The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot

by Herbert Krosney

Judas Iscariot.

He’s been hated and reviled through the ages as Jesus Christ’s betrayer–the close friend who sells him out for 30 pieces of silver.

But history also records other information about Judas Iscariot. One such reference was written in 180 by an influential Church Father named St. Irenaeus who railed against the Gospel of Judas for depicting the last days of Jesus from the perspective of the disgraced apostle. In its pages, Judas is Christ’s favorite.

It’s a startlingly different story than the one handed down through the ages. Once it was denounced as heresy, the Gospel of Judas faded from sight. It became one of history’s forgotten manuscripts.

Until now.

In this compelling and exhaustively researched account, Herbert Krosney unravels how the Gospel of Judas was found and its meaning painstakingly teased from the ancient Coptic script that had hid its message for centuries. With all the skills of an investigative journalist and master storyteller, Krosney traces the forgotten gospel’s improbable journey across three continents, a trek that would take it through the netherworld of the international antiquities trade, until the crumbling papyrus is finally made to give up its secrets. The race to discover the Gospel of Judas will go down as one of the great detective stories of biblical archaeology.

Genres: Religion, History, Nonfiction, Christianity, Spirituality, Archaeology, Gnosticism

309 pages, Hardcover

First published April 6, 2006

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about the discovery and restoration of the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. The gospel, written on a papyrus codex, was discovered in Egypt around 30 years ago. This book tells of the discovery of the writing, and path to being brought to the public finally a couple years ago. It's not so much of a theologically focused book, as it is a journalistic approach giving the history of this document. It's really a pretty good read. Not quite as dry as some more scholarly books on early Christian writings. I didn't even know that this Gospel of Judas existed until I came across this book recently.

This gospel tells Judas' story, and one that is quite different from the account of the betrayal in the New Testament. In this account, Judas is not the betrayer of Jesus, but Jesus' most faithful friend and disciple. Judas was asked by Jesus himself to make a great sacrifice – hand Jesus over to his executioners.

Some say that this quite different account of the "betrayal" could turn Christianity on its head, but I think that's a pretty big exaggeration of the potential impact of this gospel on Christianity. At least as far as LDS theology goes, I don't think it's all that shocking. Jesus needed to die to fulfill his mission of dieing to save the world, and Judas was an instrument in that process. Even before hearing about this book, I've occasionally thought it odd that Judas is so vilified – what he did essentially had to be done, and was probably part of the plan from the beginning. That one of Jesus' trusted disciples was asked to turn him in, while somewhat paradoxical, makes some sense. We LDS are used to righteous people doing things that appear bad in order to put the plan in motion, aren't we? The world vilifies Adam and Eve for partaking of the forbidden fruit, but we praise them for it, believing it had to happen for the plan of salvation to really be put in motion. Nor is the concept that Judas was asked to turn Jesus in entirely inconsistent with the accounts in the four gospels. The word that was translated into "betrayed" in the four gospels (from the original Greek, I think) means something more akin to "turn in" or "hand over". If translated that way, it doesn't carry quite the same negative connotation as "betray". And when Jesus told the disciples that it would better off for the one who betrays to never have been born, couldn't this be an expression of grief or sympathy for the hate and sad future the betraying apostle would face afterward?

Of course, the whole Gospel of Judas could be entirely fanciful. Scholars believe it was written somewhere around 120 years after Jesus died – obviously not by Judas himself. It wasn't uncommon for early Christians to write in the names of the apostles they followed or revered. Some of these pseudographical writings even made it into the NT. But this gospel could very well have been based on oral traditions or stories floating around at the time, so it does provide some useful historical context to this aspect of the stories told in the four gospels, which aren't altogether consistent between themselves in telling Judas' story.

[Amber · Rating 4 out of 5]

The only fault in this book is that you don't end up with a translation of the gospel itself. This was an interesting telling of how the gospel was found and of its travels before it made it into the hands of people willing to and capable of interpreting it. I would definately recommend it to anyone interested ing the discovery and journey of the Codex but be aware that you will not get a translation in this book. This is a work of non-fiction and reads that way. Personally, I don't mind reading a lot of historical information. However, if you are one of those people that requires fast-paced sensationalism this is probably not the book for you. It is an investigation into the discovery of a very important document and many people don't always realize the tedious work that goes into these discoveries. Fo those of you who DO realize it, I think you will be intriqued by this book.

[Todd · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is the "National Geographic" account of how the text came to be discovered. It follows it from it's discovery in the early 1970's when no one realized what they actually had beyond being an ancient papyrus document. The folks who discovered it were illiterate and were unable to tell Coptic from Greek etc.

