Judas Iscariot is portrayed in the popular Christian literature as a quintessential enemy, the betrayer of Jesus who turns his master to Roman authorities. In the gospel of Luke, it is stated that Satan enters into Judas and drives him to his despicable deed, and in the gospel of John, Jesus says to his 12 disciples that one them is a devil. According to Matthew, Judas hangs himself; and according to Acts, his belly rips open and dies. During the formative period of Christian church, there were many gospels; the Gospel of Truth, and the gospels according to Thomas, Peter, Philip, James, Judas, Mary, the Ebonite's, the Nazarenes, the Hebrews, and the Egyptians that demonstrate a rich diversity of perspectives within the early Christianity. Most of these gospels were treated as heretical and they were destroyed by the early Christian church; some were lost in antiquity.
The gospel of Judas is different in a number of respects from canonical gospels. In this gospel, he is not a devil but a close friend of Jesus who understood him better than any other disciples. He turned over Jesus to the authorities because Jesus wanted him to do so. Jesus wanted to escape the material world that is opposed to God and return to his heavenly home. There is no resurrection in this gospel because the entire point of salvation is to escape this material world. Jesus is regarded as a great spiritual leader, and not as a son of God. He is not considered as a savior who died for the sins of the others. The central part of this gospel is that Jesus teaches the mysteries of the universe, and as stated in other Gnostic gospels, Jesus is a teacher and a revealer of wisdom and knowledge which can eradicate ignorance and create awareness to find God. According to most Gnostics that includes gospel of Judas Iscariot, we are trapped in these bodies and we must acquire knowledge and find truth so that we can free ourselves. The mysteries Judas Iscariot learns from Jesus are steeped in Jewish Gnostic lore. In one of his meetings with his apostles, Judas Iscariot is the only disciple who had the courage to stand in front of his master and tell him that he (Jesus) is the "immortal realm of Barbelo" and Judas Iscariot is not worthy of uttering the name of the Almighty God who has sent him.
Gnosticism is a mystical, esoteric religious movement that existed during the very early phase of Christianism. The discovery of 13 books containing 52 texts in the Nile River valley of Egypt in 1945 called Nag Hammadi opened the door for the history of early Christianism and the teachings of Gnostic gospels such as; the secret book of James, the gospel of Thomas, the book of Thomas, gospel of Judas Iscariot and secret book of John. Biblical scholars estimate that these books belong to second century C.E, and the followers of this abstract faith were Gnostics and they were comprised of various groups. These Christian groups maintained different systems of beliefs and doctrine, all of them insisting that their views were not only right but were of the views of Jesus and his closest followers. The gospel of Judas was preserved in Coptic but probably translated from the original Greek around the middle of second century. Irenaeus, the bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (Lyon in present France) refer to the gospel of Judas in his work "Against Heresies," written around 180 A.C. Irenaeus is one of the well known Heresy hunters from Christian antiquity who was especially critical of Gnostic gospels. The early Christian leadership discredited and dismantled anything that contradicted their beliefs, and hence the New Testament with its four canonical gospels gives a different view of Judas Iscariot.
Reference: The Gospel of Judas by Marvin Meyer
The gospel of Judas is different in a number of respects from canonical gospels. In this gospel, he is not a devil but a close friend of Jesus who understood him better than any other disciples. He turned over Jesus to the authorities because Jesus wanted him to do so. Jesus wanted to escape the material world that is opposed to God and return to his heavenly home. There is no resurrection in this gospel because the entire point of salvation is to escape this material world. Jesus is regarded as a great spiritual leader, and not as a son of God. He is not considered as a savior who died for the sins of the others. The central part of this gospel is that Jesus teaches the mysteries of the universe, and as stated in other Gnostic gospels, Jesus is a teacher and a revealer of wisdom and knowledge which can eradicate ignorance and create awareness to find God. According to most Gnostics that includes gospel of Judas Iscariot, we are trapped in these bodies and we must acquire knowledge and find truth so that we can free ourselves. The mysteries Judas Iscariot learns from Jesus are steeped in Jewish Gnostic lore. In one of his meetings with his apostles, Judas Iscariot is the only disciple who had the courage to stand in front of his master and tell him that he (Jesus) is the "immortal realm of Barbelo" and Judas Iscariot is not worthy of uttering the name of the Almighty God who has sent him.
Gnosticism is a mystical, esoteric religious movement that existed during the very early phase of Christianism. The discovery of 13 books containing 52 texts in the Nile River valley of Egypt in 1945 called Nag Hammadi opened the door for the history of early Christianism and the teachings of Gnostic gospels such as; the secret book of James, the gospel of Thomas, the book of Thomas, gospel of Judas Iscariot and secret book of John. Biblical scholars estimate that these books belong to second century C.E, and the followers of this abstract faith were Gnostics and they were comprised of various groups. These Christian groups maintained different systems of beliefs and doctrine, all of them insisting that their views were not only right but were of the views of Jesus and his closest followers. The gospel of Judas was preserved in Coptic but probably translated from the original Greek around the middle of second century. Irenaeus, the bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul (Lyon in present France) refer to the gospel of Judas in his work "Against Heresies," written around 180 A.C. Irenaeus is one of the well known Heresy hunters from Christian antiquity who was especially critical of Gnostic gospels. The early Christian leadership discredited and dismantled anything that contradicted their beliefs, and hence the New Testament with its four canonical gospels gives a different view of Judas Iscariot.
Reference: The Gospel of Judas by Marvin Meyer
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