The Gospel According to...Judas?

 

Yup. Via cronaca.com, PaleoJudaica.com is reporting the upcoming publication of a Coptic version of the long-lost Gospel of Judas. We knew about this little Gnostic fanfic from St. Irenaeus of Lyons in his Adversus Haereses, in the chapter on Doctrines of the Cainites:

 

Others again declare that Cain derived his being from the Power above, and acknowledge that Esau, Korah, the Sodomites, and all such persons, are related to themselves. On this account, they add, they have been assailed by the Creator, yet no one of them has suffered injury. For Sophia was in the habit of carrying off that which belonged to her from them to herself. They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas.

 

This may at least spare us from the scenario in George R.R. Martin's
"The Way of Cross and Dragon", as it means folks won't have to come up with Judas fanfic about flying dragons and Iscariot sitting on Jesus' right hand. OTOH, there were probably a blue dozen independently written versions of every dorky Gnostic gospel, so this might not actually be the one Irenaeus was talking about. But do I really care?
 
Not really. Though I'd like dragons a lot better than boring ol' Aeons. Heck, if I'd been writing a Gnostic gospel, I would've written something more exciting than anything Pagels keeps salivating over. None of this "women can only get into heaven by reincarnating as men" crud, either.

Still, you'll notice in the above story that we get an Eeeeevil Catholic Church with an Eeeeeeevil Torturing Inquisition, and it's all opposed only by the benevolent power of Lies. Um. Whatever, dude. Martin's a good writer, but I do tend to lose patience with this sort of thing. Even with dragons.