Article Note: "À Propos de la (Re)découverte de L'Évangile de Judas (Louis Painchaud)

Laval théologique et philosophique just released Louis Painchaud's statement about the Gospel of Judas, presented orally at the University of Ottawa on September 30, 2006, at the conference "Christian Apocryphal Texts for the New Millenium." It is found in journal# 62.3 (October 2006) 553-568. I thank Professor Painchaud for sending me an offprint. A pioneering presentation and article indeed, challenging National Geographic's misreading of the text!

I reproduce here the English abstract (the article is in French).

Far from presenting Judas as the perfect Christian, the faithful disciple whose assistance Jesus seeks in liberating himself from him material body, the Gospel of Judas actually turns Judas into the leading figure in a sacrificial interpretation of the crucifixion. This sacrificial interpretation, and the various ways in which it is manifested in Christian behavior (eucharist, Christian life seen as an ongoing sacrifice, martyrdom) is presented in the Gospel of Judas as a continuation of Jewish cultic practices, and as being devoted to an inferior god, who is not the Father of Jesus. Judas is thus (literally!) demonized, put under the power of the astral determinism and assimilated to the archons whom he serves. In the gospel that bears his name, Judas is indeed called to reign over others, but his power does not extend beyond the limits of the material world, and those over whom he rules will curse him.

And so it begins...