Gospel of Judas

[ProScribe]

Note: the Gospel of Judas has a specific -Coptic- association with it.

http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?t=7247483

What are some sharp opinions and specific observations?

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[Anglian]

Because Egypt was one of the centres of the early Church, much of its theology was written in Coptic. The so-called Gospel of Judas is a Gnostic work dating from later than the second century AD. It was never received by any orthodox Christian community and its message is docetic. It may have helped inspire the heresy of Arius.

The 4 Gospels we receive were accepted by the Church from early on, and by c. AD 140 were received everywhere.

Many Gnostics wrote texts which they attempted to pass off as 'Apostolic'. Their modern admirers tend to rely on popular ignorance of the early Church to imply that such works were somehow competitors with our Gospels; they were not. Their context is not orthodox.

Because climate conditions in Egypt are good for the survival of ancient texts, more of these works survive in Egypt than elsewhere. With St. Clement. Origen, St. Athanasius and St. Cyril the Great, the Coptic Church was in the forefront of fighting heresy - even as it also provided the soil out of which heretics such as Arius grew. It all reminds us how important Alexandria was to to the development of the Christian Faith.

In peace,

Anglian