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