Judas Iscariot-Key to Christian Salvation or Betrayer of Jesus

Woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed, good were it for that man if he had never been born. Mark 14:21. The man the Gospel of Mark refers to is of course Judas Iscariot, who has become known to Christians as 'Judas the Betrayer'. After all of the generations that have scorned him, this man may in fact have been the actual key to Christian salvation.

Knowing that Judas was reflecting about something that was exalted, Jesus said to him "Step away from the others and I will tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal... But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me." Where did this come from? Could it be that there are two sides to the Judas saga? Who wrote this and what does it mean?

If one were to search for enlightenment, to study the history behind the scenes, they would find that there were other books written of that time period and storyline, teachings written by early Christians that portray Judas in quite the different light. In order to understand what exactly happened to the other side of Judas's tale, we must travel back in time, back to the 1^st and 2^nd centuries.

The time period directly following Christ's death, was extremely dangerous. Being a "Christian" is illegal. The movement was growing in leaps and bounds, however many Christians were put to death in the public arena, killed in various ways for the entertainment of the population. This did not stop the following from growing and by the 2^nd century Christians actually had a church hierarchy, complete with bishops, priests and deacons. Various church leaders including a prominent bishop, Irenaeus of Lyons, were convinced that the movement needed to be brought together through the indoctrination of one set of Christian beliefs and one church. Irenaeus felt very strongly that without one set of beliefs, the church would never gain political acceptance and it could not forever endure the persecution of the Roman Empire.

Irenaeus wrote a detailed treatise, Detection and Overthrow of False Knowledge, commonly know as The Treatise Against Heresies, 180 c. Herein, the Gospel of Judas is denounced. It is thought that possibly Irenaeus had not even read the Gospel of Judas, but because of the act of betrayal committed and the fact that Irenaeus disliked the Christian group who is thought to have observed the teachings of the Gospel, it is denounced as heretical. Many of these writings were lost to mankind for over 1600 years until recently unearthed and restored.

What did the Gospel of Judas tell it's readers? From the beginning Judas's story is told with Jesus giving Judas secret knowledge that He did not share with the other disciples. Judas is the only one of the disciples who can stand before Jesus and confess that he understood exactly who Jesus was, He was the divine one from the immortal realm. In this Gospel, Jesus is light hearted, He laughs a great deal while teaching Judas the secrets of the great boundless realm and the great invisible spirit. Judas asks Jesus about his own role and Jesus tells him "You will become the thirteenth, and you will be cursed by the other generations--and you will come to rule over them." It is revealed to Judas that he is to be the instrument that sets in motion the events which will set Christ's spirit free. The Gospel ends abruptly with Judas faithfully caring out his masters wishes. "Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star." And as the New Testament tells us, they parted with a kiss.

The main focus of the New Testament is Gods plan for salvation which Jesus is carrying out. So God must have planned this special role for Judas in particular, someone God could trust to do such a terrible deed. Someone Jesus could count on. Jesus takes his followers to Gethsemane, where He parts himself from the group excepting two look outs, and goes off by Himself to pray. "Father, if this cup may not pass from me, except I drink it, Thy will be done." Jesus lets God know that if this is the plan, He and Judas are ready.

Irenaeus denounces the Gospel of Judas in his treatise of 180c. and a passage very close to one found in the Book of Acts in the New Testament appears in the Gospel of Judas helping scholars to approximate that the Gospel was written probably between 100-170 c. Irenaeus did the best he could for the Church, how could he allow Judas the Betrayer to be exalted as a hero when many of his friends and colleagues were being slaughtered in the public arena, even his own teacher, Polycarp, died in prison for his beliefs. Many Christians of the time were betrayed by their own family or friends in order to avoid being at odds with Roman law and to gain political acceptance. Irenaeus was a good persuader, any surviving copies of the Gospel were almost lost forever.

The Gospel of Judas is a wonderful text that gives us a great deal more insight into the realm of Christian salvation and helps us to better understand how much Judas Iscariot sacrificed to help bring about God's plan for Jesus and the salvation of mankind.

Sources:

1. The New Testament, King James Version

2. Beyond Belief, The Secret Gospel of Thomas, author Elaine Pagels

3. The Gospel of Judas, Edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst. With

Commentary by Bart D. Ehrman

4. The Gnostic Gospels, author Elaine Pagels