Wednesday, March 30, 2005

NEWS ON THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS: Middle East Online reports:
Gospel of Judas back in spotlight after 20 centuries


Swiss foundation seeks to shed light on controversial Christian text named after apostle said to have betrayed Jesus.


By Patrick Baert - GENEVA

About 2,000 years after the Gospel according to Judas sowed discord among early Christians, a Swiss foundation says it is translating for the first time the controversial text named after the apostle said to have betrayed Jesus Christ.

The 62-page papyrus manuscript of the text was uncovered in Egypt during the 1950s or 1960s, but its owners did not fully comprehend its significance until recently, according to the Maecenas Foundation in Basel.

The manuscript written in the ancient dialect of Egypt's Coptic Christian community will be translated into English, French and German in about a year, the foundation specialising in antique culture said on Tuesday.

[...]

After the manuscript is restored, the text is due to be translated and analysed by a team of specialists in Coptic history led by a former professor at the University of Geneva, Rudolf Kasser.

[...]

Of course, PaleoJudaica readers have known this since last July. It's good to see the media catching up with the Blogosphere.

The article (which has been picked up by the Agence France-Presse) does have some new information: the publication date has been moved back a bit (which is normal for this sort of thing) and there's a carbon-dating result (3rd-4th century C.E.).

UPDATE: Stephen Carlson comments on some dodgy elements in the article. Trust the media to get it wrong when they finally do get it. Sigh.

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