By C. FitzSimons Allison
The
"Gospel of Judas" was known to have existed for some time since it was
mentioned by Bishop Irenaeus (120-200 CE) but now is part of the Nag Hammadi
discoveries of 1945-46. The recent publication of its careful reconstruction and
translation has given it considerable notoriety.
Its claim that
Judas was the favorite disciple and was instructed by Jesus to betray him has
provided the media with extraordinary attention that needs to be put into
context.
The context for
"The Gospel of Judas" was that it is only one of many Gnostic
alternatives to the Christian Gospel. The Gnostics held many complex and varied
beliefs, but generally they valued inquiry into spiritual truth above faith.
They believed salvation was attainable only by the few. These few were able by
their belief to transcend matter and the material world, which they considered
evil. They viewed Jesus Christ as one of the deities who was not fully human
having only a phantasmal body.
The quotation
of Jesus from this gospel, "You will be greater than all the others, Judas.
You will sacrifice the roan that clothes me," is a clear indication of the
Gnostic alternative to Christianity. According to this gospel, Jesus'
"body" is sacrificed, but his spiritual self is unscathed. This belief
builds on an earlier heresy, Docetism, that taught that Jesus did not really
suffer on the cross but only seemed to suffer and seemed to die.
What most modem
observers miss is the wonderful work done by the early church fathers,
especially Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Hippolytus in saving the Christian Gospel
from these cruel distortions. Heresy appeals to our fallen nature in every
generation, including our own. The esoteric (intended for or understood by only
a small group) nature of Gnosticism appeals to our human pride and condescension
to others.
The great loss
that results from Gnostic gospels like Judas' is that it leads us to believe
that we need no redemption for our sinful wills, only freedom from our material
bodies.
What is lost in
the Gnostic "gospels" is the trust in and knowledge of God, whom we
call "Father;" that the material world and our bodies are good; that
we sinners have been shown mercy, not just given secret knowledge; that the
suffering of Christ gives hope and fellowship in our suffering; and that as
Christ was raised from the dead, so our deaths are not the last word.
Unfortunately,
the media too often turn to the "experts," many of whom do not call
themselves Christians, to explain the significance of something like the newly
found Gnostic "Gospel of Judas."
It is like
asking a vegetarian to tell us how to cook steaks or a Muslim to explain the
religion of the Hindu. The idea that a powerful, defensive church suppressed
these wonderful teachings ignores the fact that the Christian church was a
despised sect persecuted by the Roman empire, run out of synagogues and beset by
fantastic distortions of the Gospel.
We owe an
incalculable debt to those early church leaders, such as Irenaeus, who preserved
for us the Christian Gospel, which we would never ourselves ever have imagined.
Further reading
on this subject can be found in The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of
Christian Orthodoxy, which is available from Morehouse Publishing, P. O. Box
1321, Harrisburg, Penn., 17105
The Rt. Rev. C.
FitzSimons Allison is a retired Episcopal Bishop of South Carolina, who holds a
doctorate in Anglican history from Oxford University.