Judas And the Gospel of Jesus: Have We Missed the Truth About Christianity? - Hardcover

Wright, N. T.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801012945 ISBN 13: 9780801012945

Publisher: Baker Books, 2006

Synopsis

Joining many other recently found and publicized "gospels," the Gospel of Judas has found its way into the limelight as the subject of some recently published books and some recent television programming. The ancient manuscript is genuine-so what are Christians to make of the claims therein? Claims such as -Judas was doing what Jesus asked him to do when he betrayed Jesus -Jesus came to offer secret knowledge of how to escape this earthly world, rather than to usher in God's kingdom on earth -Jesus felt no pain on the cross -and more This timely and necessary response to the Gospel of Judas is the authoritative, orthodox word on what it really tells us--and does not tell us--about Jesus, Judas, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. Tom Wright, as both a bishop and an historian, is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject and answers the questions Christians have after encountering this "new gospel."

About this title

From the Inside Flap

FRONT FLAP I am writing this little book to make three points. First, this new "Gospel of Judas," while a spectacularly interesting archaeological find, tells us nothing about the real Jesus, or for that matter the real Judas. In particular, it doesn't (as some have claimed) "rehabilitate" Judas over against either the charges laid against him in the New Testament or the anti-Jewish use that was made of the Judas tradition in the Middle Ages. Second, the enthusiasm for this new "gospel" lays bare the real agenda which has been driving both what we might call the scholarly "Quest for an Alternative Jesus" and also the popular eagerness for such sensational material that we find in books like Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. Third, the specific teaching of the "Gospel of Judas" only serves to highlight certain features about first-century Christianity that need to be drawn out more fully than is sometimes done. BACK FLAP Tom Wright is the bishop of Durham in the Church of England. Recently named by Christianity Today as one of the top five theologians in the world, Wright has taught New Testament studies for twenty years at Cambridge, Oxford, and McGill universities. He is the author of The Original Jesus, What Saint Paul Really Said, and The Challenge of Jesus.

From the Back Cover

What does the Gospel of Judas really tell us? Joining other recently found and publicized "gospels," the Gospel of Judas has found its way into the limelight. The ancient manuscript appears to be genuine--so what are we to make of the claims therein? Claims such as -Judas was doing what Jesus asked him to do when he betrayed Jesus -Jesus came to offer secret knowledge of how to escape this earthly world, rather than to usher in God's kingdom on earth -Jesus felt no pain on the cross -and more This timely response to the Gospel of Judas is the authoritative, orthodox word on what the Gospel of Judas really tells us--and does not tell us-about Jesus, Judas, early Christianity, and Gnosticism. Tom Wright, as both a bishop and a historian, is uniquely qualified to speak on the subject. In Judas and the Gospel of Jesus, he clearly and fairly answers your questions about this "new gospel."

About this edition

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0801012945
• ISBN 13: 9780801012945
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160