THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS ISCARIOT


The four gospels of Mathew, Mark, Luke and John are part of the New Testament. One more gospel is now found, and the international effort to authenticate, conserve and translate it, has been chronicled in the new book by Herb Krosney called, The Lost Gospel.

The leather bound papyrus codex, believed to have been translated from the original ancient Greek to the Coptic language around 300 AD was found in the 1970s in a cave in the desert El Minya, Egypt. This was got circulated among antiquities traders moving from Egypt to Europe to the United States. The codex languished in a safe deposit box on Long Island, New York for 16 years before being bought in 2000 by Zurich based antiquities dealer. Rodolphe Kasser, one of the world's leading Coptic scholars, was recruited to reconstruct the manuscript and to translate the text. The 66 page manuscript contains not only the gospel of Judas Iscariot but also a text titled James (also known as First Apocalypse of James), a letter of Peter to Philip and a fragment of a fourth text scholars for now are calling the Book of Allogens.

Judas Iscariot is seen as a traitor, the disciple who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.  Contrary to this belief by almost all Christians, the newly restored papyrus document dating to the 2nd century  AD portrays a very different man. Judas is shown as the best friend of Jesus. Jesus Himself asked to betray His identity to fulfill the prophecy and liberate  His soul to ascend to heaven.

According to Herb Krosney this is not the Judas we see in the Bible. It is said that Judas and Jesus are meeting in some nether land possibly after resurrection. Judas is a different kind of character. He is the one who is asked to make the ultimate sacrifice. And that sacrifice is to sacrifice the life of Jesus in order that Jesus may attain eternity and immortality. And Judas is the one who enables all of us to help find that inner spark within ourselves. The gospel of Judas is said to be reverent document coming from approximately the second century. However it is not cent per cent proved that it is written by Judas Iscariot.

Christian communities may now try to study more on the newly found write up and if found acceptable, may be circulated among Christians all over the world. This cannot be considered as an artificially created one to damage the Christians.


(Indebted to the abridged version of 'The Lost Gospel' written by Herb Krosney)

KV George
kvgeorgein@gmail.com

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