The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot

by Herbert Krosney

Book Overview

On best-seller lists nationwide: New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and the Washington Post. This compelling and exhaustively researched account reveals the truth behind one of the greatest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1426200412
• ISBN13: 9781426200410
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: National Geographic Society
• Length: 309 Pages
• Weight: 1.46 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.2" x 6.2"

Customer Reviews

Gnostic Text, Gospel of Judas Saga

The Lost Gospel is a fascinating report of how the long known but never read Gospel of Judas came back to life after eighteen centuries of condemnation. Gospel of Judas along with other text, James, the Letter of Peter to Philip and Book of Allogens were discovered written in Coptic on papyrus from a remote burial cave in Egypt. Author Krosney followed with a detail account how this discovery of antiquity was transacted and transported in three continents and even locked up for almost two decades in a bank vault in New York. It showed dealing among business people and academics. He gave related background information so that readers would understand the conflicts and struggles between orthodox and Gnostics Christians. The Gnostic Christians were attacked and suppressed as heretics and disappeared mysteriously. Christianity grew as the orthodox dominated by affirming the Four Gospels with Judas as the traitor. It was later developed into anti-Semitism and the horror of Holocaust. Gospel of Judas offered the other side of the story. It was Jesus who requested Judas to fulfill his mission by handing him over to the Romans for crucifixion. Gnostic text shed light to the diversity among different Christian sects in early times. It is challenging to be Christians in ancient as well as modern on theology and doctrine. This book gives readers a good understanding of the ancient world, specially Gnostic Christians. Readers would enjoy the details of movement after the discovery. However, this book only gives a brief chapter on the Gospel of Judas. Readers may be encouraged to read the other book, Gospel of Judas for a more detail understanding of text and belief of the heretic sect known as Gnostic Christians.

A restrained, scholarly look at the journey of an ancient book

This book was certainly rushed out the door, but I actually think that turned out to be a blessing rather than a curse. It is a fairly straightforward account of the events which occured between the time the Gospel of Judas was pulled out of the ground to the point when it landed in the safe hands of Rodolphe Kasser, Frieda Tchacos Nussberger, et al. There simply wasn't enough time alotted to the project to do much sensationalizing of the events which passed between the two covers, and this makes the story much more interesting because it is actually a very truthful account which seems to stick fairly to the facts gleaned from interviews with the people who were involved. It is an intriguing story which reveals some of the darker underbelly of the world antiquities market, and is an interesting survey of human nature in general when large sums of money are involved and there is a profit to be made. It is definitely worth the time it takes to read it, and it manages to work in some of the history of the Gospel of Judas itself in occassional chapters which alternate with the main story. If you are looking for the English translation of the gospel itself and commentary on its contents, there is another book which was published at the same time entitled, "The Gospel of Judas" which you should certainly check out as well.

Historical Detective Work Leads to Preservation, Interpretation

Just as a "heads up," this book is the companion volume to THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS. That book contains the actual translation of the Gnostic gospel, along with scholarly annotations. THIS book is the story of how this document came to see the light of day. It details how the Gospel was originally found, and its subsequent fate in various private collections, until its recent "re-discovery" in the 20th century. And that story is a quite interesting one. The book next relates the very interesting process of how the National Geographic Society went about the processes of preserving the papyrus and then translating its Coptic script. As someone who is particularly interested in the history of the Mideast, I very much enjoyed this book. And just as relevant in this case, as someone who loves a good detective story (all the more so if it's true), this book was doubly appealing to me. (Strangely, this is the second book I've read this month with the same Caravaggio painting on its dust jacket! The other was Harr's THE LOST PAINTING.)

Great Story of a Race Against Time

If you are looking for a book that gives the complete translation of the Gospel of Judas you would do better to read other books available on this topic. However, if you would like to read an incredible story of how this incredibly precious document passed around the world for over 20 years going from buyer to buyer while coming precariously close to degrading beyond any hope of usefullness, this is quite a story. This book is written from the National Geographic's viewpoint of their involvement with the procurement, last attempts at preservation of this astonishing document and ultimate translation of the Gospel of Judas. This book does contain discussions of the big picture of the importance of the Gospel of Judas and what its message is but there are those who will be better suited for an in depth translation of the Gospel without any of the legwork behind it's discovery, travels and the race to beat the clock before the gospel physically disintegrated. For those of us who want to understand what is contained in the Gospel of Judas without getting too deep from a religious standpoint and want to read a story of intrigue about this document and how it was almost never brought to translation and dissemination, this is a terrific read.

Once was lost, now is found...

This new book by the National Geographic Society is bound to be of interest. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the outline of the lost gospel being highlighted here, it still presents an intriguing look into the early mind of Christians, who were a very diverse group. There were originally more than four gospels, and literally hundreds of apostolic letters and manuscripts floating around the ancient world. These were of variable quality literarily and theologically, but it took hundreds of years for the Christian community to come to a consensus about what should be included and what should be excluded. Generally, Gnostic texts were excluded, and this lost gospel of Judas is most likely a Gnostic production, according to the authors. It was referenced by early church leaders such as Irenaeus, who argued strongly for the now-standard vision of four canonical gospels. What is the issue with this gospel? The central idea that places this text as odds with the canonical gospels is that it paints Judas is a very different light - Judas is no longer the villain who betrays Jesus for his own personal gain, or because of his own spiritual confusion, but rather an obedient servant who, when turning Jesus in to the authorities, is simply following Jesus' own direction as a necessary step for God's plan to come to fulfillment. Judas is portrayed as the closest of the apostles to Jesus, a leader among the apostles, and thus perhaps the object of jealousy. To be sure, these ideas are not new. Varying images of Judas and confusion about his role have been present throughout much of Christian history, with no single definitive vision of his personality nor his action superseding all others. (See the book on Judas by scholar Kim Paffenroth, published recently). The document highlighted in this text is a 31-page, fragile manuscript dated to approximately the year 300, as a copy of a story that may have originated 150 or more years earlier. The manuscript itself has a colourful history, having been bought, sold, and stolen multiple times. As this book is released, the manuscript is on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C. This book discusses efforts to preserve the manuscript and halt further deterioration. It traces the fascinating history of this text, and places it in the broader context of other manuscripts that have survived, both from the early days of Christianity, as well as more generally. This book promises to be of interest to historians, theologians, biblical scholars, and others who find the early days of Christianity fascinating. Even those (like me) who are not willing to lend canonical authority to this rediscovered gospel will find that it brings up ideas and questions that are worth considering. This book goes along with a companion volume, 'The Gospel of Judas' also published by the National Geographic Society, with commentary by Bart D. Ehrman, and edited by Rodolphe Kasser, Marvin Meyer, and Gre