Gospel of Judas

The Gospel of Judas has been in the news lately. From an article on MSNBC.com:

An ancient manuscript rediscovered after 1,700 years takes a "contrarian" view of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, the disciple who handed him over for crucifixion. The papyrus manuscript was written around 300 A.D. in Coptic script, and is a copy of an earlier Greek text, said Terry Garcia of the National Geographic Society, which made the manuscript public. Discovered in 1970, the papyrus was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and began to deteriorate before conservators restored it. More than 1,000 pieces had to be reassembled. The manuscript was authenticated through radiocarbon dating as well as ink analysis, multispectral imaging and an analysis of the content for linguistic style and handwriting style, National Geographic reported. Garcia said the National Geographic Society has spent "north of a million [dollars] and south of $2 million" on the restoration so far, and "the bills are still coming in." Unlike the four gospels in the Bible, this text indicates that Judas betrayed Jesus at Jesus' request. The manuscript thus represents "one of the most unusual and contrarian" views of New Testament events, said Bart Ehrman, a scriptural scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The newly translated document's text begins: "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot." In a key passage Jesus tells Judas, "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." This indicates that Judas would help liberate the spiritual self by helping Jesus get rid of his physical flesh, scholars said. "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom," Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status. "Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star." The text ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests and does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.

Edward Fudge made a few comments here and here about this subject.