Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Authenticating the Gospel of Judas

TESTS:
Truth Behind Gospel of Judas Revealed in Ancient Inks

Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience Senior Writer
Date: 08 April 2013 Time: 11:30 AM ET

A long-lost gospel that casts Judas as a co-conspirator of Jesus, rather than a betrayer, was ruled most likely authentic in 2006. Now, scientists reveal they couldn't have made the call without a series of far more mundane documents, including Ancient Egyptian marriage licenses and property contracts.

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An interesting story detailing the process of authenticating the Gospel of Judas. (HT David Meadows.) Here's an image gallery, also at LiveScience. More on the Gospel of Judas here with many links.

By the way, what ever happened to those authentication tests on the Gospel of Jesus' Wife? You know, the ones being arranged by the entirely impartial and disinterested owner of the fragment? And the tests to authenticate the fake metal codices? The ones that were going to take three weeks back in April of 2011? But don't even get me started on that one.

UPDATE: On the question of whether the Gospel of Judas "casts Judas as a co-conspirator of Jesus, rather than a betrayer," see here and links. This was the view of the scholars that published the text, but it has been very much disputed since then.

UPDATE (10 April): Related post here.