The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at the Betrayer and Betrayed

An Excellent and fascinating story revealing that some early Christians had a completely different perspective of Judas. Highly recommended for anyone interested in early Christian history.
Dennis Boutsikaris does an outstanding job at narrating; his style is warm and conversational.

Another interesting book by this author. Not as engaging as Peter Paul and Mary Magdelene but nonetheless enlightening.Try reading "Misquoting Jesus" first, then "P.P. and M.M." and then follow it with "Judas".

First Bart Ehrman assumes his readers/listeners have a brain and questions. This is not a dumbed down, you will never be able to understand this if I don't dumb it down text. In many ways it is like you the reader were having a conversation in person with the author. It is not filled with esoteric and jargonistic techno-babble. When a specialized term must be used it is defined.
There is also a nice blend of how the lost gospel came to light and what it went thru as well as what the content tells us about the time it was written.
If you are looking for the full text of the lost gospel you won't find it here.
To repeat, if you have a brain and questions about this topic this is the book for you. I've read and listened to many of his books and they are well worth the time and money.

Exceeded expectations!

The main message was not on "The Gospel of Judas". The main focus was on the questions: "Who was Jesus" and "What was Judas's relationship with Jesus"

This book did not bore me with tedious details of the text of "The Gospel of Judas", but gave a good review of this text in light of the historical Jesus.

Professor Ehrman has done it again! He has opened another window into the inky shadows of early Christianity, this time with discovery and translation of one of the gospels not sanctioned by church authorities.

Mr. Boutsikaris delivers an outstanding performance.

Highly recommended, an an excellent complement to _Misquoting Jesus_ and _Peter, Paul, & Mary Magdalene_.

For those of us who don't spend time reading Gnostic gospels, it is a good and interesting introduction to the history and themes and at first is very interesting but then drifts into some repetion, more and more minute internal disagreements in the field, and finally just poops out as both a book and an area of interest for the uninformed. Worth it, but just.

First, I will not sound like a fan of Dr. Erhman's, but I assure you that I am. You will not find a better authority on early christianity, or the persons who figure prominently in it's beginings. Bart Ehrman is, by now, known by most readers of religeous non-fiction, and is best known for works such as 'The Lost Christianities,' 'Misquoting Jesus,' and 'Truth & Fiction In The DaVinci Code.' His latest offering is an account of his part in bringing to life the lost gospel of Judas Iscariot. He spends about half the time to retrace Judas' history, as we know it, and to solidify what little truths we can gleen from the information. Turns out that this "Lost Gospel," is another discovery of Gnostic Literature. I was disheartened when I heard that, as some outlandish themes were bound to be included in the documents. Turns out that I was right! In this gospel, Judas is portrayed as a Demi-God, and not the low life that he is in the Cannonical Gospels. Jesus claims that sacrificing the mortal part of the messiah will earn him a high place in another plane of existence. Jesus laughs at the other apostles for paying homage to what he considers the wrong God. I do not even have enough room to explain Gnosticism, but you can gleen that it isn't even a close offshoot of Christianity. If you are interested in the Gnostics, Elaine Pagels has the best book out there, which Audible does carry. It is called, 'The Gnostic Gospels.' The problem with Bart Erhman's book is that it is quite redundant, expecially for those that have read any of the other surviving Gnostic Texts. I found myself screaming, "Not another one!" Currently, there are at least 3 books out there, just on this theme. If your looking for something fresh and new, this isn't it. If your looking for something plausible, this isn't it. If you like Bart Ehrman and you want to hear some background history about Judas Iscariot, this is your book. Want to experience some
Gnosticism, this is your book.

I strongly agree with David from Wisconsin. I believe that Bart does a better job with this subject then probably anyone else could. Several chapters are devoted to how this document was found and what happened to it after. Bart explains why this document is important and in layman's terms. He explains a lot about Gnostic teachings. At first this is fairly interesting, but later he goes into so much detail that I lost interest.

I did like the explanation about how people often combine the three Gospels, which in effect creates another gospel all together. All the gospels where written in a certain way to a certain group of people and to highlight a certain theology. When you combine them, it distorts the effect. I have narrated a lot of Easter programs for my church and have seen how that happens.

Gnostics seem to believe that the Old Testament God (Creator God) is not the same as the New Testament (Loving) God. This is an interesting concept, but from there it gets pretty weird. They seem to become the Anti-Church. They believe almost the opposite of what Christians believe.

Toward the end, Bart starts repeating himself and gets into thick details I lost interest in.

The narrator is so good, that I thought it was the author. Narrator is very comfortable to listen to.

Only those interested in a research of the subject

I was expecting more of the content of the manuscript. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. I was expecting more of a story book, like the one Taylor Caldwell did with the subject, in her book, "I Judas". However, it was an interesting study and kept me interested to the end. Biblical scholars will enjoy this comparative study.

Interesting book that reveals insights into other views of early Christianity. Ehrman, in his usual style, lays down foundation of early Christian movements, Christian Gnosticism, how Judas is portrayed in canonical books, and how this Gospel portrays Judas. Ehrman spends time discussing the differing theological viewpoints that are presented in each book, canonical or not, that helps explain the importance and place of this newly discovered gospel.

Also included is the story of the 20+ year odyssey of this ancient text from its discovery until its publication. Well written and well researched