Maris Tiller
FSEM – Forbidden Texts
09/02/2021
I found this text very confusing. It was hard to read not just because of the fact that most of it is missing, but also because I personally have difficulty reading theological and philosophical language. The ideas expressed in this particular text were confusing mostly because most of it is missing, however.
What surprised me about this text was how close Jesus and Judas were. Based on what I learned, my impression of Judas was simply a traitor. I never fully understood his role in the story of Jesus Christ because 1. I am not religious and 2. Even when I technically was, I was a child and hardly paid attention in church so I have retained little religious knowledge. My most recent impression of Judas comes from Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita, but even then Judas plays a relatively small role. That subplot is mostly dedicated to the relationship between Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ. So this was an entirely different portrait of Judas for me, which might have also contributed to my general confusion.
But I think the main reason I was so confused was because so much of the text is missing. The Gospel of Judas is a fragmentary text that is so separate from the New Testament that it is hard to even put it in context with the larger Christian doctrine. When I was reading, it felt like I had missed something, which I had, but it could not be helped. This was a very difficult text for me to understand.