‘Scholarly malpractice’

Searches continue for the non-historical Jesus | Gene Edward Veith

The media keep heralding discoveries that purport to give us a new Jesus. But, in the words of The Chronicle of Higher Education, they are little more than "scholarly malpractice."

What National Geographic did with The Gospel of Judas is only one example (see WORLD, June 28). In 2006 that magazine published an ancient text that purported to present Judas as the good guy, who betrayed Jesus only at His request. Even though scholars noted that the work was written by Gnostic heretics centuries after the time of Christ and so had no historical authority, the press heralded the manuscript as if Judas were another Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

But as reported in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Rice Professor April DeConick, an expert in Coptic, the language of the document, noticed that the National Geographic translation has Jesus calling His betrayer "the 13th spirit," whereas a more literal rendering would be "the 13th demon." The translation says that Judas "would ascend to the holy generation," but leaves out the word not. The translation "set apart for the holy generation" should read "set apart from the holy generation." Furthermore, the media glossed over the overt meaning even of the faulty translation, that Judas is sacrificing Jesus to the demon god Saklas. Evidently, despite what the media reported, even the Gnostic heretics did not approve of Judas.