Reading Judas Con't

Upon finishing "Reading Judas" I find my hopes that I had expressed in my last post have been unmet to the greatest of degrees. The final three chapters contain a wealth of information that had me very excited to read the primary document. I was intrigued to hear exactly what this book said, as the authors explained it with such passion. From their points on Jesus calling out the other disciples as heretics and murderers to Judas learning the true meaning of heaven. I read eagerly as they explained its take on the early Christian church and how this book would mesh well with the original gospels and clarify and provide new information to strengthen my faith.

Here is what I thought I would get, before I go on to the disappointing conclusion. The gospel of Judas, as the introductory chapters lead me to believe, would tell me about the truth behind heaven, how martyrdom is wrong when it is searched for, an ounce of redemption for Judas and to further show that Christianity is strong because it can handle many viewpoints but keep its core intact.

Here is what I found. I found a document no more than 14 pages long that held no answers. Every time a question was posed it would be followed with parenthesis stating that the rest of the paragraph is illegible due to its bad quality and deterioration. Where did the authors get their information from? As I have found it not in these 14 pages. Every paragraph that could of held any good answers, such as how do we get to heaven, is baptism necessary, should we perform communion, is Judas a traitor, started with the question posed by Judas and then Jesus saying one word before the whole text is illegible and lines go missing. The only "answer" it provides is that Jesus is from the stars, and has been sent here to stop us from worshiping the sun and start looking for the true god within ourselves in order to reach heaven, which he also says we can't reach. It also does a little to help Judas by quoting Jesus as saying he will be hated for centuries but he needs to do what he will do and he will rule all who hate him one day.

As I said. This is very disappointing and without any more details the book gives us nothing of any value except ramblings that don't prove or disprove anything. I don't recommend giving it a look through. Even though the authors captured my attention and got me thinking about a myriad of things in the end I found out they had lied to me and the book proved rather useless. It does explain why the protestant reformation happened though, at least in the long run. If voices were shut out so early and schisms were formed since Christianity's creation, it was inevitable that one day the church would split.

I give this book a "Don't Read". I'll work out a rating scale as the blog progresses, but this book is not worth your time. It has some great history in it, but nothing you can't find from a better source that will provide you with what you are looking for in detail.