The Gospel of Judas is one of several ancient accounts of Christ's
life which were rejected as suspect by the fathers of the early
Church and so they did not become part of the Bible .
The document reportedly argues that Judas Iscariot, known to
Christians as the man who betrayed Jesus Christ, was an essential
part of God's design and, as such, almost a hero .
Without his betrayal, Jesus would not have been crucified and so,
the argument goes, God's plan to save mankind from its sins would
not have been fulfilled .
The papyrus containing the text of the 'gospel' appeared about 30
years ago on the Egyptian antiquities market. It had last been
heard of in AD180, when Saint Irenaeus, a bishop, condemned it as
heretical . The text was the work of an ancient Gnostic sect called
the Cainites, whichmade a habit of giving a positive value to all
the negative figures in Christian scriptures .
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