Ancient document says Judas was friend of Jesus

Judas was not a traitor but a close friend of Jesus who was only doing his bidding when he turned him in with a kiss, a newly translated ancient document unveiled in the US today suggests.

The Gospel of Judas, which dates from around 300 AD and was discovered in Egypt in 1970, may shed new light on the relationship between Christ and the apostle reviled for so long.

The four New Testament gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John depict Judas Iscariot as a back-stabber who betrayed Jesus for “30 pieces of silver“, identifying him to Roman soldiers with a kiss so he could be captured and crucified.

But in the document made public today by the National Geographic Society Judas emerges as a favourite disciple whose apparent treachery enabled the foundation of Christianity, as a result of the crucifixion.

The new account is likely to cause heated worldwide debate, challenging one of the most firmly rooted beliefs in Christian tradition.

Rodolphe Kasser, who led the translation project, said the lost gospel “bears witness to something completely different from what was said [about Judas] in the Bible“.

“You will be cursed by the other generations – and you will come to rule over them,” Jesus tells his disciple in the 26-page papyrus text, which is in the Coptic language and is said to be a copy of an earlier Greek version.

The translation begins: “The secret account of the revelation that Jesus spoke in conversation with Judas Iscariot.”

In the key passage Jesus tells Judas: “You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

Professor Kasser, a clergyman formerly of University of Geneva in Switzerland, said the statement meant Jesus needed to be freed from his human body and wanted this to be done by a friend rather than an enemy.

“So he asks Judas, who is his friend, to sell him out, to betray him,” Professor Kasser said.

“It’s treason to the general public, but between Jesus and Judas it’s not treachery.”

In another section, Jesus singles Judas out for special status, telling him: “Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom.

“Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star.”

But critics of the document were quick to respond.

“It really would be a miracle if Judas was the author of this document, because he died at least 100 years before it was written,” James Catford, the chief executive of Bible Society, said.

“It may yield some interesting insights, but there’s nothing here to undermine what Christians have believed throughout the centuries.”

Dr Simon Gathercole, a New Testament expert from The University of Aberdeen, said: “The so-called Gospel of Judas is certainly an ancient text, but not ancient enough to tell us anything new about the real Judas or Jesus.

“It contains a number of religious themes which are completely alien to the first-century world of Jesus and Judas, but which did become popular later, in the second century AD.

“An analogy would be finding a speech claiming to be written by Queen Victoria, in which she talked about The Lord of the Rings and her CD collection.”

The text, whose author is anonymous, ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests with no reference to the crucifixion or resurrection.

Scholars knew of the existence of the Gospel of Judas because of references to it in other ancient texts as early as AD 180.

They say its themes are similar to Gnostic traditions.

Christian Gnostics believed that the way to salvation was through secret knowledge delivered by Jesus to his inner circle which revealed how people could escape the prisons of their material bodies and return to the spiritual realm.

Gnostic sects looked to their gospels, which included the Gospel of Mary – now famous for its role in the The Da Vinci Code – which contradicting the New Testament gospels and were later denounced by orthodox Christian leaders and refused entry into the Bible.

After it was discovered in 1970, the papyrus document was kept in a safety deposit box for several years and had started to deteriorate when conservators started work on it.

They had to reassemble more than 1,000 pieces.

The material will now be donated to the Coptic museum in Cairo so scholars can study it.

National Geographic said it had been authenticated through radio carbon dating, ink analysis, multispectral imaging, content and linguistic style and handwriting style.