Science looking into Gospel of Judas

In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal - New York Times

It is extraordinary how much people are starting pry open the history box to openly question the status quo of Christianity. The bestselling novel The Da Vinci Code questions whether or not Jesus might have married and had children with Mary Magdalene. Whether there's any truth to that notion is another matter. Now there's this documentary, The Gospel of Judas on National Geographic Channel, that aired last night. We know Judas as the biggest traitor in biblical history - the traitor who turned Jesus in to die. Or was he? That's the big question in this investigative documentary. This alleged Gospel says Jesus gave Judas the mission of betrayal, that He asked Judas to turn Him in. If that is the case, then Jesus would have indirectly prescribed his own death. Call that what you will. The Gnostics, early Christian mystics, who are thought to have written this text believed Judas would be a hero for spiritually freeing Jesus from His body. To them, that's exactly what Judas was - a hero. Scientists and scholars might be able to confirm these documents are authentic, written in approximately the third or fourth century. They think it was a translation of the original. No one will ever be able to prove if what that Gospel says is true or not. It was denounced as heresy back when it was first found. It will be now as well. The repercussions are too huge - Jesus asked Judas to bring on his own death? Judas as a hero rather than a traitor? Regardless, at the very least this recent wave of questioning is a refreshing alternative to the fundamentalist idea that all there is to know about a Man and those who surround him is limited to what's written in four books.