http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?

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Middle East Online

2005-03-30
Gospel of Judas back in spotlight after 20 centuries
Swiss foundation seeks to shed light on controversial Christian text
named after apostle said to have betrayed Jesus.
By Patrick Baert - GENEVA

About 2,000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among
early Christians, a Swiss foundation says it is translating for the first time the
controversial text named after the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus Christ.

The 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text was uncovered in Egypt during the
1950s or 1960s, but its owners did not fully comprehend its significance until
recently, according to the Maecenas Foundation in Basel.

The manuscript written in the ancient dialect of Egypt's Coptic Christian

community will be translated into English, French and German in about a year,
the foundation specialising in antique culture said on Tuesday.

"We have just received the results of carbon dating: the text is older than we
thought and dates back to a period between the beginning of the third and fourth
centuries," foundation director Mario Jean Roberty said.

The existence of a Gospel of Judas, which was originally written in Greek, was
outlined by a bishop, Saint Irenee, when he denounced the text as heretical
during the second century.

"It's the only clear source that allows us to know that such a Gospel did exist,"
Roberty explained.

The foundation declined to say what account Judas is said to give in his alleged
gospel.

According to Christian tradition, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus Christ by helping

the Romans to find him before he was crucified.

"We do not want to reveal the exceptional side of what we have," Roberty said.

The author of the text is unknown.

"No one can clearly state that Judas wrote it himself," Roberty said, while
pointing out that the other gospels were probably not written by their supposed
authors either.

The four recognised gospels of the New Testament describe the life, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ and are said to record his teachings from the eyes of
four of his disciples, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

The Roman Catholic Church limited the recognised gospels to the four in 325,
under the guidance of the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine.

Thirty other texts - some of which have been uncovered - were sidelined because
"they were difficult to reconcile with what Constantine wanted as a political
doctrine," according to Roberty.

The foundation's director said the Judas Iscariot text called into question some of
the political principles of Christian doctrine.

It could also to some extent rehabilitate Judas, whose name has often come to
symbolise the accusation of deicide - God-killing - levelled by some Christian
teachings against the Jewish people, he added.

After the manuscript is restored, the text is due to be translated and analysed by
a team of specialists in Coptic history led by a former professor at the University
of Geneva, Rudolf Kasser.

Jean-Daniel Kaestli, an expert on gospels who has seen the manuscript, said the
discovery was "very interesting", although the papyrus was in a bad state.

He added that it was not going to lead to a revolutionary change in the vision of
the Bible, although it could shed some new light on parts of Christianity's holy
text.

The Maecenas Foundation, which aims to protect archaeological relics found in

poor countries, hopes to organise exhibitions around the manuscript and to
produce a documentary on the process of unravelling the text.

The full launch is due in Easter 2006.