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Figure in the text because judas was a notorious figure. he was an attention-getter in antiquity as he is today. >> anyone who would choose to write a gospel of judas was certainly making a conscious decision to pick a figure whom wasn't accepted by the orthodox church. >> the judas character in the gospel of judas is not a great deal different from judas as we see him on the pages of the new testament. >> judas has always been a complicated character. ambiguity around judas and the fascination has always been there. >> there's no way that the gospel writers would have made up a character in j...

His closest disciples. >> the term "disciple" simply means learner or student. so when jesus is calling disciples, he's simply gathering a group of students around to learn from him. >> the disciples come from a wide range of backgrounds. from fishermen to tax collectors. >> there was recruitment by jesus, deliberate recruitment. and he wanted a diverse group. judas may well have been one of the very first he recruited. >> jesus was a pretty good judge of character. anyone who jesus had chosen as a disciple must have had something going for him. >> judas was the treasurer of jesus' 12 disciple...

In the year 327 a.d., helena the empress of rome, begins a pioneering mission in the holy land. according to christian tradition, she has come to find the cross jesus died on. >> helena was doing something actually at the time quite radical in the history of christianity. she wants to hold in her hands something that has been close to jesus. >> the pilgrimage could change the course of christian history. >> but the site of christ's passion is no more. jerusalem is now an outpost of the roman empire, renamed aelia capitolina. >> when helena entered the city of jerusalem, it's likely to have bee...

Jesus, frankly. and these disciples are standing as kind of ciphers. they're symbols of the orthodox church of the second century. >> it seems that it's written as a criticism of mainstream christians who are engaged in worships that are led by bishops or clerics of one kind or another. and the authors of this text, they don't like that kind of clericalism. they don't like that kind of religious service. and they are strongly discouraging people from participating in it. >> the gospel of judas is a political smear against the people running the early church. >> the apostolic church was emergin...

>> helena is the person who takes jerusalem from a sleepy provincial capital and turns it into this place that we're all looking to for a spiritual message. >> for centuries, devoted pilgrims have come here to mark their faith. with a symbol now recognized the world over. >> at the time of jesus, a cross was a very negative image. it was a place of brutal, horrible execution and death. but after constantine and helena, the cross becomes a symbol of salvation, a contact with the transcendent. >> without the story of the discovery of the true cross, helena would be just another empress in the pa...