The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic text discovered in the 1970s and first translated and published in 2006. Unlike the canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the Gospel of Judas presents an alternative view of Jesus, his disciples, and Judas Iscariot's role in the events leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. This text is particularly significant because it challenges traditional Christian perspectives on Judas, portraying him not as a traitor but as a favored disciple who understood Jesus's divine mission in a way the others did not. The Gospel of Judas reflects a distinct theological worldview, likely associated with a Gnostic sect known as the Sethians. The Gospel of Judas is believed to have been written in the second century CE, likely in Greek, and later translated into Coptic. It is thought to have been composed by a group of early Christians

who were influenced by Gnostic thought, and though whilst it is not a narrative gospel in the style of the canonical Gospels but rather a series of dialogues between Jesus and his disciples, culminating in a unique interaction between Jesus and Judas. The Gospel of Judas is deeply rooted in Gnostic cosmology, which views the material world as a creation of lesser, ignorant deities rather than the work of a benevolent Supreme God. Gnosticism emphasizes hidden knowledge (or gnosis) as the path to salvation. According to this worldview, the physical realm, including the human body, is a prison for the divine spark or soul. True salvation comes from transcending this material reality and reuniting with the divine source. In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus is depicted as a revealer of secret knowledge. He teaches his disciples about the nature of God, the cosmos, and the path to spiritual liberation. The text criticizes the other

disciples for their lack of understanding and portrays them as adhering to false teachings. In contrast to the canonical Gospels, where Judas is the betrayer who hands Jesus over to the authorities for thirty pieces of silver, the Gospel of Judas presents Judas as the only disciple who truly understands Jesus. In this text, Judas is depicted not as a villain but as a favoured disciple chosen by Jesus to carry out a crucial, albeit difficult, task of essentially betraying him. First, we see that Jesus observes his disciples' beliefs, traditions, and prayers and begins to laugh at them. When they ask him what he’s laughing at, Jesus answers them, saying, “I’m not laughing at you. You’re not doing this because you want to, but because through this your God [will be] praised.” Similar to the Gospel of Thomas, Jesus finds humour in his disciples’ efforts to be pious.

and moral, and he actually calls them out for it, for he knows they (like many others) are not praying for the goodness of others or to honor God, but only for themselves. Furthermore, Jesus seems to alienate himself from them - or at least, from the idea that he is the son of God, for he refers to his disciples’ God as ‘your God’ - suggesting that the disciples aren’t even praying to the right God anyway. This confuses the disciples, as they attempt to confirm, ‘Master, you [...] are the Son of our God!’ And Jesus replies, ‘How do [you] know me? Truly [I] say to you, no generation of the people among you will know me.” Again, Jesus continues to distance himself from his disciples. He questions not only their faith, but also their intelligence and their intentions. The disciples get quite riled up about this because as far as they’re concerned, they do know

Jesus - in fact, they’re under the notion that no one knows Jesus as well as they might do. There is an inclination by the original authors here that the disciples weren’t even brave enough to know Jesus entirely…. All except for Judas Iscariot, who even still, could not look Jesus in the eye. Judas said to Jesus here, “I know who you are and where you’ve come from. You’ve come from the immortal realm of Barbelo, and I’m not worthy to utter the name of the one who’s sent you.” Now, according to gnostic beliefs, this ‘Barbelo’ is actually something of a primordial goddess, and sometimes the very first emanation of God. Her name is used frequently across gnostic cosmogony and biblical mythology, and she is believed to live above the ‘eighth heaven’ - where she is described in the gnostic Apocryphon of John as ‘the womb of everything’. Additionally,

she was also believed in gnostic mythology to be the mother of the god Yaldabaoth, who took possession of the world as we know it and decreed himself as the one true God. In other belief systems, including Sethian and Ophite traditions, Yaldabaoth (sometimes recognized as Yahweh) is regarded as the malevolent ‘false god’ of the Old Testament. But here in the Gospel of Judas, Judas recognizes Jesus as coming from the realm of Barbelo - suggesting that Jesus had come from the primordial mother (who is sometimes androgynous), and that Judas knew he was not worthy to even say the name of Barbelo - or whoever had sent Jesus from that realm. This then gets Judas thinking about the hierarchy of the divine and possibly had him considering whether it was God who was the most powerful or whether it was Barbelo - or

someone else from these mysterious realms. But before Judas can get carried away with his thoughts, Jesus stops him in his tracks and takes him away from the other disciples, so as to impart on him exclusive knowledge for his ears only. Unfortunately, a lot of the text in this section is fragmented and so, a complete understanding of exactly what Jesus is saying is hard to establish. Furthermore, the gnostic nature of Jesus’ words also throws it into the realm of ambiguity, yet, we are given some rather powerful imagery and some concepts and notions that are far removed from the canonical bible and the accounts by the four accepted apostles. We are told of the spirit of the body, which lives within the prison of the body and that upon the mortal death, it is the spirit that will be taken up to the heavens, where it has the potential to live forever. There is also the ‘spiritual house’ or the ‘kingdom of heaven’,