I have read several accounts of the discoveries of such monumental finds as the Nag Hammdhi Library and the Dead Sea Scrolls. What I liked best about this book is that it dealt in detail with the antiquties market and the difficulty it creates in dealing with such important finds.

Beyond a short summary of the betrayal story it offers very little insight into the Gospel text itself. This story is told mostly from a archeolgogical perspective.

Worth reading.

[Christopher Obert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found The Lost Gospel to be quite a story. I had no idea that the under world of artifact smuggling was so interesting. The author tells the history and the needed details that make this intriguing story understandable and helps to connect the past and the present. Now that I have read the Lost Gospel, I am very interested in finding out more about the Nag Hammadi documents and the writings of the Gnostics!

[Clare · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a poorly written, unfocused, sensationalist account of a jumbled series of events. Very little of the book is actually about the Gospel of Judas - I suppose the subtitle should have tipped me off that it's more about the quest. And an endless, boring one it is too.

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good account of how the document went from hand to hand, got damaged and finally got deciphered. Not good for those who believe the bible to be a God inspired book....good for those with a reasonable mind.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book because it followed the path to find the book. It was not biased in trying to interpret the meaning of the the gospel. It explores the archeologist’s view of such a document.

[Andre Piucci · Rating 5 out of 5]

E Jesus disse para Judas:

“Mas tu suplantarás a todos eles, pois sacrificarás o homem que me veste”.

[Miles Nilsson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost Gospel

I am trying to read or reread in succession three books having to do with the three year-old Gospel of Judas hoopla. I took some interest in the controversy at the time, but I like my controversies aged because time allows for further reflection, and, often, as in this case, insightful perspective.

The first book on my list is The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot by Herbert Krosney, a Harvard educated journalist and documentary filmmaker who is obviously promoting National Geographic 19s side of the story. National Geographic, which published this book, also co-published and distributed the published version of the Gospel of Judas which was produced by a Swiss group that owned and restored the seriously damaged seventeen hundred year-old papyrus book before ultimately returning it to Egypt. Krosney 19s book also has a forward by Prof. Bart D. Ehrman, a good writer and highly regarded teacher who adds his perspective, beginning with the mysterious way that he was introduced to the Gospel of Judas.

Krosney is a bit of a shill for the ultimate product, the newly restored and published Gospel of Judas. While his judgement about the antiquities business seems justifiably wary, his explanation of why the Gospel itself is culturally valuable and relevant buys into the silly hype about the republication of the book having implications for Jewish-Christian relations. I like the response of a Vatican official to a reporter 19s question about whether the Gospel of Judas opens a new dialogue between the Catholic Church and Judaism. The Church, he said, already has open channels for such dialogue. (Indeed, I believe that since the mid-twentieth century the Holocaust has been a far greater impetus to new dialogue between Christians and Jews than the publication of the Gospel of Judas ever could be.)

Krosney has access to a lot of information that was closely guarded by the publishers before and during the publication process. The story he tells about the journey of the only known copy of the Gospel of Judas is fascinating and convoluted 14and that just describes the parts of the tale that are not completely shrouded in mystery. While real life antiquities dealing might not be quite as exciting as an Indiana Jones movie, it nevertheless has its share of intrigue and even occasional murder mysteries and robberies. At one point, the Gospel of Judas was stolen from one of its owners in a burglary that has never been solved even though the return of the goods was negotiated on a no-questions-asked basis; yet Krosney gives the reader enough evidence to suggest a likely suspect.

The already secretive 1Cjewelers, 1D as Egyptian antiquities dealers are called, have only become more cloak-and-dagger in recent decades because of increasingly strict national laws claiming all antiquities to be government property. Paradoxically, those who find jewels and manuscripts buried in the desert of Upper Egypt (the Nile flows from south to north, so Upper Egypt is south of Lower Egypt) are more than ever likely to be uneducated grave robbers. Law-abiding professional archaeologists have to get eight different permits to do more carefully what the grave robbers do most carelessly. Further, even though 1Cprovenance, 1D the ability to say exactly where an object came from, is considered more important than ever by scholarly antiquarians and archaeologists, the criminals who find these objects decline to say exactly where they find them precisely because they would be admitting evidence of a crime in doing so. Because the 1Cjewelers 1D who deal in these antiquities want to protect their sources, they perpetuate false stories or plain silence with regard to where these objects come from. Buyers of antiquities cannot really know whether the objects they are buying are stolen. The alternative is to decline to buy anything at all and, as we shall see, risk leaving potentially priceless antiquities to disintegrate in the hands of ignorant robbers and barely more scrupulous 1Cjewelers. 1D

One of Krosney 19s tasks is to tell what little is known about the discovery of the Gospel of Judas ( 1CPeuaggelion Nioudas 1D in the language of the ancient text 14if you know any Greek, just drop the initials 1CP 1D and 1CN 1D and the title ought to make sense to you.) It was probably in the mid-1970s that robbers found the book 14or codex, the technical term for the earliest, non-scroll book 14in a fourth-century grave in the Egyptian province of Al Minya. (Probably.) They had no idea what it was other than that it was some sort of a book, so they sold it to a local dealer who in turn sold it to a wealthy but rather ignorant Cairo 1Cjeweler 1D who tried selling it to Europeans and Americans for the next quarter century. First he asked for ten million dollars, then three million and finally one million.

