wrong track. the gospel of judas suggests that church leadership is is mistaken, is more diabolic than divine. so controversial is the gospel of judas that in 180 a.d., the bishop of lyon declares it heresy. i can easily imagine people throwing this text out as being heretical. if you were a member of the orthodoxy in the second century and you read this text, i can imagine you would be pretty upset. it s a pretty scathing indictment of your beliefs, what you re all about. suppressed by the church, the gospel of judas lies buried for nearly two millennia, but history does not forgive judas or forget his fate. (vo) in every trip, there s room for more than just the business you came for. whether that s getting a taste of where you are, or bringing some of that flavor back home.
figure in the text because judas was a notorious figure. he was an attention-getter in antiquity as he is today. anyone who would choose to write a gospel of judas was certainly making a conscious decision to pick a figure whom wasn t accepted by the orthodox church. the judas character in the gospel of judas is not a great deal different from judas as we see him on the pages of the new testament. judas has always been a complicated character. ambiguity around judas and the fascination has always been there. there s no way that the gospel writers would have made up a character in jesus inner circle who would have betrayed jesus. he s not just kind of a mythical person. judas, obviously, is someone who is going through a lot of conflict.
there were people who felt that things had gotten off on the wrong track. the gospel of judas suggests that church leadership is mistaken, is more diabolic than divine. so controversial is the gospel of judas that in 180 a.d., the bishop of lyon declares it heresy. i can easily imagine people throwing this text out as being heretical. if you were a member of the orthodoxy in the second century and you read this text, i can imagine you would be pretty upset. it s a pretty scathing indictment of your beliefs, what you re all about. suppressed by the church, the gospel of judas lies buried for nearly two millennia, but history does not forgive judas or forget his fate.
they don t like that kind of religious service. and they are strongly discouraging people from participating in it. the gospel of judas is a polemic. it s a political smear against the people running the early church. the apostolic church was emerging. the institutional church was emerging. what we know is christianity was emerging. the gospel of judas was kind of a narrative against this institutional christianity. written decades after the new testament gospels, the gospel of judas is less a story about jesus than a condemnation of the leadership of the early church. it gives us an alternate picture of the formation of christianity. it doesn t show christianity as developing necessarily all harmoniously. there were dissenters.
the author of the gospel of judas chose judas as the leading figure in the text because judas was a notorious figure. he was an attention-getter in antiquity as he is today. anyone who would choose to write a gospel of judas was certainly making a conscious decision to pick a figure whom wasn t accepted by the orthodox church. the judas character in the gospel of judas is not a great deal different from judas as we see him on the pages of the new testament. judas has always been a complicated character. ambiguity around judas and the fascination has always been there. there s no way that the gospel writers would have made up a character in jesus inner circle who would have betrayed