The Judas Cover-up

Some 1,700 years after it was hidden from the Imperial Romans who were brutally creating their own government-sanctioned version of Christianity, the Gospel of Judas was finally released to the world today ... or was it?
With great fanfare in Washington, the National Geographic Society revealed ancient pages and intriguing passages from the Coptic codex that dates back to the early days of Christianity -- a leather-bound collection of several early Church texts including the long-rumored Gospel of Judas.
But for reasons undisclosed, only 4 of the gospel's 13 double-sided pages will go on display. And the translated version made available to the New York Times (PDF) is "from" the Judas gospel and apparently not the whole text.
Yet the National Geographic Society claims almost all of the badly damaged manuscript was successfully put back together, and last month said it would release the "full contents of the manuscript."
"Incredibly, the team was able to recreate some 90 to 95 percent of the manuscript and produce a nearly complete translation. Some sections may be forever lost, due to holes in the original papyruses, but scholars hope to fill them in as they finish their herculean task -- an additional half page recently surfaced in New York City."
In hundreds of news stories and broadcasts about the reconstruction and translation of the 1,700-year-old papyrus manuscript and its long suspicious purgatory in a moldy New York bank vault, there is not a single mention of the contents of the other 21 pages of the Judas document.
(The National Geographic Society did not respond to questions from SPLOID, but the society has announced it is selling a book with the complete text.)
Even more intriguing, researchers haven't even hinted at the contents of another mystery book that is part of the Coptic codex.
National Geographic historians have titled the enigma "Book of Allogenes," which may or may not be related to the Allogenes text found at Nag Hammadi. (That 1945 discovery is incredibly bizarre -- "And empowering the individuals, she is a Triple-Male," is a typical passage.)
The other texts found in the codex are reportedly copies of an unspecified epistle attributed to Peter and the First Apocalypse of James -- an apparently coded conversation with a ghostly Rabbi Jesus about battling archons, first found in the Nag Hammadi codices back in 1945.
But what of the handful of fragments National Geographic has revealed from the Gospel of Judas?
It was widely reported months before today's unveiling that the ancient gospel would redeem Judas Iscariot -- proving he was less of a sell-out than a divine actor who was entrusted with a crucial part of the conspiracy: the arrest of Jesus in Jerusalem during the Passover week rituals.
But the Judas gospel is stripped of some of the most melodramatic moments from today's New Testament gospels. Instead of the highly charged scene of Jesus weeping in the city gardens of Gethsemane and then seized by a patrol of imperial soldiers in full Roman regalia, Jesus is simply arrested by local Jewish authorities at the Temple of Solomon. And the iconic 30 pieces of silver is reduced to "some money."
"Their high priests murmured because [he] had gone into the guest room for his prayer. But some scribes were there watching carefully in order to arrest him during the prayer, for they were afraid of the people, since he was regarded by all as a prophet. They approached Judas and said to him, 'What are you doing here? You are Jesus' disciple.' Judas answered them as they wished. And he received some money, and handed him over to them."
The translated passages made public today also show a Jesus who considers Judas to be so important that the alleged traitor will one day rule over the whole Christian world.
"You will be cursed by generations," Jesus reportedly says, "and you will come to rule over them."
That alone -- the idea of Judas ruling over humanity -- should be enough to rock the frail foundation of modern Christianity. But it is the final passage released by National Geographic -- page 56 of the 66-page codex -- that suggests today's Christians can hardly begin to comprehend the staggering secret mysteries of the prophet Jesus:
"Look, you have been told everything," Jesus says to Judas after whispering those secrets to his friend and most loyal follower.
"Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star. Judas lifted his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it .... "
The Gospel of Judas exhibition opens Friday in Washington at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, D.C.
A television documentary will be broadcast on the National Geographic Channel on Sunday night.