Just what is all this about a gospel of Judas? Well, it's real and it was considered lost for 1,600 years. It was discovered in an Egyptian cave in 1978. There have been many ancient Coptic texts discovered in Egypt (the majority having been found near Nag Hammadi and were written by the Gnostics). The codex in which the Gospel of Judas appears was also written in ancient Coptic. The truth of it however, remains unclear.
Judas Iscariot is known as the ultimate betrayer. But was he? The Gospel of Judas tells of a private conversation between Jesus and Judas 3 days prior to Passover in which Judas is asked to betray Jesus as an act of faith. Keep in mind that Judas was indeed an Apostle, a follower of Christ before he committed his dirty deed. But the majority of the book is about Judas' questions of faith.
This Gospel is very short. Unlike the four Gospels of the Bible it does not tell the entire story of Christ. It is primarily a discussion of cosmology and Creation. However, the codex is severly damaged and many lines of text are missing. But the Gospel of Judas isn't the only book in this codex. There is also a Letter of Peter to Philip (which also appears in the Nag Hammadi Codex VIII) and a Revelation of James (which also appears in the Nag Hammadi Codex V). Also there appears another previously unknown (and unfortunately pulverized) book whose title is now lost to history.
