Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends About the Infamous Apostle of Jesus [Hardcover]

Marvin W. Meyer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 2007

Judas Iscariot has been demonized as the quintessential traitor, the disciple who betrayed his master for the infamous thirty pieces of silver. But the recent sensational discovery and publication of the long lost Gospel of Judas, with its remarkable portrayal of Judas Iscariot as the disciple closest to Jesus, raises serious new questions. Was Judas the only member of the Twelve who truly understood Jesus? Did Jesus secretly collaborate with Judas to set in motion the series of events that would redeem all of humankind? In search of answers, Marvin Meyer, one of the world's leading experts on the Gospel of Judas presents a collection of the earliest accounts of Judas, which together paint a fuller portrait of this most enigmatic disciple.

This book presents the essential texts that deal with the figure of Judas, including New Testament writings, Gnostic documents, and other early and later Christian literature. These are the earliest known testimonies about Judas and include selections from the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John, the Acts of the Apostles, and relevant passages from Paul. The centerpiece of the book is the Gospel of Judas, followed by excerpts from three other Gnostic texts—the Dialogue of the Savior, the Concept of Our Great Power, and the "Round Dance of the Cross"—which may shed new light on the figure of Judas. A series of additional writings on Judas produced over the centuries provide glimpses of the vilification of Judas and the emergence of anti-Semitic themes.

Meyer offers evidence of traitors before Judas—the Genesis story of Joseph's brothers who sold him into slavery, the duplicitous friend of the poet in Psalm 41, and Melanthius the goatherd in Homer's Odyssey—all of which raise the question of whether the story of Judas Iscariot could be simply a piece of religious fiction derived from earlier stories.

Judas provides a rich collection of original sources that tell the story of Christianity's most infamous figure, offering the fullest understanding of Judas Iscariot's undeniable importance in the climax of Jesus's life.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on early Christianity and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament. He is Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. Among his recent books are The Gospel of Judas, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus, The Gospels of Mary, The Gospel of Thomas, and The Nag Hammadi Scriptures.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (November 20, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061348309
• ISBN-13: 978-0061348303
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,770,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Marvin Meyer is one of the foremost scholars on gnosticism, the Nag Hammadi library, and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Some good source material, January 23, 2008

By 

Dr. James Gardner (California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends About the Infamous Apostle of Jesus (Hardcover)

Meyer's book should really be called 1/4 a book. It is 184 pages long, but it is printed on 5 1/4 by 8 1/4 paper using a 1 1/2 line spacing. Which means it's probably about 120 pages long if printed as most books are printed. But, if you subtract the 35 pages of notes and the 26 page introduction, we are well under 100 pages. If you then subtract the dozens of pages that consist of translations of various texts (e.g., Gospel of Judas, Dialogue of the Savior) you probably have fewer than 50 pages of original text.

Much of that text is repetitious. Meyer tells us many times about the dates that the gospels were authored, about the verb paradidonai which means "handed over" and not "betrayed", about the fact that Paul never mentions Judas, etc. In a book that is already too short to really be called a book, such repetitions deprive us of even more information.

The bottom line is that $22.95 is a lot to pay for 1/4 book!

Putting all this aside, what value can we find in this 1/4 book? Meyer's excellent writing skills (excepting the repetition) are very much in evidence, as is his scholarship. But the book is really more of a platform to simply present texts about Judas. Meyer does very little to explain anything, merely to describe.

The various texts about Judas probably tell us more about the people who wrote the texts than they do about Judas. None of this important material is addressed by Meyer.

All things considered, there is very little to merit reading this 1/4 book. If you have no other source for some of the texts (e.g., Acts of John, The Concept of our Great Power, Arabic Infancy Gospel, etc.) then this may be a useful text. But otherwise your money (and time) is best spent elsewhere.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars NOT SO DEFINITIVE, September 22, 2011

By 

T. Wasser (Pittsburgh, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Judas: The Definitive Collection of Gospels and Legends About the Infamous Apostle of Jesus (Hardcover)

This slender book does not live up to its subtitle of being "the definitive collection of Gospels and legends about the infamous apostle of Jesus." There are many such legends omitted; for example, Benedeit's "Voyage of St. Brendan." Perhaps the author meant to limit the book to only legends from ancient times. The main section consists of a translation of the recently discovered Gospel of Judas. What is really disappointing and distracting in this book is the use of endnotes. Mostly the endnotes direct the reader to "cf." some biblical passage. In order to do so, the reader must have the Bible with the passage referred to immediately available. Although it would have markedly increased the size of this book, it would have been much more convenient to the reader if the endnote supplied the passage referred to, rather than to require the reader to interrupt the flow of his reading to look up the endnote, then to look up the passage in a separate book. Moreover, the constant use of the "cf." appears to reflect a laziness on the part of the author. There is little or no discussion of the importance or significance of the comparison. If the comparison is of minor importance, then the reader would be better served if the author would omit the distraction of endnotes and simply state the general point that the stories have certain similarities. All in all, it appears this book is merely one more exploitation of the discovery of the Gospel of Judas, dressed up in pseudo-scholarship for the masses.