Judas - Again, and Just in Time for Lent

Curiosity prompts novelist to write new version of Judas' story
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

ROME (CNS) -- Curiosity about the New Testament figure of Judas and a feeling that his reputation as the worst sinner in history "isn't fair, isn't right" led British novelist Jeffrey Archer to attempt a new version of the story.

Archer, presenting "The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot" at a March 20 press conference in Rome, said he is a practicing Anglican who wanted his new book to be backed up by solid biblical scholarship.

So he convinced Father Francis J. Moloney, provincial of the Salesians in Australia and a former president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America, to collaborate.

He probably didn't need much convincing - he's supposedly well educated, you see...But he want the ignorant sheeple to accept his version, and many do; especially when one is frequently encouraged by "scholarly" priests to discount what is in the New Testament...to "make it up as we go along"...

Both Archer and Father Moloney doubt that Judas committed suicide, a story recounted only in the Gospel of St. Matthew.

Well then, if it's only in the Gospel of Matthew, we certainly can't take it seriously. After all, we do need corroborating evidence to attempt to prove that Matthew is telling the truth, do we not?

Are we to understand that, what the gospel asserts as true, is in fact, not true - in direct contradiction to Dei Verbum?

The Benjamin Iscariot in Archer's title is Judas' fictitious son, who – years after the death of Jesus – finds his father living in an ascetic community near the Dead Sea. His father reluctantly gives his version of what happened to Jesus and the son writes it down.

Father Moloney told reporters in Rome that none of the things in Archer's account that differ from the accounts of the New Testament can be certain.

Coming next, Jesus ascended into the skies via his alien spacecraft...

Perhaps these "scholars" are members of the Ursuline Church in Linz, Germany (previously posted here) which featured an art exhibition "Requiem for a friend Judas Iskarioth"...and to many people, St Judas Iscariot...

The remainder of the article contains a lot of baloney from Moloney...read it at your own risk.