Church: "Gospel of Judas" should not affect the faithful

The controversial Gospel of Judas, a text in an early Christian manuscript that has drawn a new picture of the disciple who betrayed Jesus Christ, does not have the blessing of the Church and should not affect Catholics' centuries-old faith, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) said yesterday.

CBCP spokesman Monsignor Pedro Quitorio said the 26-page Judas text in Coptic that was reportedly discovered in the desert of Egypt was among the books considered by Vatican as "apocryphal, meaning probably not true but widely believed to be true."

"The gospel of Judas was an old issue. It was among those books which Fathers of the Church in the first 100 years had found to be not inspired by the Holy Spirit," explained Quitorio in an interview with The STAR.

The priest explained that a century after Christ's death, leaders of the Church examined and assessed books about Jesus to determine which ones had the "Blessing of the Holy Spirit." "As a result, it was found that only four Christian Gospels were found to be real and blessed. These were the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John," said Quitorio.

Quitorio said the four books were recognized by the Church after it was found that they were written by the disciples themselves. "They were written immediately after Jesus Christ died unlike Gospel of Judas which was written by an anonymous author after 200 years."

But the CBCP official stressed that not all the apocryphal books were denied as some were used for catechism. He specifically cited the Epistle of James, which "had accounts of the father of Mary." According to reports, the Gospel of Judas gives new insights into the relationship of Jesus and the disciple who betrayed him. In this version, Jesus asked Judas, as a close friend, to sell him out to the authorities, telling Judas he will "exceed" the other disciples by doing so. Though some theologians have long hypothesized on this, scholars who have studied the newfound text said this is the first time an ancient document defends Judas' betrayal of Christ, according to a report from New York Times dated April 6, 2006.

The National Geographic Society at a news conference in Washington announced the discovery in the desert of Egypt of the leather-bound papyrus manuscript and now its translation. The 26-page Judas text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made around A. D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, written in Greek the century before.

It was believed that the manuscript or codex could be the most significant ancient, non-biblical text to be found in the past 60 years.

The most revealing passage in the Judas manuscript begins, "The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot during a week, three days before he celebrated Passover."

The account goes on to relate that Jesus refers to the other disciples, telling Judas "you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."

By that, scholars familiar with Gnostic thinking said, Jesus meant that by helping him get rid of his physical flesh, Judas will act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus. Unlike the accounts in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the anonymous author of the Gospel of Judas believed that Judas Iscariot alone among the 12 disciples understood the meaning of Jesus' teachings and acceded to his will.

In the diversity of early Christian thought, a group known as Gnostics believed in a secret knowledge of how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm from which they came.