Sunday, April 16, 2006
Cariño: The Gospel of Judas
By Linda Grace Cariño
IT'S all the buzz. In our hopelessly Catholic Philippines, it warrants front page news on last Tuesday's Daily Inquirer, this after it features on the National Geographic Channel (NGC) just the Sunday night before that. It is, of course, the NGC documentary, The Gospel of Judas.
Paraphrased: A papyrus document is found in the mysterious sands of Egypt in the 1970s. From then, it journeys the antiquities market, is bought, stolen, lost, found, lost. Until it finally finds its way in 2000 into the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, in Basel, Switzerland, that sets it on the road to archeological study. The big guns come in to restore it, carbondate it, translate it from ancient Coptic, what is called the language of the Pharaohs.
It is now 2006, six years since then, and this document is now determined to be the Gospel of Judas. Like so many other gospels outside of the Bible's chosen four, it is a book that presents a picture of Jesus that many Catholics and other Christians may find uncomfortable. My take: so what if it's uncomfortable? Discomfort can be a good thing. Often, it marks significant turning points in paradigms. For those who have yet to catch the NGC documentary, it's being replayed tomorrow, Monday.
It reminds me of a book I read sometime in the early 1980s, entitled I, Judas (1977). It's by Taylor Caldwell, an author quite known not just for her bestseller track record, but also for her psychic leanings. She has been known to write under trance/regression sessions, convinced that some of her works are direct results of seeing into past lives. Such is her Judas book, among a number, in truth.
Like the NGC documentary, I, Judas, presents a picture of Judas as hero, not villain. But the Caldwell book fleshes out the character more than the documentary does: treasurer of the Apostles, very rich man, with total faith in Jesus, which is why he is the one Jesus chooses as an accomplice to the "betrayal" plot. I can just hear you: whaaaat?!
Oh yes. So if you're a church history buff like moi, check it out. And with that Judas as hero thought, let me wish everyone a blessed, renewing Easter.
(April 16, 2006 issue)
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