The Gospel of Judas

It's not 80 gospels, rather it's 81.

Ok, Teabing said, "more than 80" but I couldn't turn that into a dramatic line.

Get ready for another perfect storm of Jesus controversy.

News outlets are suddenly running stories about the Gospel of Judas, just in time for the new Da Vinci Code - based on the bestseller, now #1 again, by Dan Brown that's being released on 19 May.

Some might get the impression that this a new discovery. It's not; the document has been known of since the late 2nd Century. This Coptic copy of the orignal Greek document was discovered in the 70's and has been dated to around AD 300. A Google search on the phrase "gospel of judas" returns over 100,000 pages.

According to ABC News, James M. Robinson, who was the General Editor of the Nag Hammadi in English and considered a foremost authority on such Coptic manuscripts, said earlier this month that

the text is valuable to scholars of the second century but dismissed the notion that it'll reveal unknown biblical secrets.

ABC News continues...

He speculated the timing of the release is aimed at capitalizing on interest in the film version of "The Da Vinci Code" a fictional tale that centers on a Christian conspiracy to cover up a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

"There are a lot of second-, third- and fourth-century gospels attributed to various apostles," Robinson said. "We don't really assume they give us any first century information."

references

- NY Times article: "Gospel of Judas Resurfaces after 1,700 Years"
- Christianity Today article: "The Judas We Never Knew"
- ABC News: Experts Doubt 'Gospel of Judas" Revelation