The Last Supper
Originally uploaded by _Faith.
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April 6, 2006 -- HERE'S A big story. Not that anything I've reported before was junk. But just to point out, in case you're in a hurry and not paying real attention, that this is a big story.
For two years, National Geographic has secretly worked on a project dealing with religious history. Their deep pockets financed an architectural dig in biblical desert land. Its ultimate was to yield a scriptural trove and, in fact, has unearthed what they will soon proclaim are ancient scrolls.
These scrolls have painstakingly been translated by a group of scholars, and the revelation is that they deal exclusively with Judas.
The assumption is this wondrous history of the ages has been authenticated via forensics, carbon dating, historians, clergy, graphologists, geologists, geneologists, biologists, specialists, scientists, pathologists, zoologists and any other kind of -ists who peer through magnifying glasses. Still, how this gets awarded the official kosher sign enough to satisfy some modern doubting Thomas, I'm not sure. I mean, to my knowledge, nobody except the president has directly spoken to Jesus and his posse in weeks.
Anyway, packaged in two separate volumes, this gets released through Bantam's distributing arm in 60 days. Judas' story will be titled "The Gospel of Judas." (The National Geographic television channel will air a TV show of the same name on Sunday.) The companion book, although both may be sold independently, is the saga of the discovery.
Anticipated is that this could be the most talked about tome of the century. Anticipated is that the Vatican will come out against it. Anticipated is that the hostility directed toward Mel Gibson's "The Passion of The Christ" and "The Da Vinci Code" book and movie will be a hymn-sing in comparison.
Why?
Because, also anticipated, is that this could blow the lid off Christianity's established concepts. The deciphered words supposedly unveil a story different from that in The Holy Bible. They remove the centuries-old animus Christians have held towards Jews because, they state, Judas did not betray Jesus.
The words say it was Jesus' wish for Judas to exhibit this precise behavior in order to fulfill Jesus' divine destiny. In this record, supposedly as ancient as the Scriptures themselves, it twists all around Judaism and Christianity. No longer, per these scrolls, can Judas, a Jew at the Last Supper Passover table, be thought of as betraying the Lord for pieces of silver if - per these supposedly sacred writings - he was, in fact, doing the Lord's bidding.
This is all I know. For more, for answers, questions, facts, widening of this information, you are directed to spokespersons at National Geographic. They are not speaking. Until this point they have remained even more silent than Katie Couric's manager.
Judas did not betray Jesus, lost gospel claims
By Jenny Booth
An ancient manuscript written in Egypt in 300AD purports to show that Judas Iscariot was not the betrayer who sold Jesus to his enemies for 30 pieces of silver, as the bible says.
The apocryphal account of the last days of Jesus's life portrays Judas as a loyal disciple, who followed Jesus's orders in handing him over to the authorities and thus allowed him to fulfil the biblical prophecies of saving mankind.
The fragile 31-page document, which has had a chequered history since it was discovered near Beni Masar in Egypt in the 1970s, was put on show for the first time this afternoon at the National Geographic Society in Washington, along with an English translation.
IN TRUTH THIS ISN'T SUPER BIG NEWS,
Prophecy of Judas Destiny:
It would be fair to think that Judas’ betrayal of Jesus would send him to hell, but since Judas couldn’t have had a choice, shouldn’t he be praised? According to Jesus in Matthew 19:28, all 12 disciples would sit on thrones to judge the 12 tribes of Israel. Judas was obviously one of the 12 at this point. When Paul writes that Jesus appeared “to the twelve” after his resurrection, whom could he have had in mind if not Judas? It doesn’t sound like he was punished in this life or the next.
BUT I FIND IT MONUMENTAL TO THE CAUSE OF STUDYING THE TRUTH, LOVE AND JUSTICE OF CHRISTIANITY. QUESTIONS OF FREE WILL PEOPLE?
