What do you guys think of the Gospel of Judas? If you never heard about it you should google it. Here is a sample quote from the gospel..

I wouldn't go there GDawson.... It sounds interesting, but blasphemous.

I was just asking about something I was unsure about...I thought someone here may have done more research on it.

I just read an article on it in the New York Times from 2006...

You wouldn't go there? You mean you wouldn't ask questions if you were curious about what other people thought on a controversial matter?

No....sorry....not quite connecting. I just found what was written as offensive and I was saying I wouldn't entertain it as something...good. You're a sweetheart, but what it says about God and Jesus is way out of line.

O.K.. (((( Smiles ))))

Here we go.. Retractions go unnoticed but the sensational sales..
I know even in my local newspaper when there is a mistake or retraction it's usually in a little off section of the paper easy to miss..
Most people probably do miss it as they just remember the headlines..
But I'm a big reader so I usually see it..

Of course I know about that..
I've read the Bibical Arch Review for years...
All retractions or mistranslations or scholary firey debate's you can find in there.. It's not for the faint of heart..
It's not a Christian magazine either..

Yes 2006.. I can go deeper into this matter because I'm sure that I read that Time did a retraction on that..
It was published in National Geographic in the Spring of 2006.. It caused a media frenzy in the spring of 2006..

The Gnostic text it claimed, painted a new portrait of Judas Iscariot , the disciple who betrayed Jesus.
According to this new interpretation, Jesus asked Judas to release him from his bodily shell, thus makeing Judas a hero.

But this view has been challenged by several prominent scholars who say that the National Geographics team not only mistranslated
parts of the coptic but also misunderstand the meaning of this Gnostic Text..
Was Judas a faithfull disciple or a demon?

There's been a recent substanially revised edition of The Gospel of Judas which was published in 2006..
It took long enough but you know thats how it goes..

According to the National Geographic's advanced promotional material, the new edition includes " new readings and new interpretations"
and a throughly updated translation of the Gosple of Judas..

The new edition recognizes the flawed scholarship of the orginal edition.. Mistakes have been acknowledge" including the sensational reading."

The BAR states that " the idea that this new gospel might be an accurate historical report of the reason for Judas's betrayal of Jesus is arrant nonsense..
as " Craig Evans " observes ect..
Although the Gospel of Judas has nothing to tell us about the historical Judas Iscariot , it has much to tell us about Gnostic christanity..

" I don't even call it christian " not my words ..
But you would have to read up on all this yourself whats been
written up on it..
The Gnostic Gospels were never accepted into the New Testament cannon as a part of the Bible for several reasons ..
One because of their late date ( second to fourth centuries), they could not have been written by eyewitness of Jesus,
or the Apostles or the direct disciples of the apostles..
( All 27 books of the New Testament were known to have been written in the first century)..

So thats a big waste of time for me to even go into that as I've read alot of this stuff all before and it's nothing new for me..

But was Judas a devil like scripture noted was the theme of this new articule I read..
I read the whole articule and findings on it recently..

Nothing new under the sun I just blow it off..
So many complaints I've read of before..
when the orginal texts are not released to the public but owned by certain scholars to interpret instead..
It's like I read recently the commentary on the Gabriels Revelation " in english..
Plus after that I read the contents of the translation myself..

The entire contents of the translation are Copyrighted ect..
So to get that you would have to buy the magazine for it..
And read it yourself..
And what was written.. I kind of read it differently cause I read what it actually said on the stone..
so it does matter when a person can read it first hand themselves..
Can actually see it what they see..

Went into this subject though enough all ready..
I believe it's meant to be entertaining thats what sells
theses days....
What sells theses day is...
Sometimes, not allways the exact truth but entertainment and sometimes misinterpertation or mistranslation..
to down right deception sometimes ..

It's a wide brush depends..
Sometimes you have to read between the lines..
People will believe what they want to believe anyway...
Regardless..

I hope that answered your question on the controversial matter..
Until the next controversal matter comes out..
It doesn't phase me..
and may take decades to correct but I believe I know how it ends anyway..
So now on to things that do really matter to me..

Lynn

Good info Lynn. I got your message....hadn't read this yet, but wouldn't take it personal anyway. Basically you replied to me (why the little blue line say's Jeanie) and to avoid that you would've just replied to the post GDawson put in.

The thing you sent in, Gary, was interesting. I may believe some "far out" things to the more fundamentalists....I do believe we have a Heavenly Mother. But just didn't like how that painted God and Christ... He is most definitely the literal Son of God in the flesh. (Not sure why those who believe in monotheism would see it that way with that in mind????) I believe Jesus is the only begotten due to his literal birth due to Mary's virgin miraculous conception....I've gotta ask that....

Oh.. O.K.. ((( Smiles )))

I understand what I'm doing wrong now..
On the message board I've been on for years..
It goes in a straight line downward...
You answer under the last post...
Old habits die hard..
So I can click on the ones up above too..
I just didn't want you to be confused by my post..
Got it..
I like the BAR, the ruins and the archaeology finds are real
interesting and there is still a lot more they haven't dug
up yet.. Some things are lost to history burnt or stolen..
Or just in ruins.. Or off limits to dig or look for..
Ah.. Where Samuel Crowned Israels first king..
What a fortress.. historical and archaeological evidence identifies the site as Bibical Mizpah, where Samuel assembled
" all Israel " and annointed Saul as king..
They keep just digging them up..

But the varities of Christianty..
The Christian religion has never been one uniformed, homogenous thing.
From the beginning there has been a variety within the church.
The acts of the Apostles described a split within the earliest Jerusalem church -- between " Hellenists "
(Greek speaking Jews, opposed to the temple)
and " Hebrews" (represented by the Twelve) Acts 6-7..

And went on to list Acts 11:20, Romans 10:14, Galatians 3:28
and Pauls dispute with Peter and Barnabas in Antioch
(Galatians 2)

Then later Christology became an issue the view called Docetism after the Greek word dokein an issue reflected here..
(1 John 4:2)..
And in the fourth and fifth centuries it was settled by decisions made in ecumenical council of bishops..

I haven't read this whole issue yet in full..
But it does say in this issue..

While it is true that, in the Gosple of Judas, only Judas knows Jesus, Judas has the knowledge only because he, Judas, is a demon----
daimon in the coptic text..
No Hero here..
Demons recognize Jesus as the "Son of God "
{Matthew 8:29) ( Mark 1:34) ( Luke 4:41)
They know who He is....

Enough of Gnosticism 101..
It tires me out...
You too???
Must be the demons...
But the new edition is not yet avaliable for sale but has
been made available to the media..
A reaction to scholarly criticism it seems..
A revised edition..

I guess when it comes out it will be published in here too.. Whatever..

You Take Care
Lynn

I know that put a different perspective on God and Christ Jeanie, which is why I posted it. Its that kind of passage that makes the gospel of Judas so different.

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

^^^ That is a part of the gospel.

Apparently they also found a text called James (also known as First Apocalypse of James), the Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of a text that scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes, along with the gospel of Judas...

The scholars are still debating over it...and apparently it does say Judas was a demon (Nat. Geographic admitted it mistranslated a part)...but I am always skeptical of translations of certain things as I feel like things are lost or distorted.

It makes it so different because it is different. Nowhere does that fit anywhere in or between the Hebrew & Greek scriptures it's Gnostic and therefore has a Gnostic theme. The Hebrew & Greek Scriptures fit together like a hand in a glove that's how you can tell that does not belong besides being Gnostic.