was judas mis understoood?
481875
Jesuit scholar says Gospel of Judas does not merit name 'Gospel'\n\nBy Cindy Wooden\nCatholic News Service\n\nROME (CNS) -- The Gospel of Judas was unimportant to most Christians when it was written hundreds of years ago and it is unimportant today, said a Jesuit professor who has convoked a series of ecumenical studies of the historical Jesus. \n\nJesuit Father Gerald O'Collins, a longtime professor of Christology at Rome's Pontifical Gregorian University, said the text, like the gospels of Mary Magdalene and Philip, "does not merit the name 'Gospel.'" \n\nThe National Geographic Society unveiled the document April 6, posting a copy of it on the society's Web site, www.nationalgeographic.com, and releasing English translations of portions of the text.\n\n"A 'Gospel' is a literary genre -- established by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John -- focusing on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus," Father O'Collins said. \n\nWhile including events supposedly related to the life of Jesus, the Gospel of Judas and the others really are texts "attempting to bolster the importance" of the personalities they are named after, not of Jesus, the priest said. \n\n"They are not summaries of the good news," he said.\n\nThe texts come from the gnostic tradition, a religious-philosophical current popular in the second, third and fourth centuries. The gnostics claimed to have secret knowledge unavailable to the vast majority of people and focused so strongly on the spiritual and intellectual that they despised material creation, including the human body. \n\nIn the year 180, St. Irenaeus condemned the gnostics, mentioning particularly a Gospel of Judas.\n\nFather O'Collins said the most important thing about the text released in early April is that "it shows just how right Irenaeus was in saying the gnostics were against mainstream Christianity and Judaism, they were against our God." \n\n"To give Judas greater credit," the Jesuit said, the gnostics "portray Jesus giving him secret knowledge. It was a nice try," but there is no evidence to support the claim.\n\n"It was junk then and it is junk now," he said .\n\nFather O'Collins, who between 1996 and 2003 convoked a series of ecumenical, interdisciplinary summits for scholars on the historical Jesus, said it was "ridiculous" for anyone to claim publication of the Gospel of Judas will challenge mainstream Christianity. \n\nEND
482430
Yes and more than just James the most famous who most likely was the author of the book of James. Below is a conversation between Jesus and His brothers.\nIf you are referring to James Simon and Judas they were His disciples not brothers. This is a different James than His brother. Also there were 2 named Judas but neither were His brothers. Simon was renamed Peter by Jesus.
373847
I found the language of the show to be quite interesting. Fore instance, during the first half of the show, they kept asking the question: "Is it real?" This isn't really what they meant, what they meant was "Is it old?" To me, they were implying that "real" = "true".\n\nThey also did not mention several Gnostic beliefs that would have discredited the movement in many people's eyes. You remember the scene at the last supper when they talked about Jesus laughing because the disciples were worshipping the wrong God, that the God who created the universe was actually an inferior God that was not worthy to be worshipped. What they didn't say was that Gnostics believed that this was the God of the Old Testament, so they ignored the Old Testament.\n\nAnother thing that stuck out to me was the phrase "When Jesus appeared on the Earth." Because they believed that the material world was evil, they had what is known as a Docetic view of Jesus. That is, that Jesus only appeared to be human, because God would have never become human and contaminated himself with the material world.\n\nI strongly agree with the speaker at the end who said that the Gospel of Judas provides valuable historical information about the history of Christianity and the movements within it. It shows us that there was never one single Christianity being practiced.  People have beein arguing about who Jesus was since a few minutes after he died.  With that being said, I do not personally believe it provides a historically accurate picture of the characters of Jesus and Judas.\n\nFinally, they seemed to think the fact that there were many Christianities unique. I have to disagree with that. There are many different versions of the Christian faith today, with different holy texts, etc. The book of Mormon is a prime example.\n\nIf you read the other Gnostic texts, you will find they have a lot in common with the Gospel of Judas.  For instance, both the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Thomas elevate one of the Disciples above the others.  The Gospel of Mary Magdalene does the same thing for Mary.  None of the four canonical gospels does this for their author.\n\nAnother thing that absolutely amazes me is that we have 4 gospels that tell very similar stories.  There are some minor differences in the order of events or the events included, but they are consistant for the most part.  One new gospel is found that offers a different story and many people jump on that and say, "Wow!  This is the real story."  It just doesn't make any sense.
565921
No. Jesus stated very clearly that Judas was the son of perdition and that it would have been better for him to not have been born.\n\n\nJohn 17:12\nWhile I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
304021
The Gospel of Judas was written many many years after the apostles lived and their associates (Timothy and Luke). Where did you get your historical research? \nGive me a break. \n\nThe gnostic gospels are from beliefs that began in the 2nd and 3rd century, which meens that the writings come from a time period more than 100 years after Jesus ministry, far later than any New Testament book. Why in the world should we believe that these later documents tell us more about events than the earlier documents? They are simply not useful for trying to understand Jesus ministry and the shape of very early Christianity. (1)\n\nThe gnostic gospels were late arrivals, which is ONE reason why church leaders rejected them ... they lacked authority since their authors were neither (a) apostles of Jesus nor (b) persons associated with apostles of Jesus... and no one knows who wrote those gnostic gospels. (2)
354507
The "gospel of Judas" is an oxymoron. Gospel means "good news". What is so great about the man who was possessed by Satan, betrayed Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of silver, then hung himself when it was all over????
