FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 2006
NEWS
RELIGION
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 5A
Judas gospel tells new story
BY RANDOLPH E. SCHMID THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — For 2,000 years Judas has been reviled for betraying Jesus. Now a newly translated ancient document seeks to tell his side of the story.
The "Gospel of Judas" tells a far different tale from the four gospels in the New Testament. It portrays Judas as a favored disciple who was given special knowledge by Jesus — and who turned him in at Jesus' request.
"You will be cursed by the other generations — and you will come to rule over them," Jesus tells Judas in the document made public Thursday.
The text, one of several ancient documents found in the Egyptian desert in 1970, was preserved and translated by a team of scholars. It was made public in an English translation by the National Geographic Society.
Religious and lay readers alike will debate the meaning and truth of the manuscript.
But it does show the diversity of beliefs in early Christianity, said Marvin Meyer, professor of Bible studies at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
The text, in the Coptic language, was dated to about the year 300 and is a copy of an earlier Greek version.
A "Gospel of Judas" was first mentioned around A.D. 180 by Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, in what is now France. The bishop denounced the manuscript as heresy because it differed from mainstream Christianity. The actual text had been thought lost until this discovery.
Elaine Pagels, a professor of religion at Princeton University, said, "The people who loved, circulated and wrote down these gospels did not think they were heretics."
Christianity in the ancient world had many more gospels circulating than now.
Mannie Garcia/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An exhibit containing actual artifacts of the "Gospel of Judas" was on display at the National Geographic Society in Washington, D.C., Thursday. The ancient manuscript contains the only known copy of the "Gospel of Judas" and was recently discovered. It will open to the public today.
COURTS
Louis Lanzano/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Patricia Foley, right, who lost her firefighter son, Thomas, in the World Trade Center disaster of Sept 11, 2001, exits Manhattan federal court Thursday with Diane DeCarlo, who lost her brother Michael Dowd.
Face to face with 9/11 victims
BY MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Families recount tragic tales
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The stories and photos of four young children, all of whom lost parents in the 9/11 attacks, brought witnesses to tears and visibly affected jurors Thursday at the death penalty trial of al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
The second phase of the sentencing trial — to determine whether Moussaoui deserves
execution or life in prison opened Thursday.
Early on, prosecutors played videos of the two hijacked jetliners hitting the gleaning World Trade Center towers. They also showed videos of people plunging more than 80 stories to their deaths and punctuated their presentation with family photos of loved ones.
Each hour the emotional impact grew.
Former New York Mayor Rudolph Gulliani retold the now-
familiar tale of his own harrowing experience in debris-choked lower Manhattan on Sept. 11, 2001.
But it was not until he spoke of the daughter of one of his closest aides, Beth Petrone Hatton, that Guilliani's voice quaked and broke.
Firefighter Terence S. Hatton — who earned 19 medals in 21 years — died without knowing his wife was pregnant.
One female juror looked stricken. The rest hung motionless on Gulliani's every word.
Even Moussaoui, who had affected a look of boredom during
the showing of video of falling bodies, watched the ex-mayor intently as he described Terry Hatton, who was born May 15, 2002. Her picture with Guilliani flashed on the screen.
"Terry's going to grow up without a father ... without a very special father," Guiliani said. "You can't replace that. ... There's no way that money, camps and scholarships, which is very important and which we raised, can replace that."
Guiliani aides in the audience dabbed their eyes with tissue and sniffed.
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