Elaine Pagels on The Gospel of Judas

In today's Strib (or for those not in the Twin Cities area and not reading the Strib online...) this interview with Elaine Pagels is interesting and worth posting.

Judging Judas
To Elaine Pagels, the jarring assertions of the newly discovered Gospel of Judas are yet more evidence that early Christians struggled to interpret Jesus' life and death. "Reading Judas" is the latest best-seller by Pagels, a scholar whose work has been unusually popular with general readers.
By Pamela Miller, Star Tribune
Last update: April 13, 2007 – 3:37 PM

TO HEAR PAGELS
AS PART OF THE PEN PALS LECTURE SERIES, ELAINE PAGELS WILL SPEAK AT 7:30 P.M. MAY 3 AND NOON MAY 4 AT THE HOPKINS CENTER FOR THE ARTS. TICKETS FOR THE EVENT, WHICH IS SPONSORED BY THE LIBRARY FOUNDATION OF HENNEPIN COUNTY, ARE $35 OR $45. TO ORDER, CALL 651-209-6799 or go to uptowntix.com.

Q The Gospel of Judas is very harsh on the other disciples, charging that the God they worship is actually a lesser angel, one who demands martyrdom in a way the real God would not. What are we to make of this?
A Yes, it is shocking. The author was looking at the Christian leaders of his day and was deeply troubled by their message.
He was saying to them, "The way you interpret the meaning of Jesus' death as a human sacrifice, the way you eat bread and drink wine to reenact it -- all of those things represent a profound misunderstanding."
This gospel is an indictment of the way the Christian message was read at the time, which said, "Jesus died for your sins, he physically rose from the grave, so you should die as a martyr if you can."
Q Judas is portrayed as the only true disciple, the only one who truly understood Jesus.
A We certainly can't reconcile all the pictures of the disciples we get in this and other gospels. It helps to remember that when we read the gospels of Luke or Mark, Peter is the main disciple, but when we turn to John, John is the main disciple. What we're seeing here are different accounts that represent different viewpoints by early Christians loyal to their teachers.
All we know directly about Judas is that he handed Jesus over to the authorities, an act powerful and central to the Christian story. Other things -- his motive, whether Jesus asked him to do it -- all of these things people speculated and reflected on. I don't think any of them really knew the answer.
Q What does the author of this gospel claim about the natures of God and Jesus?
A The picture of God here is not of a God who would refuse to forgive sins without the torture and death of Jesus. Rather, Jesus comes into the world to save and deliver and heal people, to bring them to life. God, the true God, is a being of life and light and infinite goodness. The good news that Jesus has brought, according to this gospel writer, is that everyone has been created in the divine image and that when we die, we go back to God.
But where it differs from other accounts is that this reunion with God does not involve the body. This is not about the corpse stepping out of the grave, but about how beings created in the divine image step back into the world of the divine. The gospel of Judas rejects the resurrection of the body. Is there still an Easter in this? I guess it depends on how you look at it.
Q Some Christians, particularly those who view the Bible as the inerrant word of God, may be deeply disturbed by a book that reveals early Christians in a power struggle to establish orthodoxy. What do you say to them?
A Such people often assume that if Karen King and I are writing about the Gospel of Judas, we must be promoting it. Not so. We are not saying this gospel is better than those in the canon, only that it's something we can think about in the context of the early history of Christianity. Back then, there was a great deal of censorship, and many voices and works were silenced and lost. People struggled with these ideas and discussed them, but later people pretended that only one version was true. That's something for us to think about now.
Q How has your work on the Gospel of Judas and the gnostic gospels affected your own faith?
A Christianity does not look like a single "thing" one has to accept or reject, but rather, a range of traditions, some of which I love and find powerful and spiritually genuine. My work has allowed me to love much about Christian tradition, instead of rejecting all of it because of difficulties I have with certain elements of it.
Pamela Miller • 612-673-4290 • pmiller@startribune.com