The Gospel of Judas

Well, it's all over the place..."The Lost Gospel of Judas". Forgive me for mentioning this...it is controversial to say the least. I'm generally slow to jump onto any bandwagon of belief in such documents until their authenticity and authority is proven valid. However, I have great interest in such historical documents, if authenticated, seeing them as useful in viewing the context of the real-life people and events behind our faith.

While it is not a new discovery...

"the document has been known of since the late 2nd Century. This Coptic copy of the orignal Greek document was discovered in the 70's and has been dated to around AD 300." - Stephen Shields

...there certainly is sudden and enormous buzz about it these days, likely due to an announcement made (today, I believe)

"by the National Geographic Society at a news conference in Washington. The 26-page Judas text is said to be a copy in Coptic, made around A. D. 300, of the original Gospel of Judas, written in Greek the century before." NYTimes

I have heard conflicting (ABCNEWS) reports (USAToday) about it's authenticity (CNN) and validity (ChristianityToday)...

...and being unqualified to make any assessment of my own...I will just say I will await the opinions of reputable Biblical Scholars.

However with National Geographic as one of the main organizations at the helm of this discovery...it does have far more credibility than the "James' Ossuary".

For anyone who is interested: thought I'd provide a few links from the blogosphere. These links contain varied amounts of information and varied opinions, and are listed in no particular order.

Messy Christian

Brother Maynard

Open Source Theology

Kester Brewin

Michael Spencer

[Edit] Scot McKnight seems to be doing a series on the text. Interesting discussion will ensue.