Birger Pearson speaks out publically about the Gospel of Judas

This is just published in BAR. Birger Pearson does an outstanding job (yet again!) making sense of it all in an full article on the Gospel of Judas called, "Judas Iscariot Among the Gnostics." I highly recommend reading the entire piece. Here Pearson weighs in as a "revisionist" and has some of his own words to say about the National Geographic fiasco.

A highlight:

Scholarly criticism of the National Geographic interpretation of the Gospel of Judas has been widespread. My own assessment of their work was presented in a paper at the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Diego in November 2007. After I had prepared that paper, I received a copy of April DeConick’s new book [The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says (New York: Continuum, 2007)]. I am happy to say that she and I have independently come to very similar conclusions regarding what the Gospel of Judas really says about Judas. There are others as well. In a very recent book, one of the National Geographic scholars, Marvin Meyer, refers to three scholars who have proposed “a revisionist understanding” of the Gospel of Judas. In addition to DeConick, Meyer names Louis Painchaud of the University of Laval, Quebec, and John Turner of the University of Nebraska—Lincoln, all outstanding Gnostic scholars. This is not to denigrate the distinguished reputation of the National Geographic scholars, only to emphasize the growing scholarly dissatisfaction with their work. I am happy to count myself as one of the group that Meyer calls “revisionists.”