The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I picked up a copy of this book at Dollar Tree. I had no idea what it was supposed to be, but since I have read the real Gospel of Judas I thought it was worth a buck to pick up a copy of this. I had finished reading it the next day.
I keep a computerized inventory of all of my books, and when I entered this one I had difficulty deciding which genre to place it under. Ultimately I put it under Religious Fiction, but you could also label it Religious Devotional or Religious Scholarship. This is a novel that is written in the form of a gospel, and although its history and theology are highly unorthodox, it also has aspects of a devotional work. It is obvious that the authors love the God and Jesus of their understanding and have a great reverence for the New Testament, but they choose to experiment in looking at things from a different angle. I think it is worthwhile even if it does leave the final result confused.
Considering this book as a novel, it is a first person narrative by a Benjamin Iscariot, son of Judas Iscariot. He tells the truth (as he sees it) about his father in order to save his reputation from those who called him a traitor. He tells the life of his father including how he met Jesus, what he did with Jesus, and what really happened at the execution. Finally he says that his father Judas did not commit suicide but died of natural causes at old age.
If you are looking for literal truth in this book, there is very little. This imaginary telling contradicts both the Biblical version of the story and the version told in the Gospel of Judas. There is no credible scholarship to back up any of the claims in this book, but the authors do a good job at making the historical settings and people seem realistic and credible. If you are a literalist Christian you believe that Judas was a traitor. To read the Gospel of Judas is to learn the view that some contemporaries thought he was really an enlightened hero. To an atheist of the mythicist perspective such as myself, there is no solid reason to believe that either Jesus or Judas ever actually lived or did anything the New Testament says they did. This "Gospel According to Judas" is a creative novel that conflicts with all of those opinions.
This book has an interesting effect from a devotional perspective. If a myth is considered to be any story that affects us deeply and helps us to better live our lives, then I think this book offers much to anyone who wants some new ideas about the Christian myth. I think that most Westerners, religious and non, could find something inspiring and thought-provoking in this book.
Unfortuantely this book tries to do too much without being very clear about any of its goals. Is it a novel, a religious work, or a conspiracy theory? Trying to be all things it basically fails at all of them. This could have been a great book, but it turns out pretty mediocre. However because it is so different from anything else on the bookshelves I found it to be a worthwhile read and would recommend it for any spiritual seeker (Christian, atheist, or other) who has an open mind and a heart able to be touched by badly-written fiction.

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