What is the gospel of Judas?

This is taken from a Zenit article dated April 5, 2006. ZENIT asked Father Thomas D. Williams, dean of theology at the Regina Apostolorum university in Rome, to comment on the relevance of the discovery.



Q: What is the "Gospel of Judas"?

Father Williams: Though the manuscript still must be authenticated, it likely represents a fourth- or fifth-century text, and is a copy of an earlier document produced by a Gnostic sect called the Cainites.

The document paints Judas Iscariot in a positive light, and describes him as obeying a divine ordinance in handing over Jesus to the authorities for the salvation of the world.

It may well be a copy of the "Gospel of Judas" referred to by St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his work "Against the Heresies," written around A.D. 180.

Q: If authentic, what challenge would this document pose to traditional Christian belief? Will it "shake Christianity to its foundations" as some press releases have suggested?

Certainly not. The Gnostic gospels, of which there are many besides this one, are not Christian documents per se, since they proceed from a syncretistic sect that incorporated elements from different religions, including Christianity.

From the moment of their appearance, the Christian community rejected these documents because of their incompatibility with the Christian faith.

The "Gospel of Judas" would be a document of this sort, which could have great historical value, since it contributes to our knowledge of the Gnostic movement, but it poses no direct challenge to Christianity.

Q: Is it true that the Church has tried to cover up this text and other apocryphal texts?

These are myths circulated by Dan Brown and other conspiracy theorists.

You can go to any Catholic bookstore and pick up a copy of the Gnostic gospels. Christians may not believe them to be true, but there is no attempt to hide them.

Q: But doesn't an early document of this sort rival orthodox Christian sources, such as the four canonical Gospels?

Remember that Gnosticism arose in the middle of the second century, and the "Gospel of Judas," if authentic, probably dates back to the mid- to late second century.

To put a historical perspective on things, that would be like you or me writing a text now on the American Civil War and having that text later used as a primary historical source on the war. The text could not have been written by eyewitnesses, the way at least two of the canonical Gospels were.

Q: Why would the leaders of the Gnostic movement have been interested in Judas?

One of the major differences between Gnostic belief and that of Christianity concerns the origins of evil in the universe.

Christians believe that a good God created a good world, and that through the abuse of free will, sin and corruption entered the world and produced disorder and suffering.

The Gnostics blamed God for the evil in the world and claimed that he created the world in a disordered and flawed way. Thus they champion the rehabilitation of Old Testament figures such as Cain, who killed his brother Abel, and Esau, the elder brother of Jacob, who sold his birthright for a plate of pottage.

Judas fits perfectly into the Gnostic agenda of showing that God intends evil for the world.

Q: But wasn't Judas' betrayal a necessary part of God's plan, as this text suggests?

Being omniscient, God knows full well what choices we will make and weaves even our bad decisions into his providential plan for the world.

In his last published book, Pope John Paul II eloquently reflected on how God continues to bring good out of even the worst evil that man can produce.

That doesn't mean, however, that God intends for us to do evil, or that he intended for Judas to betray Jesus. If it wasn't Judas, it would have been someone else. The authorities had already decided to put Jesus to death, and it was just a matter of time.

Q: What is the Church's position regarding Judas? Is it possible to "rehabilitate" him?

Though the Catholic Church has a canonization process by which it declares certain persons to be in heaven, as saints, it has no such process for declaring people to be condemned.

Historically, many have thought that Judas is probably in hell, because of Jesus' severe indictment of Judas: "It would be better for that man if he had never been born," as he says in Matthew 26:24. But even these words do not offer conclusive evidence regarding his fate.

In his 1994 book, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," Pope John Paul II wrote that Jesus' words "do not allude for certain to eternal damnation."

Q: But if anyone deserves hell, wouldn't it be Judas?

Surely many people deserve hell, but we must remember that the mercy of God is infinitely greater than our wickedness.

Peter and Judas committed very similar faults: Peter denied Jesus three times, and Judas handed him over. And yet now Peter is remembered as a saint and Judas simply as the traitor.

The main difference between the two is not the nature or gravity of their sin, but rather their willingness to accept God's mercy. Peter wept for his sins, came back to Jesus, and was pardoned. The Gospel describes Judas as hanging himself in despair.

Q: Why is the "Gospel of Judas" arousing so much interest?

Such theories regarding Judas are certainly not new.

