The Burr in the Burgh

Darrell at The Southern Conservative posts his views after seeing the television special about this Gospel of Judas. I agree with Darrell that Christians ought to read - or at least become familiar with - some of these ancient gnostic texts. Not because they have any spiritual value but because of their historical importance.

In our time, when people are eager to reject established sources of authority, when victimization is in vogue, when minds are unusually open to conspiracy thinking, Christian people must know more about the origins of Christianity and the development of the Biblical cannon. If pastors, scholars and especially average lay people do not become more conversant with these issues, then crap writers like Dan Brown and historical revisionists will carry the hour. And practically speaking, that could equal souls lost.

Dr. Elaine Pagels of Princeton University has been asserting for decades that there were numerous competing theologies in the early period of the Jesus movement. And through political machinations, the so-called orthodox party managed to suppress its competitors, including Gnosticism. And ever since then, the church has been tyrannized by Dead White European Males, the dreaded D.W.E.M.S. Or so the theory goes.

Dr. Albert Mohler offers this very lucid treatment to help us know fact from hype. But let's be clear here. NO ONE is saying that this newly translated text was actually written by Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus. NO ONE is even saying it comes from the apostolic era.

Apparently, there is some reference to the Gospel of Judas in Irenaeus which would put it from the late second century. These gnostic texts all seem to date from the late 2nd or 3rd century. And while some of these texts may have circulated quite a bit, none of them enjoyed anything close to a widespread reception from ancient congregations.

In order for a book to have been welcomed as Scripture in ancient Christian communities, it had to have bona fide apostolic origin. In other words, was it TRULY written by an apostle or a close associate of the apostles? That was the fundamental criterion for the reception of a letter or text. Those pseudapigraphic texts like the Gospels of Thomas or Judas simply did not meet the test.