The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed [Hardcover]

Bart Ehrman's The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot is a one-stop survey of every facet of the headline-making find: It's discovery, authentication, content, and significance. I wondered a little whether Ehrman would be able to keep it interesting: once you get past the initial glitter, there's a fact which Ehrman has commented on in his other works, that ancient gnosticism was pretty weird and hard for the average person to maintain a deep interest in. However, Ehrman handles it all as skillfully as I've come to expect from his previous works, such as Misquoting Jesus and Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millenium.

One thing I didn't expect was seeing Ehrman's skill at narrative. The opening chapter gives a first-person account of Ehrman's intial encounter with the Gospel of Judas when he was called in to help authenticate it. It reads like The Da Vinci Code. Particularly memorable was a passage where one of the experts was asked who could have forged a document like the one thay had. Response: four, "And two of them are in this room." If I were Ehrman's editor, after reading this, I would be pressuring him to try his hand at writing a historical novel on the early years of Christianity.

After explaining how it eventually was authenticated, Ehrman goes into a discussion of how Judas is portrayed in various documents through the middle ages, showing that a Gospel of Judas would be necessarily unique by putting Judas in a positive light. Then come an explanation of how known literature had hinted at the book's existence, and after that is a summary of how the book came, from the sands of Egypt, through the hands of scheming antiques dealers who caused heavy damage to the manuscript, up to its final destination in a place where it could be sudied by scholars. Following this is a discussion of the gospels context that places it in the context of the countless strange varieties of Christianity that existed in the ancient world--these varities of Christianity being one of Ehrman's specialties.

Perhaps the best part of the book, however, are the final three chapters (before the conclusion). These deal with the question that is the real source of interest in the Gospel of Judas: who was Judas, and why did he betray Jesus? This involves a delve into the apocalyptic nature of Jesus' ministry, a conclusion defended in part by the observation that it is necessary to make sense of Jesus' death. It also includes a skillful reading between the lines regarding how Judas betrayed Jesus, though I won't spoil that bit here.

Once again, Bart Ehrman has shown himself to be a first-rate popularizer of Biblical scholarship. If there's anything to complain about, is that some things were not covered in as much depth as they could have been, in part a result of the wide range of topics covered in the book. It's hard to argue for cutting anything, though, and other resources are available for those who want to read about this issues in greater depth. It's a good buy for anyone interested in Biblical scholarship.

As Ehrman notes, it's hardly necessary to introduce Judas Iscariot to readers. The many allusions to betrayal or deception: the kiss, the "thirty pieces of silver", the "one among you" reference are scattered throughout our literature, politics and daily circumstances. Even the fratricide of Cain receives less attention. However, a long-lost text providing an alternate view of this man, known to scholars but never seen in its original form, is likely to change all that. Ehrman, who was among the first to study the remants of it after it was found in Eygpt over thirty years ago, here provides an analysis of its contents. In a well-written account, he traces the document's history as known, and what it might mean for Christianity.

Judas, Ehrman notes, is portrayed in various ways in the "Synoptic Gospels", the accounts of Jesus that are the standard fare of Christian teachings. They range from a man driven by greed to an instrument of Satan. "The Gospel of Judas", originally written at about the same time as those stock accounts, depicts somebody else altogether. Not written by Judas, the writer tells the story of a man specially favoured by the teacher. According to the text, Judas was the one among "the Twelve" who actually "got" the message. Instead of "betraying" the teacher, Judas is actually given the task of freeing him from the "man who clothes me". Jesus, then, is but a spirit occupying a human body. Judas thus becomes the first Christian.

The foundation of this shift of role lies in a religious philosophy known as "Gnosticism". Although much debate has raged around the term as well as its tenets, its underlying thesis is that the material world is inherently evil, created by corrupt gods. The god revered by the Jews and transferred to Christianity is a false deity. Ehrman launches into a discussion of Gnostic Christianity, beginning with its complex creation myth with a pantheon of gods. There are ranks and hierarchies of them, some good and some bad, but all residing under a superior Great Invisible Spirit. The point of his presentation is to indicate that a minority of humans enjoy the potential to join with the greatest of these gods. Those are the "knowing" [Greek "gnosis"] of which Jesus is one and who "recruits" Judas to be another. Judas' assignment to "betray" Jesus to the authorities in order to restore him to the spirit realm, sets Judas apart from the other Apostles. They naturally resent this situation, but aren't "knowing" enough to change it. Ehrman reminds us that all the Apostles but Judas abandoned Jesus at the arrival of the arresting officers.

Gnosticism isn't for those seeking simple answers. It required the "knowing" to take a stance in direct contradiction to those accepting the Jewish god as paramount. Jesus does not make demands of his followers. Indeed, it's fundamental to Gnosticism that each individual find the route into the realm of the divine on their own. Over time, that would lead to clashes with those who sought a more hierarchical church system - the "proto-orthodox" who were later vindicated by Constantine. The early "Church Fathers" railed against Gnostic ideas - in fact, it is their writings that preserved the thoughts of the Gnostics in ranting against their ideas. Once in ascendency, the "orthodox" saw to it that Gnostic texts were destroyed. The Gospel of Judas, Ehrman reminds us, was known chiefly by a reference to it in the works of Irenaeus in his polemics against "heresies".

To Ehrman, The Gospel of Judas' importance lies in what it can contribute to our understanding of the early forms of Christianity - "Christianities". He leaves unaddressed the inevitable comparison with the doctrine of the Trinity, an issue that has split the faith numerous times. In fact, beyond describing how the Gnostics viewed their spirit realm, he avoids theological discussion. His aim here is to describe the history and words given in the newly found Gospel and put them in perspective. He does a fine job of that in language that must keep his students enthralled. It is a engrossing account at many levels, and deserves your close attention. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Bart D. Ehrman has, as so often happens, outdone himself. He has in his previous works consistently challenged long (often devoutly) held assumptions with indisputable facts, and this book is no different. Here he points to the differences between the various canonical gospel accounts in search of the facts beneath the theological agendas of their authors. In this short but brilliant work he more than fulfills the promise of his brief essay in "The Gospel of Judas," published earlier this year by the National Geographic Society in support of their televised special. Within this slender volume he discusses the popular image of Judas Iscariot, discussing popular misconceptions while directing the reader to the very slender evidence available to us. Like Mary Magdalene, Judas Iscariot barely appears in the canonical gospels but the stories about him have grown all out of proportion over the centuries. Professor Ehrman, who is well aware of the distorting influence of books like "The DaVinci Code" examines each of these New Testament accounts, pointing to their differences as well as to the ways in which the accounts built upon each other from Mark to Matthew and Luke, and to Acts and John, before arriving at the story told in the Gospel of Judas itself. Included is a discussion of Gnosticism and the place of Judas' gospel within the framework of Gnostic religion and early Christian thought. Just as interesting is the account of the gospel's recovery, preservation and translation. This book belongs on the bookshelf of everyone interested in the origins and history of Christianity.