This post highlights some aspects of the story around the story. The art dealers trade and Egypt is a world I am professionally very familiar with, and so I like you to read what the experts say. Excerpts from the many links to peruse below:
Why did one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the century remain hidden for such a long time?
Almost two thousand years the 'blasphemous' Gospel of Judas was banned by the Church. Until the seventies of last century when Egyptian farmers accidentally found a copy in a cave. But even long afterwards nobody dared to get their fingers burned by the manuscript.
.
"Forget the Da Vinci code, this is the real thing!"
-- Henk Schutten
.
The hunt for the Gospel of Judas
.
Is there a copy in the Vatican ???
.
"Explosive," that is the only comment made about the content of the Gospel of Judas by Mario Roberty, president of the Maecenas Foundation.
"First we assumed the document to be fourth or fifth century. But research proved that this is one of the earliest documents of Early Christianity. That is what makes this discovery so exceptional."
Roberty does not rule out at all that the Vatican owns a copy of their own all this time, securely locked away. "In those days the Church decided for political reasons to include the Gospels of Luke, Marc, Matthew and John in the Bible. The other gospels were banned.
It is highly logical that the Catholic Church would have kept a copy of the forbidden gospels. Sadly, the Vatican does not want to clarify further. Their policy has been the same for years: "No further comment."
Roberty hopes passionately that one day another copy of the Gospel of Judas will turn up, because the copy as owned by the Maecenas Foundation is only 65 to 70 percent complete. "We assume that some fragments are still wondering around on the market here and there, but I am afraid that a quarter of the manuscript has been lost for ever."
Roberty was actually going to publish the translation of the Gospel of Judas at the end of this year, but that has been postponed till Easter of next year. The research proved to be more extensive than expected.
"When we obtained the manuscript, it had been in a safe for twenty years. It looked terrible. Pages were stuck together or had fallen apart. A team of scientists is busy to piece the bits back together. It is a giant puzzle."
Roberty says they are still in the dark about the origin of the manuscript.
"It originated from an Egyptian dealer in Cairo and Egyptian people just are wonderful storytellers. They will tell you exactly what you want to hear. For the time being we assume that the manuscripts were found in the fifties or sixties of last century, most probably in the environment of al-Minya, in Middle-Egypt, taking into account at least the dialect in which the gospel is written.
When his client Frieda Tchakos bought the documents in 1999, she had no idea at all that the Gospel of Judas was part of it. That explains according to Roberty why the manuscript remained hidden for such a long time. "The asking price for the documents was way too high and no one knew that it was the Gospel of Judas." The problems have been solved in the meantime. "After concluding the research, everything will be returned to Egypt. The work belongs there and they will be conserved in the best way."
That was the reason also according to him to place the Gospel of Judas in a foundation.
"This work is so important that it just cannot end up in hands of a private dealer. The Gospel of Judas belongs to every one interested in Early Christianity."
Read more here on "The shady side of the art trade": scroll past the pictures...
- http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/manuscripts/gospel_of_judas/index.htm#images
