March 9, 2007 7:30 PM
Jesus Betrayed
“But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that
clothes me.’
– Jesus to Judas Iscariot, from the Gospel of Judas.
It has all the makings of a modern mystery novel: an Egyptian antiquities dealer, a scholar of Coptic texts, an ancient manuscript and a forgotten safe deposit box in New York City. The discovery of the Gospel of Judas—deteriorated pages of folded papyrus considered lost for nearly 1,700 years—has been heralded as one of the most important Biblical discoveries in our time. But what does it say? And, more importantly, what does it mean?
Renowned scholar of the Gnostic texts Karen King takes a closer look at this new find and its ramifications for telling the story of early Christianity. She believes that it must be viewed as one of a collection of remarkable early Christian texts that competed to be the voice of authority. Karen King spoke of how this text helped shape what Christianity would become. (Elaine Pagels, originally also scheduled to appear, was unable to appear due to illness.)