The recent publication of the Gospel of Judas by the National Geographic Society should not be taken lightly. It is of earth shaking importance in the world of Christian theology. Not because Judas' acts were blamed on the Jews nor because the whole Passion story served as a key source of anti-Semitism and was encouraged by the Catholic Church and many other Christian churches for two thousand years …. (and all those churches have the blood of the Holocaust on their hands.)
No, because the story of Judas acting on his own...
No, because the story of Judas acting on his own in betraying his teacher creates a very different theology than being told by his teacher to betray him. This new gospel is far different than any of the other buried Gnostic Gospels of Thomas and Mary that have been recovered. This goes to the root of Christianity’s success in recruiting followers who could not (and still have not) accepted monotheism.
If you have the Gospel of Judas (with Jesus directing the scenario) running the Passion story, then you
have a monotheist religion in which the sole God is writing the script
in a clearly visible way.
If we take the 2000 year old redacted version that comes on the nightstand of Gideon supplied motels, with Judas betraying his teacher, then there is sufficient ambiguity in the story line for a separate source of power to the monotheistic god. This redacted version was much easier to sell to pagans who couldn’t make sense of monotheism. Moreover, the betrayal story permitted the introduction of evil which was a much more popular version of the world than the prevailing rabbinic Judaism of the time.
Still the evil had to be small letters, a capital letter Evil was
Manichaeism that later had to be kicked out of the Church brutally.
Big challenge for the Christian Churches today.
Most Americans left their Mainstream churches over the past 40 years as the Mainstream churches introduced Lefty Fundamentalism as their core doctrine. Lefty Fundamentalism is based on social Evil (that is why they hate Satanic George Bush). Most Americans, wanted religion without political good and evil and they had few alternatives to turn to. So they went to Baptist and Fundamentalist Churches.
Unfortunately, many Baptist and Fundamentalist churches have an openly Evil Manichean theology. Americans are very uncomfortable with Evil, as a consequence you will rarely hear about Satan in mega-church sermons.
With the newly published Gospel of Judas, the mega-churches can now introduce monotheism, drop Satan and have even more success.