It's enough to remember the 1973 play "Jesus Christ Superstar," where Judas sings, "I have no thought at all about my own reward. I really didn't come here of my own accord," or Taylor Caldwell's 1977 novel "I, Judas."

The enormous economic success of "The Da Vinci Code" has undoubtedly stirred up the pot, and provided financial incentive for theories of this sort.

Michael Baigent, author of "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," now has a book out called "The Jesus Papers," which recycles the old story that Jesus survived the crucifixion.

And a newly released "scientific" study asserts that meteorological conditions could have been such that Jesus really walked on ice, when the Gospels say he walked on water.

Basically, for those who reject outright the possibility of miracles, any theory, outlandish as it may be, trumps Christian claims.

What happened to Jesus between the time he died and resurrected? Where did he go?

The question is a good one. We have almost reduced Holy Week to two days: Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Holy Saturday is treated like a “break” from all the church liturgy, at least until the Easter Vigil.

In answering the question, let’s be careful that we do not treat the death and Resurrection of Jesus in terms of human time and space. The Resurrection did not occur during a particular time, say, for example, on the midnight of Sunday. I t is also difficult to talk about where exactly Jesus went when he died.

We know that Jesus died and Resurrected. What happened in between is referred to, in our Creed, as Jesus having “descended to the dead.” (Also referred to as “descended to hell” because those who are there are deprived of the vision of God. CCC, 633).

“Descended to the dead” means:

- Jesus, like all human beings, experienced death. He did not just pretend to die.

- Jesus’ act of salvation applies to all, even to those who died before him. Salvation is “not limited by time and space.”[1]

We are inspired that Jesus resurrected. Equally, and perhaps even more inspiring, is that Jesus actually died. At a moment in human history, there is an event when God died. Isn’t that more astonishing?

But Jesus, the God-human, died for a purpose: to be one with ALL humankind by “joining the others in the realm of the dead.”[2] In doing so, Jesus includes all humankind of all time and of all places in proclaiming the good news: I have come to bring you ALL back to the Father.

This is the wonderful significance of Holy Saturday. God’s love indeed knows no bounds.

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[1] CFC, 592 and CCC, 634-635

[2] CCC, 632

CFC is Catechism for Filipino Catholics and CCC is Catechism of the Catholic Church.

Why did Jesus have to die?

Let’s first answer that question with a question: what is the most important aspect of Christianity?

If you were asked what is the core essential and most important of aspect of Christianity, the ‘thing’ that really differentiates our faith from all other faiths, the one element that is beyond any human teaching and endeavor, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY?

St. Paul answered this question in 1 Corinthians 15:3: “For I handed on to you as of FIRST IMPORTANCE what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.” (emphasis mine)

The answer is: the Cross. The cross is of “first importance.”

But how can this be? Crucifixion is the Roman method of execution, somewhat equivalent to the contemporary electric chair, gas chamber or lethal injection. I say “somewhat” because it was far worse. The objective of crucifixion was not to kill, but to shame and torture. Victims were hanged on the cross naked, and sometimes for days. Out of pity, they were scourged before crucifixion to quicken their death, or their legs broken while crucified so they can die of asphyxiation.

For the early Christians to say that they are the disciples of Jesus is equivalent today of being disciples of a criminal who was put to death in the electric chair.


What then did the crucifixion accomplish?

Let’s start with some misperceptions. Some have gravely misunderstood the crucifixion as “picturing the Father punishing him cruelly for our sins, even though he is completely innocent. This is a monstrous view of God the Father, and badly misinterprets the New Testament. The Father hates sin, not Jesus.” (CFC, 569)

God did not become human to simply die. We miss the point when we think of Jesus’ sacrifice only in terms of his death on the cross. Instead we should look at his entire life and his purpose or mission, which is to preach the Kingdom of God, and this he accomplished to the extent it RESULTED to his death on the cross.

But he said to them, “To the other towns also I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God, because for this purpose I have been sent.” – Luke 4:43

The core of Jesus’ teaching is the Kingdom of God, mentioned more than a hundred times in the Gospel. The Kingdom of God is not a place, but a condition where unconditional love prevails. God’s love is unconditional, which means that it is open to everyone, regardless of how sinful you are.

Preaching this contradicted and embarrassed many of the Pharisees, Sadducees and other authorities during Jesus’ time. Eventually, people plotted against him, which resulted to his crucifixion and death.

