One purpose of these attacks is to weaken faith in God by discrediting the accuracy and origins of the Bible. It is therefore critical to effectively counter such attempts.
All these books are based on one or more of a series of spurious “gospels” written in the second and third centuries, a hundred years or more after Jesus’ ascension. “The DaVinci Code” and “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” are based on two forgeries called the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary Magdalene. These claim that Jesus married the Magdalene (some claim He married Mary and Martha of Bethany, as well), and had children. Following Jesus’ death (and presumably, His resurrection), mother and child (or children) took refuge, either in Gaul (
“The Gospel of Judas” does not claim to be written by the traitor himself, but rather purports to tell the truth about Judas – that he was really the most beloved disciple, therefore hated by the others, and selected by Jesus to “betray” Him, thus triggering the entire Passion of our Lord. Of course, the Bible clearly contradicts this. Judas (like many Jews who listened to, and even followed Jesus) expected Jesus to be a powerful, earthly king, who would make
All these (and many more writings from AD 100 to perhaps AD 500) are examples of Gnostic texts. They were written to support a faction that claimed that “secret knowledge” existed and was necessary for “true” salvation. This faction mixed magic, ancient philosophies, even demonology, with the pure Gospel of Christ Jesus. They were never considered by any real christian to be Scripture, despite the claims being circulated today. The particular group or tradition which circulated “The Gospel of Judas” are often called Cainite Gnostics, because they had a regular cottage industry of rehabilitating biblical villains such as Cain, Saul, Simon the Sorcerer, and Judas.
Catholics (and most Protestants) today will claim that the Canon (the “official” listing of books of the Bible) was established by a worldwide Catholic council (convention) in the late forth century, AD, and that until that time, such books as the Judas, Thomas, and Mary Magdalene gospels might have been acceptable as “scripture.” This makes the Bible appear to be the creation of humans, of a church. Fortunately, that is not really what happened – it is false history, even outright propaganda.
What history shows is, that just as men inspired by God wrote the books that make up the Bible, so the Spirit inspired the assembling of those various books into a single collection, not later than AD 150 and likely even sooner, perhaps while John the Apostle was still alive. This agrees with Scripture itself. After that time, there were many challenges to specific books (as late as Martin Luther’s challenge of James’ letter), and these challenges were mostly put to rest by a series of these councils – which amounted to man presumptuously “ratifying” what God had done.
The bizarre and pernicious doctrine of Gnosticism first rose in New Testament times, as discussed in Titus 3:18, 2 Peter 2:1, 2 John 10-11, and perhaps 2 Corinthians 11:3-4. It was not a “competitor” to “orthodox” Christianity, as some would charge, but rather, a departure from the faith once and for all delivered to the saints (like so many other ideas). Its key aspects are strongly condemned in Scripture, and are incompatible with God’s revealed religion. Gnosticism is internally inconsistent and its writings, like all false teachings, contain many obvious errors.
Gnosticism is sometimes thought (in tradition) to be traced to Simon (Acts 9). It would create an inner “elite” or “initiate” church like most religions have – a system completely opposed to God’s will for the church. Sadly, Gnosticism is still a threat to the faith of members of the church today, in many different ways: the blending of pagan philosophies (such as “new age Christianity” or the modern Roman Catholic Church), the blending of science and religion, and such. The very idea that only an elite (priests, scientists, school-trained preachers, etc.) can understand God’s will, and other errors, are exactly the kind of Gnostic concepts that plagued the church 1700 years ago. The christian must be ever vigilant to deal with such issues as “The DaVinci Code” and “The Gospel of Judas.”
© Nathan A. Barton, 9 APR 2006, used by permission
[1] It is interesting, that as recently as this week, I have heard that John 13:26-27 is “proof” that the Gospel of Judas is true, because Jesus clearly commanded Judas to do the deed – rather than simply Jesus knowing what he would do. As with many other claims, this is based on the assumption that Jesus is human, not divine.
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