Complicating the process was the fact that while the owner expected to be paid an exorbitant sum, he would not let scholars inspect the pages for more than five minutes at a time. As a result, the scholars who got the best look at the papyrus codex did not have time to recognize that it contained the Gospel of Judas. Part of this is due to the fact that such codices were customarily anthologies with three or four different short books combined into one volume. One of the scholars who peeked at the codex in 1983 recognized that one of its components was an apocryphal letter from Peter to Philip, and he knew that this meant that the codex contained only the second known copy of this particular epistle. The same scholar just had time to notice that another component book mentioned the name 1CJudas 1D before he had to give the codex back to the seller. When the scholar and his colleagues then heard the asking price of three million, they balked and walked. Why should they pay so much for something they had not had time to fully evaluate? Besides, they had expected to pay less than 200 thousand and they did not have anywhere near one million 14let alone three million 14at their disposal.

Another problem noted by the scholars who saw the codex in 1983 was that it was badly deteriorating. For more than a millennium, it had been buried in the dry Egyptian desert, but from the 1970s until the late 1990s, it was kept wrapped up in old newspapers in shoe boxes and in safe deposit boxes in a couple of different banks. None of this was good for the ancient papyrus which tends to crumble under such conditions. It undoubtedly deteriorated more in the last thirty years than it had in the seventeen centuries before that. The scholars who looked at the codex realized with horror that the codex might turn to dust before anyone who knew what they were doing got hold of it, and they knew, too, that added to the cost to them of buying the codex for more than a million dollars would be the enormous expense of painstakingly restoring the decaying papyrus with its already faded ink and often gaping lacunae (holes in the pages).

Along the way, there were several potential buyers who did not necessarily know about each other. One scholar who tried to buy the codex was Professor James Robinson, the author of the next book on my list. (This will be a reread since I read his book a couple of years ago.) Krosney gives Robinson some due respect but notes that he has a reputation for being a prima donna; he is the leading American expert on early Christian texts, having edited the Nag Hammadi library, the most important collection of non-orthodox Christian writings ever discovered. Krosney repeats criticism made by other scholars that Robinson 19s lengthy and oft-repeated (by him as well as others) account of how the Nag Hammadi library was discovered is probably not true. It is not that Robinson himself is accused of lying but rather that he was too credulous of the grave robbers and antiquities dealers who told him an elaborate yarn 14or, actually, several sometimes contradictory yarns 14about how the Nag Hammadi codices were discovered and kept before they found their way onto the documented portion of the antiquities market.

Krosney is sympathetic as he describes Robinson 19s multiple attempts and failures to buy the codex that would turn out to contain the Gospel of Judas. Part of the problem was that the Greek middle man that Robinson contacted was no longer on the best terms with the Egyptian jeweler who owned the codex. Another problem was that while the codex was actually decomposing in a box in a bank on Long Island, New York 14where the Egyptian jeweler had deposited it during an aborted sales attempt to a New York Antiquarian book dealer 14the jeweler only possessed one of the two keys to the box while the other key was in the hands of a third party with whom the jeweler was on even worse terms than he was with the Greek. On top of that, Robinson attempted to buy the codex in January 1991 14just as the Gulf War was beginning; the jeweler was convinced that World War III was about to begin, and he had no intention of leaving his family at such a time.

Finally, a Swiss-based antiquities dealer bought the codex for much less than one million. After a misadventure in which the Swiss dealer sold it too an American dealer who both failed to pay her and failed to find a good home for the codex, the Swiss dealer got it back and gave it to a Swiss foundation which had the resources to begin the laborious process of arresting further deterioration, piecing together the fragments that had already fallen apart, and finding a competent scholar, Professor Rodolphe Kasser, to translate the codex into a modern language. A publication deal was then made with National Geographic and the whole enterprise was massively hyped to recoup the enormous expenditures of the investors. (Not that Krosney would put it that way because the "investors" are the same people who are buttering his bread.)

If the Gospel of Judas is unlikely to have any impact on Christianity or even on Christian-Jewish relations, what is its significance? This is a topic that, I think, Krosney does the poorest job of discussing, so I 19ll save it for my discussion of Robinson 19s book, which is next on my list.