of which Jesus allows Judas to glimpse. However, much to his disappointment, Judas is told that this place (wonderful as it was) was reserved for the holy and that no mortal person could ever set foot here. It begs the question as to why Jesus even showed Judas this place if he wasn’t allowed to enter it, but perhaps it might be said that he wanted to show Judas the true scope of how things were in the spiritual realm. After this, we are told that Jesus revealed everything to Judas, as the text descends into even more metaphysical ambiguity. We learn that there is a great, boundless realm whose horizons no angelic generation has ever seen - a realm where there exists a great invisible Spirit, also of which no one has ever seen and no one has ever comprehended. Furthermore, this Spirit has no name, but it appears in the form

of a luminous cloud before Judas, and he - the Spirit - creates a great angel to attend him. We learn here of the ‘Self-Begotten’ - a deity of sorts that takes on an omnipotent form. The ‘Self-Begotten’ may be seen as a god who created the very first realm, as he is seen to bring a realm into being - a realm he populates with several angels. In the text, he is also seen to create the ‘luminous realm’, which is also created alongside several other ‘realms of light’. We are told in the text that he made these realms to be ruled and, once more, created for these realms myriads of angels without number to assist them. So, it would seem that in this part of the text, we get even more exposition as to what happened in the beginning of creation - that there were two principal angels named Yaldabaoth and Saklas who each created six angels that presided over heaven.

Jesus then proceeds to go on a bit of a tirade about the angel Saklas and how when the angel’s lifespan has come to an end, then the generations will do terrible things in Jesus’ name - including sleeping around, murdering their children, and committing human sacrifices. Many will come to serve Saklas and do terrible things, but they will also continue to use Jesus as a scapegoat in an effort to continue sinning. Judas does not question this further and instead decides to ask about those who have been baptized in his name, for surely they would be spared from being destroyed, would they not? Jesus tells him that the baptism that has been received in his name is actually kinda counter-productive and that tomorrow, ‘they’ (possibly the Romans) will torture anyone who bears his name. He goes on to say that no hand of a mortal human will ever fall upon him, perhaps reminding Judas here that just because his mortal

body will come to an end; his spirit will not, and thus cannot be harmed because of who he is. He continues that Judas will do more than anyone because he will become the person who sacrifices Jesus - the mortal vessel of Jesus, anyway, allowing him to return to heaven in his spirit form. Put simply, he tells Judas that though it’s a huge burden for him and that he’ll be remembered as a traitor forever and ever, he’s actually doing Jesus a favor here by enabling his spirit to become free. ‘You’ll do more than all of them,’ he tells Judas. ‘Because you’ll sacrifice the human who bears me.’ Following this, Judas looks up and sees a luminous cloud, which he proceeds to enter. Unfortunately, it’s not clear what Judas sees or experiences here because the text is once again broken. What we do know is that after this,

Judas didn’t see Jesus anymore, and this was the last time the two were alone together. One of the most important aspects of the Gospel of Judas is its critique of what would become orthodox Christianity. As we can see, the text is highly critical of the other apostles and their lack of spiritual insight. With Jesus laughing at his disciples, it suggests that their practices and beliefs are misguided and ignorant of the true nature of life as we know it. Mainstream Christian practices—such as communal worship, sacrifice, and the adherence to certain doctrines—are fundamentally shown here to be flawed and misaligned with the spiritual teachings imparted by the Gospel of Judas. We see Jesus condemn the sacrifices made by the disciples as being to false gods and suggests that true sacrifice involves transcending the material body - something the disciples prove to be ignorant about. This perspective aligns with Gnostic disdain for the material world and institutionalized religion.

which is quite the contrast with the more physical interpretations of sacrifice found in more typical Christian traditions. The key takeaway from the Gospel of Judas, and one that re-illustrates Judas as more of a hero than a villain, is Jesus's prophecy about Judas's role in the divine plan. Jesus tells Judas that he will be cursed by future generations for his involvement in his apprehension by the Romans, but in truth, it is believed by Jesus here that he will exceed all of the other disciples. This prediction underlines the gospel's counter-narrative: where Judas's actions are misunderstood by those without gnosis (or knowledge), but that he is, in fact, serving a higher purpose. As always guys, if you’ve enjoyed today’s episode, then don’t forget to give this video a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe for more content just like this! Until next time!

Was Judas Really The Hero? | An Abridged Guide To The Gospel of Judas | Gnosticism

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