Very interesting book about the Gnostic gospel of Judas. I was a bit disappointed that Ehrman wrote about the text, but didn’t reproduce any of it. But I learned a lot about the myriad ways Judas is viewed by many gospel authors, and about Gnostic Christianity.

The gospel of Judas is a gospel written about, not by, Judas, and portrays him as the only disciple that really “gets it”–in order to regain his heavenly home, Jesus must shed his mortal skin. He tells Judas that he will be the greatest of all disciples because he will help Jesus discard “the man that clothes him”. By “betraying” Jesus, then, Judas is just doing what he’s supposed to.

I don’t really get why Judas has gotten so much heat. If God planned to send his son to die, why beat Judas up for doing what was in the plan? (Not to mention, why make him an archetype for eeeeevil Jews?) Scapegoats are fun, I guess. It seems to be a common theme among so many Christians that they don’t trust their God to know his own business and make his own judgments.

Anyhoo, interesting stuff here for students of religions and especially Christianity of course. As for me, I always love a good retelling of an old story.

Tags: Bart Ehrman, Christianity, religion

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book really should have been two books. For half the book Taibbi is investigating how Congress really works (a topic that he reports on quite well and makes understandable, but that really could fill hundreds of pages on its own). For most of the rest of it, he’s in deep cover at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, exposing the craziness of the people who appear to have taken over government and public discourse. I would have loved to have seen more of this as well, and maybe he could supplement it with undercover stints at Saddleback or New Life. I enjoyed his style and his passion, but I think the squashed-togetherness of this book might have deranged me a little. Even a two-part series would have worked better.

Tags: irreligion, Matt Taibbi, politics