Who was Judas Iscariot ?   The 4 Gospels tell us he was the one who betrayed Jesus and handed Him over to be crucified.  Throughout the ages Judas has been vilified and perhaps is the most hated man in history.  But do we know the complete history of Judas ?  I have often thought what a bad deal He got.  I remember sitting in a church a few years back and the priest wondering the same thing in one of His sermons.    Being a student of the Bible and knowing that the 4 Gospels, where not actually written by the claimed authors; Mathew, Mark, Luke and John but rather were their versions of Christs ministry handed down and then written after their deaths(Biblical scholars agree with this), I decided to do some extensive research on the early church. 
  The early church were people meeting in each others homes.  There were no church buildings and Christianity was in its early stages and was an outlawed religion.  Rome ruled and different Roman groups and Judaism along with the various new christian groups competed for followers.  In the early church there was no Bible and there were many gospels which the various christian groups followed.  In fact there were over 30 Gospels that the people followed in secret away from the Romans as Christians were being put to death.
  There was the gospel of Truth, the gospel of Mary, the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Philip, and the gospel of Judas, all in addition to the 4 gospels that are in today's Bible.  The Christians followed their favorite gospels that resonated truth to them.  Why Haven't we heard of these other gospels ?  Where did they come from ?
  We will explore the gospel of Judas and explore how or why would the man who handed over Jesus even have a gospel that people followed.  Quite intriguing to say the least.  Is there another story of Judas we do not know about.  And if so why don't we know about it ?  Is the gospel a forgery or written back during the early christian times ?
  Where did the gospel of Judas come from ? There are a few different versions but the most accepted is that a farmer on the banks of the Nile found a codex, a book, while searching a cave in 1978.   He didn't understand the writings but felt it was old and valuable so sold it to an antiquities dealer.  It remained underground for a while, was stolen and passed hands until a dealer purchased it in 2002 in Switzerland.  He didn't know what He had and the book was in thousands of fragments and in bad shape.  It was written in Coptic an ancient language.
 The book was found in a safety deposit box in Hicksville New York were it had remained hidden for many years.  The new owner still not knowing what it was took it to Yale University were it was verified as the Gospel of Judas.  They had leading biblical scholars analyze the writings, and all agreed was real and not a forgery.  They believed it was a translated copy which was probably originally written in Greek and then later translated to Coptic in 280AD.  Radio carbon dating confirmed it was written in the second century.   For the first time the Gospel of Judas which had remained hidden for almost 2000 years could now be read.  But why was it hidden ?  Was there another story of Christs ministry ?
  We know from the current 4 Gospels that Judas was one of the original 12 Apostles, and that He was the betrayer of Christ.  Is there another story of Judas ?   History says yes.
   We must first go back a bit and look at the early church.  Back in 180Ad Bishop Irenaeus was tasked with selecting the gospels that would be put into the Bible that we have today.  He had over 30 gospels to select from.  Remember Christianity was still outlawed and Rome was in turbulent times.  In 66AD the Jews revolted against the Roman rule and the Romans destroyed their Holy Temple in Jerusalem which is why today the western wall, which is all that remains is such a holy place.
  In order to separate Christianity from Judaism and so Christianity could flourish the message of Christs ministry had to precise and clearly defined.  After all Christians were dying for their faith so there had to be a defining faith and not opposing views as there were in the 30 various gospels circulating.  So Bishop Irenaeus selected 4 gospels; Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, the 4 we have today.  Their stories were popular versions amongst the early christian groups and easy to read.  The other gospels were more mystical and discarded and became known as the gnostic gospels.  They became outlawed by the early church and the gnostic followers over the years were hunted down and killed.  This allowed Christianity to grow and flourish as all the gospels preached 1 message.
  Today the Gnostic's gospels we are told are hereditary by the church.  But remember they existed during the early church and had many followers.   Gnostic by definition means knowledge.  The Gnostic's followed the gospel of Mary, Thomas, James and Judas back in the early church.  The church didnt like the Gnostic gospels as they told the followers  they didn't need bishops or anyone controlling them and this upset the early rulers of the church, which is why over hundreds of years they were hunted down an killed.  But the gnostic gospels were not all destroyed but some were written down and hidden.
