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[Timothy Butler]

> The brevity of the document doesn't concern me. I think that the  
> prophet Malachi was much shorter. What concerns me are the claims  
> that are made in the document. If I read it right, it seems unto me  
> that the claim could be made that Jesus asked Judas Iscariot to  
> betray him (though such a claim would sure have been made in the  
> other Gospels). Furthermore, the document seems to portray Judas as  
> being the closest of the disciples. This could not have been  
> further from the truth.

	Well, I don't know if I'd go that extreme: he wasn't the closest,  
but I think he was as close as many of the twelve (outside of the  
inner three).

> At best, this is similiar to the gnostic gospel of thomas and at  
> worst, a wicked deception designed to rationalize and even downplay  
> Judas betraying Christ. While this may prove the subject of debate  
> for many years, it seems unto me that this so-called gospel is too  
> choppy to read to begin with and that further study of it will  
> prove that it is nothing more than a historic hoax. The document  
> may be ancient, but it is still an elaborate hoax.

	It seems inescapably Gnostic. So, I'd say its most useful function  
it provide us with new and more detail insights into the Gnostic  
community on the fringes of the early Church. However, compared to  
Thomas, it seem rather limited in its usefulness for such insight.

	-Tim




---
Timothy R. Butler | "It may be that  when the angels go about their
Editor, OfB.biz   | task  praising God,  they play only Bach.  I am
tbutler at ofb.biz   | sure,  however,  that when they are together en
timothybutler.us  | famille they play Mozart."
                                                       -- Karl Barth