[Walt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like so many other readers, I was suckered into thinking this was the Gospel of Judas with some background. Instead, the key word is "Quest." The book is about the handling and ownership of the book, rather than the contents. In that respect, the book is very well written. Krosney appears to identify with certain characters as villains, heroes, and stereotypes; but it is nearly impossible to make up an opinion on the main cast with just Krosney's description. I read the book feeling as though everyone was tainted.

The most interesting aspect of the book is the shady market in antiquities. Krosney tries to normalize the trade as villagers, runners (middle men), and dealers - all in Egypt. Then the European antiquities dealers. Each layer slowly builds upon and takes advantage of the ignorance of the lower levels of sellers. By the time an artifact reaches the European dealer, only a select group of supporting characters can properly identify and appraise the rare items.

The supporting actors are usually academics. When it comes to extremely rare items like Coptic artifacts, the availability of such experts is truly limited. Consequently, readers will see the same academics over and over in this book almost as though they are battling each other. Krosney appears to take sides again vilifying some of the academics and praising others. Every good adventure novel needs good guys and bad guys.

The adventure shows up early when burglars steal the unidentified Copitc documents from one Egyptian dealer. The identities of the burglars remains unknown; but there are suspects. A famous, if shady, European dealer helps the Egyptian recover the documents. Yes, even Krosney admits it is possible the European was involved in the original theft. Blame is generally cast upon others; but plenty of doubt lingers. There are some miss-steps as the Egyptian tries to sell the documents - first in a Geneva hotel room, then in America with a shady priest (See! everyone is tainted!) who brings in a Coptic Mafia which scares one prospective buyer.

A great deal of the book is devoted to academics studying the documents in short periods identifying pages and sources. This is done to extend the length of the book. At some point another European dealer becomes involved in the book. Her involvement is complicated and not very well described suggesting that Krosney is either glossing over some events or is uninformed. Nevertheless, she becomes the hero of the saga when she rescues the documents and gives them over to a non-profit.

Ultimately, the story of how the Gospel was rescued overpowers the story of the Gospel itself. It is the creation of a radical sect of Christians called Cainites who believed there were two gods in the Bible. One, the old Jewish god, must be rejected; and the other god is the god of the New Testament. Consequently, they sought to violate every religious law of the Old Testament. Radicals. No wonder this Gospel did not make the cut in the 4th Century Bible.

Ultimately, this book was tedious to read. I kept hoping for theology and instead got quarreling academics. This is a good source for learning about the antiquities trade and understanding why so many governments are battling museums in court. Many of the cast of characters are legitimate business-people; but there is an aurora of extra-legal activity surrounding nearly everyone even the brilliant academics.

[Richard Creel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I place my comments here, not being able to contact National Geographic. At an early point in the text there are various aspects which raise questions re the content of this work. !)The codex of the Judas Gospel was bound with three other texts, but there is no further mention of them. 2)the codex (or does documents refer to all four documents) is sold to a dealer in Cairo, then stolen (by whom?) and arrives in Europe (how?), then sent to the US (by whom? by a dealer?) where a dealer (Nussbaum?) examines it but decides against purchasing it. 3)After 16 years Nussbaum "rescues" the codex (what does "documents" really mean? and what was Nussbaum doing all this time?) and sends it/them to Yale for examination where it was decided not to attempt to purchase it/them, whereupon it /they was/were sold to a dealer in Ohio, This must have been the "botched" sale referred to which led to a return of the codex/documents to Nussbaum (why? and what was her role in all this?) without explaining whether she was in New York or Switzerland. In Switzerland she contacts Rodolphe Kasser, a scholar competent in Coptic (the language of the codex, described as "rare" and "ancient" as if he and only he were capable of translating it. Copts are ca. 8% oi the population of Egypt, their liturgy is in that language, and certainly the clergy and higher-ups are capable of translating older texts. The translation could have been performed in the country of origin without all that travelling.Possibly, such flaws could have occurred to others, but I suspect that general reader ignorance and reading this book combine to make for half-baked "knowledge" and the reduction of this work to the level of entertainment. These lacunae, if the book should undergo further editions, should be revised, as they do not impress me with the potential value of it.

[Paul C. Stalder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I should have paid more attention to the subtitle of this one. This is not really a book about the Gospel of Judas. "Quest" is the operative word. Krosney has penned a story about the discovery of the text and it's, admittedly fascinating, travels over decades until it finally landed in the hands of scholars who could interpret it for us. I was expecting more comments on the actual substance. Krosney does give the reader about 20 pages right at the end of the book about the content, but it is not deep, nor does it add much to the general comments made throughout the book. I think I would have enjoyed this book more if it was formatted differently. Interspersing the dissection of the book with its travels around the world, for example. If you have an interest in archeology and the restoration and translation of ancient texts, this book should be on your list. If you just want to know what the Gospel of Judas says, you can probably skip this one.

