Monday, June 16, 2008

Judas Note

I have been getting a few e-mails already from my readers who have now purchased the new revised version of the National Geographic Society's The Gospel of Judas. So I thought it might quicker to address their issues in a short post on the blog.

They are telling me how disappointed they are that I did not contribute a chapter to NGS's revised version of The Gospel of Judas, or that the team editors did not interact more with The Thirteenth Apostle.

My response is that although The Thirteenth Apostle is marginalized (I didn't expect otherwise), I am happy that NGS at least included Gesine Schenke Robinson's chapter which presents the revisionist stance. Gesine is another scholar, along with John Turner, Louis Painchaud, Birger Pearson, Einar Thomassen, H.G.-Bethge, and Johannes Brankaer who have all already published in support of the demon Judas. Their publications have been in scholarly venues rather than in general audience books like mine. It should be recognized that all of these scholars came to this conclusion INDEPENDENT of other scholars.

If anyone knows of other scholars who have published on the demon Judas in the Gospel of Judas, please send along that information. I may have missed someone!

At any rate, if you are going to buy their publication, make sure that you purchase the second edition of The Gospel of Judas published by NGS. The covers look almost identical except for a small blue "Second Edition" below the title.

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