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COPYRIGHT 2006 All rights reserved. Reproduced by permission of The Condé Nast Publications Inc.
The great wheel of history always turns, if slowly, and so, at last, the ultimate betrayer, Judas Iscariot himself, comes around again for another inspection, a potential record-clearing moment occasioned by the publication of "The Gospel of Judas" (National Geographic; $22), a very ancient, though not actually contemporary, rendering of Jesus, as seen by the man who ratted him out. Written in Coptic, and found, three decades ago, within a papyrus codex that contains other non-canonic writing, the manuscript has known a bizarre Calvary of its own--including a papyrus-damaging sixteen-year residence in a safe-deposit box in Hicksville, New York--and has only now been edited and translated into English by an international group of scholars, each of whom has provided his own commentary. The event feels uncomfortably hyped; there is an accompanying book, "The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot" (National Geographic; $27), by Herbert Krosney, devoted to the tale of the Gospel's rediscovery and sale, an all too human story suggesting, once again, that Mammon's servant problem is more easily solved than that other master's. Still, it is a genuine occasion, offering much to think about for believer and doubter alike.
Known to exist since the second century, this "Gospel of Judas" is, in one way, simply another of the Gnostic Gospels, like those found at Nag Hammadi, in Egypt, sixty years ago: unorthodox Christian documents, written by, or at least circulated within, communities of eccentric faith that flourished in the first and second centuries. These Gospels play with a series of variations on Christian belief: the irredeemable corruption of the world we live in, the hidden truth that the Old Testament God who...
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