Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Skeptical of National Geographic: Update to the Gospel of Judas

It should be no surprise to folks that are familiar with National Geographic and their singleminded determination, truth nonwithstanding, to drive the atheistic naturalistic worldview.

Do you remember the furor over the recent discovery of an ancient manuscript entitled The Gospel of Judas? The media reported that the document presented Judas as a good guy who turned Jesus over only because Jesus told him to. The reports implied that the church had gotten it wrong over all these centuries, that Judas was no sinister betrayer but a leading disciple to whom Jesus imparted special knowledge. The media coverage indicated that we would now have to re-evaluate our knowledge of Jesus. The translation became a best-seller and National Geographic, which was behind the publication of the text, made a TV documentary on the subject.

But have you heard the rest of the story? The media that hyped The Gospel of Judas has not been as vigilant in reporting how scholars have been shooting down all of these claims, to the point of accusing the National Geographic of “scholarly malpractice.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, though, has shown how genuine scholarship got hijacked by media sensationalism, pop-culture superficiality, and commercial temptations.

................

The National Geographic translators rendered the text so that it read the opposite of what it actually said. Apparently, even the Gnostic heretics who wrote this document did not think much of Judas.



full article here

1 comment:

  1. For another goodie (and a surprising admission) from National Geographic, check out this week's controversial quote at http://covenant-theology.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete