The New York Times is reporting that the Gospel of Judas Iscariot story reported by National Geographic was not all it purported to be. Hat Tip to Michael Sammamish at the Moral Christian blog. You can read the NY Times story here. The story is written by April DeConick, a professor of Biblical Studies at Rice University and author of The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says.
This is another case of a journalist's desire for an exclusive story leading to bad decisions. National Geographic used their own experts and restricted access to the text so they would get the story first. The problem is that led to getting the story wrong as well. Judas is not a hero, he is portrayed as a demon in the gnostic text. The author of the ancient text was trying to undermine the story of Jesus by portraying him as sacrificed to the king of demons rather than the supreme God. DeConick uncovers at least one act she refers to as "egregious" - "a single alteration made to the original Coptic." In other words one or more of the National Geographic scholars removed a word from the original.
Lot's of questions here. Why did the National Geographic Society behave this way? Why did the media rush so eagerly and uncritically to repeat this story? I suggest two possibilities: the desire to be first on the story and second a desire to find an alternative to Jesus as portrayed in the Bible.
In my opinion two factors
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