Old, but important article in the NYT about... no, around Coptic Gnostic "Gospel of Judas".

Gospel Truth

By APRIL D. DECONICK, Houston, Texas.

Published: December 1, 2007

AMID much publicity last year, the National Geographic Society announced that a lost 3rd-century religious text had been found, the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The shocker: Judas didn’t betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus asked Judas, his most trusted and beloved disciple, to hand him over to be killed. Judas’s reward? Ascent to heaven and exaltation above the other disciples.

It was a great story. Unfortunately, after re-translating the society’s transcription of the Coptic text, I have found that the actual meaning is vastly different. While National Geographic’s translation supported the provocative interpretation of Judas as a hero, a more careful reading makes clear that Judas is not only no hero, he is a demon.

Several of the translation choices made by the society’s scholars fall well outside the commonly accepted practices in the field. For example, in one instance the National Geographic transcription refers to Judas as a “daimon,” which the society’s experts have translated as “spirit.” Actually, the universally accepted word for “spirit” is “pneuma ” — in Gnostic literature “daimon” is always taken to mean “demon.”

Likewise, Judas is not set apart “for” the holy generation, as the National Geographic translation says, he is separated “from” it. He does not receive the mysteries of the kingdom because “it is possible for him to go there.” He receives them because Jesus tells him that he can’t go there, and Jesus doesn’t want Judas to betray him out of ignorance. Jesus wants him informed, so that the demonic Judas can suffer all that he deserves.

Perhaps the most egregious mistake I found was a single alteration made to the original Coptic. According to the National Geographic translation, Judas’s ascent to the holy generation would be cursed. But it’s clear from the transcription that the scholars altered the Coptic original, which eliminated a negative from the original sentence. In fact, the original states that Judas will “not ascend to the holy generation.” To its credit, National Geographic has acknowledged this mistake, albeit far too late to change the public misconception.

So what does the Gospel of Judas really say? It says that Judas is a specific demon called the “Thirteenth.” In certain Gnostic traditions, this is the given name of the king of demons — an entity known as Ialdabaoth who lives in the 13th realm above the earth. Judas is his human alter ego, his undercover agent in the world. These Gnostics equated Ialdabaoth with the Hebrew Yahweh, whom they saw as a jealous and wrathful deity and an opponent of the supreme God whom Jesus came to earth to reveal.

Whoever wrote the Gospel of Judas was a harsh critic of mainstream Christianity and its rituals. Because Judas is a demon working for Ialdabaoth, the author believed, when Judas sacrifices Jesus he does so to the demons, not to the supreme God. This mocks mainstream Christians’ belief in the atoning value of Jesus’ death and in the effectiveness of the Eucharist.

How could these serious mistakes have been made? Were they genuine errors or was something more deliberate going on? This is the question of the hour, and I do not have a satisfactory answer.

Admittedly, the society had a tough task: restoring an old gospel that was lying in a box of its own crumbs. It had been looted from an Egyptian tomb in the 1970s and languished on the underground antiquities market for decades, even spending time in someone’s freezer. So it is truly incredible that the society could resurrect any part of it, let alone piece together about 85 percent of it.

That said, I think the big problem is that National Geographic wanted an exclusive. So it required its scholars to sign nondisclosure statements, to not discuss the text with other experts before publication. The best scholarship is done when life-sized photos of each page of a new manuscript are published before a translation, allowing experts worldwide to share information as they independently work through the text.

Another difficulty is that when National Geographic published its transcription, the facsimiles of the original manuscript it made public were reduced by 56 percent, making them fairly useless for academic work. Without life-size copies, we are the blind leading the blind. The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong.

To avoid this, the Society of Biblical Literature passed a resolution in 1991 holding that, if the condition of the written manuscript requires that access be restricted, a facsimile reproduction should be the first order of business. It’s a shame that National Geographic, and its group of scholars, did not follow this sensible injunction.

I have wondered why so many scholars and writers have been inspired by the National Geographic version of the Gospel of Judas. I think it may stem from an understandable desire to reform the relationship between Jews and Christians. Judas is a frightening character. For Christians, he is the one who had it all and yet betrayed God to his death for a few coins. For Jews, he is the man whose story was used by Christians to persecute them for centuries. Although we should continue to work toward a reconciliation of this ancient schism, manufacturing a hero Judas is not the answer.

April D. DeConick, a professor of Biblical studies at Rice University, is the author of “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says.”

And this is the answer from her opponents:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9904E4DD113AF934A35751C1A9619C8B63&scp=2&sq=April+Deconick&st=nyt

I've signed with pleasure. Too actually.

