New Gospel of Judas?

[A4B4]

Hello everyone; this morning on the Today Show, I saw just the last portion of an interview with an author of a fictional "Gospel According to Judas". The first thing that came to my mind was, wait, isn't the Gospel of Judas one of the old non-Canonical texts?

Well, it seems like it is now both. Here's an excerpt regarding the "Gospel According to Judas" taken from MSNBC's site:

"The Gospel According to Judas," published simulataneously in eight languages this month, is a fictionalized account of the life of Jesus purportedly written by Judas’ son, Benjamin. Authored by novelist Jeffrey Archer and biblical scholar Francis J. Moloney, the book follows the style of the gospels to offer what some reviewers say is a more sympathetic portrayal of Judas. Archer and Maloney were invited to talk about their book on TODAY.

(http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/17802844/)

Then, contrarily, Wikipedia's entry on the Gospel of Judas can be found at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Judas

So does anyone know what's going on here? It seems odd that a novelist could write a fictitious book in the name of an already existing historical, albeit non-Canonical, text, moreover posing as the son of Judas.

Unfortunately I haven't read either.

 

[Halcyon]

The difference here is in the title.

The Gospel According to Judas is, like you say, a work of fiction.

The Gospel of Judas is a genuine ancient sacred Gnostic text. Rather than being an account written by Judas, like how Matthew is traditionally written by the named apostle, it is the "Good News of Judas" the good news of the role Judas played in one particular Gnostic version of Jesus's life.

Hope that helped.

 

[yuvgotmel]

You can view or download The Gospel of Judas via this link http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf It is in PDF format.