In a many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

As previously discussed on this web site, this is the commonly overlooked but, at least in my view, the key verse of Dylan’s great song With God on Our Side.

Much of the power of Dylan’s work comes from the questions that it poses, and the question of whether Judas had “God on his side” forces one to consider further questions of God’s will, His purpose in our lives, and our role in God’s plans. Judas committed a sin, the Gospels tell us, in betraying Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. And yet, Christians believe that Jesus was born in order that He could die for our sake — so wasn’t Judas just helping that to occur? Did God use Judas, compelling him to commit a sin in order to effect His plan for mankind? What would that say about the Christian belief that God is goodness — that God is truly love? What does it say about human free will? Could God perhaps both give humans free will and also know in advance what individuals are going to do with it? Inspiring these questions in an “anti-war song” (although I think With God on Our Side ultimately is not an anti-war song) lifts the level of contemplation far beyond the usual, and that’s one of the aspects of the songwriter’s genius.

Now, 43 years after Dylan’s song appeared (not that he was by any means the first to ponder the conundrum of Judas’s responsibility for Christ’s death), the media is doing cartwheels over the so-called Gospel of Judas, promoted by National Geographic as “a lost gospel that could challenge what is believed about the story of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus.” This alleged 4th century copy of a supposed 2nd century manuscript is said to describe Jesus as secretly planning his turnover to the authorities with Judas Iscariot — thus transforming Judas from a betrayer into a trusted intimate.

Cases like this illustrate the vast disconnect between regular American Christians and the voices that dominate American “mainstream” media. One doesn’t need to be a Biblical historian or an expert on early Christianity to understand why this manuscript is not likely to shake the foundations of Christian belief — one only needs to possess commonsense and a modicum of understanding about what constitutes Christian faith in the first place. The average Christian believer does not view the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the letters of Paul and the other New Testament writings as merely a random selection of scribblings by people who lived in the first couple of centuries AD. Presumably (and actually), lots of things were written by lots of people back then, including people who had their own agenda and were trying to hitch a ride with or influence the growing number of people who were following this Jesus of Nazareth guy. God did not remove the free will of those who chose to write “gospels” to further their own agenda. The books that make up the New Testament, however, are understood to have been written by men guided by the Holy Spirit, and their recognition and eventual formal assembly into the official Christian canon is also believed, by believers, to have been guided by the Holy Spirit. If one doesn’t believe that — if instead one relies on these writings as mere historical documents that can be argued one way or another, and might even be superseded by newly found artefacts, then one doesn’t really have much of a solid rock to hold onto (to coin a phrase).

Yet, in what I’ve seen on TV and most of what I’ve seen written in the media about the “Gospel of Judas,” I haven’t seen this pretty basic concept referred to — let alone drawn out in detail. Perky Katie Couric, soon-to-be anchor of the CBS Evening News, certainly didn’t bother raising it with the experts she talked to this morning, leaving the impression that this document could somehow threaten the primacy of the stories told by John, Luke, Mark and Matthew. Not bringing up the whole notion of faith, and the Holy Spirit, in a discussion of why Christians believe in one piece of writing about Jesus over another, is just further evidence — not that it was needed — of a vast lack of understanding in elite media circles about why “those people” — i.e. your regular American Christians — believe what they do, and indeed a lack of understanding about what it is that they do believe.

Picking, essentially at random, one story on the Judas Gospel from today’s Chicago Tribune, it’s just inanity piled upon absurdity.

The announcement of an alternative account to those of Mark, Matthew, John and Luke is bound to stir the passions of believers–especially coming shortly before the annual commemoration of Jesus’ final days.

“It raises the question: What does the Sunday school teacher tell her students?” said Hershel Shanks, publisher of Biblical Archeology Review, a longtime forum for scholars and others interested in biblical times.

Any Sunday school teacher who is reading the newspapers in order to figure out what he or she should be telling his or her students is already hopelessly lost, and in dire need of an intervention; possibly from one of the students themselves. As is Mr. Hershel Shanks, if that quote from him conveys what it seems to convey.

