Table Of ContentThe Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot
Also by Bart D. Ehrman
Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene:
The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
The Text of the New Testament: Its Transmission,
Corruption, and Restoration, Fourth Edition
(with Bruce M. Metzger)
Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code
The New Testament: A Historical Introduction
to the Early Christian Writings,
Third Edition
A Brief Introduction to the New Testament
The Apostolic Fathers: Volumes I and II
Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture
and the Faiths We Never Knew
Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It
into the New Testament
Christianity in Late Antiquity, 330–450 CE:
A Reader
(with Andrew Jacobs)
The New Testament and other Early Christian Writings:
A Reader, Second Edition
Jesus: Apocalyptic Prophet of the New Millennium
After the New Testament: A Reader in Early Christianity
The Orthodox Corruption of Scripture: The Effect of
Early Christological Controversies on the Text of the New Testament
Didymus the Blind and the Text of the Gospels
The Lost Gospel of
Judas Iscariot
(cid:97)
A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed
Bart D. Ehrman
2006
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ehrman, Bart D.
The lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot : a new look at betrayer and
betrayed / by Bart D. Ehrman.
p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-10: 0-19-531460-3
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-531460-1
1. Gospel of Judas—Criticism, interpretation, etc.
I. Title.
BS2860.J83E37 2006
229'.8—dc22
2006048268
All photos by Kenneth Garrett / National Geographic Image Collection.
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Contents
Preface vii
1 My Introduction to the Gospel of Judas 1
2 Judas in Our Earliest Gospels 13
3 Judas in Later Gospel Traditions 35
4 Before the Discovery: Our Previous Knowledge of
a Gospel of Judas 53
5 The Discovery of the Gospel of Judas 67
6 The Gospel of Judas: An Overview 85
7 The Gospel of Judas and Early Christian Gnosticism 99
8 Jesus, Judas, and the Twelve in the Gospel of Judas 121
9 Who Was Judas Iscariot? 141
10 What Did Judas Betray and Why Did He Betray It? 153
11 The Gospel of Judas in Perspective 171
Notes 181
Index 189
v
To Dale Martin,
friend and scholar extraordinaire,
who has always pushed me
to look at things differently
Preface
Most of the Gospels from early Christianity have been irretrievably lost.
Occasionally one turns up, found by trained archaeologists looking for
them or, more commonly, by local peasants inadvertently coming upon a trea-
sure that is, quite literally, beyond their dreams. It is rare—a once-in-a-lifetime
experience at best—for a scholar to have the opportunity to be involved with
the first evaluation, authentication, and publication of a newly discovered Gos-
pel. As it turns out, I was lucky.
A series of unexpected phone calls, some of them from the National Geo-
graphic Society, alerted me to the discovery of a long-lost Gospel, the Gospel
of Judas Iscariot. Scholars had known of the one-time existence of this Gospel
from the writings of the early church fathers. But these ancient reports were
bizarre and hard to believe. Could there be a Gospel of Jesus written from the
perspective of his mortal enemy and betrayer, Judas Iscariot? And could such a
Gospel actually paint Judas in a favorable light, claiming that, contrary to all
tradition, he was in fact Jesus’ closest disciple and confidant? National Geo-
graphic wanted me to help authenticate the Gospel and establish its historical
significance. I jumped at the chance, and here I can tell the story.
This is a Gospel that seemingly has appeared out of nowhere, discovered in
a tomb in Egypt some thirty years ago, and now available for the first time for
readers intrigued with the history of early Christianity and the many forms of
Christian belief and practice of the early centuries. It is in fact a Gnostic Gos-
pel. And it is one of the most intriguing ever discovered. It is not a Gospel
written by Judas or by anyone who actually knew him. It is not as ancient as
Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. But it is one of our earliest surviving non-
canonical Gospels. And the tale it has to tell is remarkable.
vii
viii Preface
In recounting the story I have incurred some debts that I would like to ac-
knowledge. My thanks go to National Geographic, especially Terry Garcia,
Senior Vice President of Missions, for bringing me on board for the project,
and Betty Hudson, Senior Vice President of Communications, for all her sup-
port. Robert Miller, my friend and editor at Oxford University Press, gener-
ously agreed to publish my account and read my manuscript with a keen editorial
eye. Especially to be thanked are my friends in the field, scholars who have
read the following pages, saved me from egregious mistakes, and tried to save
me from many more: Dale Martin, of New Testament fame and fortune, from
Yale University, to whom I have dedicated this book; Andrew Jacobs, the bright-
est star on the horizon of Late Antique Christianity, at the University of Cali-
fornia, Riverside; Zlatko Plese, my brilliant colleague at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Coptologist nonpareil; Herb Krosney, the inves-
tigative reporter who more than anyone else is responsible for making the
discovery of this Gospel known to the world; an anonymous but unusually
keen and insightful reader obtained by Oxford University Press, whose com-
ments have made me think and think; and my wife, Sarah Beckwith, a medi-
evalist in the Department of English at Duke, whose perceptiveness and intellect
are uncanny.
Translations of the Gospel of Judas are by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer,
and Gregor Wurst, in collaboration with François Gaudard, in The Gospel of
Judas (Washington, D.C.: National Geographic, 2006); translations of the New
Testament and other early Christian writings are my own, unless otherwise
indicated.
Preface ix
The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot
