The Gospel of Judas

One of the first blogs that I ever read was Captain’s Quarters, run by Captain Ed (Ed Morrissey). He’s a brilliant and insightful writer and is deservedly at the top of the blogosphere. I have never seen him write much on religion, and that’s okay — all bloggers have their area of passion. But his post today, Dionne on the Gospel of Judas, shows a side of Captain Ed that I never knew existed.

For those who haven’t heard or (like me) have been ignoring the hype, the Gospel of Judas is a codex, or ancient book, discovered in Egypt in the 1970s. This actual book found is a copy written in the fourth century, but the Gospel of Judas is known to have been written before 180 AD because of early references to it. National Geographic undertook a 5-year Herculean effort to restore and translate the badly deteriorated book. You can even see the pages for yourself online. The translation into English of the Gospel of Judas, plus two books and a DVD, are being released by National Geographic this Easter weekend.

The Gospel of Judas begins with the words, “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot…” and the message of the book is that Judas was privy to secret knowledge that Jesus withheld from the other disciples. In the Gospel of Judas, Judas is cast as the hero who truly understands the message of Jesus and his mission on earth. The other disciples did not completely comprehend Jesus and his mission. The book claims that Jesus asked Judas to betray him, in order that his mission on earth might be fulfilled, but warns Judas that “he will be cursed” because of his obedience to him.

“Secret knowledge is at the heart of the heresy known as Gnosticism.”

Secret knowledge is at the heart of the heresy known as Gnosticism. Gnosticism teaches that there is a a One True God who brought forth from within himself the universe. Thus, the universe was not created in the sense that Christians believe, but the universe is actually the substance of God. This One True God is too pure and too perfect to have anything to do with the material universe, which is considered evil. However, the One True God created lesser divinities, known as Aeons, or “emanations,” to act as go-betweens from the One True God to the material universe.

One of those Aeons is Sophia, or Wisdom, who in her journeyings emanated from herself a flawed consciousness called the Demiurge, or “half-maker.” The Demiurge does not understand his true beginnings, imagines that he himself is the One True God, and is thus flawed. The Demiurge supposedly created the material and psychic world from the essence of the One True God, but because of his flawed beginnings has passed on this flaw to creation.

Thus, Gnosticism has a duality aspect to it — there is an authentic half of creation from the essence of the One True God, but there is also a non-authentic half from the Demiurge.

Gnosticism teaches that humans mirror the duality of the universe. Part of us consist of that which was made by the false creator Demiurge and part of us contain the light of the One True God, or the “Divine Spark.” We contain a perishable physical and psychic component but we also have a spiritual component within us which is a fragment of the divine essence of the One True God. 

Matter is evil and deliverance from our material form is attainable only through secret knowledge  — the Gnosis — revealed by special Gnostic teachers, or Messengers of Light. According to Gnosticism, the primary Messenger of Light was Jesus. It is this Divine Spark within us that Gnosticism seeks to ignite.

According to Gnosticism, not all humans are ready to receive the Gnosis. There are many variations within Gnosticism, but it is often taught either explicitly or implicitly that humans who do not receive the Gnosis will be caught up in a cycle of rebirth until they are ready to receive the secret mysteries.

Gnostics believe they possess secret information about how things really are. Of course, the actual nature of that information might dramatically differ based on what branch of Gnosticism you followed.

Gnosticism was a tremendous problem in the early church and the Early Fathers fought hard against it. However, it never completely died out and some minor Gnostic beliefs were probably unwittingly incorporated into Christianity. The Gnostic idea of duality has certainly popped up its head from time to time throughout church history.

The DaVinci Code
“While The DaVinci Code and the documents it claims to be based upon have proven to be fraudulent, it nevertheless has sparked a keen interest in the idea that the historical church has suppressed true knowledge from the people.”

The success of the book, The DaVinci Code, is based upon the idea that the early church conspired to cover up the true story of Jesus, hide the secret knowledge or Gnosis that he came to deliver, oppress those who truly possessed the Gnosis, and suppress the fact that Jesus married Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene supposedly had a daughter by Jesus and this child become the bloodline of the Merovingian dynasty of France. Their descendants are still alive today. The church supposedly opposed Gnosticism in order to retain power, to further male supremacy, and to suppress the Gnostic teaching of of the sacred feminine.

While The DaVinci Code and the documents it claims to be based upon have proven to be fraudulent, it nevertheless has sparked a keen interest in the idea that the historical church has suppressed true knowledge from the people — knowledge that could lead to the people to receiving the Gnosis. It certainly appears that a re-interest in Gnosticism has been inspired by The DaVinci Code. I have unfortunately even had discussions with Christians who have been taken in by The DaVinci Code.

Here is an excerpt from what Captain Ed wrote. Please go read his entire post.

Gnosticism has always been a seductive force, and not just in Christianity. For some reason, a large percentage of people want to believe that real truth can never be easily understood. Humans appear to have a deep-seated need to be part of a secret, inner circle that can unlock hidden truths — or at least to believe in hidden truths. Gnosticism could be accurately described as Christianity’s first conspiracy theory, except that it undersells the strength of the movement and how difficult it was for the early Church to stamp it out.

The Gospel of Judas and the actual assertions on which the fictional DaVinci Code are based represent the eternal attraction of Gnosticism. We cannot believe that God loved us so that He gave us His only son as the perfect sacrifice for all time, and all we have to do to partake in that sacrifice is to believe in Him. (I often think that Jesus understood this so well that he spoke in parables just to address this human need for deconstruction, along with the other eternal human need to have everything explained in small words.) Because this sacrifice is so unbelievable, a lot of people are unable to take it at face value, and that’s when people start thinking about conspiracies, secret knowledge, and so on.

The problem with Gnosticism is that it denies the universality of the sacrifice. Christians believe that Jesus died for all our sins to set mankind free. If that is true, then Gnosticism directly contradicts it. Rather than having Jesus be the universal sacrifice, Gnosticism would have people believe that the salvation offered by Jesus was intended from the beginning for only a select few, only those in on the Double Plus Secret Plan, if you will. Under this system of belief, the only people who can achieve salvation are those who can successfully decode secret messages in the Gospels and recognize the secret nature of God. It casts Heaven as a convention for conspiracy nuts.

Thank you, Captain Ed, for your work in doing what I should have done.