Projects

QUESTIONS:

What is a codex?

What does the Codex contain?

Where was the Codex discovered?

How did the codex containing the Gospel of Judas survive for so many centuries?

What is the history of the codex containing the Gospel of Judas?

Was the Gospel of Judas known to scholars?

Who wrote the Gospel of Judas?

What does the publication of this text mean for Christian teachings?

How did Waitt Institute for Discovery get involved in the project?

Why has the Waitt Institute for Discovery decided to get involved in a project of this type?

How was the document authenticated?

Are the documents available for review online?

Where can I see the original codex?

Answers:

What is a codex?

A codex is an ancient book consisting of folded pages, bound at one side. Codices were the preferred form for scriptural or classical texts as they could contain a lot more information than scrolls and were easier to manage.

What does the Codex contain?

The codex contains not only the Gospel of Judas, but also a text called James, the Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of a text that scholars are provisionally calling Book of Allogenes.

Where was the Codex discovered?

The codex, containing the Gospel of Judas, was discovered in the 1970s near Al Minya, Egypt, and moved from Egypt to Europe to the United States. Once in the United States, it was kept in a safe-deposit box for 16 years on Long Island, N.Y., until an antiquities dealer bought it in September 2000. After unsuccessful efforts to sell the document, it was sold to the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Basel, Switzerland, in February 2001, for restoration and translation and eventual return to Egypt.

How did the codex containing the Gospel of Judas survive for so many centuries?

Because the Gospel of Judas was hidden in an Egyptian desert for more than 1,600 years, the papyrus remained intact. However, the document severely deteriorated when it was kept in a safe-deposit box on Long Island, N.Y. for 16 years. As a result, the restoration process has been an enormous undertaking, as Rodolphe Kasser and his team worked to piece the document back together by replacing nearly a thousand crumbling fragments.

Closeup of the Codex with ruler to show scale

What is the history of the codex containing the Gospel of Judas?

The National Geographic Society, having received a grant from the Waitt Family Foundation, worked with the Waitt Institute for Discovery and a team of international experts to analyze a collection of ancient papyrus documents, known as a “codex,” first discovered more than 30 years ago in Egypt. These rare religious texts, written in the ancient Egyptian Coptic language are nearly 1,700 years old. National Geographic collaborated with the Waitt Institute for Discovery, and scientific experts, historians and theologians from around the world to authenticate, conserve and translate these extraordinary documents, and explore their significance.

Was the Gospel of Judas known to scholars?

Scholars knew of the existence of the Gospel of Judas because of references in other ancient texts. The first known reference to a Gospel of Judas was by Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, in A.D. 180. However, the codex containing the Gospel of Judas was not discovered until the 1970s in Egypt, and it wasn’t until 2001 that a team led by Professor Rodolphe Kasser of Switzerland, a world-renowned Coptic scholar, began to translate and restore this ancient text.

Who wrote the Gospel of Judas?

The author of the Gospel of Judas remains anonymous. It is believed that the original gospel was written first in Greek around A.D. 150 by a group of early gnostic Christians. The manuscript now being examined is believed to have been copied from the original Greek sometime around A.D. 300, and was written in Coptic.

What does the publication of this text mean for Christian teachings?

This is a dramatic archaeological discovery of cultural interest, which offers an alternate portrayal from the first or second century of the relationship between Jesus and Judas, and enhances our knowledge of history and preservation of theological viewpoints from that period. The Waitt Family Foundation and the Waitt Institute for Discovery, along with its partner National Geographic Society realizes that the information provided by this document is complex and deserves a great deal of further study and assessment, a process that will take time. To find out what leading scholars believe the significance of the document to be, visit National Geographic’s official Gospel of Judas Web site.

How did the Waitt Institute for Discovery get involved in the project?

The document changed hands a number of times following its discovery. The Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art in Switzerland approached National Geographic to play a key role in the authentication and restoration of the codex. The Waitt Institute for Discovery worked with the National Geographic Society, and a grant from the Waitt Family Foundation underwrote the entire effort. After the restoration is complete and the codex had been exhibited to the public, the codex will be given to Egypt, where it will be housed in Cairo’s Coptic Museum.

Why has Waitt Institute for Discovery decided to get involved in a project of this type?

Learning from our past is an essential part of the Waitt Institute for Discovery’s approach to making tomorrow’s world a more informed and better place. Supporting important research and discovery that will add valuable new information to our understanding of the world’s culture and history exemplifies the mission of our organization. To this end the discovery and translation of the Gospel of Judas and Codex documents represents exactly that – a rare opportunity to shed new light on the historical, political, linguistic and cultural context surrounding this ancient Coptic manuscript from the third or fourth century.

Our interest is in helping researchers determine the historical significance of the documents, and ensuring that these documents and their content are available for scholars and people of faith to review and study for generations to come..

How was the document authenticated?

The codex has been authenticated as a genuine work of ancient Christian apocryphal literature on five fronts: radiocarbon dating, ink analysis, infrared photography, contextual evidence and paleographic evidence. Full details of the authentication process are available on National Geographic’s official Gospel of Judas Web site

Are the documents available for review online?

The Coptic text is available in its entirety online so that scholars around the world can have immediate access to it. The National Geographic Society has published the complete translation in a book with extensive footnotes. THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS (ISBN 1-4262-0042-0, April 2006, $22) is available in bookstores now.

Where can I see the original codex?

Several pages of the Gospel of Judas as well as pages from the other three texts in the codex will be on exhibit at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C., beginning Friday, April 7, 2006. After Kasser and his team complete the restoration and translation of the manuscript in its entirety, the codex will be given to Egypt, where it will be housed in Cairo’s Coptic Museum.