Salvation According to Judas

We asked a few questions while we were reading apocalyptic texts: Where does evil come from? What should a good person do? How is a person 'saved' (and what does it mean to be saved; saved from what)?

We end this first section of the Gospel of Judas with two snippets that seem to address these questions.

Judas said to Jesus, “Does the human spirit die?”

Jesus said, “This is why God ordered Michael to give the spirits of people to them as a loan, so that they might offer service, but the Great One ordered Gabriel to grant spirits to the great generation with no ruler over it—that is, the spirit and the soul. Therefore, the [rest] of the souls [54] [—one line missing—].”

What might that missing line have said?

This next bit is very short, but it pays to take a few minutes to pick at it using the gnostic myth.

“God caused knowledge to be [given] to Adam and those with him, so that the kings of chaos and the underworld might not lord it over them.”

I thought it would be good to only do the cosmology so we could all send some extra time with the gnostic myth this week. This is pretty tricky stuff, and it is good to have it down a bit more pat before we move on.

Truth is: lots of people are put off by the obvious weirdness of gnostic writings, but I think we can bring that into focus by thinking about the apocalyptic writings we've seen and examining the worldview that seems to be in evidence.

I'll explain all of that Monday at 7!