Can the recent Gospel of Judas be fully deciphered and translated?

You know... Judas was as common a name used in Israel at the time of Jesus (in fact Jesus had a brother named Judas) Judas was as common is use as the name of John, or James is used in our time today. When the Dead Sea Scroll were found and their existence made public in the 1970's there was a lot of speculation as to the changes they would make in religions and the Bible. All the hype about the Gospel of Judas are to help sell the books that are written about these papers. There are also Gospels of Thomas and Mary Magdalene called the Gnostic Gospels... that have been known about for centuries... and held in restricted access by churches over the ages... There are many documents that are in existence called "Gospels" that were written between 50AD to 350AD when the Emperor Constantine declared that a "Bible" text be put together by the Bishops of the Catholic Church. These Bishops searched out the Gospels that we find in the Bible today... and most of these Gospels were written in Greek by the various authors... and when the new "Bible" was composed of both the Old Testament (which is the Jewish Torah) and the books of the New Testament (Gospels-Acts-Revelations) they were written also in Greek and bound into the book we know today as the BIBLE. So, can the Gospels of Judas be deciphered and translated... yes... read the Gospels of Thomas and you will find many things written that contradict what we are taught and believe today... The Bishops in the era of 350AD... chose what to include and what to exclude... kept only those things that would not cause problems to the new evolving Christian Church that the Emperor Constantine was using to unite his divided empire... That Bible was to become the political tool and foundation of Constantine's empire. It was to be used as the basis of that new evolving universal Christian church. Remember... up to this time all the Roman Emperors persecuted and killed the Christians in the Roman Collesium... Constantine stopped all persecutions and the Christian Church came up out of the Catacombs when he came into rule. This was the first time in 350 years that the Christian Church saw daylight! So, yes it can be deciphered and translated... like the Gospels of Thomas and Mary Magdalene were and the Dead Sea Scrolls were... Have faith... the hype and newness will settle and they will find their nitch like the rest of the documents did when they came to light from the past.

PS... None of the Gospels were written before the year of 40 AD... ALL THE GOSPELS WERE WRITTEN BETWEEN THE YEARS OF 40 AD to 100 AD. This is a proven and accepted fact by all Christian Churches...

Yes, I'm sure it could, but you have to ask yourself, Why? Why after two millennia is this "alleged" book of Judas suddenly coming onto the scene? I do realize that Judas was just as likely to write a book or two as any of the rest of the apostles. I also realize that it may have been the consensus over the centuries in which the Bible took form not to include the book from that traitor Judas, for the obvious reason. But the thing is if this alleged Book of Judas isn't just like the other Apostles' books, then it's a lie.

If you read the New Testament, you'll see there is much repetition from book to book particularly in books written by the 12 Apostles. Another element these books had in common was the fact that many passages were written in jail, after the Crucifixion and resurrection. Judas was dead by then. In fact, upon reading the New Testament, you'll find that the odds very heavily favor that very little if any of it was written before the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Now why would that treacherous swine Judas write books to amend Moses's Bible while the other apostles were still in doubt of Jesus's capabilities? The main thing you have to keep in mind is that Judas did not betray Jesus because he was a Devil worshipper, he did it for the money, and because he, like the rest of the Apostles apparently was not truly convinced that Jesus was who he said he was. AND the odds heavily favor that there was no documentation of that fact because, hey. Who would be dumb enough to keep a record of somthing like that?

One of the saddest truths about today's Intellectual World is that oftentimes people.... powerful people will say unproveable and unchallengeable things just to get some attention. Some wise and intelligent beings will stimulate the minds of the masses with pure sugar flavored fluff just to show their colleagues that they still have it. If you are truly interested in this alleged Book of Judas, by all means, persue it. But I wouldn't expect it to be the single most damaging blow to the Bible, Judism, and Christianity on the face of the Earth if I were you.

Perhaps. So far only this one copy is known. Perhaps more will be found? As for the translation, Coptic is fairly well-understood.

