The Gospel of Judas

This piece comes by mike Telinger and is inspired by the Gospel of Judas.  What is interesting is that analysis of the text of this Gospel and many other contemporary texts throw up a picture of internally inconsistent material that is difficult to reconcile with the current Gospels.

It is quite as if a milieu of different texts from even different traditions were combed through to create a rational narrative that could be made whole.  It was certainly then edited into the present text.

Our problem is that the excluded portions were largely suppressed for centuries and they are now strange to our eyes. We lack a lot of context. Particularly as we struggle to separate real fact from possible interpolation when it is also clear that the Gospels themselves followed extant traditions that interpolated the living teacher Jesus.

Yet this article introduces the stream of thought in which a clan of gods is assumed and similar ideas that are completely obscured in the edited version of the Gospels.  It becomes clear that the living teacher had taken on the avatar of a living god in the religious movement and had then accreted a number of texts possibly converted over from other traditions in the ensuing centuries. 

We can certainly understand the necessity of suppressing this mass of literature once the church organized itself under Roman management and the texts were edited into a canonical form.

The Gospel or the Truth

The English language has a wonderful way of using unrelated words to represent a specific meaning, when such words are used in our daily conversations. Gospel, is one such word that has commonly replaced most other superlatives when trying to express the highest level of truth, confidence or credibility.

The past few weeks has seen a new attack on the word "gospel" as the world turned with great interest towards the newly unveiled "Gospel of Judas". National Geographic presented the translations to a seemingly stunned world not quite sure how to deal with this "new truth" from the last days of Jesus Christ. This 1700 year old and rather tatty document contains a debate between Jesus and Judas and paints a somewhat different picture about events surrounding the last supper. "Judas said to him, "I know who you are and where you have come from. You are from the immortal realm of Barbelo. And I am not worthy to utter the name of the one who has sent you." This will certainly not please the hardcore biblical scholars and sounds rather similar to the 'clan' of immortal gods that set out to create humankind as described in the Sumerian tablets.

Those that have read "Slave Species of god" will be familiar with the life and teachings of Jesus before he arrived back in Canaan to begin the last three years of his teaching. In the East he was known as St. Issa and in the Americas he was referred to as the "Great White Robed Master" or the "Pale One" or the "Pale Great Master" and other names like "The Prophet".

But Jesus was constantly surrounded by angels, ever-ready to strike in his defense. And he often refers to his angels that can either come to his rescue or perform some other miraculous feat. And the new Gospel is no exception: "And a luminous cloud appeared there. He said, 'Let an angel come into being as my attendant.'… "A great angel, the enlightened divine Self-Generated, emerged from the cloud. Because of him, four other angels came into being from another cloud… (Gospel of Judas. A link to the full Gospel is at the bottom of this email)

The question begs… who were these so-called angels? Why did they constantly appear when there was trouble brewing or when it was about to hit the fan? As in Sodom!

As can be seen, this idea is clearly continued in this new "Gospel of Judas" as Jesus refers to angels appearing out of clouds in the sky. He also refers to a greater universal being that controls all these angels and a being that has not been seen among men and angels. Not dissimilar to what we read in the Sumerian tablets. A really shocking revelation is when Jesus refers to another realm of 'more advanced beings'.

"They said to him, "Master, where did you go and what did you do when you left us?"

Jesus said to them, "I went to another great and holy generation." His disciples said to him, "Lord, what is the great generation that is superior to us and holier than us, that is not now in these realms?" When Jesus heard this, he laughed…no host of angels of the stars will rule over that generation, and no person of mortal birth can associate with it, because that generation does not come from… The generation of people among you is from the generation of humanity…" When his disciples heard this, they each were troubled in spirit."

Then we read about 12 luminaries who ruled, in the same way that all ancient mythologies have exposed us to their pantheon on 12 gods. "Adamas was in the first luminous cloud that no angel has ever seen among all those called 'God.'" Is Jesus referring to a larger number of "gods" that ruled the world?

