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"Judas" is synonymous with "traitor." But a newly discovered ancient text of the Gospel of Judas offers a picture of Judas Iscariot radically different from the Church's traditional understanding of him, and maintains that far from being the infamous betrayer, Judas was actually Jesus's trusted friend and the recipient of secret revelation. Simon Gathercole's new book includes a translation of the ancient Egyptian text of the Gospel of Judas and a running commentary, and offers new translations of all the ancient evidence about Judas Iscariot and the Gospel attributed to him. It gets behind the hype which the Gospel of Judas has attracted, and looks at why the group which produced the work were in such bitter conflict with the mainstream Christian church, and shows how the document provides us with a window into the turbulent world of Christianity and Gnosticism in the century after Jesus.
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The Gospel of Judas This page intentionally left blank The Gospel of Judas Rewriting Early Christianity Simon Gathercole 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford 2 6 Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Simon Gathercole 2007 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose the same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Data available Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Great Britain on acid-free paper by Biddles Ltd., King’s Lynn, Norfolk ISBN 978–0–19–922584–2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents List of Illustrations vii Introduction 1 1. Out of Egypt 6 2. Judas in the New Testament 24 3. The Next 100 Years 47 4. Translation and Interpretation 61 5. The Cainites 114 6. Rewriting History 132 7. Brave New World 150 Epilogue: The Future of the Gospel of Judas 172 Notes Select Bibliography Index of Authors and Select Topics 175 189 194 This page intentionally left blank List of Illustrations Fig. 1.1. Map showing Maghagha and Beni Mazar, near which the Gospel of Judas was reportedly discovered. 10 Fig. 1.2. A faxed page from Charles Hedrick’s transcription of what had been thought (wrongly) to be from the Gospel of Judas. 15 Fig. 4.1. Diagrammatic Representation of the events of Creation in the Gospel of Judas. 90