The Gospel of Judas

What is the Gospel of Judas?

The Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic text, produced by an ancient sect of Christianity that was marginalized, persecuted, and eventually driven underground. The only known surviving text of the Gospel of Judas is written in Coptic, an ancient Egyptian dialect, and is thought to have been copied sometime between 220 and 340 A.D. However, references to an earlier version of the text (written in Greek) appear as early as 180 A.D., and the actual date of authorship could be significantly older. Up until the last 40 years, it was thought that no copies of this text survived; the only indications that the Gospel had ever existed were references made to it by early Christian writers. However, incredibly, at least one copy of this gospel still remains, and there is a fascinating story of how it was preserved, found, and eventually reconstructed and made public.