Taking A Hit For The Team

Is Judas Iscariot really the reviled betrayer or is he the facilitator of salvation, the one who makes the crucifixion possible?

That is the question raised by National Geographic, in their announcement that they have restored the 1,700 year old Gospel of Judas.

In this manuscript, Jesus is basically asking Judas to "take one for the team", to be the one to make the sacrifice that allows Jesus to fulfill his destiny. And what does Judas get out of it? Years of scorn.

A passage from the document reads that Jesus refers to the other disciples, telling Judas you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me. By that Jesus meant that by helping him get rid of his physical flesh, Judas will act to liberate the true spiritual self or divine being within Jesus, scholars familiar with Gnostic thinking said.

Father Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which advises the pope, shows a surprising sense of humor on the subject of the discovered manuscript:

I'm just glad it wasn't found in a bank vault in the Vatican.

But it WAS in a bank vault for the last sixteen years, in the absolutely achingly perfectly named, Hicksville, New York ("The Community With Time For You"). If I had something of value, that is EXACTLY where I would store it.

My question is this: The document is genuine - not one scholar refutes that at this time. But they are wondering if it is true. Well, when did fiction get invented? I am perplexed my the huge belief that just because a thing is in writing, we must assume that it is the truth. Fable, allegory, legend, myth, fiction. Call it what you will.

Why spend all of this time and effort to determine if something written is The Truth. But then again, I believe that the Bible itself is a great, masterful work of fiction as well, not an accurate , truthful account of history in any way.