Another look at Judas

The Gospel is lost for a long time, which reveals a more positive image of Judas - the antagonist, recognized by the archaeologists as a true document.

The Gospel of Judas is a piece of material written in Coptin (ancient Egypt), describing Judas with a more sympathetic look than a biblical villain. In this version, Judas handed over Jesus to the authorities but according to the Lord's request, to free the soul from the body. In the widely accepted version of the Bible, Judas is accused of countering Jesus to exchange for 30 silver coins.

Judas's kiss in the artist's imagination - (Photo: Shutterstock)

According to a survey conducted in 2006 by National Geographic channel, Joseph Barabe of McCrone in Illinois (USA) and a group of researchers analyzed the ink in a ragged version of Judas, to determine See if this is a fake or real document. Some of the chemicals in the ink led experts to doubt its authenticity, until Barabe and his colleagues discovered the Museum of Lourve (France) also studying Egyptian documents from the 3rd century. same time with the Judas Gospel.

The 3rd century script describes a completely different Judas - (Photo: Joseph Barabe)

Thanks to abundant experience through years of research on ancient documents and works, Barabe and his colleagues can distinguish between the original and the fake, by analyzing the chemical mix in the ink.In 2009, Mr. Barabe helped uncover a document called 'Archaic Mark' , which was declared a 14th-century manuscript, in fact just a modern counterfeit.With a reputation in the industry called the field investigation (CSI) on ancient documents, Barabe was invited by National Geographic to collaborate to determine the authenticity of the scriptures on Judas, discovered in the 1970s. has invited many scientists with a variety of specializations, and they have worked together to study the material in a variety of methods, from microscopic analysis to spectroscopy.

First of all, the group did not find any clues from the Judas Gospel. This document is written in 2 types of ink, black and brown, mixed together. Black is defined as an ink that ancient Egyptians used during the period before the 3rd century. However, the mysterious point here is brown ink, which is rich in iron but lacks sulfur, which is often distributed. present in this form of ink, and experts face a difficult question to swallow as to how to explain the difference. Finally, Barabe switched to studying books in the hope of finding other studies of ancient Egyptian ink types. Fortunately, they found marriage papers and land documents of the time in the Louvre Museum (France), which bears similarities. Since then, experts have boldly asserted that the Judas Gospel is 100% real, and dates back to the year 280.

Barabe expert presented the entire study of this document before the recent meeting of the American Chemical Society in New Orleans. After completion, the Gospel of Judas was returned to the Coptic Museum in Cairo (Egypt).