THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS

Came home last Sunday in time to watch National Geographic Society’s special episode, the Gospel of Judas (Iscariot). I would say that I find the “facts” being presented as quite interesting even though strictly speaking, I’m not a man of faith. I don’t know what motive do the show producers have in mind but I find the timing of the episode quite “calculated” since it came the Sunday before the Lenten season and on the heels of the “Da Vinci Code” mania. Anyway, the episode is all about the story of the “discovery” of the Codex (an ancient form of book) containing the Gospel of Judas after it was lost for 1,800 years and it’s authentication process as well as the translation of the Gospel. Based on the translation, the Gospel of Judas tells the same story of the Last Supper but from a different perspective and interpretation. In the traditional view, Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver coins but in the Gospel of Judas, Judas did betray Christ not for coins but because Christ told him so. Judas according to the Gospel is Christ’s favorite and the only person to really understand Christ and because of that, he is given the task of “betraying” Christ in order to liberate the Son of God from the body that “covers” him. This he did dutifully and for that, Judas is supposedly promised a “reward” in heaven and that Christ viewed him as greater than the rest of the apostle. Intriguing. According to the experts, the Gospel is widely circulated among the Gnostics specifically Coptic or Egyptian Gnostics, a church branded heretical group. In fact, St Iraneus of Lyon (France) in 180AD wrote an encyclical condemning the Gospel of Judas. So the question bears in mind, why is the Gospel of Judas written in the first place and how come it became so popular back in the 2nd century? Well, according to the experts, in the ancient times, printing technology is quite primitive and therefore there is no book publishing (printing press was discovered in the 15th century while “modern” paper was introduced somewhat earlier but definitely not in the 2nd century AD). Because of that, the Word was spread orally among the community of believers through different preachers. And each preacher tells the story according to his or her understanding and interpretation. It came as no surprise that eventually there are about 30 or more version of the Good News. It is much later on that the Church decided to “simplify” the message and chose only 4 canonical Gospels and condemns the rest as heretical. At any rate, the Gospel of Judas was among those 30 or so gospels in circulation. Egypt during the Roman times was a populous and rich province and it is one of the centers of Greek culture. It also has a huge Christian population. As a fact, the patriarch of Alexandria ranks equally in authority and influence with the patriarch of Constantinople, the pope in Rome, the patriarch of Antioch, and the patriarch of Jerusalem, a testament to the importance of the Egyptian Christians. The Greek has two important philosophical traditions, the Platonian and the Aristotelian philosophies. The Gnostic faith is heavily influence by the philosophies of Plato (FYI, the Matrix movies is out and out Platonian). According to Plato, the world of matter is but only an illusion. It is temporary, finite, and “unreal”. Reality exists in the mind (sounds familiar?), the world of ideas, the perfect world, a world of absolutes. A chair is not a chair that one is sitting on right now. It is not the chair that has 4 legs and a flat surface to sit on. The idea of a chair exists in the mind and it is anything that one could rest his or her ass on it while stretching his or her leg. A chair could be a bed, a table, or a stone, or a fallen trunk, or a stool. This theory of ideas became the basis of Plato’s philosophy of Man. During his exile in the East after the death of his teacher, Socrates, he came to absorb “oriental” mysticism, which I suspect is the early Hinduist beliefs. It is from this belief that he came to develop his theory of ideas, along with the myth of the fallen angle, and his theory of reincarnation. According to him, Man was once united with the “one”, a state of pure bliss, which possesses no matter at all. It is pure “idea” not as an abstract. Somehow, Man made a mistake and as a result, was cast down to earth (myth of the fallen angel) and captured by “matter”. In the process, Man loses all his “knowledge” that he possesses when he is in unity with the “One”. It is therefore the mission of Man to regain that “lost knowledge” in order for him to return to the “One”. The body, which is made of matter becomes a burden since the body has needs to satisfy, has desire to be fulfilled, which ultimately distract Man from his noble pursuit of knowledge. In the attempt to regain that lost knowledge, Man is condemned to earthly life and once he “used up his time”, he is reincarnated in order to continue to pursue that lost knowledge (Theory of Reincarnation). Does this theory sound similar to Hinduistic beliefs? At any rate, the Gnostics believed that each individual contains that “divine spark” that connects Man to God and that the body and earthly matters are evil because it prevented us from knowing God. Man has to understand this “divine spark” within him in order to go to paradise and once Man achieved enlightenment, he would be removed from his earthly body (could this be one reason that early Christians are “willing” martyrs in the face of Christian prosecutions staged by Roman Emperors?). It is because of this, Christ being already enlightened has to be released from his “body that clothes him” and goes back to heaven. Henceforth, Judas Iscariot’s act of betrayal was deemed as doing Christ a favor. Therefore, his betrayal was not betrayal per se but an act of love for Christ. That is of course, how the Gnostics interpreted it and ergo, we have the Gospel of Judas. Now, the next question that bears in mind is that is it true? My brother likes to ask that question to me. Well, truth to tell, I don’t know (besides, I’m not a man of faith, so why should I care?). A long time ago, I came to realize that the things I see, I hear, and I read are all ideas or opinions. There are no such things as “facts” (incidentally, one Catholic priest chided that one shouldn’t believe things just because it came out of the internet!). There are views, opinions, ideas and even propagandas of other people but not facts. Out there is a marketplace of ideas. Each person has one and everybody tries to peddle them, tries to convince others that their views, ideas, opinions are the absolute truth and everything else is wrong. The same thing applies to the Gospel of Judas. It is an alternative view or interpretation of the same “event”. So how should we take it? Or does this affect our belief? To the latter question, yes, it does affect our belief but if I may use an ancient story to further my point. This is the story of Sheng Tsu, the 3rd generation disciple of Confucius. One day, a man bearing the same name of Sheng Tsu committed a murder and soon the news spread around town. A neighbor of the real Sheng Tsu ran to his mother and told her that her son just killed somebody. Now, Sheng Tsu is a man of virtue and a very good man. His mother doesn’t believe that he actually committed the crime and therefore she ignored the man. Later, another man came and bear the same news and then another followed. Afterwards, the mother began the doubt as to the integrity of his son. Over the course of time, things like the Gospel of Judas would come along throwing in doubt our belief, some will question, others waver but my point is would you be convinced? Some may but others won’t. As Thomas Jefferson would say in his Bill Establishing Religious Freedom, that “the opinion and belief of Man depend not on their own will, but follow involuntarily the evidence proposed to their minds” and “that by influence on reasons alone”, we tend to follow “pastors whose power he feels most persuasive to righteousness”. Of all the living creatures on this planet, we alone possesses the capability to reason through logic and we should use this ability to discern for ourselves what is the “most persuasive to righteousness”. If one felt that the Gospel of Judas or anything like it is the “evidence” they are looking for then believe. As for others who are still in doubt about what to do, well, take this words from my philosophy professor, “Too see is not to believe, too (actually) see (it) is to know. To believe is to have faith.” And that doesn’t only apply to religion but also to everything we do.

P.S. In light of the discovery of the Gospel of Judas, I suggest that we refrain from cursing somebody with “Hudas” for being a traitor lest that particular person who would happen to read the Gospel of Judas would take it as a compliment. “ )