Gnosis) which was passed on orally (through secret words) from Christ to his (Gnostic) followers.

For those unfamiliar with Christian history, don't be fooled. - The National Geographic Channel has chronically tried to undermine Christian beliefs by "examining" such "suppressed" books and claiming that Gnosticism was a legitimate Christian sect, when, in fact, such texts as "The Gospel According to Judas" and those found at Nag Hammadi (e.g. The Gospel of Mary Magdalene and The Gospel of Thomas) were written by Gnostics three or more centuries after Christ's death.