What was accomplished in the cross, therefore, is the full manifestation of God’s love. There Jesus hanged because he could not stop short of showing humanity what God’s love (read: God’s Kingdom) is all about.

It is not the very suffering and death of Christ that save us, for this would make his torturers and executioners our saviors. Rather, we are saved by Jesus’ perfect self-giving love for his Father and for us, a love lived out to the death. (CFC, 558)

Can you imagine if Jesus veered away from his life purpose because he was afraid that he was going to be killed? Instead, “he saw his suffering and death as part of the coming of the Kingdom, the “test” he taught his followers to pray about: lead us not to the test. (CFC, 562)


What did Jesus say and do, then, which meant life for us and death for him?

Jesus announced that the Kingdom of God was destined not pri­marily to the pious and the faithful observers of the Law, but to the poor, the blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the sick and the un­educated "people of the land." All this was most shocking to his contemporaries.

But Jesus provoked the anger of the Jewish leaders in many other ways. He consorted and took his meals with the "enemies of the people," the abhorred tax collectors, as well as with prostitutes and public sinners. He drastically reinterpreted the Law on such matters as legal purity, the sabbath, divorce, etc. He rejected the accepted norms of retaliation against non-Jews and publicly favored the "popular enemy," the Samaritan. He assured some individuals that their sins had been for­given. He denounced the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees. He attacked the chief priests. And in many other ways, Jesus threatened the existing “law and order” so that a truly fraternal and just society might emerge one day – at whatever cost to himself.

Jesus did not say: I want to die, and therefore I will provoke everyone into killing me. Instead, he said: By my Father’s command, I will proclaim and show what God’s love is all about, and I will do so even if it costs my life.


I was taught that Jesus made the supreme sacrifice on the cross. How then are we to interpret this sacrificial act?

Jesus’ sacrificial act on the cross is consistent with the biblical meaning of sacrifice. When a Jew offered an animal as sacrifice, the animal was the symbol of his or her life. By offering the animal, the Jew was also offering his or her life to God. But for the Jew, the focus is not the killing of the animal, but what it symbolizes: his or her life would now be based on obeying God’s will. The Jew was in effect saying, “I am offering this animal to tell my God that I would like to live a life that is God-centered.”

It is the same with the sacrifice of Jesus. It is not just the crucifixion but the entire life of Jesus that we should consider. And his whole life was to fulfill the purpose that the Father has sent him: to preach the Kingdom. Even unto death.


How does Jesus’ death forgive my sins?

To be forgiven is to be reconciled with God. Jesus has shown in his life, and death, that we are forgiven and loved unconditionally.

When we really understand the meaning of Jesus’ life and death on the cross, then a profound healing can begin to take place within us. Our “being saved” or “being forgiven” happens.

“When we begin to accept that God loves and accepts us unconditionally, then we can change our sense of who we are and our sense of what life is about. Our primary image of our self would then become one of ‘trusted, loved and already forgiven by God,’ rather than ‘sinner who must please God to be forgiven.’ We can begin to discover that the Christian life is about a life lived in a loving relationship with God. Realizing this, we may be able to allow the transforming power of our love relationship with God to work in our lives.”[1]


But couldn’t a martyr have done what Jesus did; that is, teach about God’s love and be able to die for it?

That’s exactly the point! Out of love, God sent His only Son to do it (not anyone else), so that God’s love is not only preached, but lived, by God himself!

Because it was God himself who did it, then that saving love is unique. How? In the following ways:

- It is universal – it is for all of humanity

- Secondly, it is empowering – we cooperate with Jesus in Kingdom building.


What’s the implication of all these in my life?

When you look at Jesus on the cross, do not remember only his death. Remember his entire life, what he said and did, his unconditional love manifested in forgiveness and healing of both the physical, mental and emotional illnesses of those around him. Recall that Jesus was willing to do all these even if he knew that he would antagonize people and that he may eventually pay for it with his life. But he did so anyway out of love for all of us.

Realizing this, you too can discover your life purpose and fulfill it to completion, just as Jesus did.
Secondly, in his life as in his death, Jesus had only one goal. Like the good shepherd who is ready to risk his life for his sheep, he thus laid his life for his sheep “so that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10) You too can contribute to making others live more fully: physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually.



[1] Lode Wostyn, CICM, I Believe: A Workbook for Theology I (Manila: Claretian Publications, 2004), 174.