Gnostic Novelist, Catholic priest collaborate in new ‘Gospel’ of Judas
Pastor Dale Morgan
Gnostic Novelist, Catholic priest collaborate in new ‘Gospel’ of Judas*
By Cindy Wooden
3/20/2007
ROME (CNS) – Curiosity about the New Testament figure of Judas and a
feeling that his reputation as the worst sinner in history "isn't fair,
isn't right" led British Gnostic Jeffrey Archer to attempt a new version
of the story.
Archer, presenting The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot at
a March 20 press conference in Rome, said he is a practicing Anglican
who wanted his new book to be backed up by solid biblical scholarship.
So he convinced Father Francis J. Moloney, provincial of the Salesians
in Australia and a former president of the Catholic Biblical Association
of America, to collaborate.
Father Moloney, who served on the International Theological Commission
for 18 years when it was under the presidency of the future Pope
Benedict XVI, provided scholarly criticism of the text and wrote the
bulk of the theological notes and clarifications found at the end of the
book.
The text in the gilded pages of Archer's book is organized into chapters
and verses, like a real Gospel, with the words he attributes to Jesus
written in red.
Archer's main thesis is that Judas tried to prevent Jesus' arrest and
execution by enlisting the help of a scribe to get Jesus out of
Jerusalem and back to Galilee where the Romans supposedly would ignore him.
In the end, the scribe betrays Judas, which means Judas unwittingly
betrays Jesus.
Both Archer and Father Moloney doubt that Judas committed suicide, a
story recounted only in the Gospel of St. Matthew.
The Benjamin Iscariot in Archer's title is Judas' fictitious son, who –
years after the death of Jesus – finds his father living in an ascetic
community near the Dead Sea. His father reluctantly gives his version of
what happened to Jesus and the son writes it down.
Father Moloney told reporters in Rome that none of the things in
Archer's account that differ from the accounts of the New Testament can
be certain.
"Most of it may be improbable, but none of it – in my judgment – is
impossible," he said.
Whatever really happened between Jesus and Judas, Father Moloney said,
he believes Judas was a "tragic" figure, but not one who was forced to
betray Jesus in order to fulfill God's plan for the salvation of humanity.
"We are all free to say, 'yes' and 'no,'" Father Moloney said, and that
had to have been true for Judas as well.
Father Moloney said he agreed to collaborate with Archer because
although he has written 40 books about the Bible they have "made little
impact on the increasing skepticism surrounding the Christian church"
while "deeply flawed and uninformed works like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci
Code and Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion have become best-sellers."
"The message of The Gospel of Judas never betrays the teaching of Jesus
Christ as recorded in the gospels," Father Moloney said.
However, Father Moloney points out in the notes that in his description
of Jesus as the biological son of Joseph and Mary Archer's
interpretation differs from the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic
Church.
Archer told reporters that he first brought the idea for the book to his
publisher in 1992, but could not find the right scholar to help him.
The author said he was attracted to the topic because Judas was not the
only disciple who failed Jesus.
All of the disciples ran away from Jesus in his hour of greatest need,
and Peter denied Jesus three times, Archer said.
"All of them showed their human failings, but every one of them ended up
as a saint. And Judas, who showed his failings, ends up as the most
vilified person in history. It was the extreme black and white that
annoyed me," he said.
Father Moloney said he hoped Archer's book would prompt people to read
the New Testament and to understand that the gospels were not written
"to communicate the brute facts of history"; rather they assemble
historic facts "to communicate a message about what God has done for
humankind in and through Jesus Christ."
He said Archer's book, although fictitious, gives "primacy of place" to
the truth found in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, while
telling "the traditional story through the eyes of Judas."
Father Moloney also told reporters that he knows Pope Benedict "has an
interest in the enigma of Judas" and would not be surprised to learn
that the pope has read Archer's book.
The book presentation was moderated by Jesuit Father Stephen F. Pisano,
rector of Rome's Pontifical Biblical Institute, which later hosted a
scholarly discussion about Judas in the Bible.
Father Pisano told reporters that the institute "is not concerned with
modern-day fiction" and absolutely did not endorse Archer's book, but
Father Moloney's scholarship provided an opportunity to discuss "what we
know and what we do not know about Judas from the way he is portrayed in
the New Testament."