The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Gospel reading from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Sunday, May 28th: Acts 1:15-17, 20-26; 1 John 4:11-16; John 17:11-19)

‘GOSPEL OF JUDAS’ BETRAYS AN ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS

During Holy Week last month the National Geographic Society (NGS) made news by revealing the contents of a long lost manuscript, the “Gospel of Judas.” This ancient document portrays Judas Iscariot in a completely different light than the Bible does, claiming that he was Jesus’ favorite disciple; that he alone among the disciples really understood Jesus’ true mission; and most startling of all, that Jesus asked Judas to betray Him so that by dying Jesus could break free from his earthly bonds. In the recently discovered text, Jesus says to Judas, “You will sacrifice the man that clothes me”—that is, allow Jesus to shed his repugnant mortal body.

I recently had a chance to view a tape of the NGS television special that was part of the multi-media marketing blitz. After watching the special, complete with melodramatic reenactments of Judas and Jesus, I must say in all honesty that I was shocked at what I saw. No, I wasn’t shocked by what this ancient manuscript says about Judas and Jesus. I was shocked by the National Geographic Society’s biased efforts to portray traditional, orthodox Christianity in such a bad light.

Two of the three readings at church this week—the first reading and the gospel—discuss Judas Iscariot. In the first reading, from the Acts of the Apostles, the remaining 11 disciples had to pick a successor to take the place of Judas. They prayed that the Lord would show them which of two men to choose “to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place.”

The phrase “his own place” did not mean Judas finally moved out of his parents’ house and got an apartment of his own. It meant he was in Hell.

In the gospel reading, from John’s gospel, Jesus prayed to His Father about the disciples. He said, “When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me, and I guarded them, and none of them was lost except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture might be fulfilled.”

Here, the “son of destruction” (or in other translations, “son of perdition”) refers to Judas, the only one of the disciples who “was lost.”

The New Testament writings are very clear about what Judas did and, sadly, his eternal fate. The tragedy is, despite what he did, if Judas had only repented and sought forgiveness, just like Peter did after he denied Jesus three time, Jesus surely would have forgiven him. Jesus surely would have prepared a place for Judas in Heaven, if Judas had only said he was sorry and put his faith in the risen Jesus.

In order to better understand the motivations of the National Geographic Society, we first need a little background information about the people who most likely wrote the “Gospel of Judas” sometime during the second or third century A.D. These people were known as Gnostics (pronounced “noss-ticks”).

Writing in WORLD Magazine, Gene Edward Veith explains: “The Gnostics were eastern mystics who taught that the physical realm is intrinsically evil and that the spirit can be freed from its bondage to physicality through the attainment of secret knowledge (or ‘gnosis’). They rejected the Christian doctrine of creation (saying that the material world is evil). They denied the incarnation (saying that Christ was a spiritual being who brought the secret knowledge and denying that He became ‘flesh’). And they denied the redemption (saying that sin is not a moral failure—since what we do in the flesh does not affect our spirits—but simply a lack of spiritual knowledge).”

Veith continues: “Many Gnostics went so far as to teach that the Creator portrayed in the Old Testament is really a demon. After all, only an evil being would create something so evil as the material world. The being who rebelled against this false deity and his physical creation is Satan, who is thus the ‘good guy.’ After all, in his manifestation as the serpent in the Garden, Satan offered Adam and Eve ‘knowledge.’”

Finally, Veith notes: “Gnosticism lets you be ‘spiritual’—as an inner mysticism—without worrying about objective truth or what you do with your body. But, like Judas, it betrays Christ.”

The NGS program asserts that the Gnostics were simply one of many expressions of early Christianity. This is obviously untrue. The Gnostics outright rejected most of the major doctrines of both Christianity and Judaism. And yet the TV special suggests that any “gospel” text floating around during the first few centuries A.D.—whether the four gospels in the Bible or other non-canonical writings such as the Gospel of Judas—are of equal importance and insight.

The TV program glosses over the critical fact that the four gospels in the Bible were written by people who were eye-witnesses to Jesus’ ministry, or at least written with input from eye-witnesses. The Gospel of Judas, on the other hand, was written more than 100 years later by people who were actively rebelling against orthodox Christian doctrines. It is plainly and obviously a work of fantasy, meant to mock the very doctrines the Gnostics were rebelling against.

As I watched the program, I was puzzled as to why the prestigious National Geographic Society would produce such a schlocky, sensationalist program. And then I remembered: Oh yeah, the National Geographic folks are some of the most ardent secular humanists around.

By the term secular humanist, I mean their worldview is atheistic materialism. Their starting point for understanding reality goes something like this: “OK, we know there are not gods, no demons, no spiritual world, no heaven or hell, no life after death. Therefore, we know that religious writings cannot be God’s word to mankind; they are mankind’s words about an imaginary God.”

It may not be as obvious, but the producers of the NGS special are as secular and atheistic as the board of directors of the ACLU, the editors of the New York Times, Howard Dean, and Hugh Hefner.

The secularism of the NGS producers is a bit more subtle than these other high profile folks, but it is nonetheless the foundational principle for all their work, including the “Gospel of Judas” TV special. Their secularism prompts them to marginalize traditional, orthodox Christianity because they truly believe that religious superstition prevents millions of people from embracing an “enlightened” secular understanding of science and nature.

So, in their view, there is no possibility that God inspired the authors of Sacred Scripture since there is no God. There is no possibility that the Holy Spirit guided the Catholic Church Councils during the 4th century to choose which writings were indeed inspired and thus belonged in the Canon of Sacred Scripture. In their view, the Bible that emerged from traditional, orthodox Christianity was simply the result of human politics, power, and PR—because to the folks at NGS, like all secularists, everything is ultimately the result of human politics, power, and PR.

The clincher for me was one of the biblical experts interviewed extensively in the TV special. Dr. Elaine Pagels spoke very highly of the Gospel of Judas, frequently speaking of it in glowing terms while offering snide and dismissive comments about the gospels found in the Bible and traditional faith. The program described her simply as a theologian from Princeton University.

A little research, however, uncovered the true Dr. Pagels. She is well-known as a “radical feminist theologian,” and has argued that Gnosticism is more open to women, since the physical body is not important. She says that the early church denounced the Gnostics as a heretics, not because Gnosticism rejected core Christian doctrines, but as part of a male-dominated plot to oppress women.

Author James Hitchcock says: “Elaine Pagels, who has done the most to promote the gnostic gospels, is quite candid about her own agenda—‘spirituality’ freed from the constraints of creeds.” The NGS, not surprisingly, avoids any mention of Dr. Pagels’ personal “agenda,” and instead presents her as an open-minded, impartial scholar. But the truth is, Pagels probably believes the Bible is the Word of God about as much as I believe the New York Times is the Word of God.

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus referred to His followers when He prayed to the Father: “Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.” God’s word is not only truth, it is very clear. It clearly tells us who Jesus is, what He did for us, and how we can receive the gift of eternal life by putting our faith in Him. (It’s also clear about Judas: he was not a hero.)

Armed with the truth of God’s Word, when we watch a National Geographic TV special that sings the praises of the Gospel of Judas and Gnosticism, we know we are watching gnonsense.

©2006