The Gospel of Judas, by Dr. Trevelyan
No doubt all of you will have heard of this text that is being trumpeted by all the usual suspects. Imagine my amusement as I turned over my Daily Telegraph here in Edinburgh on Friday morning to read the headline 'Gospel of Judas Presents traitor as Jesus' favourite.
The right-wing media over here can be just as anti-Christian as the left-wing. Both are pretty much packed with theological liberals. Thus I was not at all surprised to read in my Telegraph the following: "The publication of the gospel... will spark debate, with some experts arguing that it challenges traditional Christianity." To be fair, the next sentence read: "But other scholars said it was a mystical work by a minor sect that was written long after the New Testament gospels and which had no links with the historical Jesus." You will have gathered that I am of the second sort of scholars.
The phrase quoted on the front page of Friday's Telegraph interested me. "In a key phrase, Jesus says: But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
Sir Richard Arcos has recently been dealing with the Docetic Gnostic gospels, those who taught that Christ was not really a man. The Gnostic sect who produced this particular 'gospel' taught that the Christ Aeon was united in some way to the man Jesus and that, once the Aeon had given its teaching, the man Jesus had to be killed to free the Aeon so that it could return to the Pleroma, the spiritual fulness. Note that, in their own way, this sect, the Cainites, denied the true humanity of Christ. 'the man' is merely 'clothing' for the Aeon, nothing more.
Turning to page 6 for the rest of the article, I found Bart Ehrman quoted (surprise), but also Prof. Simon Gathercole of Aberdeen University. Prof. Gathercole said: "It contains themes which are alien to the first-century world of Jesus and Judas, but which became popular later."
In other words, the book contains an anachronistic philosophy and worldview.
I applaud the Telegraph for their full-page, in-depth article on P. 33, not so much for the tone of the article (the writer, Daimian Thompson, seems to have bought the whole of Bart Ehrman's thought), but for its quotations from 'Judas'. They reveal that the Gnostic 'Jesus' of the Gospel of Judas was not born, but he 'appeared'.
Unfrtunately, as I have already said, the actual article is basically a regurgitation of Bart Ehrman, who is quoted extensively. Mr. Thompson says that the find is "disturbing for Christians." I am a Christian. I am not disturbed.
The right-wing media over here can be just as anti-Christian as the left-wing. Both are pretty much packed with theological liberals. Thus I was not at all surprised to read in my Telegraph the following: "The publication of the gospel... will spark debate, with some experts arguing that it challenges traditional Christianity." To be fair, the next sentence read: "But other scholars said it was a mystical work by a minor sect that was written long after the New Testament gospels and which had no links with the historical Jesus." You will have gathered that I am of the second sort of scholars.
The phrase quoted on the front page of Friday's Telegraph interested me. "In a key phrase, Jesus says: But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
Sir Richard Arcos has recently been dealing with the Docetic Gnostic gospels, those who taught that Christ was not really a man. The Gnostic sect who produced this particular 'gospel' taught that the Christ Aeon was united in some way to the man Jesus and that, once the Aeon had given its teaching, the man Jesus had to be killed to free the Aeon so that it could return to the Pleroma, the spiritual fulness. Note that, in their own way, this sect, the Cainites, denied the true humanity of Christ. 'the man' is merely 'clothing' for the Aeon, nothing more.
Turning to page 6 for the rest of the article, I found Bart Ehrman quoted (surprise), but also Prof. Simon Gathercole of Aberdeen University. Prof. Gathercole said: "It contains themes which are alien to the first-century world of Jesus and Judas, but which became popular later."
In other words, the book contains an anachronistic philosophy and worldview.
I applaud the Telegraph for their full-page, in-depth article on P. 33, not so much for the tone of the article (the writer, Daimian Thompson, seems to have bought the whole of Bart Ehrman's thought), but for its quotations from 'Judas'. They reveal that the Gnostic 'Jesus' of the Gospel of Judas was not born, but he 'appeared'.
Unfrtunately, as I have already said, the actual article is basically a regurgitation of Bart Ehrman, who is quoted extensively. Mr. Thompson says that the find is "disturbing for Christians." I am a Christian. I am not disturbed.
posted by Highland Host at
10:29 AM
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