Concentrating on Judas and Jesus’s teachings to Judas, the Gospel of Judas, a Gnostic text from around the 5th century based on the papyrus paper it was written on, shows a different side of the church and Jesus. Jesus and Judas, who are usually depicted as good and trusted friends, are shown to have a more complicated relationship than the bible tells us. After Judas asks Jesus questions about faith and the church, Jesus responds by laughing at him and saying rude remarks to Judas. This surprised me because I’ve never heard this side of Jesus or this side of his relationship with Judas. The Jesus I’ve been told about was pure and would never hurt anyone on purpose, but in this text, Jesus says things to make Judas feel as though he is lesser than that of the other disciples. Later in the text, the disciples ask Jesus about visions they have seen of a church (which did not exist at the time). Jesus responds to this by talking about how Bishops of the church sacrifice children and wives and commit sacrilegious acts. The disciples seem to be very confused by this, especially because Jesus told them that none of them truly know who he is and he represents. Jesus says this is a way that it makes it seem like he does not think that the disciples are or will accurately represent the church. Why is Jesus saying all of this? My first reaction was that this could possibly be a commentary on the church and how people will go along with an idea without thinking about it themselves. Could Jesus see how the church would turn out and was disappointed by it so he tried to change how the disciples thought about him and the soon to be church? If so, why would Jesus have this insight that the church might be corrupt at this moment? Maybe either the bible hides details on Jesus having this insight and he had beliefs that the church might be corrupt earlier. But why would this information be hidden from the bible? This information could have been hidden to make sure people don’t question the religion and don’t start opposing it. It is also possible that this gospel contains information that isn’t true and that the rest of the information given in this gospel does not line up with the rest of Jesus’s history and the other gospels. Towards the end of the gospel, Judas gives information on Jesus’s whereabouts in exchange for some money. Could it be that Jesus acted the way he did towards Judas because he knew that Judas would betray him or did Judas betray Jesus because of what Jesus said to him? I think a conclusion on the the intentions of the characters in this text can only be reached with more information. Perhaps Jesus had a plan in mind knowing that Judas would betray him, but it does not seem likely that either one of them would betray or be mean to one another so instantly given their good relationship with one another. Overall, I found this text very interesting and it made me ask questions that I myself had not thought of before.