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Home  Book, Movie Reviews Television Reviews National Geographic Inflates Significance of "Gospel of Judas"
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National Geographic Inflates Significance of "Gospel of Judas" |
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Wednesday, 12 April 2006 |
Why is the National Geographic Society promoting The Gospel of Judas as the most sensational and important archaeological find in the last 60 years?” Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Fred M. Williams III asked.
“Obviously, National Geographic has a lot more to gain financially from all this than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John ever did,” he told BP News.
The National Geographic Channel is currently showing a 2-hour special about the modern discovery of The Gospel of Judas. In the television program they grossly inflate the importance of the manuscript.
Williams told BP News that "National Geographic’s promotion of their costly manuscript acquisition and television program, The Gospel of Judas, is one of the most deceptive and brazen attempts to profit from the general public’s unawareness of early church history since, well, The Da Vinci Code.
The existence of the manuscript is old news to many Christians. The only people who are excited about the National Geographic program are those who have no understanding of Church History. Unfortunately, that's a lot of people; even when Church History is taught in Universities, it is often revisionist history promulgated by anti-Christian professors.
Williams said, “Irenaeus [130-200 A.D] was aware of, and described the contents of, the Gospel of Judas just as it is being described by the National Geographic Society today. Irenaeus said that it was a product of a cult known as the Cainites who deliberately honored every wicked figure in the Bible so as to promote their own immoral lifestyle. The Cainites considered the God who created the world as evil and Satan as good."
Sadly, the National Geographic Society is adding legitimacy to what knowledgeable Christians have always considered to be fictional works written to support non-Christian beliefs. By doing so, they attempt to undermine legitimate scholarship. There are many other such documents in existence, one of the most well-known is, The Gospel of Thomas.
While the program is an interesting detective case, National Geographic spoils the plot with a lot of tabloid-style proclamations. They claim that their findings may "challenge our deepest beliefs," that "Jesus arranged his own crucifixion" and that "an act of betrayal becomes an act of obedience." This is all sideshow huckster talk.
With this kind of rhetoric, we expect that soon the National Geographic Society will try to tell us that Adolph Hitler was just a good boy gone wrong when he betrayed and murdered six million Jews.
There are a lot of moments when the National Geographic Society comes across more like E! than it does the yellow-edged institution we have come to respect. At one point they have the man who did the carbon dating of the papyrus proclaim, "It is real!" Of course we understand the papyrus is the Real McCoy, but the way it is staged, the implication is that the writing on the the papyrus is a true record of the events in the life of Jesus. Of course, that's false, and the National Geographic Society should know better than to present material in such a sensational and misleading way.
This kind of programming is the kiss of death for the National Geographic Society. Knowledgeable people realize that the Society is selling it's reputation for 30 pieces of silver. While it is an interesting story, the National Geographic Society sold out to sensationalism and thus cheated viewers of a more honest and scholarly presentation of the facts.
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"Will evildoers never learn—those who devour my people as men eat bread and who do not call on the LORD? There they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous." - The Bible: Psalm 14:4-5
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