National Geographic releases "Gospel of Judas" translation

WASHINGTON — The National Geographic Society on Thursday released the first modern translation of the ancient "Gospel of Judas," which depicts the most reviled villain in Christian history as a devoted follower who was simply doing Jesus' bidding when he betrayed him.

The text's existence has been known since it was denounced as heresy by the bishop of Lyon in A.D. 180, but its contents had remained an almost total mystery. It describes conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot in the last week of their lives in which Jesus tells Judas "secrets no other person has ever seen."

The other apostles pray to a lesser God, Jesus says, and reveals to Judas the "mysteries of the kingdom" of the true God.

He asks Judas to help him return to the kingdom, but to do so, Judas must help him abandon his mortal flesh: "You will sacrifice the man that clothes me," Jesus tells Judas, and acknowledges that Judas "will be cursed by the other generations."

Scholars said the 26-page document was written on 13 sheets of papyrus leaf in ancient Egyptian, or Coptic, and was bound as a book, known as a codex. It is one of dozens of sacred texts from the Christian Gnostics, who believed salvation came through secret knowledge conveyed by Jesus. Its author was anonymous.

The Gnostics were a sect "that emphasized knowledge [gnosis], but not the kind we think of today," said biblical scholar Gregor Wurst of the University of Augsburg in Germany. They were interested in the spiritual knowledge of God and "the essential oneness of the inner self with God."

Biblical scholars hailed the text because of the insight it will provide into the exceptionally turbulent period when competing ideologies sought to stake their own claims to the Jesus story, battling in oral stories and written texts until a single faction won out.

Its publication "makes available a significant text in our cultural heritage," said Coptic scholar Marvin Meyer, of Orange, Calif.'s Chapman University.

National Geographic, which paid for much of the research, said it authenticated the codex through radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and study of the script. And despite a murky history, no scholar has suggested the document is a forgery, a problem that has dogged several recent finds, most notably the bone box, or ossuary, purported to have contained the remains of Jesus' brother James.

New creation story

The newly translated document's text begins: "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot."

The text also offers a new creation story, depicting the evil world as the product of a bloodthirsty, foolish lower deity, rather than the higher, true God. This duality "is why this gospel could never be accepted by orthodox Christianity," said Bart Ehrman, chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

As an authentic ancient Gnostic text, the Gospel of Judas is certain to spark a surge of interest by both theologians and the faithful, but scholars said it is unclear whether the text will prompt a re-evaluation of the traitor denounced by Matthew for betraying Jesus for "30 pieces of silver."

"At one level the [New Testament] gospels already see the betrayal as a mysterious part of God's plan," said the Rev. Donald Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He predicted the text would produce "a short-term sensation" but that after Christians read it, "the impact on the lives of ordinary believers will be minimal."

The ancient manuscript, a third- or fourth-century translation of a second-century original probably written in Greek, was unearthed by looters in Egypt in the 1970s. It came to the attention of scholars in 1983, when an Egyptian antiquities dealer tried to sell it to U.S. researchers for $3 million.

After the document passed through several hands and venues, including 16 years deteriorating in a safe-deposit box in Hicksville, N.Y., more than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled and restored.

National Geographic reached an agreement in 2004 to help finance its authentication and translation in return for publication rights.

The material will be donated to the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt, so it can be available to all scholars, said Ted Waitt of the Waitt Institute for Historical Discovery, which also helped finance the restoration. The Swiss-based Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art owns the codex.

An abrupt end

The gospel ends abruptly. "They [the arresting party] approached Judas and said to him, 'What are you doing here? You are Jesus' disciple.' Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money and handed him over to them."

No mention is made of the Crucifixion or Resurrection.

Scholars hope one thing may prove true: The new version of the story could help mend fences between Christians and Jews. For centuries, Judas has symbolized Jews' rejection of Jesus.

"That has been the elephant in the room," said Hershel Shanks, publisher of Biblical Archeology Review. "The Judas story has been the basis for an enormous amount of anti-Semitism."

Material from the Los Angeles Times and The Associated Press is included in this report.