The Secrets Of Judas

Professor Robinson’s new book, The Secrets of Judas, should be read alongside the National Geographic volumes for another perspective. — New York Times America’s leading expert on ancient religious texts from Egypt. — Lisa Ko, author of The Leavers

The discovery of a previously lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot has electrified the Christian community. What Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John tell us about Judas, the disciple who betrayed Jesus, is inconsistent and biased. Therefore, the revelation of an ancient gospel that portrays this despised man as someone who saw his role in the Passion of Christ as integral to a larger plan—a divine plan—brings new clarity to the old story. If Judas had not betrayed Jesus, Jesus would not have been handed over to the authorities, crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. Could it be that without Judas, the Easter miracle would never have happened? In The Secrets of Judas, James M. Robinson, an expert historian of early Christianity, examines the Bible and other ancient texts and reveals what we can and cannot know about the life of the historical Judas, his role in Jesus's crucifixion, and whether the Christian church should reevaluate his intentions and possible innocence. Robinson tells the sensational story of the discovery of a gospel attributed to Judas, and shows how this affects Judas's newfound meaning for history and for the Christian faith.

For 1,600 years its message lay hidden. When the bound papyrus pages of this lost gospel finally reached scholars who could unlock its meaning, they were astounded. Here was a gospel that had not been seen since the early days of Christianity, and which few experts had even thought existed–a gospel told from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, history’s ultimate traitor. And far from being a villain, the Judas that emerges in its pages is a hero. In this radical reinterpretation, Jesus asks Judas to betray him. In contrast to the New Testament Gospels, Judas Iscariot is presented as a role model for all those who wish to be disciples of Jesus and is the one apostle who truly understands Jesus. Discovered by farmers in the 1970s in Middle Egypt, the codex containing the gospel was bought and sold by antiquities traders, secreted away, and carried across three continents, all the while suffering damage that reduced much of it to fragments. In 2001, it finally found its way into the hands of a team of experts who would painstakingly reassemble and restore it. The Gospel of Judas has been translated from its original Coptic to clear prose, and is accompanied by commentary that explains its fascinating history in the context of the early Church, offering a whole new way of understanding the message of Jesus Christ.

Describes how the Gospel of Judas was discovered, why it was historically denounced as heresy, and what it says about the disciple's role in the plan for salvation.

The biblical scholar recounts the events surrounding the discovery and handling of the Gospel of Judas, and provides an overview of its content, in which Judas is portrayed as a faithful disciple.

At the height of the Spanish Inquisition a ruthless inquisitor by the name of Bishop Promane tortures a fellow priest, Father Sanchez, for information about the whereabouts of a relic known as the Judas Robe, rumored to be the only piece of physical evidence of God on earth. Promane succeeds in recovering the robe only to lose it to Sanchez's saviors, knights belonging to The Order of Christ. In the Present Day, Joel Gardiner, a pre-med student, is attacked by a group of religious zealots after leaving a campus pub. A young woman calling herself Sophia rescues Joel and reveals that he is descended from of the Order of Christ who still has the Judas Robe in their possession. Joel dismisses it as a hoax or farce, but zealots renew their efforts to seize the robe. Joel and Sophia embark on a quest to verify the existence of the so-called relic while trying to elude the murderous cabal. Praise for Larry Rodness' new novel The Judas Robe "If you had a chance for proof-positive of God's existence on earth, would you go for it?... The author's med-student protagonist, Joel Gardiner, finds himself suddenly faced with just that dilemma...Here's a novel for those looking for an unusual plot-line with lots of action and adventure." - William Maltese: Amen's Boy; A slip to Die For; Thai Died; A Conspiracy of Ravens "In the spirit of a Dan Brown thriller, The Judas Robe cleverly fulfills the promise of its thought-provoking subject. Like the fine weave of a robe, Rodness intertwines his inspired premise with theology, mystery, action and suspense to engage the reader in the timeless battle between science and religion, which couldn't be more relevant today."-Stephen Witkin, Screenwriter, Los Angeles Excerpt Mother Natalie entered the room wearing a standard white blouse and navy skirt. That was the only thing standard about her. Standing five foot seven, she had sparse feather-like hair. Her skin was almost translucent, and her slight-build made her look like she would tip over at the slightest breeze. "Joel, isn't this a nice surprise," the nun said. "Someone in my dorm was murdered last night. Do you know anything about it?" "No, of course not. How would I?" "A couple of nights ago, I was jumped by two men." "Oh my, you weren't hurt, were you?" "I'm all right. Mostly, because this girl intervened." "What girl?" "Goes by the name of Sofia. She said the thugs who attacked me were after something called the Judas Robe." Natalie emitted a tiny gasp as the look of concern on her face turned to fear. "What did you tell her?" "I told her I had no idea what she was talking about. But I'm here because my mother and her wacked-out family have been part of some religious cult for years."

James was a vegetarian, wore only linen clothing, bathed daily at dawn in cold water, and was a life-long Nazirite. In this profound and provocative work of scholarly detection, eminent biblical scholar Robert Eisenman introduces a startling theory about the identity of James—the brother of Jesus, who was almost entirely marginalized in the New Testament. Drawing on long-overlooked early Church texts and the Dead Sea Scrolls, Eisenman reveals in this groundbreaking exploration that James, not Peter, was the real successor to the movement we now call "Christianity." In an argument with enormous implications, Eisenman identifies Paul as deeply compromised by Roman contacts. James is presented as not simply the leader of Christianity of his day, but the popular Jewish leader of his time, whose death triggered the Uprising against Rome—a fact that creative rewriting of early Church documents has obscured. Eisenman reveals that characters such as "Judas Iscariot" and "the Apostle James" did not exist as such. In delineating the deliberate falsifications in New Testament dcouments, Eisenman shows how—as James was written out—anti-Semitism was written in. By rescuing James from the oblivion into which he was cast, the final conclusion of James the Brother of Jesus is, in the words of The Jerusalem Post, "apocalyptic" —who and whatever James was, so was Jesus.

"Judas is a dark journey through the murderousness of Christian Anti-Semitism, culminating in the mass slaughter of more than a and their associated European butchers. Lucid, study is close to definitive on the fictive figure of Judas."—Harold Bloom