Judas’ Kiss: The Gospel of Judas

 

Judas’ Kiss: The Gospel of Judas 

Brett A. Todd

We have talked several times about other Gospels that did not make it into the Bible.  The Gospel of Judas is one of those Gospels.  Yes, you heard me correctly, The Gospel of Judas.  We are talking about none other than Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss for thirty pieces of silver.  However, in this Gospel story, it is not so much about betrayal, as it is about a kiss of love and obedience. In this story, Judas is not the villain, he is the hero.

The Gospel of Judas emerged in the ‘70s in Egypt.  It is a leather-bound papyrus manuscript written in the ancient Egyptian Coptic language and may have been originally written in Greek.  There are 16 chapters, and all-in-all, most people would not understand what the author was writing about because it is a Gnostic book filled with secrets that only the enlightened would understand.  However, it might intrigue you to know that in 2006, National Geographic produced the first English translation of The Gospel of Judas, which is easily available to those who would like to read it.

This 2nd-century Christian Gnostic gospel contains the conversations between Jesus and his disciples before the celebration of the Passover.  In these conversations, Jesus revealed his secret revelation to his disciples that only Judas seemed to understand.  We will not spend time unraveling this secret revelation until another time. 

Different from the four Gospels found in the Bible, in the Gospel of Judas, Jesus gives Judas the honored charge to betray him.  This is what Jesus said to Judas, “But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”  The words sound strange, but basically what Jesus was referring to was his death on the cross, the death of his material body.  By Judas handing Jesus over to the Jewish religious leaders, Judas was faithfully executing the true God’s plan which freed Jesus from his body.

Indeed, the Gospel of Judas stands in stark contrast to the four Gospels found in the Bible.  In the Bible, Judas is a traitor, who betrays Jesus because of his greed and the evil (Satan) inside him.  But in The Gospel of Judas, Judas is a faithful servant of God.

Bible scholars agree that The Gospel of Judas, holds no relevance to the teaching of the historical Jesus, but what it does reveal to us is the great diversity found in early Christianity.  Scattered about, there were many Christian groups with different perspectives and different beliefs.  There was no one true orthodox faith.

In our next study, we will ask the question: How many times did the cock crow when Peter denied knowing Jesus?

Butt Naked He Ran

 

Butt Naked He Ran, Mark 14:51:52

Brett A. Todd

There are two odd sentences found in the Gospel of Mark that come out of nowhere, leaving the readers sputtering with eyes crossed, asking, what was that?  Hello?  This is how these two sentences read, “A certain young man was following him, wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They caught hold of him, but he left the linen cloth and ran off naked.”

These two sentences are found in the story of Jesus’s betrayal and arrest in Mark 14:43-52.  Here, Jesus and his disciples are set to leave the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was praying and his disciples were dispassionately sleeping.  At that moment, Judas, the chief priest, scribes, elders, and a crowd with swords and clubs show up, and Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss.  Oddly, the story ends with a “certain” young man running off butt naked.

Many Bible readers have never heard these two lines and you may be one of them, so open up your Bibles and take a look–it’s true, there is a young man who runs off naked leaving his linen cloth behind.  What is this all about?

In 1958, a Bible scholar by the name of Morton Smith revealed an ancient Greek letter he discovered that gave context and some explanation as to who this young man was and why he was with Jesus.  According to this ancient Greek letter discovered by Smith, Jesus and this young man may have been in a homoerotic relationship. Part of this ancient letter reads:

But the youth, looking upon him, loved him and began to beseech him that he might be with him. And going out of the tomb they came into the house of the youth, for he was rich. And after six days Jesus told him what to do and in the evening the youth came to him, wearing a linen cloth over his naked body. And he remained with him that night, for Jesus taught him the mystery of the kingdom of God.

As it turns out, this ancient letter may be a forgery.  Some scholars believe that Smith himself created this letter and falsely claimed that the letter was real.  

So, where does this leave us as Bible readers?  My guess is that it is describing a disciple fleeing for his life who was sleeping while Jesus was praying, but honestly, we don’t know.  All we can do is make an educated guess.

In our next study, we will look at another ancient Gospel that didn’t make it into the Bible called, “The Gospel of Judas”.  This Gospel brings a surprising twist to Judas’ kiss.