Serge freed yesterday!

Dear friends,

A Radical Party activist Serge Konstantinov and 2 other activists of youth oppositional structures were freed yesterday's evening from arrest thanking to succesfful appeal process in Presnensky court in Moscow.

So, the hunger strike announced by Serge as a form of radical and nonviolent protest against unlawful arrest has finished today. We're glad to inform you that this New Year's eve Serge will celebrate in free external conditions, and we say THANK YOU for your possible support of Serge and other people.

Sincerely, -
Alex Moma,
Press-secretary of "Free Radicals",
A Nonviolent Radical Party activist.

A Radical Party's activist Serge Konstantinov arrested on 15 days,

including the New Year's eve, according to Sunday's verdict of Moscow fascistic "judge". This fuckin' judge sentenced also 2 other young democratic movement activists - Dmitry Konstantinov and Alexey Ignatenko - to 10 days of arrest. After all, other 4 activists who were spectators on that court's process(Valentina Chubarova, Maria Paramonova, Nikolay Zboroshenko and Aleksey Kazakov) arrested after their protests against totally unlawful closing of the judge's meeting. Now they're in the police (until morning), and they're also risks to get 10 or 15 days of arrest.

You must to know, my dear foreign friends, that Russia is absolutely non-democratic, fascistic state, there people have no freedom of speech and manifestations. KGB again, like in Soviet totalitarian times, governs this state. And the majority of our people has totally slavery psychology and mentality, and authorities uses this fact "successfully".

I think that position of Western authorities and parliaments is shameful: they are, de facto, supports fascistic Putin's dictature because of having oil and gass from it. This factor has a quite important role in the fact that our fuckin' dictatorship becomes more and more strong. The elections falsifies, the laws becomes more and more repressive, human rights are not observes.

Important note: Serge continues his hunger strike against unlawful arrest he announced in the midnight of Friday\Saturday.

News about Serge Konstantinov and other 3 unlawfully arrested persons.

It's unprecedently even for putin's Russia: According to our laws, our arrestants (A Radical Party's activist Serge Konstantinov and others) could not be kept in the police more than 3 hours without judge's verdict, but now they're in police department already 2nd evening, and will be there, at least, until tomorrow's midday! Moscow is Babylon of unjustice and authoritarism...

By the way, Oleg Kozlovsky, whom our activists were trying to protect yesterday, and who was unlawfully conscribed in the "army" of our Reich, was secretly departured from Moscow to Ryazan. He has ill legs and, on this case, serious medical limitation on the regular military service...

Here's special statement of Radical Party:
http://www.radicali.it/view.php?id=112893

Fresh news from fascistic Putin's Russia.

Dear friends,

A Radical Party activist Serge Konstantinov was arrested again in Friday's evening, and police unlawfully keeps him in the police department "Arbat" in the centre of Moscow. Yesterday Serge, as approx. 20 other men and women, took part in the legal and nonviolent street's action in support of coordinator of OBORONA ("DEFENCE") youth oppositional movement Oleg Kozlovsky, who was unlawfully conscribed in the army these days according to "advice" of the FSB-KGB.

Police officer, in the rough form, said to Serge this midnight that he will be arrested (after tomorrow's so-called "justice decision") on 15 days, i.e. during the Christmas and New Year's eves Serge risks to "celebrate" at the Moscow's prison, not at home, with his wife Katya.

I shall inform you about fresh news concerning Serge and other arrested people these days.

Sincerely, -
Alex Moma,
Nonviolent & Transnational Radical Party activist,
"Free Radicals" press-secretary (http://radicalfree.org)

Radical Party activist was arrested and beaten by police in Moscow yesterday.

Serge Konstantinov, an activist of Nonviolent Radical Party, Transnational & Transparty, and "Free Radicals" libertarian movement, was arrested and beaten by police in Moscow, during the nonviolent Moscow's "March of Disagree" in November, 24. Serge's now also is one of activists who are participants of presidential electoral campaign of the former Soviet dissident and human rights lawyer Vladimir Bukovsky. Serge took part in that March as, previously, an activist of this campaign.

The police has broken his nose during the yesterday's arrest and freed Serge only in 1 o'clock of night (according to the law they have right to keep him in the police department during only 3-hours-term of arresting maximum), when Moscow's underground (metro) was already closed. Today doctor has officially detected the fact of his beating.

Radical party's officials issued a special press-release in support of Serge (par Italiano): http://coranet.radicalparty.org/pressreleases/press_release.php?func=detail&par=8439

Press-service of Free Radicals.