Easter Thoughts on The Gospel of Judas

Searching the internet this morning for information on gnosticism and The Gospel of Judas, I happened on an article in The Washington Times called, Judas Stars as 'Anti-Hero' in Gospel. So much for my original insights, huh. Here's a passage from the article:

Judas is given star billing in this account as Jesus' chief confidant among the disciples, contrary to the portrayals in the four canonical Gospels.
    "Judas is presented as the one to whom everything is told," said Gregor Wurst, a German scholar who helped translate the document. "Judas was an anti-hero."
    It claims that Jesus and Judas planned Jesus' Crucifixion so that the death of Christ's weak, earthly body could release His spirit to enjoy the glories of heaven.
    Near the end of the Judas gospel, Jesus tells Judas he will "exceed" the rest of the disciples "for you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."
    This concept comes from gnosticism, a doctrine that believes salvation comes not by Jesus' death and Resurrection, but through secret knowledge imparted by Him to select individuals.

Samael Aun Weor teaches that The Gospel of Judas is allegorical, like all of the other gospels, and that "...Judas, as a symbol of the ego, must die. Only in this way can the Savior be resurrected." He says that, "Each apostle of Jesus represents specific qualities of our own inner divinity." And further:

Judas symbolizes a very specific aspect of the consciousness. To comprehend Judas in his full symbolic depth requires Meditation. The Intellect is simply too shallow and redundant to grasp the full impact of any spiritual truth, and Judas, who on the surface appears diabolic, escapes easy definition.

The story of Judas and the manner in which humanity perceives him is closely related to that of Lucifer. As with many of the most profound aspects of the Christian doctrine, the stories of Judas and Lucifer were edited, corrupted and eventually despised. But it was not always so. In the early days of the Christian Faith, when the doctrine was more intact, both Judas and Lucifer represented critical aspects of the Christian doctrine. This is easily demonstrated even today: simply look into any church history, and you will find many of the early church fathers bearing the name Lucifer. It is said that even one of the early popes carried that name.

I can see why this new perspective of Judas would be threatening to the mainstream church (American civil religion), which depends on "the flock's" belief in and obedience to the teachings of the patriarchal church, including the division of heaven and hell, God and the devil, man and god, 'good' and 'evil' to maintain societal control." Gnosticism is quite different in that..."[I]n a religious context, to be 'Gnostic' should be understood as being reliant not on knowledge in a general sense, but as being specially receptive to mystical or esoteric experiences of direct participation with the divine. Indeed, in most Gnostic systems the sufficient cause of salvation is this 'knowledge of' ('acquaintance with') the divine. This is commonly identified with a process of inward 'knowing' or self-exploration."

The Gospel of Judas thus confirms the fundamental difference between the tradition from the disciples and the Gnostic tradition. The disciples saw Jesus as the promised Messiah, i.e. Christ and called themselves Christians. The Gnostics had another god than "their god". It is thus not correct to see The Gospel of Judas as a Christian gospel. It is rather a text written against the Christians, in which Jesus is made a Gnostic teacher believing in another god than the Jewish god. It wants the reader to believe that there is only one witness who is telling the truth while the other witnesses even failed to see that Jesus was against "their god".

I will be interested to see how The Gospel of Judas will be absorbed into our culture. Most "radicalism" is tolerated, given just enough air time to make it seem acceptable, absorbing it, then making it mainstream or "cool", transfering it as slogans on a t-shirt and rendering it benign.

How does all of this relate to our world today? We are anesthesized. Granny D believes that, "If we Americans are split into two meaningful camps, it is not the conservative versus the liberal, it is the politically awake and the hypnotized." She says,

"If you believe that human beings, in addition to all their other instincts, want to help create and live in a happy, creative and cooperative world, then you must believe that people are to be trusted in their politics so long as they are encouraged to study everyone's experience and study the competing points of view -- and so long as they are raised with enough love and security to be capable of empathy. We need not force a liberal agenda on our society, any more than we need force our political opinions on our children. We can enjoy life instead of banging our heads against the old walls. If we encourage an awake thoughtfulness, democracy and justice will have all the victories our hearts can handle."

And here, in contrast, is a quote from of our beloved law-breaking division-creating government official, Tom Delay:

"Sides are being chosen, and the future of man hangs in the balance!" he warned. "The enemies of virtue may be on the march, but they have not won and if we put our trust in Christ they never will. ...It is for us then to do as our heroes have always done and put our faith in the perfect redeeming love of Jesus Christ."

Shall we maintain the status quo, which seems to consist of our complicit agreement with politics that ensure infinite war and ultimate annihilation of the world and ourselves? Would Tom Delay consider me an enemy of virtue? Probably. I hardly think the politicians in power would approve of The Gospel of Judas, but probably not consider it, or us the people, as a threat to their ultimate agenda.

Evangelical Christians will probably have little interest in this gospel. They may be aware that there were many dozens of gospels circulating within the early Christian movement of which only four were found to be legitimate, inspired by God and inerrant. These are the canonical gospels: Mark, Matthew, Luke and John...

Liberal Christians will probably have a great deal of interest in the gospel. It demonstrates the wide diversity of beliefs held by the various groups within the diverse early Christian movement.