Anti-Semitic Elements And The New Testament

 

Anti-Semitic Elements And The New Testament

Brett A. Todd

“...our history, the history of European Jews...they will never forgive us for the evil they've done to us”

― Marceline Loridan-Ivens

It is troubling for some to accept the idea that there may be anti-semitic elements in the Bible, but in fact, there are a few here and there. However, before we look at one of these Bible passages, we will first need to take a step back and talk about Jesus and his disciples.  

From a historical perspective, there is one thing that is particularly evident about Jesus and his disciples: they were Jews from the Galilean region, located in northern Israel.  They attended synagogue, followed the traditions and teachings of the Hebrew scripture, and more.  In Matthew 23:1-3, Jesus tells the crowds and disciples to obey the Laws of Moses, it reads, “Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; therefore, do whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach.’”  In Matthew 5:17 he tells his followers that he did not come to destroy the words of the prophets, but to fulfill them.  

Nevertheless, when we get to the Gospel of John (8:37-47), we discover some disturbing words communicating the idea that the Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus.  Not the Romans, mind you, it was the Jews.  Here, Jesus tells a group of Jews that their father was not God, but the devil because they wanted him dead (John 8:44).  Verse 47 supports this notion by saying that the Jews do not belong to God.  Now, we must not forget, that Jesus never actually said these words, as we have discovered in past articles, Jesus did not say a lot of things the Bible says he said.  This is certainly true of the Gospel of John.  Rather, the author of the Gospel of John put these words into the mouth of Jesus, so to speak. 

 

Curiously, as you look at this story closely, these were Jews who sincerely believed in Jesus but would later turn on him, like Judas calling for his crucifixion. (John 19:15).  How did Jesus know these Jews would turn their back on him?  For the author of the Gospel of John, Jesus is God and God knows everything (John 16:30).  It was the Jews who were to blame for the death of Jesus. They are children of the devil.

As you can imagine, this passage from the Bible has had and continues to make a huge impact on the church.  From John Chrysostom to Martin Luther, and on to this present day, for some Christians, Jews are Christkillers.  Luther once wrote:

Therefore be on your guard against the Jews, knowing that wherever they have their synagogues, nothing is found but a den of devils in which sheer self-glory, conceit, lies, blasphemy, and defaming of God and men are practiced most maliciously and veheming his eyes on them.

In our next study, we will talk about a rather strange story found in the Bible where a young man flees from Jesus' presence butt naked.

What Bible Did The Early Christians Use?

 

What Bible Did The Early Christians Use?

Brett A. Todd

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once said, “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven—how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! … Let me be homo unius libri.”

Christians have long been known as the people of the Book.  But which book are we talking about? The one that makes up 66 books of the Bible?  Or, are we talking about the book(s) that the early Christians used, or perhaps what Jesus and his disciples used?   There is a difference.  So, what Bible did the early Christians use?

There is an assumption among Christians in this modern era that early Christians, even the twelve Disciples, and Jesus used the same Bible as Christians today.  But this is not correct.  Actually, the Bible we use today was not officially adopted by the Church until the Council of Trent (1545–1563) in the 16th century.  This helps explain why Martin Luther (1483-1546), the Reformer, could be so openly critical about the book of James which he believed should not be in the Bible.  The Bible had not been officially authorized.

Christians have always had a Bible (Scripture), although different from what we use today.  For Jesus and his disciples, they viewed the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament, as their Bible. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus quotes or refers to the Hebrew Scriptures.  In Mark 9:48, for example, Jesus quotes Isaiah 66:24, almost verbatim, word for word, “for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched”.

Almost from the very beginning of Christianity, early Christians saw a need for additional scriptures–with the words of Jesus.  Out of this need, the four Gospels were born. 1 Timothy 5:18 shows this development when the author not only quotes the Hebrew Scriptures, but also, a saying from Jesus, “‘You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,’ and, ‘The laborer deserves to be paid.’”  The words, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain” are from Deuteronomy 25:4, and “The laborer deserves to be paid” is a saying of Jesus found in Luke 10:7.  Soon, not only were the Gospel stories part of the Bible, but also the writings of Paul and others.  (See Ehrman, Hurtado, and Kümmel). And don’t forget, there were other early Christians using other books that are not found in our Bible today.

Obviously, there is no easy answer to the question: What Bible did the early Christians use?  The birth of Christianity was also the birth of new sacred books and the Bible as we have it today that seems to be evolving and changing, with new manuscripts and manuscript fragments and new Bible translations.

In our next article, we will talk a little bit about anti-Semitism in the Bible.