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The idea that Judas was Jesus' key disciple fits what Irenaeus hinted at when he attributed this work to Cainite Gnostics in A.D. 180, a point that shows that we have known about this gospel for 1,800 years! It is not so new after all. The Cainite Gnostics regularly rehabilitated questionable characters in the Bible, such as Cain, its first murderer, Korah, Esau, and the Sodomites. Giving a prominent role to Judas runs against the deep and consistent picture of the Gospels, our earliest historical texts about Jesus, which portray Peter consistently as the lead disciple. He is always first in the list of the Twelve. It also ignores a key role for John as another disciple very close to Jesus.

The description of Judas also runs against the tradition in Scripture that he was disturbed by his actions, so much so that he threw money back to the leaders who rewarded him for his betrayal. He committed suicide according to Matthew and met an ignominious end according to Acts. If Jesus had promised him exaltation and commanded him to betray him, then there was no need for Judas to take the leap to suicide.

In sum, there is nothing here historically about Jesus or Judas that cries for any need for redefinition. Even the more modest claims that this work attests to the diversity of early Christianity, a claim made in an op-ed piece by Elaine Pagels in The New York Times on April 8, is either too vague or goes too far. If Pagels is alluding to the second century, then the text adds nothing to what we already knew to be true. If she is referring to the first century, she goes beyond the evidence of this text, which as a second-century piece tells us nothing about the earliest Christian century. Everything about the opening salvo on this work had the word hype written under it—and that was all it was. This gospel is a precious find in that it gives us great detail about what this Gnostic group believed at a point before A.D. 180. However, that is all it tells us.

This is a time that tries many a believer's soul. Works are coming out like rounds from a machine gun. But none of the guns fired so far are the "smoking gun." They are more like pop guns, creating a lot of noise but no damage.

The text opens three days before Passover with Jesus in conversation with Judas. It calls itself the "secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas."

In Scene 1, Jesus has a private conversation with Judas after laughing at the prayer of the Twelve. The distinction made in Scene 1 between the understanding of Judas and of the rest of the Twelve suggests a severe critique of them. They work for "the other god." The private telling of mysteries to Judas and not to the rest does recall Thomas 13, where Thomas confesses Jesus as having an unutterable name, leading Jesus to have a private talk with Thomas that the other Twelve do not receive. Thomas refers to Jesus as having an unutterable name in Thomas 13, but in the Gospel of Judas, the unutterable name belongs to the region of Barbelo and the god who sent Jesus. The laughing Jesus throughout this gospel also is a feature of some of the other missing gospel texts (like the Apocalypse of Peter and the laughing Jesus from above the Cross).

Scene 2 has some important breaks in the text that make summarizing its argument pretty difficult. However, this section does continue the critique of the rest of the Twelve, who represent this generation that will not see the generation that will ascend and rule.

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April (Web-only) 2006, Vol. 50