Even the most enthuiastic proponents of the Gospel of Judas acknowledge that the earliest it could have been written was over 100 years later. Written in a different language. By someone from a very different culture. And bearing distinctive marks of that different culture.

So, let’s be clear. The Coptic Gospel of Judas is the historical equivalent of going to Japan and finding a document written last week in Japanese in which John Wilkes Booth has a conversation with President Lincoln who asks to be shot in order to join his honorable ancestors.