Prodigal Magazine

"http://www.prodigalsonmagazine.com/walk/news-17-small.gif" width=
"241" height="68" align="left" style=
"padding-right:6px;">NEWS :: GOSPEL OF JUDAS
DISCOVERED
“The gospel of Judas is helpful in understanding early church
heresy but should be viewed as false writings and not comparable to
the biblical Gospels”, conservative scholars say. "http://www.prodigalsonmagazine.com/walk/news-17.gif" width="530"
height="147"> ORTHODOX SCHOLARS: GOSPEL OF JUDAS IS HERETICAL &
NOT A CHRISTIAN DOCUMENT By Michael Foust Baptist Press NASHVILLE,
Tenn. (BP)–The gospel of Judas is helpful in understanding early
church heresy but should be viewed as false writings and not
comparable to the biblical Gospels, conservative scholars say. A
group of scholars and translators announced in early April the
document’s discovery, disclosing the find just before a special
about the manuscript aired on the National Geographic Channel.
National Geographic billed it as a “lost gospel.” Christians long
have known about the gospel of Judas and considered it heretical –
even though they didn’t have an entire copy. Much of what
previously was known came from an early church father, Irenaeus –
a hero of church history who was bishop of Lyons and lived in the
second century — who wrote a work titled “Against Heresies,” in
which he called the gospel of Judas “fictitious history.” The newly
discovered document was dated to around A.D. 300, although it
likely is a copy of an earlier manuscript, scholars said. Unlike
the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the
authorship of Judas is not tied to the name it bears. Also, unlike
the biblical Gospels, Judas promotes an early heresy known as
Gnosticism, a movement that tried to corrupt the teachings of
Christ in the early church. In a nutshell, the gospel of Judas
makes Judas a hero, and not a traitor. Orthodox scholars say the
gospel of Judas is not Christian at all, but simply heresy. “The
finding of the manuscript is important because we now have a
manuscript that we didn’t have for 1,700 years, but this manuscript
will not change what Christians believe,” James M. Hamilton Jr.,
assistant professor of biblical studies at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary’s Houston campus, told Baptist Press. “I have
two volumes of ‘New Testament Apocrypha’ on my shelf that we have
had for a long time now, and the fact is that only scholars read
this stuff. The canon has long been decided, and the discovery of a
Gnostic book is not going to re-open the question.” The discovery
of the gospel of Judas should lead believers to “praise God for
preserving the books of the Bible he wanted us to have,” Hamilton
said. In fact, the gospel of Judas isn’t the only surviving early
manuscript that wasn’t included in the New Testament. There are
other Gnostic documents, as well as some documents written by early
church fathers, that survived. Chief among the orthodox documents
is 1 Clement, written by Clement the bishop of Rome, possibly in
the first century. But none of the “extra” documents rises to the
level of Scripture, orthodox scholars say. The 27 books of the New
Testament were recognized as Scripture by the early church
primarily because of their association with an apostle. The only
books not written by an apostle are Mark, Luke, Acts, Hebrews and
Jude. Luke and Acts were written by Luke, who was associated
closely with the Apostle Paul. Mark had close ties to Peter, and
Jude was the brother of the Apostle James and possibly a half
brother of Jesus. Although it is not known who wrote Hebrews –
some have thought it was Paul — it was accepted as Scripture by
the early church based on its internal qualities and obvious divine
inspiration. “Archeological finds of the last century have only
confirmed that the early church fathers gave us accurate accounts
of false teachers,” Alan Branch, vice president for student
development at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas
City, Mo., said. “The gospel of Judas is typical of other Gnostic
gospels written during the second and third century. As [the early
church father] Origen said, ‘The church has four Gospels. Heretics
have very many.’ The church has never denied or attempted to cover
up the fact that other groups circulated fallacious gospels. The
Gnostic gospels are second- and third-century forgeries. Pagan
thought hijacked Christian terminology and used the name ‘Jesus’ as
a vehicle for a pagan worldview.” Gnosticism was a heretical
teaching that salvation came through a secret knowledge.
Supposedly, Judas was a transmitter of that knowledge. According to
Gnosticism, matter was evil and was created by the Old Testament
God, who also was evil. Spirit, though, was good. In the gospel of
Judas, Jesus tells Judas, referring to the other apostles, “But you
will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that
clothes me.” The “clothes” reference presumably referred to Jesus’
body. “Theologically, the gospel of Judas is a false gospel
representative of the Gnostic tradition,” Malcolm Yarnell III,
associate professor of systematic theology at Southwestern Baptist
Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, said. “… Christ’s
bodily resurrection is also denied. Christianity has had heresies
or false gospels with us since the apostles began preaching. This
is why Paul warned Christians to utterly reject false gospels in
Galatians 1. The false gospel of Judas is an interesting historical
find, but should not be placed on the same level as Scripture.”
Likewise, Michael D. McMullen, associate professor of church
history at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City,
Mo., believes the gospel of Judas has value for learning about
heresy. “[I]t reminds us that the early church was built on
Scripture, and that heretics like the Gnostics were a real threat
to the Gospel … and that present-day heretics will continue to
use such a document to attack the very same inerrant Scriptures
that God has given,” McMullen said. “But the real truth is that
Gnostic ideas will forever remain at an infinite distance from the
truth of the biblical Gospel.” Hamilton, the Southwestern Seminary
professor, wondered what would happen today if a “newly discovered”
document was found from the American Revolution. “Let’s say the
document was written by someone loyal to Great Britain, and let’s
say that it suggested that George Washington asked Benedict Arnold
to betray the American cause,” Hamilton said. “Given that the facts
are well-established, and given that the sympathies of the author
of this document are clear for everyone to see, would this document
change our understanding of American history? “I think not, and I
think the same is true of the gospel of Judas.” Published date:
April 13, 2006 Provided by: BP News Service © 2006