 So lets talk about the role of Judas in the 4 Gospels in today's Bible.  The earliest Gospel is Marks, written in approximately 60AD.  It is interesting to note that Judas is not a villain in Marks Gospel.  He is not even pointed out.  But in Mathew which was written some 10-15 years later, Judas is named as the betrayer, by his act of kissing Jesus on the cheek, in the garden where He was handed over to the Romans.  Later in this Gospel we find Judas so remorseful He hangs Himself.   In Luke Judas falls to His death in what was called the field of blood which is today a garbage dump.  By the Gospel of John which was written much later than Marks gospel we see Judas as a fully developed character and as evil incarnate himself.  In fact Judas becomes synonymous with the word Jew and the Jews are portrayed as the ones who killed Christ.  In fact it was Rome that killed Jesus and He died on a Roman cross.
  So why the differing accounts of Judas and the Jews .  Remember the times.  They were violent.  Christianity is struggling to survive.  The Jewish rebellion had occurred.  The Christians and the early church are trying to distance themselves from Judaism. The Jewish temple no longer exists so what did the Jews stand for ?  Christians were inviting gentiles-non Jews into the fold.  They blamed the Jews for killing Christ.  The Jews claimed Jesus was not the messiah.  Anti semitism grew.   Jesus in His teachings never said any of this.
  So what exactly did the Gospel of Judas say that the early church was so afraid of ?
Well we find a special relationship between Jesus and Judas.  Back then the Jewish teachers would teach a lesson to the crows and then select a few who understood and teach a hidden message or higher meaning as the masses not all understood.  This is done even today.  In the Gospel of Judas Jesus teaches Judas the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven.  Jesus teaches that the true God is a being of beyond comprehension and in the beginning of time god created angels and lower angels and was the lower angels who created the physical universe.  These lower angels were imperfect so created an imperfect world full of pain and suffering.
  Jesus issues a challenge to all the Apostles in Judas' Gospel.  He says let the perfect person inside you step forth before me.  They didn't understand and only Judas stepped forth and why Jesus selects Him for a secret mission.   Judas tells Jesus he had a dream where He was hated and stoned to death by the other apostles.  Jesus tells Judas you will be cursed by all others and You shall grieve a great deal, but that Your star will be brighter than all the others.  Jesus asks Judas to hand Him over to the Romans in order to fulfill His mission.  Judas sacrifices Himself out of worship.
  In the Gospel of Judas Jesus is seen as more jovial and the gospel teaches that we all have a divine spark within ourselves that needs to be set free.  When the body dies the spirit lives forever so Jesus had to die to free his spirit.  This is what matters for salvation.   The other Apostles don't know about the arrangement between Jesus and Judas but Jesus knew he had to be handed over to complete His mission.  Jesus was sent as the true son of God and His mission was to show that salvation lies in connecting within the god within the man.  The other apostles were obsessed with the physical world of the senses preaching animal sacrifices which pleased the lesser gods/angels but did not connect them with the true God.  They wrongly taught the physical body would be resurrected which is not what Jesus taught Judas.   In the Gospel of Judas Jesus has to die to free his spirit from the body and this is whats important.
  What you believe is a matter of faith and only you can decide what is true or untrue.  But the fact is undeniable by Biblical scholars..that there was a Gospel of Judas and it is a different account of Jesus' ministry.  And the early followers of this Gospel and other Gnostic gospels were all hunted down and killed.  Why ?  Could it because the Gnostic followers which were called Christians in the early church believed that Bishops and Popes weren't needed and that one could connect to God thru his higher self inside Him ?  Did this threaten the church which changed and altered the 4 gospels we find in the Bible today ?  The Bible today preaches we are separated from God and only thru church and its teachings can we enter into Heaven and to not believe in a physical resurrection of Jesus' body one will suffer torment and agony in hell for eternity.
  This is another account of what happened back then and the Gospel of Judas has been radio carbon dated back to the 2nd century.  This Gospel raises a lot of questions the most glaring being if we are all connected to God and not separated like the church today teaches, why would we need church ?  Makes one wonder.  I look at what Jesus said and did.  He walked amongst the people preaching outside and in their homes.  He preached love and compassion and to help the poor and hungry.  Today's Church you find them involved in politics and on television and often  advocating  bombing other countries..but that's another story for another post..