” “Judas Gospel? "It tells nothing new". Take the word of father Bruno Maggioni, Biblicist. "If anything he says to Sir we are amazed at the promptness with which part of its contents has been disclosed just before Easter". As reported in Washington yesterday, at its presentation, the Coptic code seems to redeem the figure of Judas, who would not be "the Traitor" but the tool through which Christ would have accomplished His goal, to get rid of His earthly body and free His divine essence. "This idea of a dualism, i.e. making the spirit get rid of the body", according to the Biblicist, "does not belong to the Jewish culture". "Here, we have a Gnostic text, which had already been branded by Irenaeus as heretic, completely oblivious of the fact that Christ came on earth to share the life of the defeated man to show that there is no defeat in Him. And, in addition, it is not the dating of the text that establishes its truthfulness. Sects actually used to make up texts and religions to suit their needs. Here, we have some clear theological mistakes: nobody forced Judas to betray. Here, it is the Iscariot’s personal freedom and understanding of the facts of the time that are at issue. He thought Jesus was a different Messiah". About Judas Gospel, even yesterday (see yesterday’s SIR daily service) father Claudio Bottini, dean of the Faculty of Archaeology and Biblical Science of Studium Biblicum Franciscanum (Sbf) of Jerusalem, had said: "We don’t see how this manuscript may reopen the debate and research into the Christianity of the origins. If anything, it may help shed some light on a few details of the development of the Gnostic groups" within which it was born. ” ” ” “
