186526 Resource 169992 170084 170084 1192486757631 1192556492152 Controlled Gospel of Judas

'The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says' is published

The Gospel of Judas has been previously discussed on this blog and in <a href="http://www.vision.org/visionmedia/overview.aspx?id=3126">Vision</a>.  Now, Professor April DeConick of Rice University has expressed why she has undertaken to write on the subject and provide a different perspective of Judas, one which harmonises more with the traditional Gospel accounts.  Writing on <a href="http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/2007/10/what-is-different-about-my-translation.html">her blog</a> today, April notes:  <blockquote class="post-body entry-content" dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"><img alt="April de Conick" hspace="10" src="http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d71/gstepp525/gse_multipart18221.jpg" align="left" vspace="10" border="2" />Why did I write this <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thirteenth-Apostle-Gospel-Judas-Really/dp/0826499643/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/002-6329509-4433668?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1192486797&sr=8-2">book?</a> I wrote this book because when I read the Coptic transliteration of the manuscript in April 2006, I realized that Judas was much more a hero in the National Geographic translation than he was in my own translation. As I worked through the Coptic and then sat and studied the text as a whole, I quickly came to see that Judas is not a good guy in this gospel. He is not Jesus' friend or the greatest disciple. I began to wonder why the NG team translated in reference to Judas "daimon" as "spirit" when its most accepted translation is "demon." I wondered why the team chose to say that Judas is "set apart for" the holy generation, when the Coptic actually reads that he is "separated from" the holy generation. And so forth. What does the Coptic really say? The Coptic says that Judas is a demon, that he will be instrumental in bringing about Jesus' sacrifice, that this was the worst thing he could do. Jesus tells Judas that he will not go to the Kingdom, that he is working for the demiurge Ialdabaoth-Nebruel, that he will lament and grieve his terrible fate. Furthermore, the text says that Jesus will tell him the mysteries of the Kingdom not so that he will go there, but so that Judas will lament greatly his actions within the cosmic drama. Judas is separated from the holy generation. He is the thirteenth demon, which means he is to be associated with Ialdabaoth, the "thirteenth" archon or ruler in Sethian Gnosis. Why is my translation different from National Geographic's? What is troubling to me is that the provisional Coptic transliteration which NG put out in April 2006 was not finished, but scholars published translations and interpretations based on it. It contained reconstructions of the Coptic that were erroneous, including the statement that Judas will ascend to the holy generation and that he would be taught the mysteries of the Kingdom because it was possible for him to go there. The Coptic text does NOT say this. It says the opposite, and this has been corrected (thank goodness!) in The Critical Edition that NG put out this last summer. The problem is that now the world thinks that Judas is a Gnostic hero when in fact the Gospel of Judas says nothing of this. In fact, it says the opposite. My translation is of the actual Gospel of Judas.</blockquote>In reaching these conclusions, April places this Gospel squarely in the Sethian tradition.<div class="post-body entry-content" style="CLEAR: both"></div><div class="post-footer"><a class="feed-link" href="http://forbiddengospels.blogspot.com/feeds/2164622991124533103/comments/default" target="_blank" type="application/atom+xml"></a></div> 10 application/xml false Apostles betrayal of Jesus Gnostics Gospel of Judas Jesus Christ Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.0; Avant Browser; Avant Browser; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506; InfoPath.1) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 pnathan false true false false true 188838 false false true false false false true 169992 blog blogsite/FirstFollowers/web