Then this:

Scholars hope one thing may prove true: The new version of the story could help mend fences between Christians and Jews. For centuries, Judas has symbolized Jews’ rejection of Jesus.

“That has been the elephant in the room,” said Shanks. “The Judas story has been the basis for an enormous amount of anti-Semitism.”

Excuse me??? Anti-Semitism is to be addressed by trying to undermine the truth of the New Testament? By promoting an alternate story? I don’t think so.

Any anti-Semitism that supposedly bases itself on a negative view of Judas is inane on its face, and always was (as anti-Semitism is inherently inane). What’s the reasoning? Judas was Jewish, and he betrayed Jesus, so therefore Jews are bad? All of Jesus’ apostles were Jewish. All his followers and supporters were Jewish, as was his mother, his father, and He Himself. It is a fundamental misunderstanding of Christianity, and always was, to think that Jews are to be blamed for killing Jesus. Christians all over the world will be reciting the words of the Gospel during the upcoming Easter holy days — the very words of the crowd that demanded to Pilate: “Crucify him!” Christians do that to make real their understanding that we all crucified Jesus. Even his own apostles ran away in fear rather than put their own lives on the line for Him. The idea that the Gospels need to be perverted or subverted in order to combat anti-Semitism is coming from a place of almost incomprehensible ignorance. It is by being faithful to Christianity that people should reject anti-Semitism.

Talk about Sunday school!

And just as everyone shares the guilt of Christ’s killing, so believers believe that everyone shares in the redemption his death earned. It is not even beyond the scope of the actual Gospels (the old and apparently tired ones) to conceive of Judas himself being forgiven for his sin. Don’t take it from me — listen to Fr. Thomas Williams, a Theology Dean at Regina Apostolorum University in Rome:

Father Williams: … Historically, many have thought that Judas is probably in hell, because of Jesus’ severe indictment of Judas: “It would be better for that man if he had never been born,” as he says in Matthew 26:24. But even these words do not offer conclusive evidence regarding his fate.

In his 1994 book, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” Pope John Paul II wrote that Jesus’ words “do not allude for certain to eternal damnation.”

Q: But if anyone deserves hell, wouldn’t it be Judas?

Father Williams: Surely many people deserve hell, but we must remember that the mercy of God is infinitely greater than our wickedness.

Peter and Judas committed very similar faults: Peter denied Jesus three times, and Judas handed him over. And yet now Peter is remembered as a saint and Judas simply as the traitor.

The main difference between the two is not the nature or gravity of their sin, but rather their willingness to accept God’s mercy. Peter wept for his sins, came back to Jesus, and was pardoned. The Gospel describes Judas as hanging himself in despair.

But lest we spend too much time considering the real issues, here’s more distracting goop from the mainstream media in this MSNBC story on the Judas Gospel:

Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, commented that “the people who loved, circulated and wrote down these gospels did not think they were heretics.”

Amazing insight, there, Professor Pagels. People who maintain that they are in possession of a real truth, that others are denying, tend not to label themselves as heretics. And that proves what, exactly?

The degree of eagerness in media and other elite circles to knock down or puncture Christian belief is only really equalled by the degree of reluctance in the same circles to confront the problematic elements of Islam.

As alluded to, I don’t think that this kind of thing troubles many people of faith all that very much, other than to annoy them. It is not that people’s faith is so solid and impregnable — it as as humanly weak as people’s will power and courage, which is to say it’s usually very weak — but it is rather that this avenue of attack is so specious.

The damage done is more likely to those who might be in a stage of life where they are considering turning to God. They turn on the TV or pick up the newspaper and see stuff about the “Gospel of Judas,” and it reinforces the notion they already labor under that there is no such thing as truth — that everything is up for grabs and subject to debate. Why pick up a Bible and read it, if the thing is merely a work in progress — something that Dateline NBC or 60 Minutes might debunk a few weeks from now?

That is the real shame, and, just perhaps, the real purpose. Not Katie Couric’s conscious purpose, mind you, but … maybe someone else’s.

One more Dylan quote seems apropos:

Well, the devil’s shining light, it can be most blinding

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