The Gospel of Judas

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.

In the entire course of the history of Christianity, he was being labelled as the traitor to Jesus before the cruxification happened. Many condemned him since. But when records of maybe a long-lost scroll about Judas surfaced which showed a different side of him, how will the public react.

This documentary was first shown on the National Geographic around the Easter period this year and I even managed to watch it when it was on the cable here. As from what I remembered in my earlier school days at those chapel sessions (given I once attended a missionary school and the chapel is part of the school), there is a traitor among all of Jesus's disciples when they were all having the Last Supper. So, this documentary began to change from what I remembered and gave me another perspective of who Judas is maybe.

It may be an two-hour long documentary as I realised, but then when there was a repeat of it, even on the local free-to-air television here at a later date, I tried to watch it again. It was really insightful as to hear from those who had researched about the subject and gave their opinions. Even how maybe the Bible we all knew today actually contain many gospels before the ones Christians actually knew nowadays. Real eye-opener for me, even as a non-Christian.

I mean coming back to the documentary, given when the scroll was found, it was almost becoming dust. And when it was being pieced together, it showed a very different Judas that we all knew from the Bible, whether we are Christians or not ourselves. I am not a Christian myself but then I feel the documentary has done a nice job somewhere along the line in shedding the light of Judas.

Maybe it may take some time for people to understand that actually there is a different side of Judas. But given how I had always know of the National Geographic's standards in producing their documentaries, I do have some faith in them. So, if you are not afraid in knowing the other side of Judas, this is recommended.

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.

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.

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!!!

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