The Gospel of Judas and the Early Christianity and Gnosticism. A Research Reconnaissance

The subject of the article is the recently discovered and published copy of a Coptic version of an apocryphal Gospel of Judas (the Greek original was written in the middle of the II century) recovered from The Codex Tchacos dating back to III-IV century. The author describes in a synthetic way, the history of its discovery and presents the results of the research that has gone into its edition; he pre-sents its content and gives its rough interpretation; he also defines its literary genre and the religious circles which gave rise to it. The author classifies the text as belonging to the early pseudepigraphic Gnostic writings which arose in the Cainite sect (Judaites). The discovery of the gospel authenticated the existence of this sect which was known from the writings of some Christian heresiologists and whose existence was being questioned by certain scholars; it provided an insight into its doctrine which was sometimes regarded as an invention of the ancient anti-Gnostic polemicists. Right now, the group of Cainites „had spoken with its own voice”.

The subject of the article is the recently discovered and published copy of a Coptic version of an apocryphal Gospel of Judas (the Greek original was written in the middle of the II century) recovered from The Codex Tchacos dating back to III-IV century. The author describes in a synthetic way, the history of its discovery and presents the results of the research that has gone into its edition; he pre-sents its content and gives its rough interpretation; he also defines its literary genre and the religious circles which gave rise to it. The author classifies the text as belonging to the early pseudepigraphic Gnostic writings which arose in the Cainite sect (Judaites). The discovery of the gospel authenticated the existence of this sect which was known from the writings of some Christian heresiologists and whose existence was being questioned by certain scholars; it provided an insight into its doctrine which was sometimes regarded as an invention of the ancient anti-Gnostic polemicists. Right now, the group of Cainites „had spoken with its own voice”.