[Cat. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now 15 years old, this book is exactly what it says: the story of how this papyrus book was found and the many travels it went on after its discovery in Egypt. It is not an in-depth discussion of what the book actually says, but rather how it took 4 decades to get it to the point where it could be read and translated, decades which caused more damage to it than the previous centuries did.

Lots of repetition of details, which got annoying, but the cast of characters is rather huge so I can see why it would bear repeating. And the last chapter does a short summary of what the big deal of the meaning of the text is.

[Charles Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

This 2004 book about the finding and rescuing of the Gospel of Judas is really an interesting read. There was a lot to be said about getting the manuscript of the gospel from Egypt to Switzerland over a 30-year span. And then not a lot said about what it all meant. I don't think the intention was to change minds. Perhaps, more, to instill some thinking and maybe even appreciation for what it takes to rescue such works and some appreciation for what they might offer to the reader.

That any of them survive is a wonder. That there are people around the world that can read and restore them is equally wonderful. Their work is certainly one of the most amazing things I've seen in a while.
###

[Mandi Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost in Irrelevent Detail
Written by Mandi Scott Chestler on June 10th, 2009
Book Rating: 3/5
The search and rescue mission involved in finding the Lost Gospel of Judas is an interesting story. However, the author should have gone on his own quest for a good editor. The book is so bogged down in pointless detail that it is painful for the reader/listener to complete the saga. To add insult to injury, the voice of the narrator, Jason Culp, sounds exactly like Casey Kasem from American Top 40, making the tale of one of the most important archeological discoveries of the century sound more like an over-produced syndicated AM radio show.

[A.L. Bellettiere · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really finished persay but choosing to read only certain chapters. In the end, the quest behind how the gospel got around only interested me for so long. And I had debated on whether to get the book that talks about what is written in the gospel BUT felt i got that in the book in the last chapter. Although what's revealed really means nothing, unless you seek self enlightenment. Most followers as well as rbe Christian bureaucracy would never pay attention to this. As was back then, is still now. Still slightly interesting. That Jesus more follows Buddhist teaching. I've known that for a while. And that Judas wasn't the bad guy.

[Andreas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected but an interesting read. I thought the book was about the gospel itself but rather describes the odyssey it undertook from its original discovery till it was finally sold and saved from disintegrating into oblivion. It provides intimate insight into the trade of antiquity dealers and also provided some information on related topics like the Naq Hamadi discovery and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
That said, for those who want to know what the gospel is truly about this is not the right book in my opinion.

[Keith Haan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchased this book because I was interested in the content of the Gospel of Judas. Instead I found a book filled with all the intrigue of a mystery novel. This book follow a well-documented history of the codex containing the Gospel of Judas as it traveled from Egypt to Europe to the US and back to Europe. I found it a fascinating account as the manuscript changed hands to potential buyers, eventually making its way to trusted scholars for restoration, radio carbon dating, and translation.

[Kim Myers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the story of the travels of the Gospel of Judas. Would have liked more details of the actual text.

[Dolores · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting examination of archaeology industry and the pursuit of early Christian texts.

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an extremely well written novel about the possibilities that are not widely taught to Christians.

[Carol Townsend · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, makes me want to read more about this lost gospel
Had to read in parts

[Suzette Román · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesante la historia del evangelio y sobre todo la perspectiva del autor acerca de la investigación y la historia detrás de este manuscrito.

