Protocol 06-6: Gospel of Judas - by Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver
The Pious Pastors and Faithful of the Holy Metropolis of Denver
Beloved in the Lord,
Recent news reports and a television “special” have informed us about the discovery and translation of a fourth-century Gnostic manuscript known as the “Gospel of Judas.” There is nothing new in this finding, since the existence of that text was well known within the early Church. Its discovery is interesting only from an academic, archeological point of view insofar as it corroborates references made about it in other early documents.
From the first days of the Church there have been, and continue to be, many diverse writings about our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ did not write His teachings down Himself; others did so by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our Lord Himself validates which writings are accurate, through His mystical Body, the Church, which must in every age make this determination. The ultimate expression of His Body is an Ecumenical Council guided by the Holy Spirit. There have been seven such Ecumenical Councils held during the first millennium of the Church.
Of the many writings in circulation during the early centuries, some have been regarded as essential to the Christian faith. These are the four Gospels and the Epistles which are read to this very day in our Church services.
Other writings were determined to be inaccurate, or inconsistent, or expressing ideas at odds with the mind of the Church. Some individuals believe that this implies early Christianity was not “monolithic” but very diverse. This is nonsense, since Jesus is the Truth, and the Divine Truth does not contradict Himself.
The “Gospel of Judas” is one of many writings written within, and maintained by, certain groups of people regarded as Gnostics. It was rejected by the early shepherds of the Church as being both historically inaccurate and also inconsistent with Christian revelation and understanding.
Gnosticism was one of the first heresies (alternate teachings) addressed by the early Church. The term “gnostic” comes from the Greek word gnosis (knowledge). The Gnostics were neo-Platonists, grounded in pre-Christian Greek philosophy which regarded the physical world as lesser than the spiritual. Gnostic heretics intellectualized Christianity, rejecting the body while exalting the spirit or soul. This same error later afflicted Western Christianity during the Protestant Reformation, and is evident even today in Calvinism.
The Gnostics maintained that the material world was flawed, having been the w ork of an inferior creator (a demi-god) rather than of the one all-good God. The Gnostics further believed that the divine mind was an ultimate source of
goodness which existed outside the physical universe. They speculated that each man possesses a portion of that divine power, and that the awakening of this spark could lead to salvation through union with the divine mind.
For a Gnostic, secret “higher knowledge” was the key to unlocking the path to divine awakening and was attained through the guidance of a teacher. Clearly this sort of religion, from within which the “Gospel of Judas” was written, is completely contrary to Christian thought. It actually has more in common with the contemporary quest for gurus and eastern religions than with Orthodox Christianity.
Gnosticism was a problem in the Apostolic age, and Saint John the Evangelist dealt with the matter in his Gospel and three Epistles. Saint Irenaeus of Lyons (ca. AD 130-202) addressed the background and content of the “Gospel of Judas” and also numerous other heretical writings in his foundational discourse regarding Christian doctrine, On the Detection and Overthrow of the So-Called Gnosis (normally referred to by its Latin title Adversus Haereses, or Against Heresies. Another early Church father, Saint Athanasios (ca. AD 298-372), wrote in his Paschal Letter that the “secret and illegitimate books” of the Gno stics were to be totally rejected as outside the Christian tradition.
Orthodox Christianity maintains that there is a single Creator, Who brought all things into existence and looked upon His creation declaring it to be “good.” The fallen condition of creation, both in the physical and in the spiritual realm, results not from its deficiency at creation but as a consequence of human failure to live up to the expectation of the all-good God.
The incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity within the womb of the Virgin Mary attests to the fundamental goodness of physical creation, for Jesus Christ took on a material human body as well as an immaterial human soul. Moreover, His third-day resurrection, of both His body and soul, attests to the potential redemption of the entire human person, not merely of his intellectual, mental, or spiritual component.
The Gnostic context of the “Gospel of Judas” is thus completely outside the doctrinal Christian context. Furthermore, its premise, that Christ directed Judas Iscariot to betray Him so as to effect His necessary death for the world, is entirely illogical for Jesus Christ as the all-good and all-holy Son of God. This would have essentially meant that Jesus, the “only sinless One,” sinned by directing Judas to cause His own murder. More seriously, if the Lord directed Judas to betray Him, the inference is that He did not die willingly for the salvation of the world. He would have created the scenario of a betrayal, which would have negated His willing sacrifice on the Cross by using the assistance of a second party.
We Christians, of course, completely reject such a possibility as irrational, but it can make sense to a Gnostic who platonically believes that salvation rests in the liberation of the soul from the body and its awakening to divine gnosis. Gnosticism ultimately refutes and rejects the divine incarnation of the Son of God as Jesus Christ, and it ultimately leads to iconoclasm and to the denial of a bodily resurrection.
Finally, there is no “secret knowledge” in Christianity. This is an absurd notion. Our Lord Jesus Christ came for the salvation of all, without regard to persons or their intellectual capabilities. There was no private revelation that He imparted to His Apostles in which He entrusted to them alone the mystery of the Kingdom of God. The four gospels clearly and openly report the public and the private words of Jesus, which are accessible to all people. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” (John 8:32)
We Orthodox Christians can therefore regard the “Gospel of Judas” as an archeological discovery of an already known text that scholars may find useful for studying the concepts of the Gnostics. It adds nothing to our historical knowledge of events that took place 2,000 years ago. It also adds nothing to our understanding of Christian dogma and doctrine since it merely reflects the perspective of a particular group (the Gnostics) that was regarded even in the Holy Scriptures as outside of Christianity.
With Paternal Blessings,
+ Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver