The Gospel of Judas? Historical but still false.

By Timothy J. Hammons

You may have heard of the ancient text that reportedly reveals that Judas Iscariot was not the traitor the Bible reports him to be. According to the news reports, The Gospel of Judas indicates that Judas really had special information about Christ and the crucifixion that the other disciples did not have. He was given visions that the other disciples were not given. The document also states that he was told by Jesus to turn Him over to the Roman authorities. The implications are that Judas is not really a traitor, but was only carrying out the wishes of Christ.

So what are to make of this document? Are we to believe it and allow it to weaken our faith, or is this just another attack upon the word of God? I would have to say it is the latter. Satan, as he did in the Garden of Eden, has found another way to say, “Has God indeed said…”

The problem with the text is that those in the media have been presenting this spurious gospel as though it carries the same weight and authority as the four gospels we find in our Bible. Their basis for this is because of when it was written. The text proves to be written between 300 and 400 A.D. And if the truthfulness of a text is based upon how early it is written, then we must believe it and apologize to Judas.

However, there are quite a few texts surrounding this early age of the church that have been rejected by the church. This is because they were put forth by Gnostics, a heretical group that supposed they had special knowledge about God that regular Christians did not have. In the Gnostic system of belief, one obtained salvation by going deeper and deeper into their “secret” understandings of God, even though these secret understanding contradicted the word of God.

For instance, they believed that Jesus was not really killed upon the cross. He simply fooled the Old Testament God, or YHWH who was considered an evil demiurge, into thinking he was really dead. When no one was watching, Jesus slipped away and won the battle against the demiurge. The Gnostics viewed the world, which is material, as evil and everything spiritual as good. This meant that they rejected the physical death of Christ and the resurrection of the body.

They also identified the disciples as Aeons, or beings of enlightenment. Jesus was the ultimate Aeons, and the more enlightenment you obtained, the closer to Christ you became. Therefore the disciples were only one position removed from Christ. In this system of belief, Judas reflected one of their beings of enlightenment that was unduly slain.[1] This being the case, it makes perfect sense in their system to believe that Judas was merely helping Jesus become free from the attacks of the demiurge, and overcome this terrible physical universe.

It was out of this system of heresy that the Gospel of Judas was written. They also gave us the Gospel of Peter, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and the Gospel of Thomas. All of which were rejected by the early church as being non-authoritative. These texts were always in disagreement with the four gospels of the Bible, which are inspired by God.

For instance, the Gospel of Judas claims that he was actually working with Jesus behind the scenes in order to have Jesus arrested. But this contradicts what all four gospels tell us about the betrayal. In fact, Jesus strongly denounces the one who will betray Him.

Jesus said, “the Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born (Matthew 26:24-25).”

Jesus is clearly denouncing the actions of His betrayer. In other words, the man who betrays Jesus will fall under extra-special judgment in the end. If Jesus was actually persuading Judas to betray Him, then this would make Jesus out to be a liar. And if Jesus is a liar then we have no Savior. There is no hope for anyone if there is no Savior.

But the reality is that the Gnostics are the liars and Jesus is true. He is the One where there is no deceit found in Him. He is the One without sin, borne of the Virgin Mary and died on the cross on our behalf. Yes, the Gnostics may have special knowledge, but that knowledge is not worthy of thought. Just like the lies of Satan in the garden, their lies lead away from the living and true God. Yes, the media may get excited about this new found gospel. But we know from Scripture that it is nothing more than a recycled lie. It God’s word trustworthy? Yes it is. Will it continue to be attacked? Yes, until Jesus returns, Satan will continue to attack God’s word, trying to get us to doubt. Let us see what this attack is and remember to trust in the One “who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth (1 Peter 2:22).”