Subscribebreaking news — judas iscariot betrayed jesus christ!!!
this is one of the greatest articles i’ve ever read in the new york times. apparently the highly exciting National Geographic discovery of The Gospel of Judas last year has taken a dramatic twist.
Judas, apparently, was not a heroic, holy spirit whom Jesus asked to hand him over to the Jewish and Roman authorities. turns out, quite the contrary, that Judas was a greedy, demon-possessed man who betrayed Jesus!!!! a shocking revelation, indeed (*cough*Luke 22:3-6*cough*)
in the above article, the author details the completely shoddy scholarship that National Geographic employed in translating the document, twisting what the ancient coptic actually said in order to gain flashy headlines and sexy praise for their efforts in calling the New Testament accounts of Jesus into question. thankfully, they have now been exposed for the frauds they are.
says the author:
I think the big problem is that National Geographic wanted an exclusive. So it required its scholars to sign nondisclosure statements, to not discuss the text with other experts before publication. The best scholarship is done when life-sized photos of each page of a new manuscript are published before a translation, allowing experts worldwide to share information as they independently work through the text.
Another difficulty is that when National Geographic published its transcription, the facsimiles of the original manuscript it made public were reduced by 56 percent, making them fairly useless for academic work. Without life-size copies, we are the blind leading the blind. The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong.
To avoid this, the Society of Biblical Literature passed a resolution in 1991 holding that, if the condition of the written manuscript requires that access be restricted, a facsimile reproduction should be the first order of business. It’s a shame that National Geographic, and its group of scholars, did not follow this sensible injunction.
shame on you, National Geographic.
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My...
April DeConick’s New York Times piece on the Gospel of Judas fiasco is excellent. I was particularly interested in what she said about the Dead Sea Scrolls:
“The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong.”
From what I understand, the consequences of the Scrolls monopoly are indeed still continuing today, in an exhibit taking place in San Diego. See this article for an example of the kind of horrifying conflict this has led to:
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego
So I would suggest that an important question is whether serious biblical scholars who, like April DeConick, seek to do their research in accordance with basic principles of scientific humanism rather than any specific religious agenda, will frankly condemn what is going on with the Dead Sea Scrolls in one museum exhibit after another. Or will we have another decade of silence, innuendo and embarrassed shrugging of shoulders?
December 3rd, 2007 | #