Truth Behind Gospel of Judas Revealed in Ancient Inks

[Zorro]

A long-lost gospel that casts Judas as a co-conspirator of Jesus, rather than a betrayer, was ruled most likely authentic in 2006. Now, scientists reveal they couldn't have made the call without a series of far more mundane documents, including Ancient Egyptian marriage licenses and property contracts.

The Gospel of Judas is a fragmented Coptic (Egyptian)-language text that portrays Judas in a far more sympathetic light than did the gospels that made it into the Bible. In this version of the story, Judas turns Jesus over to the authorities for execution upon Jesus' request, as part of a plan to release his spirit from his body. In the accepted biblical version of the tale, Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.

As part of a 2006 National Geographic Society (the Society) investigation of the document, microscopist Joseph Barabe of McCrone Associates in Illinois and a team of researchers analyzed the ink on the tattered gospel to find out if it was real or forged. Some of the chemicals in the ink raised red flags — until Barabe and his colleagues found, at the Louvre Museum, a study of Egyptian documents from the third century A.D., the same time period of the Gospal of Judas.

"What the French study told us is that ink technology was undergoing a transition," Barabe told LiveScience. The Gospel of Judas' odd ink suddenly fit into place.

http://news.yahoo.com/truth-behind-gospel-judas-revealed-ancient-inks-153710758.html

[southernyankeebelle]

1. Wow, that sure changes a lot. But gee we all know the bible is never wrong, right?

Huh, gosh I bet the bible thumpers are really pissed.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Not really. This shows the date of about 250 years after Jesus is said to have died is correct

So this is the equivalent of someone writing something today about an event in 1763. It shows us what some people believed in 280AD, but not what actually happened in 30AD.

[southernyankeebelle]

4. True. Then again I'm not much on the bible. After all it's a story book written

by man handed down. I mean I have a hard time with the whale and Noah being inside of the whale. I mean I do believe in miracles like curing blind people or leppars. But as a catholic I don't ever remember us studying the bible deepily.

[leftyohiolib]

5. I mean I have a hard time with the whale and Noah being inside of the whale. it wasnt a whale it was

a ufo-

[southernyankeebelle]

6. LOL, ok that makes it better.

[Warpy]

10. And it was Jonah, not Noah

Noah was the drunk who built the Ark.

[HereSince1628]

11. Noahs Ark and the Ark of the Covenant remains major ufo

Un-Found Objects

[DetlefK]

2. Would make a damn good movie.

The historical Jesus, a dark-skinned, peace-loving cult-leader praying love, humility and poverty.
A shifty dude, Judas Iscariot, and somehow only Jesus sees that he's a fine guy.

And then the end, when Jesus realizes that his death at the hand of Romans is the only way to fulfill his fate.
"Others will call you traitor. I call you friend."
Then Judas goes to the Roman authorities and offers them to sell out Jesus.
His suicide by hanging? He was strangled by other followers of Jesus and left hanging from a tree.

Only one further person knew the truth, and he (she? Maria Magdalena, to throw in a good female role?) did not speak out for it was the last wish of Jesus.

[southernyankeebelle]

7. Well back then the men didn't want to believe Mary maybe because she was a woman

and the Apostles surely wouldn't think Jesus would send her to them to tell them "he'ssssss back".

[leftyohiolib]

8. i never understood why judas was so hated as a traitor when he was fullfilling gods plan for jesus

[Soylent Brice]

12. watch Last Temptation of Christ

[sir pball]

14. Read Lamb, by Christopher Moore

Irreverent, hilarious and thought-provoking.

[On the Road]

9. I Doubt the Author Had Any Special Knowledge About Judas

but I do suspect he was a loyal ally of Jesus rather than a traitor. It has been suggested that he was Jesus' brother, perhaps his twin brother. The accounts in the gospels seem to have been written to minimize or discredit the side of the early church led by Jesus' family. If Thomas is the Author of the Epistle of Jude, he was a stern moralist could create beautiful imagery.

[sir pball]

13. That story always made perfect logical sense to me

Since Jesus was sent here* with the express purpose of dying to atone for our sins - he knew and expected it, if not outright planning it himself. And on a larger scale, since his death was our "cleansing", efforts to stop it were efforts against our salvation; aiding in his sacrifice would have been an act of importance second only to his crucifixion. You can irk the hell out of intelligent Xtians with that line of reasoning

* - In the story, not in my beliefs

[Shankapotomus]

15. God originally wanted

the first version of the Judas sub-plot but his publishers were set dead against it. They wanted a more dramatic ending to Judas and it seemed to be the version everyone liked best.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

16. Damn, did that dude get a bum rap. n/t

[RagAss]

17. This is why Constantine burned the Gnostic Gospels !!

The truth would have killed business !

[dimbear]

18. The actual conclusion should be that if it is a fake, it is a well done fake.

Not that it is 'certainly' genuine.