GospJudas

You've heard the warnings about identify theft: armed with your personal information, criminals can mimic your
identity, making all kinds of expensive purchases in your name before they are caught. Identify theft is a modern
problem.

Identity theft of a different kind was a problem in the second century (A.D. 100-199). Christians who had
received the teachings handed down by the apostles faced a group called the "Gnostics" -- false teachers who
believed that the material world had not been made by the Creator of all things, but by an inferior deity or deities.
Different Gnostics took that basic premise in different directions: some said that since the material world did not
matter, people ought to do their best to be detached from all things physical. Others said that since the material
world did not matter, people were free to do whatever they wanted to do with their physical bodies.

The word "Gnostic" is derived from the Greek word "gnosis," which means "knowledge." Instead of viewing
salvation as a matter of being reconciled to the Creator, Gnostics considered salvation to be linked to gaining
knowledge about the true nature of the universe. Because they viewed the physical universe as a sort of "Matrix,"
so to speak -- an artificially created world which exists to keep human beings unaware of their true nature (like in
the movie "The Matrix") -- and regarded the Creator as a prison-keeper, they had no regard for the Law of
Moses, of for anything which was said to have come from the Creator of the physical world.

The Gnostics attempted to make their beliefs attractive by claiming that Gnosticism had been taught by great
teachers of yesteryear. In order to attract Christians, Gnostics claimed that apostles, acquaintances of Jesus, and
even Jesus Himself had endorsed Gnostic beliefs. In the course of making such claims, Gnostics had to deny all
connections between Jesus and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob -- a feat which involved removing from
the story of Jesus anything that would indicate that He regarded the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as His
Father, and anything that would indicate that He regarded the Law of Moses as sacred Scripture. Some Gnostics
attempted to do this by rejecting the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of Mark, and the Gospel of John, and
accepting only the Gospel of Luke after its text was extensively pruned and revised to agree with Gnostic ideas.
Other Gnostics manufactured brand-new gospel-accounts.

The "Gospel of Judas" is one of those manufactured gospel-accounts. The historical Judas Iscariot -- that is, the
man who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver -- had nothing to do with its production. He did not write its text
or contribute to it in any way. The author of the "Gospel of Judas" was not attempting to write a historical
account about Jesus and Judas; his purpose was to create a text that the Gnostics could use to support the idea
that Jesus endorsed Gnostic teachings.

It should be clear from all this that the "Gospel of Judas" tells us about Gnosticism in the middle of the second
century (c. A.D. 150), but it does not contain any new information about Jesus or Judas. True data about Jesus
and Judas contained in the "Gospel of Judas" amounts to the following eight points:

(1) Jesus had twelve disciples, one of whom was named Judas Iscariot.

(2) Jesus celebrated the Passover before Judas handed Him over to the high priests.

(3) Jesus performed miracles.

(4) Jesus met with His followers in Judea.

(5) Jesus' followers believed that He was the Son of the Being whom they regarded as their God.

(6) Jesus affirmed the existence of a spiritual realm which His followers had not seen.

(7) People were baptized in Jesus' name.

(8) The high priests were hesitant to arrest Jesus, because the people considered Him a prophet.

Pretty much everything else in the "Gospel of Judas" consists of Gnostic teachings of the same sort that are found in
the Gnostic texts from Nag Hammadi. These teachings -- about Gnostic entities and concepts such as Yaldabaoth,
Saklas, Aeons and Luminaries -- were put into the mouths of Jesus and Judas as an attempt to make Gnosticism
appear more attractive to Christians. if you want to learn about Gnosticism, the "Gospel of Judas" is worth reading
and studying. If you want to learn about Jesus and His teachings, though, it is worthless.