[Mb-hair] The Gospel Truth By ELAINE PAGELS

[Michael Butler]

The New York Times
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April 8, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
The Gospel Truth
By ELAINE PAGELS

The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with
Judas Iscariot during a week three days before he celebrated Passover. ...
Jesus said to him, "Step away from the others and I shall tell you the
mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will
grieve a great deal."
‹ The Gospel of Judas

THE Gospel of Judas, which remained virtually unknown to us from the time it
was written 1,700 years ago until its publication this week, says that when
Judas Iscariot handed Jesus over to the Romans, he was acting on orders from
Jesus to carry out a sacred mystery for the sake of human salvation: "Jesus
said to Judas, 'Look, you have been told everything. You will exceed all of
them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.' "

For nearly 2,000 years, most people assumed that the only sources of
tradition about Jesus and his disciples were the four gospels in the New
Testament. But the unexpected discovery at Nag Hammadi in 1945 of more than
50 ancient Christian texts proved what church fathers said long ago: that
Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are only a small selection of gospels from
among the dozens that circulated among early Christian groups. But now the
Gospel of Judas ‹ like the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary Magdalene
and many others ‹ opens up new perspectives on familiar gospel stories.

Many scholars who first read these gospels had been taught that they were
"heretical," which meant they were the wrong gospels. When I was introduced
to them as a student, we called them "Gnostic" gospels, the name given to
them nearly 2,000 years ago by Irenaeus, one of the fathers of the church,
who denounced them as false and "heretical."

Yet those early Christians who loved and revered such texts did not think of
themselves as heretics, but as Christians who had received not only what
Jesus preached publicly, but also what he taught his disciples when they
were talking privately. Many regarded these secret gospels not as radical
alternatives to the New Testament Gospels, but as advanced-level teaching
for those who had already received Jesus' basic message. Even the Gospel of
Mark tells us that Jesus explained things to certain disciples in private,
entrusting to them alone "the mystery of the Kingdom of God."

If so, Jesus would have been doing what many other rabbis did then, and most
teachers do today. Many of the gospels not included in the New Testament
claim to offer secret teaching: Thus the Gospel of Thomas opens, "These are
the secret words which the living Jesus spoke, and Didymus Judas Thomas
wrote them down." The Gospel of Mary Magdalene reveals what Jesus showed
Mary in a vision, and the Gospel of Judas claims to offer a spiritual
mystery entrusted to Judas alone.

Irenaeus, however, insisted that Jesus did not teach any of his disciples
secretly; such secret revelations, he said, were all illegitimate, and those
who revered them heretics. Knowing many such gospels circulated among early
Christian groups, Irenaeus wrote that "the heretics say that they have more
gospels than there actually are; but really, they have no gospel that is not
full of blasphemy."

Many of these secret writings, however, were still read and revered by
Christians 200 years later when Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria, an admirer
of Irenaeus, wrote an Easter letter to Christians in Egypt. He ordered them
to reject what he called those "secret, illegitimate books" and keep only 27
approved ones. The 27 he named constitute the earliest known list of the New
Testament canon, which Athanasius intended above all to be a guideline for
books to be read publicly in church. The New Testament Gospels, which
contain much that Jesus taught in public, were the most obvious books to put
on that list. The secret books, which contained paradox and mystery akin to
the mystical teachings of kabbalah, were not considered suitable for
beginners.

What in the Gospel of Judas, published this week by the National Geographic
Society (disclosure: I was a consultant on the project), goes back to Jesus'
actual teaching, and how would we know? And what else was there in the early
Christian movement that we had not known before? These are some of the
difficult questions that the discoveries raise for us ‹ issues that
historians are already debating. What is clear is that the Gospel of Judas
has joined the other spectacular discoveries that are exploding the myth of
a monolithic Christianity and showing how diverse and fascinating the early
Christian movement really was.

Startling as the Gospel of Judas sounds, it amplifies hints we have long
read in the Gospels of Mark and John that Jesus knew and even instigated the
events of his passion, seeing them as part of a divine plan. Those of us who
go to church may find our Easter reflections more mysterious than ever.

Elaine Pagels, the author of "The Gnostic Gospels" and "Beyond Belief: The
Secret Gospel of Thomas," is a professor of religion at Princeton.

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