c. 2006 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) An ancient, self-proclaimed “Gospel of Judas” was presented to the public Thursday (April 6), casting Jesus Christ’s infamous betrayer as a friend who acted out of loyalty, exceeding the other apostles in the eyes of God.

Brushed onto tattered and fragmented sheets of papyrus in Coptic, an Egyptian script, the manuscript is contained in a 66-page, leather-bound “codex” that the National Geographic Society unveiled in Washington.

“This dramatic discovery of an ancient, non-biblical text … enhances our knowledge of the history and theological viewpoints of the early Christian period,” Terry Garcia, a National Geographic executive, said in a statement.

Garcia said a series of tests _ including radiocarbon dating, ink analysis and multispectral imaging _ had shown that the text was authentic.

The text was discovered in a cavern near El Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s, and spent decades on the gray market. A statement released by National Geographic did not say who found the manuscript.

In a Religion News Service report in February on the manuscript’s discovery and National Geographic’s plans to unveil it, the Swiss lawyer who purchased the manuscript in 2001 said documentation of the codex’s discovery was unavailable because the manuscript was smuggled out of Egypt.

“The manuscript itself was illegally exported because it had been stolen in Egypt,” said lawyer Mario Roberty, adding he planned to eventually return the manuscript to Egypt. National Geographic confirmed those plans Thursday.

Although scholars have known the contours of the gospel’s narrative for years, National Geographic made passages of the text available in English. A section that some scholars believe redeems Judas reads: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot … three days before he celebrated Passover.”

The scholars believe that Christ made clear to Judas that he had been selected to betray his master as part of a divine plan that would set him apart from the other apostles.

“You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me,” reads the English version of the text.

A top Vatican scholar dismissed the manuscript in February, calling it “a product of religious fantasy” that would have no impact on church teaching. Even if it agrees the text is authentic, the Vatican and many other Christian traditions would not consider it part of the Bible. Therefore, it would not have the authority of more sinister descriptions of Judas in the biblical books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John _ the Gospels.

Reinforcing the Vatican’s view, Pope Benedict XVI used a recent weekly audience to defend the traditional view of Judas, labeling him the “traitor apostle.”

In short, the Vatican may see the new text as an interesting discovery, but it won’t change its teaching that Judas betrayed Christ.

“We welcome the (manuscript) like we welcome the critical study of any text of ancient literature,” Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, president of the Vatican’s Committee for Historical Science, said in an interview.

In the statement released by National Geographic, Elaine Pagels, a scholar of early Christianity at Princeton University, called the gospel an “astonishing discovery that is transforming our understanding of early Christianity.”

“These discoveries are exploding the myth of a monolithic religion and demonstrating how diverse and fascinating the early Christian movement really was.”

Scholars say the manuscript was produced around A.D. 300 and reflects the theological traditions of a second-century sect of Gnostics, a community that believed true spirituality derived from an inner knowledge, or “gnosis.” Figures depicted as sinful in the Old Testament, such as Cain and Esau, were typically extolled under Gnostic theology.

Around the year 180, St. Irenaeus of Lyons, a heresy watchdog of the early church, targeted the community for declaring that “Judas the traitor … alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal.”

“They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas,” Irenaeus wrote in “Against Heresies.” Scholars say it’s possible Irenaeus was reading an earlier version of the soon-to-be-published transcript, but that point is speculation.

MO/PH END RNS

Editors: To obtain files photos depicting Judas Iscariot, go to the RNS Web site at https://religionnews.com. On the lower right, click on “photos,” then search by subject (Judas).