318897
The gospel of Judas is not credible. Scientists believe it to be the work of gnostics, a mystical early Christian denomination. People in those times did not have the access to the scriptures as we do today. They rarely had more than one or two books of the Bible at one time, so they often did not know what the other parts said. Gnostics often wrote stories of the way they thought things might be. The gospel of Judas is a philosophical conjecture, not scripture. It was also written at least 100 years after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - the 4 gospels present in the Bible that tell of Judas's betrayal.\nAlso, because "gospel" means "good news", and the good news is that Jesus died for our sins, the text would have to include the crucifixion and resurrection to be classified as a gospel. The gospel of Judas tells of neither. \n\nThe gospel of Judas has indeed been authenticated - that means that it is indeed as old as it seems. It does not mean that it is a work of scripture. If you want to back up what I have said, go to the link for the National Geographic Channel and either watch for the next show date of their special, or order the video. You can also read the text at this site.
734592
"For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." \n\nMark 14:21 \n\nDoes that really sound like someone you want for a role model?  The gospel of Judas was excluded from the Bible for good reason; it was not the inspired Word of God, and is therefore heresy.  The Bible clearly warns against this.\n\n"I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;"\n\nRevelation 22:18
902780
Ok, not to sound cliche, but remember the musical Jesus Christ Superstar?  Remember in the title song Judas sings "Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication!..."  It's not like they could see his pic in the newspaper, or online.  It was dark, and even with a full moon there were lots of olive trees around, casting shade on whatever light may have been around, so they still wouldn't have seen him.  \n\nPlus, it's not like the Roman army got off days to go listen to Jesus.  Jesus and the Jews were a threat to Roman culture and power, and it was forbidden to be a soldier and a follower of Christ or Judaism.
475472
the gospel of judas was written in 300 ad in egypt, it a gnostic gospel , judas had nothing to do with writing this gospel. the gnostics also wrote other gospels like nathans stevens and marys among others, gnostics could be compared to new age believers today who think knowledge is the ultimate goal of humanity. theyve turned satan, in the garden of eden, into good character , now you want me to believe a gospel from the gnostics about judas is true when they believe satan is a good guy because of his knowledge .. come on
932754
If this is a reference to the Gospel of Judas, which reads that Judas and Jesus had worked it all out that Judas would turn Jesus in to the Romans in order to facilitate his death and sacrifice, then yes, Judas was shafted by the councils that decided what Christian canon would be.
1021304
It hasn't been quite that long - he died 35 C.E or some year near and it is now 2006. But yes - that is an awfully long time considering many of the early believers are recorded to have thought his return was imminent. Matthew 24 also suggests that his generation would not pass away until the tribulation and his return. Certainly does seem like he missed his appointment, but maybe something about all this is misunderstood - i.e., his words or the expectation of this itself. To me that is good evidence supporting he actually did ressurect, because no one would resonably expect him to return again if they didn't see him return once already.\n\nMany Chrisitians want not only every word of the Bible (which has been translated and rewritten by people with different theologies many times) to be right, but it to fit their interpretation of it. So they come up with scenarios to make it all fit in their minds rather than ponder the difficult questions and admit there are some things few if any of us know.
527179
Simple Answer:\n\nHe never fouled up. The Bible distinctly say He was God and perfect and therefore incapable of screwing up.\n\nBut from my own human perspective His biggest mistake would have to be allowing judas iscariot to betray Him. If He stopped him then they never would have captured Jesus...He never would have been crucified...and we would all still be in our sins separated from God and all going to hell and deserving it because humanity is the biggest pool of refuse that could ever have been concocted. \n\nBut...as it turns out God is a lot more merciful and loving than I am and decided to die for us so that we could live with Him forever and fulfill our purpose...Good thing too, if it were up to me we'd all be burning...\n\nhope this helps.
448282
There's a difference between God determining somebody's choices for them, and knowing what choices that person is going to make.\n\nJesus knew that Judas would betray him, just as Jesus knew that Peter would deny him three times.  Ultimately, it was still a choice of Judas to betray Jesus- even if Jesus knew beforehand that he was going to do it.
398012
yes\n\nthe gospel of Judas is false doctrine, written by gnostics in 300 AD... \n\ndont just accept what dan brown says people
598618
Because prophecy had to be fulfilled and Judas was the one to betray Christ!
889490
judas iscariot!!! the betrayer!!