Might Jewish history have been less tragic had the Gospel of Judas been true?
Yes, had Judas been portrayed in Christian teachings as a faithful friend of Jesus, many anti-Jewish stereotypes fostered by the New Testament might have been precluded, as well as their even grosser embellishments over time. For example, according to the second-century Church writer Papias, after Judas died his “flesh became so swollen, that where a wagon could pass with ease he was unable to….He died on his own property, which…remained…deserted because of the stench” (Eusebius’ Church History, 3.36.2). Twelve hundred years later, a search for Judas in Dante’s Inferno (Divine Comedy, early 1300s) finds him frozen at the very bottom level, head-first in Lucifer’s central mouth, clawed, bitten, and chewed for eternity (34.58-63). Does embellishment also occur within the New Testament, comparing early and later Gospels? Yes, it does. The Judas story, as it goes in the earliest Gospel, Mark (written around 72 C.E.), is quite skeletal. Here, Judas offers to assist Jewish authorities be
