Follow Up To The Gospel Of Judas Debate

An editorial in the current issue of “Christianity Today” gives some important information and analysis of the “Gospel of Judas”. Check it out here:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/006/3.22.html

Some key graphs:

“More importantly, the best liberal scholars admitted up front that this find "tells us nothing about the historical Jesus, nothing about the historical Judas." Those are the words of James M. Robinson, lead scholar of the team that investigated the last great find of Gnostic Gospels, the Nag Hammadi library. Or as Adam Gopnik told New Yorker readers, "The finding of the new Gospel … no more challenges the basis of the church's faith than the discovery of a document from the nineteenth century written in Ohio and defending King George would be a challenge to the basis of American democracy."

"The latest Gnostic gospel may tell us little about Jesus or Judas, but the credulous public fascination with it tells us something about the spiritual state of America. Our nation continues to be enamored with a version of religion—Gnosticism—that is little more than a reflection of the self.”

This graph speaks to the issue of the canon of the New Testament and why this “gospel” was not included.

“The reason that lost Gospels like Judas disappeared is not, as some are now claiming, that "orthodoxy" is simply a record of the winners writing history. Rather, these Gnostic texts were rejected precisely because they had rejected the Christian continuity with historic Jewish faith. Orthodoxy was a serious attempt to be faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob rather than to seek the little-G god within.”

And here is an opinion as to why “The Da Vinci Code” and the “Gospel of Judas” appeal to so many. Read the entire editorial to put this in context.

“Finally, the Gospel of Judas appeals to our American neighbors because we have made a religion out of diversity.

Americans have a phobia about making commitments to truth.”

As we head into the weekend when the movie form of “The Da Vinci Code” comes out, we need all the information available to be able to stand for truth and answer questions that are sure to come.