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- By Parinda News Bureau, April 07, 2006, 17:25 IST
New York: Judas did not Betray Jesus!
The Gospel of Judas, a manuscript in coptic, estimated to be written 300 years after the Crucifixion and translated from the Greek original written 100 years before that, has surfaced after 1700 years. It lets you see Judas in a new light.
According to an article by John Noble Wilford, Laurie Goodstein, in San Francisco Chronicle, the account of events leading to the Crucifixion differs sharply from the four Gospels in the New Testament.
Jesus is said to entrust Judas with special knowledge and ask him to betray him to the Roman authorities. By doing so, he tells Judas, "you will exceed" the other disciples.
Though some theologians have hypothesized the "good Judas" before, scholars who have translated and studied the text said this was the first time an ancient document lent support to a revised image of the man whose name in history has been synonymous with treachery.
Scholars say the release of the document will set off years of study and debate.
The scholars do agree that the manuscript is genuine but they question the relevance of this document 1700 years after it was written. While some scholars say that this Gospel sheds new light on the relationship between Jesus and Judas some others believe the text is merely one more scripture produced by a marginalized Christian cult of Gnostics, who lived so many years after Jesus' day that they could not possibly produce anything accurate about his life.
For these reasons, the discoveries are expected to intrigue theologians and historians of religion and perhaps be deeply troubling to some church leaders and lay believers.
The Church has, of course, described this version as blasphemy.
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