2010-01-17

Other Fragments of the Gospel of Judas

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by Neil Godfrey

The recent National Geographic translation of the Gospel of Judas was not based on all the fragments. Some of these had been apparently withheld, fraudulently.

April DeConick has linked to preliminary (private use only) translations by Professor Marvin Meyer of these other Tchacos fragments of the Gospel of Judas. See her post, Ohio Fragments of the Gospel of Judas.

An excerpt on how these fragments came to be separated from the main collection and their significance by Herb Krosney:

All that changed, dramatically, on March 17^th, 2008, . . . Ferrini not only admitted that he had withheld materials in 2001. He also . . . . returned to the court an hour or so later with a sort of lawyer’s briefcase with what appeared to be full page fragments inside.

These were delivered to the custody of the court-appointed receiver, . . . . No one in the know . . . . were allowed to see the photographs, . . . .

The photographs were sent to Prof. Gregor Wurst, . . . .

Gregor Wurst was amazed. What he discovered within these materials was essentially the balance of the Gospel of Judas. He could not show the photographs even to his closest colleagues – according to the obligations undertaken in good faith in Ohio.

I have discussed April DeConick’s views in outline previously, including a review of her book on the National Geographic translation of the Gospel of Judas. (See my Judas archive.)

April and others have given reasons for questioning the National Geographic translation that presents Judas as the hero.

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One thought on “Other Fragments of the Gospel of Judas”

purplehymnal says:

2010-01-17 14:56:51 GMT+0000 at 14:56

Interesting that “the Judas kiss” was not in the apocryphal book. Also, references to Saklas (the blind god), the aeons, the stars, and “the man that bears me” (docetism) all bear the hallmarks of a gnostic text, at least in my opinion. Perhaps a precursor Gnostic text?

Thanks for the link!

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Neil Godfrey on Samaria in the Persian Period: “Well I sure overlooked that one, didn’t I! Thank you for adding this to the post.” Apr 15, 21:48
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Russell Gmirkin on Samaria in the Persian Period: “What I find fascinating is the likely depiction of an asherah on a fourth century BCE coin from Samaria, as…” Apr 15, 12:03
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