Archbishop
calls Judas text ‘not a real Gospel’
by Catholic News Service
Writing in the May issue of
the monthly archdiocesan newspaper, People of God, Archbishop Sheehan said the
National Geographic Society, which sponsored an English translation of the
ancient text and put the manuscript on exhibit in early April “did a disservice
to Christian people and has exploited this old manuscript for its own
purposes.”
In the early centuries of
Christianity several breakaway sects, mixing Christian beliefs with pagan
speculation, claimed that salvation could be obtained only through the
knowledge and acceptance of certain arcane, divinely revealed mysteries that
they alone possessed. The sects were called gnostic,
after the Greek word for knowledge, and were rejected as heretical by the early
Church.
“In the early Church there
were many writings such as the Gospel of Judas which were rejected as unworthy
to be included in the Bible,” Archbishop Sheehan wrote. “We believe that the
early church fathers had the guidance of the Holy Spirit in determining which
writings were truly authentic and inspired by God and which writings were not.
Obviously the Gospel of Judas did not ‘make the cut.’”
The Judas manuscript is a
third-century Coptic text, uncovered in
In conjunction with
displaying the manuscript at its headquarters in Washington, the National
Geographic Society has published two books about it, made it the cover feature
of the May issue of National Geographic magazine, and did a television special
that appeared on Palm Sunday on cable’s National Geographic Channel.
“The text speaks highly of
Judas and says that he was a friend of Jesus and that Jesus wanted Judas to
betray him so that God’s plan might be fulfilled,” Archbishop Sheehan said.
He said the National
Geographic Society has done a disservice because it “has presented the Gospel
of Judas as, in some way, credible.”
This “could cause Christian
people to have questions or doubts about the Bible” and authentic Christian
teaching, he said.
He noted that the four
Gospels found in the Bible are about the life, teaching, death and resurrection
of Jesus. “The Gospel of Judas is not about Jesus, but rather about Judas
himself and seeks to rehabilitate him or put him in a favorable light,” he
said.
“The Bible clearly
contradicts the heretical teaching” of that text, he said.
He noted that Mark’s Gospel
“clearly describes Judas Iscariot as an unworthy disciple who betrayed Christ.”
“The Gospel of John repeats
this truth and also points out that Judas was a thief.
... Jesus himself said that it would have been better if Judas had not been
born,” Archbishop Sheehan wrote.
He quoted Jesuit Father
Gerald O’Collins, a noted theology professor in
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