Another update -
The voice of Judas
Churches are braced for the explosive publication of Lost Gospel, which could threaten the basis of Christian teaching, write Ian Gallagher and Sharon Churcher
April 8, 2006 Edition 1
By Ian Gallagher and Sharon Churcher
The Gospel of Judas - said to be one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of modern times - is about to be published amid explosive controversy, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Scholars have translated 26 pages of a crumbling ancient text that purports to tell the story of Jesus's last days from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, a man reviled for almost 2 000 years.
Sensationally, the manuscript portrays him not as a villain but as a hero and Christ's favoured disciple. And it claims to repeat conversations between the two men and shows that in betraying Christ, Judas was fulfilling a divine mission.
The Mail on Sunday has interviewed experts involved in the project and has established that, according to the Gospel, Christ instructed Judas to betray him with the words: "You will become the apostle cursed by all the others.
"Judas, you will sacrifice this body of man which clothes me."
In another hugely significant section of the manuscript, Jesus tells Judas: "You will become the13th, and you will be cursed by the other generation - and you will come to rule over them."
The papyrus document dates back to the 4th Century, but is believed to be a translation of a Greek text written in AD 187. Most Biblical gospels are thought to have been written between 50 and 80 years after Christ's crucifixion.
Some sources have indicated that as well as conversations between Christ and Judas, the Gospel also contains another "surprise" which will be revealed when the full contents of the manuscript are unveiled in Washington on April 6.
Some sections of the Church fear it will challenge many of Christianity's most deeply held beliefs. It has already been labelled "dangerous" by one Vatican scholar.
Written in Coptic, the ancient language of the Egyptian Christians, the document was apparently discovered in a crumbling limestone tomb in Egypt in the late 70s.
Since then it has passed through the hands of various antique dealers - many of whom were unaware of its true significance - and for 16 years lay disintegrating in a bank vault on Long Island, New York. Tests have shown its authenticity as an ancient text is beyond doubt.
But controversy will focus on the reliability of the account it presents. Some experts see the artefact as an attempt by an early Christian sect to revise the reputation of Judas. A Swiss arts foundation acquired the document in 2002.
Since then it has engaged a team of experts to translate and piece together the badly damaged papyrus.
The foundation struck a deal with National Geographic magazine to publish the translations. But the decision to do so just before the holiest week in the Christian calendar has prompted accusations of deliberate sensationalism.
The unveiling of the text - and the publication at the same time of a book telling the story of the quest for the lost Gospel - comes just a month before the release of the film version of The Da Vinci Code, the worldwide bestselling book which makes unfounded claims about Christ's life.
National Geographic also plans to screen a two-hour film about the Gospel on its satellite TV channel tomorrow. The words attributed to Jesus in the manuscript overturn the traditional view that Judas was driven by deliberate evil when he identified Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane in return for 30 pieces of silver.
Although National Geographic has made strenuous efforts to kept the manuscript a closely guarded secret, some copies and photographs of it have circulated among theologians and art dealers. Some translated photographs of the document even made it on to a website.
One part of the leaked text says: "And they went to Judas and told him: 'Although you are bad at this place, you are Jesus's true disciple. And he answered them as they wanted him to. And Judas received the money. And he surrendered him. This is the end of the Gospel of Judas'.
Elsewhere, Jesus says to the man whose name would become synonymous with treachery: "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal."
While academics have rushed to judge the document, the mainstream Christian churches appear to be nervously awaiting its unveiling and have so far been extremely reluctant to commit their feelings publicly or discuss how the manuscript may affect their teaching.
The Mail on Sunday was recently told by the Vatican that it was preparing a statement on the manuscript, only to be informed 24 hours later that no one could comment.
The Catholic Church in Britain also declined to discuss it. In January it was reported that a leading Vatican scholar, Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science, was behind a campaign to rehabilitate Judas.
Intriguingly, however, he has since denounced the Gospel as "a product of religious fantasy which he insists will not get any support from believers".
There is no campaign, no movement for the rehabilitation of the traitor of Jesus, he said. A high-ranking Church of England figure who is familiar with the project told The Mail on Sunday: "Saying that Judas was a hero is not a generally accepted chain of thought, and to many in the Church it will be seen as heretical because it is ascribing to God an active role in the death of Christ, making God out to be a murderer."
But he said: "If National Geographic present this as an authentic historical document, the Protestant Church will have no problems with it.
"It is an important discovery since it is the first chance we will have to read a full copy of the original Gnostic manuscript, which until now we have only known about from mentions of it in early Christian writings.
"But if they are planning to peddle it as an exciting new truth about Judas and to hype it as a new gospel, that will upset not only a lot of theologians but a lot of laymen and I think there will be a lot of cancelled subscriptions to National Geographic."
Vatican theologian Giovanni D'Ercole has said it was "dangerous to re-evaluate Judas and muddy the Gospel accounts by reference to apocryphal writings. This can only create confusion in believers".
Respected biblical scholar James Robinson accused National Geographic of rushing out an incomplete text and giving it a misleading "sensationalist" spin.
Robinson, who has written his own book about the Judas Gospel, said: "National Geographic acquired these rights after the Swiss owners of the manuscript realised they could not sell the actual object because it had been illegally smuggled out of Egypt.
"National Geographic took the bait because they saw an opportunity to cause a sensation by coming out right around Easter and right before The Da Vinci Code movie with something that the prepublicity implies is a new gospel from the New Testament, when in fact it is a copy of a book originally written well over 100 years after the death of Christ."
The document was found in the mid to late 70s by Egyptian peasants - fellahin - in a cavern near the banks of the Nile at al-Minya where it had lain for centuries.
They sold it on to a middleman in Cairo, who could not read the script but realised it was valuable and sold it to an Egyptian antiquities dealer. In the early 80s the manuscripts were stolen and ended up in Switzerland before finding their way back to Egypt.
All the while they were deteriorating. The documents then journeyed to America where the Egyptian antiquities dealer tried unsuccessfully to sell them. Despairing, he put them in a bank vault on Long Island, where they continued to deteriorate, and returned home.
They were rescued 16 years later by a Swiss antiquities expert, Frieda Nussberger, who tried to sell them to Ohio-based art dealer Bruce Ferrini for a reported $2,5-million. At the same time their existence was finally made public.
...to be continued...