text: what does the recently unravelled gospel of judas say? is it possible to be true?   the text says that judas did not betray jesus, but that jesus asked judas to make the sacrifice of turning him over. that's the basic idea.   however, the gospel of judas is not credible. scientists believe it to be the work of gnostics, a mystical early christian denomination. people in those times did not have the access to the scriptures as we do today. they rarely had more than one or two books of the bible at one time, so they often did not know what the other parts said. gnostics often wrote stories of the way they thought things might be. the gospel of judas is a philosophical conjecture, not scripture. it was also written at least 100 years after the gospels of matthew, mark, luke, and john - the 4 gospels present in the bible that tell of judas's betrayal. also, because "gospel" means "good news", and the good news is that jesus died for our sins, the text would have to include the crucifixion and resurrection to be classified as a gospel. the gospel of judas tells of neither.   the gospel of judas has indeed been authenticated - that means that it is indeed as old as it seems. it does not mean that it is a work of scripture. if you want to back up what i have said, go to the link for the national geographic channel and either watch for the next show date of their special, or order the video. you can also read the text at this site.