[Marilyn Fontane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Lost Gospel by Herbert Krosney is a fascinating read. In it he presents the modern history (and some of the early history as well) in finding, restoring and reading the Gospel of Judas Iscariot. In the early days of Christianity there were many Gospels read and transmitted by various early Christian groups who did not have a canonical guide. Many of these have been found (some were never lost, but rather discarded by the church fathers as non-canonical), and are available to the general public. But although there are mentions of a "gospel of Judas" no copy was known to exist in modern times. It was strongly condemned by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon around 180 AD as fictitious (and evil) history; he of course condemned all Gnostic works, but was especially vehement about Judas in his Against Heresies. One can understand why (even though no copy of the work was available) because Judas was the betrayer of Jesus. In fact many Christians believe that his very name, Judas, means Jew; Judas was the only one of the apostles who came from Judea, the harsh mountainous region south of Jerusalem, which eventually gave its name to the entire Roman Province. And others believe Iscariot is related to the Zealots , a Jewish sect fiercely resistant to Rome. Thus, his very name is to some the definition of traitor or betrayer. Krosney suggests that the Medieval hatred of Jews relates to Judas, the betrayer. However, when I went to Sunday School, we were taught that the Jews were the betrayers because when Pilate allowed the people to choose one of three people who were to be crucified to be saved, the people, the Jews, asked that Barnabas, not Jesus, be saved. In any case the reputed Gospel of Judas did not exist.
However, in the 1970s (dates are fuzzy because no one wanted to reveal the source of their finds), Hanna Asabil (probably a protective pseudonym) found a jar containing a bound manuscript containing the Gospel of Judas--as well as three other texts--in a location not far from the place where the Nag Hammadi library (52 texts) were found. Like the papyrus texts of Nag Hammadi, Hanna's papyrus was written in Coptic, and was later found to be a Gnostic text as well. Most of Krosney's book is concerned with the 30 or so years between Hanna's find and the restoration and translation of the Gospel of Judas into English. And a thrilling story it is; Dan Brown could not have found a better group of grasping, ignorant people to attempt to thwart justice. One learns of the nature of the antiquities market where rich people attempt to own the only copy (book, coin, art work, whatever) and others are out to trick them, the delicacy of ancient papyrus which crumbles into dust at the merest touch and must be carefully put back together, the political juggling of various people and especially some members of the media, etc. The book is actually a page turner with the reader wondering whether Judas will ever be heard by the public or not.
However, obviously it eventually did get translated and published. Its authenticity as a text from the second century is assured. Carbon dating by the U of Arizona's AMS lab confirms the papyrus. Many experts, such as Rodolphe Kasser, leading translator of the Nag Hammadi documents, Marvin Meyer of Chapman University, and Stephen Emmel, prof. of Coptic Studies at the U of Munster were the primary translators. They and others attest that paleographic evidence (handwriting at the time) as well as content (of all 4 manuscripts) are consistent with the Coptic Christian community at the time. Thus, we know for sure that Gnostic Christians believed it was the truth according to Judas.
And what does that tell us? Judas believed he was the beloved disciple, not the betrayer. However, he does not contradict the four canonical gospels. The plot line is the same; it does not refute the others (in fact Judas probably never read the other gospels). But Judas is asked to hand over Jesus to the authorities by Jesus himself. Jesus needed to die to fulfill his mission and he asked Judas to be the instrument to do so. Jesus asked Judas "to sacrifice the man that clothes me." He returns to the disciples as god, not as a man. Judas is the one who is most beloved and trusted by Jesus to do what the others (with less faith; fearing that they were killing Jesus, rather than the garment of humanity that he put on) might not. But not only is the portrait of Judas different in this gospel, but the portrait of Jesus as well. He is not a tormented figure who will die on the cross; he is a friendly and benevolent teacher with a sense of humor. He laughs several times in the dialogue. Of course the manuscript has holes because of the dissolved papyrus. Much of the teaching, like that of many Gnostic texts, is mystical and allegorical. But it presents at the very least a view of what some of the early Christians believed, and gives us some alternatives in our own interpretations.

[Sarah - All The Book Blog Names Are Taken · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Book Blog -----> http://allthebookblognamesaretaken.bl...

I must first say that I do not buy into anything in any way related to Gnosticism. I don't believe that there was some secret wisdom imparted onto Judas from Jesus before his death.

What I do find fascinating, however, is the idea of a Gospel being written in relation to Judas, a man considered to be one of the most evil men in history. The history of the physical manuscript itself is also beyond intriguing, and reading about its journey into the light made for an interesting adventure. It gave me a lot of insight into the world of antiquities trade - something I knew nothing about. I guess I had never before given much thought to what happens to the items removed from the lands we consider part of the ancient world. I must also say as an aside that I believe these items should be returned to the lands they came from - the Rosetta Stone and various obelisks, especially those which were basically stolen (not those given as gifts).

Anyone who has read my reviews of Ehrman's work (he wrote the introduction for this book) knows how I feel about the guy - he annoys me. Not because I disagree with him on many points (if that were the reason I disliked him, I wouldn't read his books or books like this to begin with), but because of the way he comes across when making the points that he does and the way in which he dumbs the material down so completely, it is condescending and annoying. I skipped the intro of the book altogether to avoid as much Ehrman as possible, but to my displeasure I found he was quoted much throughout the book. Definitely could have done without so much of his nonsense.

I have thought a long time about what Judas means to history and to Christianity; that is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to write this review. I feel conflicted in writing these words even, but I suppose it could not be completely outside the realm of possibility that Jesus gave Judas the job of turning Him over to the authorities. Jesus was sent by His Father to die for our sins. It was pre-ordained that this would happen. So, if you think about it in that light, Jesus had to be turned in and arrested by someone. Couldn't it be possible that Judas was that person, on purpose? There is so much I am still learning, as I rediscover my faith again, that perhaps I am totally off base in thinking this way. But stripping away all the Gnostic nonsense also in the text, just looking at this single act in this way, does it make sense? I have a feeling I will be needing to talk to my pastor about this very soon.

