The Gospel of Judas:
A Conversation with the Experts

A public lecture with
Dr. Elaine Pagels and Dr. Marvin Meyer

When The Gospel of Judas was published in April 2006, it rocked the Christian world and set off a firestorm over how to conceive of the person of Judas Iscariot - a figure both reviled for his betrayal of Jesus and invoked by the purveyors of anti-Semitism. Now the Gospel of Judas joins the Gnostic gospels of Thomas, Mary Magdalene and others in providing alternative perspectives on Jesus and his times. The Gospel of Judas, however, raised a truly radical assertion: that Jesus took Judas into his confidence and explained the role he must play in the fulfillment of prophecy - after all, somebody had to deliver him to the cross. Yet this assertion strikes deeply into the prevailing interpretation of the four canonical Gospels and led to the mainstream church's suppression of The Gospel of Judas - and the text's disappearance for more than 1,700 years. Its rediscovery has aroused a profound debate among theologians, church leaders and Biblical scholars. As the debates unfolded on the airwaves, two internationally renowned scholars were most sought after for their insights:

Dr. Marvin Meyer and Dr. Elaine Pagels

These two scholars came together on the campus of Chapman University March 21, 2007 to engage in a public dialogue on the Gospel of Judas and its significance for the Christian faith.

About the speakers

Dr. Marvin Meyer holds the Belle Griset Chair in Religion at Chapman University and was one of three who authored last year's international bestseller The Gospel of Judas, published by the National Geographic Society. The National Geographic's unveiling of the authentic 2nd-century A.D. Gnostic gospel, which portrays Judas as a sympathetic and even heroic figure, caused a worldwide media sensation, and Dr. Meyer, who also appeared on the widely seen television special, was the lead English translator of the manuscript. An expert in Coptic - the language of the early Christians in Egypt - and considered one of the world's foremost scholars on Gnosticism and texts about Jesus outside the New Testament, Dr. Meyer has authored more than 10 books. Some of his most recent books are The Gnostic Discoveries: The Impact of the Nag Hammadi Library; The Gospels of Mary: The Secret Tradition of Mary Magdalene, the Companion of Jesus; and The Gospel of Thomas: The Hidden Sayings of Jesus. Forthcoming from Dr. Meyer this year are The Nag Hammadi Scriptures and the critical (scholarly) edition of The Gospel of Judas, which he co-authored with the National Geographic team.

Dr. Elaine Pagels is the Harrington Spear Paine Professor of Religion at Princeton University and a preeminent member of the theological community whose impressive scholarship has earned her international respect. As a young researcher at Barnard College, she changed the historical landscape of Christian studies by exploding the myth of the early Christian church as a unified movement. She published her findings in 1979 in a book that became a groundbreaking bestseller, The Gnostic Gospels. An analysis of 52 early Christian manuscripts that were unearthed in Egypt and known collectively as the Nag Hammadi Library, The Gnostic Gospels won the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, and was chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 most influential books of the 20th century. "It is fair to say that Pagels' bestseller set the stage for the run away success of The Da Vinci Code," said U.S. News & World Report in a 2006 article on recent Gnostic manuscript discoveries. Among Dr. Pagels' many other books are Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas; The Origin of Satan; and her latest book, Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity, to be published this spring.