gospel of judas

In order to get the feel for the Gospel of Judas, we should know first of all how it is organized and how it "flows." All page references here are to the manuscript itself, as cited in the recently-released version by National Geographic--The Gospel of Judas, ed. by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst. Since none of the following "sections" is indicated in the original manuscript, this division is for ease of understanding only. And, one other comment. The text of the Gospel of Judas is very short. Though it occupies 27 pages in the National Geographic edition, the greater part of most of the pages is notes. Thus, we have a text of about 10-15 pages in length.

Section I: Jesus, the Disciples and "Open" Teaching (33-47)

Though the Gospel of Judas is really "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot" (33), the first half of it deals with Jesus' speaking with the other disciples as well as Judas. My comments here relate to four things: (1) the "form" of these pages; (2) the portrait of the other disciples; (3) Jesus' special words to Judas; (4) How Jesus is presented.

(1) By "form," I mean the literary structure of the Gospel of Judas ("Judas"). In many ways it reminds me of the structure of the last several chapters of the Gospel of John ("John"). Judas opens with a rather summary "incipit" (Lat. for "it begins") telling us that this conversation with Judas took place "during a week three days before he celebrated Passover." Thus, even though reference will be made to Jesus' earlier life, the "action" here occurs at the end of his earthly days. John 13:1 also begins a long section describing the last few days of Jesus's life. In John all the disciples were privileged to hear Jesus' mysterious ruminations, though the beloved disciple had a particularly special location--at the breast of Jesus. In the Gospel of Judas, after talking with all the disciples, Jesus takes Judas apart from the rest and tells him the mysteries of the universe. Both Gospels, thus, are concerned with the impartation of secret or special knowledge, with an inner circle of one having more intimate access to Jesus than the rest. No doubt these accounts were written for Christian communities whose "patron saint" was either the beloved disciple or possibly Judas or Cain or other "rejected" Biblical figures. Not only did their founder or patron have acquaintance with Jesus; he had unique and, therefore, deeply true knowledge from him.

(2) The disciples, in these pages, are portrayed as simple-minded and misinformed individuals. This is evident when Jesus meets up with them as they were offering a prayer of thanksgiving before eating. Even though they confess him to be "the son of our god" (34), he says, "Truly I say to you, no generation of the people that are among you will know me" (Ibid.). Not only were the disciples ignorant of who Jesus really was (more about that below), but the language just quoted is very similar to John 2:24-25--"But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people, and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone." They became incensed with Jesus, and then he challenged them with these words: "Let any one of you who is [strong enough] among human beings bring out the perfect hjman and stand before my face" (35). Though they tried to do so, they could not. The disciples also had a vision (38-43) which they wanted to discuss with Jesus. I will devote a complete essay to that vision. In short, however, the disciples don't realize that they are people who do not understand the true origin of Jesus.

In saying this, the Gospel of Judas runs into some difficulties, I think, because it has to explain why Jesus would have called these disciples to himself if they were just as ignorant of his true mission as were the people of the time. The only explanation given is as follows: "And since some [walked] in the way of righteousness while others walked in their transgressions, the tweve disciples were called" (33). This doesn't really make sense to me. An intellectual difficulty that all Gnostic systems have to overcome is the calling of the (ignorant) disciples.

(3) Judas, in these pages, is portrayed as one who truly understands the mission of Jesus. After the other disciples took umbrage at Jesus' criticism of their prayer, they were unable to stand before Jesus--"Their spirits did not dare to stand before [him]" (35). But Judas was able to do so. "He was able to stand before him, but he could not look him in the eyes, and he turned his face away" (35). When Judas is looking toward Jesus, with eyes averted, he perceives the truth about Jesus:

"Judas [said] to him, 'I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you" (35).

This fascinating passage draws deeply on biblical and gnostic imagery. Like Moses of old, Judas can't look directly at Jesus/God. Like the Jews of his day, Judas cannot utter the sacred name of God (even though the TRUE God will not be the biblical God). The reference to "Barbelo" (Hebrew for "in the fourfold God," possibly referring to the four letters of the tetragrammaton--YHWH) throws us into the world of gnosticism, possibly a so-called Sethian strand of it. More on this in the next essay. Because Judas knows the truth about Jesus, Jesus tells him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom" (35).

(4) When we meet Jesus, we meet a laughing savior. In other gnostic texts Jesus is portrayed as laughing when people crucify him, for they don't know that they really can't crucify a spirit. The joke is on them. But in Judas we have Jesus laughing at the disciples because their lack of understanding. Jesus hastens to explain, however, that he isn't laughing at them as if in ridicule. "I am not laughing at you. <You> are not doing this because of your own will but because it is through this that your god [will be] praised" (34). When the disciples ask him a little later about a "great generation" which is supposed to be "superior to us and holier than us," again Jesus laughs and says, "Why are you thinking in your hearts about the strong and holy generation? Truly I say to you, no one born [of] this aeon will see that [generation]... (36-37). Jesus, therefore, laughs because he knows he is from another realm and the disciples don't understand him. Except for Judas. Thus, he will take Judas aside and give him some special teaching--which is the subject of the next essay.

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