Judas Testament

A "Judas Testament" is a pejorative expression, coined by author Daniel Easterman, referring to any hypothetical New Testament apocrypha written by an apostle of the historical Jesus or Jesus himself, which would severely call into question the historicity of the words and acts attributed to Jesus in the New Testament; and possibly incite religious and political conflicts amongst Christians.

A 1994 novel by Daniel Easterman, "The Judas Testament",cite book| author = Easterman, Daniel| title = The Judas Testament| publisher = Harpercollins| year = 2004| id = ISBN 0060177683] revolved around the discovery of an epistle in Moscow by a scholar of the Aramaic language, who becomes the unwitting pawn in a murderous struggle by various crypto-political forces to possess the scroll. Contrary to what the title of the book might suggest, the scroll is not the Gospel of Judas but an autobiography of the historical Jesus in his own hand. It is a "Judas Testament" in that its contents subvert the conventional image of Jesus as Christ and instead show him to have been a Jewish religious figure known as the Teacher of Righteousness. Easterman's ideas in this respect are taken directly from the third quest for the historical Jesus and the scholarly debate about whether or not there is a relationship between Jesus and the Jewish sect known as the Essenes.

References

ee also

*Dead Sea Scrolls
*Nag Hammadi Library