DeConick A.D

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PLEASANTVILLE RELIGIONS
Figure 10.2 The author with a leaf of the Gospel of Judas at the Martin Bodmer Foundation,
Geneva, 2014. Photo courtesy of April D. DeConick.
of Judas was discovered and published for the first time since antiquity
(figure 10.2). It is an old book, one that Bishop Irenaeus refers to in his
writings against the Gnostics. He says that this Gospel featured Judas, the
traitor, as the disciple who knew the truth about cosmic matters, which
enabled him to carry out “the mystery of the betrayal” (Irenaeus, Against
the Heresies 1.31.1). In this passage, Irenaeus also implies that Judas was a
Gnostic hero in the Gospel, that the Gnostics recognized horrible sinners
as their saints.