All in all, it is a text about the journey of this so-called 'lost gospel'. It is an interesting one, a sad one, an educational one. It was decent enough to move quickly, and not terribly academic. One thing that I would have liked was an actual translation of the text, as I have seen in other books about this subject.

[Nick Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a long time since I too much interest in matters of Scripture, and I found this book fascinating as a reminder of the early Christian period. It gives a good background in the way the Christian religion developed. Before Constantine declared Christianity as a permitted religion in 315CE, it had been in the process of being codified by various authorities in the fledgling church, who were busy deciding what could and could not be admitted to the canon of work known eventually as the New Testament. What was finally accepted as the 'final word' comprised the 4 Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Acts of the Apostles, the letters of St Paul to various church communities and the Revelations of St John, and little else.

Not long after Jesus died, a whole lot of different sects competed for dominance, using a lot of different texts doing the rounds, including 'unofficial' Gospels from many different writers, and this is where the Gospel of Judas comes in: it was one text among many. The only record of it having even existed was the very brief mention of it in a condemnation by church elder Ireneus in 180CE.

All that changed in the early 21st century, when a group of scholars and academics were finally able to restore the ancient papyrus found in an Egyptian burial cave in the 1970s and declare it to be the Gospel of Judas, in which Judas Iscariot's story changed; the unknown writer made an attempt to rehabilitate Judas from his historical role as the betrayer of Christ, a venal, grasping man whose sin was often used as ammunition for anti-Semitism throughout the ages. In the Gospel of Judas, he plays a different role, being chosen by Christ as an instrument in his death, so that he could be crucified and could set about shedding his earthly body for a heavenly one.

The story is as much about the papyrus scrolls and the mishaps and adventures they engendered among all those who came in touch with them. They seemed like bad luck for everybody but the Egyptian Coptic peasant who sold them to a dealer for a sum that was, to him, a fortune; he went away happy with that. The dealer spent a tortuous 20 years trying to get rid of them to the right buyer at the right price. In that time, they languished in the dangerous air conditioning of a bank vault - which destroyed the integrity of the papyrus - and one ignorant buyer even put them into a deep freeze, damaging them even more.

Backstabbing academics, unscrupulous dealers, dodgy lawyers, even a crazy blogger, all feature among the strange cast of characters who finally brought the Gospel of Judas into the light and, while it's not exactly Raiders of the Lost Ark, it's an exciting enough tale at times, resisting and rising above the rather dry style adopted by academic Herbery Krosney to tell it.

[Baseni · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Vor über 30 Jahren, Mitte der 70er Jahre des vorigen Jahrhdts., wurden in Mittelägypten mehrere Kodizes entdeckt, der Versuch sie zu verkaufen scheiterte ein um das andere Mal, schließlich gelangte es nach der Jahrtausendwende in wissenschaftliche Hände, zum einen wurde die Restaurierung begonnen, zum anderen konnten die Texte endlich übersetzt werden. Es zeigte sich, daß es sich um einen mathematischen Text, einen Brief von Petrus an Philippus, eine Apokalypse des Jakobus, das „Buch des Allogenes“, ein bis dahin unbekannter gnostischer Text, sowie das Evangelium nach Judas Iskariot handelte. Letzteres war bisher nur indirekt durch die Verurteilung der alten Kirchenväter, Irenäus von Lyon war der erste, als herätische Schrift bekannt. Es folgt der gnostischen Tradition und ist anderen apokryphen Schriften, wie z.B. dem „Thomasevangelium“, vergleichbar. Im wesentlichen werden die letzten Tage Jesu in Dialogform wiedergegeben, dabei ist Judas kein Verräter sondern der engste Vertraute des Meisters, denn nur er erkennt, wenigstens zum Teil, die Berufung des Messias’ und folgt seinem Gebot, ihn durch die Übergabe an den Hohen Rat, seines irdischen Leibes zu entledigen.
Herbert Krosney geht in seinem Buch der Geschichte dieser Texte, fokussiert auf das Judasevangelium, akribisch nach. Hierbei verwendet er den, aus diversen amerikanischen Fernsehdokumentationen bekannten Stil der direkten Zitate der Beteiligten an. Ebenso wird versucht, durch fast verschwörungstheoretische Ansätze einen Spannungsbogen aufzubauen. Für Leser, die sich intensiver mit dem Antiquitätenhandel, spezielle ägyptischer Provenienz, beschäftigen wollen, mag es ein erster Einstieg in die Materie sein, Interessenten an dem Judasevangelium als theologische Schrift werden enttäuscht. Über mehr als eine minimale Einführung zur Gnosis und einer kurzen Abhandlung des Textes gegen Ende des Buches geht es nicht hinaus. Im Untertitel wird zwar auf die „abenteuerliche Entdeckung und Entschlüsselung“ (Übersetzung wäre wohl richtiger) hingewiesen, das Abenteuer nimmt jedoch für eine kirchengeschichtliche Betrachtung zuviel Raum ein. Das Thema hätte einen etwas ruhigeren Stil durchaus vertragen können."

[Атанас Димов · Rating 2 out of 5]

В книгата "Изчезналото евангелие" авторът подробно разказва за пътя на древен ръкопис известен като Евангелието на Юда. В зависимост от интересите на читателя и очакванията от книгата тя може да бъде от доста интересна до доста отегчителна. Всъщност точно тези подробности от пътя на ръкописа след откриването му загубиха интереса у мен. Очаквах повече догматика, същностни противоречия в религиите и коментари върху самото евангелие. Такива обаче има само в последната глава. Определено книгата можеше да бъде много по-компактна и кратка. Нешънъл Джиографик запазват противоречивия си стил по библейски теми да не изказват ясно и категорично мнение. И все пак отново след "Ръкописите от Мъртво море" се потвърждава мнението ми, че в периода на формиране на ранното християнство много неща остават забулени в тайна, а достигналите до нас са само тези, които някой е искал да достигнат...

In the book The Lost Gospel the author tells in detail for the route of an ancient manuscript known as the Gospel of Judas. Depending on the interests of the reader and the expectations from the book it could be from quite interesting to quite boring. In fact, these particular details of the route of the manuscript after its discovery have lost the interest in me. I expected more dogmatics, essential contradictions in religions and comments over the particular gospel of Judas. However, the above is contained only in the last chapter. Definitely the book could has been more compact and shorter. National Giographic retained their controvercial style on biblical themes not to reveal clear and definite opinion. And yet again after "The Dead Sea Scrolls" my opinion has been confirmed, that during the period of shaping of early Christianity many things remained shrouded in mystery, and the preserved up to the present times are just those things which someone has been wanted to be preserved...

[Steven Belanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The reader needs to be interested in biblical scholarship, or at least scholarship about ancient texts on papyrus, in order to get something out of this. The author assumes his readers are likewise interested by the time they buy the book, so he doesn't try to make that part accessible to the reader--he assumes it already is. This book does not contain the Gospel of Judas itself; instead, it is a chronicle of the trials and trevails the MS. took to reach the correct scholars who would, and maybe still are, preserving and translating the text. The codex took a murky road, and was handled by people who did a lot of foolish and greedy things. You would assume that academics and scholars would not partake in such behavior, but they are just human, after all.

This account is quite repetitive when it hits you again and again about how groundbreaking the text is. It is groundbreaking, of course: Judas is made to look like the good guy who planned with Jesus to turn him in, so he could (necessarily) be crucified. (This is all very similar to Nikos Kazantzakis's Last Temptation of Christ, of course, and the great Scorsese movie of the same name. These are never alluded to in this book.) But the reader will quickly get this; Krosney unnecessarily beats us with it again and again.

It starts off slowly, but picks up steam and is a quick read for this kind of thing. He doesn't write as well as other people in the field, such as Elaine Pagels, Jack Miles, Bart Ehrman and Johnathan Kirsch, just to name a few off the top of my head. But if you like reading about ancient stuff, and if you have a bit of an Indiana Jones imagination with archaeology, this will be a good read for you.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

prior to this book, it'd been a good 10+ years since i've read anything vaguely biblical. what i read back then was also nontraditional, in the stereotypical evangelical christian sense, so i suppose it's fitting that this book was my followup.

so: hordes of kudos to krosney for the thoroughly detailed research that The Lost Gospel demanded. truly, the story of this codex was a miraculous one -- miraculous that it survived at all, considering the horrendous treatment it received.

while the historical and theological contexts for particular developments along the path to discovery were interesting, at times it just made the book feel bloated. as if krosney'd been given a minimum word count and was trying to fill space. as such, sometimes my attention waned, but since i have a habit of following even mediocre stories to the end, i continued.

i think this could have been a better, shorter book, with the possible exception of adding the translated gospel of judas. i really would've liked to see the whole of it, not just snippets, given the purpose of the book: telling the gospel's story. i suppose that could've given it more of a religious slant -- and this is a very agnostic book -- but it felt a bit of a let down all the same.

that said, this was a good story and i'm glad i read it. i love the idea of a jesus who laughs, and a judas who was simply fulfilling the role demanded of him, rather than being a traitor to jesus' cause. i also think it's pretty silly to see this as heretical, but then again, those guys back in 300AD had to draw the religious line somewhere i suppose, even if those lines were tempered by distinctly human fears and foibles.