The Gospel of Judas
There’s been a pretty big splash this week over the Gospel of Judas. People everywhere are talking about it. And people everywhere are making no sense within my framework of The Gospel According to Sharon.
I watched the National Geographic special on T.V. last night. They kept saying things like, “This new revelation could rip apart 2000 years of church teachings on the crucifixion.” Before and after hearing the “revelation,” I thought “why?”
Then this morning I looked around online a little and saw people warning against reading the Gospel of Judas lest we be led astray by false doctrines. Too late. I had already read it, thinking “why not?”
I’m going to quote P.L. from my Bible study class as my official stance: “This doesn’t shatter me one way or the other.”
I have to admit to being ignorant on Gnosticism, and I have to admit that much of this newly recovered gospel was incomprehensible to me, but I got the gist of what everyone was making such a big deal about. The writer claims that Jesus basically conspired to bring about his own crucifixion and that Judas was the most trusted and beloved of all to have been the one to agree to sacrifice his own reputation in order to help Jesus fulfill his purpose of dying for the sins of the world.
Yeah? Okay. And?
I might not be the most accomplished New Testament scholar, and I may have day-dreamed through more sermons than I’ve heard in my life, but as luck would have it, I read John 10 pretty thoroughly just the other day. (Thanks to Randy and Kathy. Hi, Kathy!) I counted five times in that one chapter where Jesus said, “I lay down my life.”
Ergo, I’m just a little stumped on why a gospel that claims Jesus planned his own death is a threat to Bible believers. Maybe someone out there who is a New Testament scholar can explain this. In the meantime, it seems that any faith that would be torn asunder by something like this couldn’t be very strong in the first place. As for me, I’m sticking with the “I’m curious but not at all shattered” crowd.
I watched the National Geographic special on T.V. last night. They kept saying things like, “This new revelation could rip apart 2000 years of church teachings on the crucifixion.” Before and after hearing the “revelation,” I thought “why?”
Then this morning I looked around online a little and saw people warning against reading the Gospel of Judas lest we be led astray by false doctrines. Too late. I had already read it, thinking “why not?”
I’m going to quote P.L. from my Bible study class as my official stance: “This doesn’t shatter me one way or the other.”
I have to admit to being ignorant on Gnosticism, and I have to admit that much of this newly recovered gospel was incomprehensible to me, but I got the gist of what everyone was making such a big deal about. The writer claims that Jesus basically conspired to bring about his own crucifixion and that Judas was the most trusted and beloved of all to have been the one to agree to sacrifice his own reputation in order to help Jesus fulfill his purpose of dying for the sins of the world.
Yeah? Okay. And?
I might not be the most accomplished New Testament scholar, and I may have day-dreamed through more sermons than I’ve heard in my life, but as luck would have it, I read John 10 pretty thoroughly just the other day. (Thanks to Randy and Kathy. Hi, Kathy!) I counted five times in that one chapter where Jesus said, “I lay down my life.”
Ergo, I’m just a little stumped on why a gospel that claims Jesus planned his own death is a threat to Bible believers. Maybe someone out there who is a New Testament scholar can explain this. In the meantime, it seems that any faith that would be torn asunder by something like this couldn’t be very strong in the first place. As for me, I’m sticking with the “I’m curious but not at all shattered” crowd.
posted by Sharon Gerald | 3:54 PM
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