The Christian Bible was assembled in the 4th century. It consisted mostly of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and a number of narratives and letters which were assembled in the New Testament. There are literally dozens of other Gospels and other early Christian writings (e.g. Gospel of Thomas, Acts of Paul and Thecla) that were deliberately omitted from the Bible. The Gospel of Judas is a gospel that did exist at least as early as the mid-late 2nd century. Was it actually written by Judas? Almost certainly not. Does it contain Gnostic elements that were not (and still aren't) in compliance with mainstream Christianity? Most definitely yes. The Gospel of Judas is interesting for scholars of early Christianity, but it will ultimately not make much of a ripple in theological community. I do not understand why so many Christians, like the above poster, are getting their feathers ruffled.

Of course. But why would you care? Just because this lost scroll has been discovered doesn't mean that it automatically has significance.

Gnostic teaching runs counter to the Gospel & Epistles -- with Gnostic belief containing exaltation of knowledge over faith. Gnostics were opposed matter, which they felt caused sin. Jesus, they said, was not really human flesh but only appeard to be.

The early leaders of the Church (Clement, Polycarp, Tertullian, etc) all refuted/rejected Gnostic teaching, because Gnosticism was nothing more than a cult.

Note to poster below!: Was I getting my "feathers ruffled"? I was merely pointing out that the commotion over this scroll is much ado about nothing. Am I somehow guilty of "censorship" just because I stated the obvious? I could care less if anyone choses to read it...I just personally think too much is being made of it.

The writer below also posted some misleading statements about the formation of the Bible. Their are a few books of the New Testament canon that could be debated, however the vast majority were accepted from very early 2nd century and on. The other "Gospels" that the writer referred to ("dozens deliberitly omitted") were omitted for a reason: they were NEVER accepted by mainstream Christianity, and the doctrine contained therein contradicts the early Gospels & Epistles....

Much of it is missing, but the rest of it not only can be translated, but already has been. The Gospel of Judas is just one of dozens of known non-canonical early Christian writings.

The original Greek versions of the gospels do not say Judas was a traitor. That's just Christian tradition. In that sense, the Gospel of Judas is not really in conflict with the canonical gospels.

If you have an interest in this subject, the following link has many of these available for reading online:

Based on that documentary, 15% of the Gospel is lost, but the other 85% has been translated. Elaine Pagels (you saw her on the documentary) wrote "Beyond Belief," a book about the New Testament and its history, with an emphasis on the Gospel of Thomas. Frankly, I'd like to read them all and let them speak to me rather than let Bishop Irenaeus decide what I'm allowed to read. Or Pat Robertson, or Robert Schuller, for that matter.

The gospel of Judas was not written by Judas (he killed himself before he could write anything). The gospel of Judas is one of the Gnostic gospels, a sect that believed in a "secret knowledge" (Gnosis is Greek for knowledge). This sect was based in neo-platonism and had pagan influences. It is well criticised by St. Irenaeus in his work, "Against Heresies" (AD 180/199) and also criticised by others. The Gnostic writings were discovered in Egypt around 1945 and serve only to give information about the beliefs of the Gnostics. St. Irenaeus mentions meeting Polycarp, who was ordained Bishop by the Apostles in Asia. Polycarp also met others who knew Jesus Christ. So while there is a link between Christ and St. Irenaeus, there is no known link between the Gnostics and Christ. The Gnostics more or less hyjacked Christianity for their own ends.

Why don't you ask Oded Golan and other frauds who invent such items? The ossuary was fake, the "stone of Solomon" was fake (Golan is in an Israeli prison for both fakes), the Fraud of Turin - oops, "Shroud" - was a fake, and the "judas gospel" will inevitably be shown to be a fake.

How many failures, fake "artifacts" and fake stigmata will it take for christianuts to stop believing and start dealing with reality?

Why bother deciphering it? It was written at least 100 years after the fact by a group of people whose ideas have long been deemed heretical.

I would just say that how can this be true. The bible has been around for thousands of years. The text of the bible run together even though there were different writers. This supposed new book, does not jive with the others books of the bible. Just my two cents worth.