THE EDITOR, Sir:THE RECENTLY discovered 'Gospel of Judas' is claimed to shed light and perhaps overrule the age-old history that Judas betrayed Jesus. The age of the document may be debatably accurate, but its contents appear dubious. I write out of concern that the document may spawn 'doubting Thomases' and cause Christians and non-Christians to doubt the credibility of the Bible and the New Testament account of Jesus' death.
First, the writing puts forward that Judas was one of Jesus' closest disciples and that he was very much aware of Jesus' desire to "shed his earthly body." Two red flags are suddenly apparent. This contradicts Jesus' prophecy at the Last Supper, when He pointed out that Judas would betray Him. More significantly, Jesus was not going to and did not "shed" His earthly body. He rose with the same body, glorified, but the same, so that Thomas could have touched Him. Stating that Jesus desired to "shed" His earthly body defies Old Testament prophecy. Both contradict the accounts of the other apostles in the New Testament Gospels.
CONTRADICTORY
Second, the document is so contradictory to the gospels that its credibility can be negated for the most part. The eyewitness accounts of the New Testament writers were written before the close of the first century. For example, we know that Matthew, Mark, Luke,and Acts do not contain the account of the fall of Jerusalem which occurred in 70 A.D. This fall included the destruction of the Jerusalem temple which was prophesied by Jesus in Matt. 24:1, Mark 13:1, and Luke 21:5. Furthermore, there are over 5,600 copies of the New Testament, all written less than 100 years from the originals. The accuracy of the copies far outweighs those of Homer, Caesar, Aristotle and Plato, being 99.5 per cent accurate (measuring deviations including spelling, grammar and common errors of manual transcribing). Beyond the actual New Testament, there are other historical documents, such as the history written by the (non-Christian) Jewish Historian Flavius, written early in the First Century AD.
If the Canonical New Testament (which includes the current accounts of Jesus' betrayal) are accurate and inspired, then this single contradictory document can be overlooked as a mere fraud.
I am, etc.,
MARC RAMSAY
marcramsay@gmail.com
Mona
Kingston 6
Via Go-Jamaica
