On last Sunday night (9 April), the National Geographic channel in Singapore (and I believe elsewhere in the world) aired a two hour documentary on the "Gospel of Judas", a gnostic text that allegedly gives an account of Jesus’ life from the perspective of Judas.  It is, in other words, an alternative or additional gospel according to Judas.  And in office today, several Christians and I discussed whether what the text says is true.  Is it so unbelievable that Judas may have "betrayed" Jesus on His instructions ?

Without the benefit of having read the entire text, my thoughts are as follows :

1.  Unless the other gospels are to be disbelieved, Judas had committed suicide in shame after betraying Jesus.  Consequently, it is very unlikely that Judas could have written or passed down his "gospel" orally before his death.  The improbability increases if you consider that there are (probably) details in the text that could only have been known to someone who had witnessed what took place first hand, and had the opportunity to record it (or relate it to someone else who later recorded it); but none other than Judas (who committed suicide) or the other eleven disciples (who could not understand the "secret knowledge" and hence could not have written or related the gospel of Judas) were in such a position.  In short, the details in the "gospel" are more likely to be accounts invented by people after the death of Judas, and after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In this connection, some experts have said that the gospel of Judas did not circulate until about 150 years after Jesus died.

2.  The theology in the gospel of Judas is not consistent and is in many ways contradictory to the theology in other parts of the Bible.  The gospel of Judas describes itself as "the secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot" and then goes into the "mysteries of the kingom" (which, I suspect, one would probably still not understand even after reading the "gospel", because only Judas had full understanding of this secret knowledge that leads to salvation).  In contrast, the rest of the Bible does not say that salvation is only for a select few to whom has been granted special knowledge.  It says, instead, that the gospel "is the power of God for the salvation for everyone who believes" (Romans 1 : 16) - nothing secret about that !  Therefore, it is not correct to think of the gospel of Judas as, to use the words of Elaine Pagels, a professor (huh ?) of religion at Princeton University, some "higher level teaching" that is compatible with the rest of the Bible.

3.  The danger of false teachings, as once propogated by the gnostics using gospel of Judas and other gnostic texts, illustrates that while the Christian faith must be personalised, it should not be personal.  Faith must be personalised in the sense that Christians must individually and personally know and understand what their faith is about.  However, faith should not be personal in the sense that one can pick and choose, mix and match, whatever one wants to believe in regardless of how objectively unbelievable it is.  Unfortunately, there are many people who treat faith as something entirely personal (an "it doesn’t matter if it isn’t true for others so long as I personally believe in it" attitude), and who place their trust in teachings that are inconsistent with what the Bible says.

One final note.  The gospel of Judas, as I understand, does not end with the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It ends abruptly - Jesus is betrayed to the pharisees and led away. 

In 1 Corinthians 15 : 12 - 19, the Apostle Paul writes

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.  More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God … And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

With Good Friday and Easter round the corner, I think it would be appropriate to point out that there is little cheer in how the gospel of Judas ends.  Jesus does not die and rise from the dead.  The gospel of Judas offers no certainty of salvation from sin.

But the fact is that the early Christians refused to renounce their faith in Jesus in the face of persecution by the Roman authorities - scorn, suffering, torture and death.  Why ?  It can only be because of the hope of salvation from sin and death, as they saw in the death and resurrection of Christ, and which the true gospels accurately record for believers today.