The Gospel of Judas

April 9, 2006 10:51 AM

The National Geographic Channel airs a documentary tonight (April 9, 2006) at 8 PM ET on The Gospel of Judas, which was discovered in 1978 in Egypt. The NG site delivers video of experts talking about the history of this Coptic text in relation to the four traditional gospels, and its unique perspective on the teachings of Jesus.[via:watch John Kasich at Fox News freak out!]
posted by sluglicker (12 comments total)

You might want to look at the previous entry that used the judas tag - three days ago.
posted by vacapinta at 10:55 AM on April 9, 2006

Similiar to the post a few days ago, but the video of John Kasich is something else. Funny that Britt Minshall, the one presumably brought on to give the conservative perspective on the MS barely gets a chance to speak. He just sits there looking downcast, probably sad that what could have been an interesting dialogue devolves into Kasich's ill-informed rants. Why have two experts on the show to dialogue if the news monkey is going to play the self-appointed expert himself? He just comes off looking like an anti-intellectual zealot whose pet beliefs got stepped on, and any chance of profitable intellectual exchange gets smothered by his blustering. Another example of "fair and balanced" ...
posted by bcveen at 11:14 AM on April 9, 2006

Wow, that guy is A) Nuts and B) Stupid

I can't believe he was ever in Congress.

Actually, yes I can.

Someone should ask W about it :) I'm sure he'd have really interesting things to say.
posted by empath at 11:21 AM on April 9, 2006

I hope no one tells Mr. Kasich about the Q document theory or his head may explode.
posted by revgeorge at 11:22 AM on April 9, 2006

Funny that Britt Minshall, the one presumably brought on to give the conservative perspective on the MS barely gets a chance to speak

It looks like Minshall's comments were edited out of the video. Distilling it down to Kasich and the NG guy gets to the gist: FOX NEWS peeps are hella-dumb.

I have several Lutheran friends who are in seminary. They are both realistic biblical scholars and it's always eye opening to listen to them talk about the early church and even outright question Christ's divinity. I think religion is divided between people who understand the intricacies of the history and those who just take it for granted that the 'ole King James has always existed - probably in the Lord's English since about the time Jesus was nailed to the tree.

Most of these people are overdue for a shakeup in their fundamentals.
posted by wfrgms at 11:27 AM on April 9, 2006

The other expert spoke at length basically saying that although it was interesting it would have no impact on traditional christianity, he compared it to Jesus Christ Superstar, and mostly just echoed Kasich's rant so I edited out a portion of it to save some bandwidth. There is a fadeout where the editing took place.
posted by onegoodmove at 11:28 AM on April 9, 2006

I did notice the minister fellow nodding in agreement somewhat with what the National Geographic guy was saying, shortly before Kasich went off. I know my Methodist minister friend (Pastor Jack) would have had a few things to say in response to Kasich. Of course, Jack actually did some scholarly research before he ever started preaching.
posted by mmahaffie at 11:45 AM on April 9, 2006

Are Fox anchors paid by the hour or by the decibel?
posted by fleetmouse at 11:51 AM on April 9, 2006

Was anybody actually saying that the Gospel of Judas should be added to the four Gospels? Was anybody actually saying that this was evidence of Judas and Jesus being BFF?

Because that seemed to be what Kasich was strenulously arguing against.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:06 PM on April 9, 2006

1. The bible is full of incosistencies
2. Other books have been left out
3. The bible has been heavily edited

If you are looking for consistency, if you are looking for rationale, if you are looking for coherency - you've come to the wrong religion.

Even if Judas himself wrote it - Even if god himself whispered in Judas' ear and we got the exact handwritten copy he made, Christians would ignore it, burn it or block it out of their minds.
posted by Meccabilly at 12:26 PM on April 9, 2006

The Bible is a magical object! God wrote it in english just for me! History is just pretend and you smartypantses are just trying to ruin Christmas for everyone! Quick, someone call Fox Security!
posted by maryh at 12:32 PM on April 9, 2006

update on Kasich video. I've reduced the picture size somewhat, but restored the missing footage of Minshall's contribution to the discussion. Some viewers hadn't noticed that it had been edited.
posted by onegoodmove at 12:51 PM on April 9, 2006