Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends about the Infamous Apostle of Jesus (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends about the Infamous Apostle of Jesus Birger A. Pearson Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends about the Infamous Apostle of Jesus. By Marvin Meyer. (New York: HarperOne. 2007. Pp. xii, 181. $22.95 paperback. ISBN 978-0-06134-830-3) A number of books about Judas and the Gospel of Judas have been elicited by the publication of the Gospel of Judas by the National Geographic Society in April, 2006. Meyer prepared the English translation of the new gospel for that volume (Rodolph Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gregor Wurst, The Gospel of Judas, with additional commentary by Bart D. Ehrman). In the introduction to this book ("The Vilification and Redemption of a Disciple of Jesus") Meyer discusses ancient and modern portrayals of Judas; the discovery and preservation of the Codex Tchacos, the fourth-century Coptic manuscript in which the gospel appears; and the reconsideration of Judas that the new gospel has inspired. He writes, "With its mystical message and its sympathetic portrayal of [End Page 534] Judas Iscariot, the Gospel of Judas will help scholars rewrite much of the history of the church during the early period" (p. 13). In the first chapter Meyer discusses the texts in the New Testament in which Judas appears, including passages from Paul's letters in which Judas does not appear. Paul knows nothing about Judas and teaches that it is God who "handed over" Jesus to his death. Meyer notes the increasing demonization of Judas found in the Gospels and Acts. In chapter 2 he introduces the Gospel of Judas and presents a new translation. Meyer places the gospel in the context of Sethian Gnosticism and dates the original Greek version to the mid-second century. In Meyer's reading of the text Judas is not only Jesus' best friend but also "a Gnostic paradigm of discipleship and faithfulness to Jesus" (p. 52). Chapter 3 contains a translation of the Dialogue of the Savior (Nag Hammadi Codex III, 5). Meyer suggests that the "Judas" who is one of the interlocutors in the dialogue with Jesus is Judas Iscariot. In chapter 4 Meyer introduces and translates another Nag Hammadi text, The Concept of Our Great Power (NHC VI, 4). Judas is not named in that text, but is certainly referred to in one passage. Chapter 5 contains another Gnostic text in which Judas is not named, but is referred to obliquely, the "Round Dance of the Cross" found in the apocryphal Acts of John. In chapter 6 Meyer presents translations of ten other Christian texts that treat the "diabolical" Judas, ranging in date from the second to the sixteenth centuries. The final chapter contains passages about "Traitors before Judas": Judah and the other brothers of Joseph in Genesis 37, an anonymous betrayer in Psalm 41 (cf. John 13:18), and Melanthius the goatherd in Homer's Odyssey, book 22—texts that could have influenced the depiction of Judas in the New Testament. In chapter 2 Meyer mentions conference papers by April DeConick, Louis Painchaud, and John Turner, in which a "revisionist" understanding of the depiction of Judas in the Gospel of Judas has been proposed (see DeConick's book The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says [London and New York, 2007]). I count myself among the "revisionists," and our numbers are growing. As I see it, there are two major problems with Meyer's book. The first problem has to do with translations of key texts, which lead him to a faulty understanding of the depiction of Judas in the gospel. For example, Meyer translates 44:21 to read "thirteenth spirit" instead of "thirteenth demon" (Greek daimon). In Gnostic contexts daimon always means "demon." Meyer [End Page 535] translates an emphatic future negative as a verb of purpose, thus misunderstanding Jesus' bald statement to Judas, "You shall not ascend to the holy [generation]"(46:25–47:1, my translation). Toward the end of the gospel Jesus is discussing the evil sacrifices to the god Saklas made by the twelve disciples, and then he says to Judas (in my translation) "Yet you will do more evil than all of them...