The Story of Judas Iscariot

The hidden story of Judas

Writing in 180 A.D., the early church father Irenaeus writes derisively of a "Gospel of Judas," which portrays Judas as one “knowing the truth as no others did.” It was this knowledge that allowed Judas to accomplish “the mystery of the betrayal,” Irenaeus writes, before dismissing it as a mere “fictitious history.”

For centuries, this brief reference was the only indication that the Gospel of Judas even existed, and one of the few suggestions of a different perspective on Judas’s life and actions.

But in 2005, as the culmination of an immense restorative effort, the National Geographic Society published an English translation of the Gospel of Judas. Once thought lost, the manuscript had been re-discovered, and after an eventful journey, painstakingly restored and shared with the world. The contents of this lost gospel shocked many, generating interest, criticism, and controversy. For the first time, an account of Judas as a hero rather than a traitor had entered the mainstream.

The Gospel of Judas indicates in many ways that Judas has a special or favoured status amongst the disciples of Jesus. At one point, Jesus says to Judas,

Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal.

In this way Judas is set apart from the other disciples—his task will cause him great pain but will also be part of his larger spiritual mission.

At another point, Jesus tells him, “you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” And later, he states to Judas, “[y]ou will become the thirteenth, and you will be cursed by the other generations—and you will come to rule over them.” Here again we find Judas depicted as someone who will be hated and yet also exalted, a strange combination that incredibly seems to predict the harsh way that Judas will be judged throughout the ages for his actions. As much as the Gospel of Judas contributes to a new understanding of the disciple and his mission, it is not the first text to share this story in the modern era.