The problem is that this Gospel, like many others before it has been deemed to be less valuable than the material it was written on. This new Gospel contradicts the New Testament in many ways and has already caused large numbers of religious leaders around the world to discredit it. But we should not be surprised at this behaviour as many so called Apocryphal books have received the same treatment in the early days of Christianity when the New Testament was being compiled by men with personal agendas.

The Apocrypha (hidden things/writings) is a collection of books written mostly by authors of other books of the Bible, but the Apocrypha were not included in any of the Bibles. They deal with Christian and Biblical themes, some from the times of the Old Testament, others from the times of the New Testament. There are many Apocryphal books that were not deemed fit by the 'editors' of the New Testament to be included, mainly because the message they carry is often in direct contradiction to the agenda of the editors, who were Roman Emperors and their appointed religious sidekicks.

This is a list of some Apocrypha, there are over 40 linked to the New Testament:

14 Gospels, by Thomas, James, Peter, Bartholomew; 15 Acts, by Andrew, Peter, Matthew, John, Thomas, Paul... 6 Revelations, by Paul, Thomas, John, Virgin Mary, Stephen, Peter... Acts of John, Acts of Paul, Acts of Paul and Thecla, Acts of Peter, Apocalypse of James (I), Apocalypse of James (II), Apocalypse of Peter, Apocalypse of Philip, Apocalypse of Stephan, Apocalypse of Thomas, Apocryphon of John, Epistle of Pontius Pilate, Gospel of Nicodemus, Gospel of Perfection, Gospel of Philip, Gospel of Peter, Revelation of Peter, Protevangelium of James, Gospel of the Birth of Mary, Gospel of the Hebrews, Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, Gospel of Thomas, Gospel of Truth, History of Joseph, Letter of Paul to the Alexandrians, Testament of the Lord, Wisdom of Jesus.

The real work surrounding these books began with Flavius Valerius Constantinus – 272 - 337 AD, commonly known as Constantine the Great, he became known as the first 'Christian Emperor' of the Roman empire and began the Empire's unofficial sponsoring of Christianity, which was a major factor in the survival and spread of the religion. He founded the city of Constantinople (Istanbul) as the new capital of the Eastern Empire which became the home of Christianity, filled with large numbers of churches and temples. He also proclaimed that Sunday would be the day of worship.

The First Council of Nicaea, which was called by Constantine in 325 AD, was the first ecumenical (worldwide) conference of bishops of the Christian Church. The participating bishops were given free travel and lodging. The council, which was also called a synod, dealt with the problems created by the Aryan controversy, concerning the nature and status of Jesus. The Aryans had their own views of who Jesus really was. We must remember that Jesus spent most of his growing life, since the age of 12 or 13 in the East, under the influence of several eastern religious philosophies and Aryanism was just one of them. Finally the Synod decided against the Aryans and voted in favour of Trinitarianism, which suddenly made Jesus part of the Father and the Holy Spirit. This was a whole new twist to the New Testament and the Holy Trinity was born. Another outcome of the council was an agreement by the bishops of all the Churches, to celebrate Easter on the same day. Is that not a little strange?

These were the wild and wonderful early days of Christianity, when most of its foundations were laid. The editing of the Bible's New Testament began to take shape, but it would take another 800 years before the final version was decided upon. This long process is filled with controversy because many books were omitted while others were amended before they were included. It was during this period that one of the first recorded references to the Catholic Church emerged. This Catholic denomination of Christianity continued to expand into what it has become today. The largest and most powerful wing of the Christian Church.

Food for thought it certainly is. Who were all those angels milling around? Who were the other gods? Where was the other realm with immortal beings? And who was Jesus, that he deserved such constant angelic protection? Once again we find that scientific discoveries seem to fly in the face of mainstream religion and rather support the alternative 'truth' about our history.