It is not the usual meaning of the word in fact, it is a meaning that must be learned and learned very carefully.
The term generosity has special meaning to the teacher of God. The separation is a system of thought real enough in time, though not in eternity. We have discussed the fall or separation before, but its meaning must be clearly understood. If His strength is in you, what you perceive as your weakness is but illusion. I have made every effort to use words that are almost impossible to distort, but it is always possible to twist symbols around if you wish. This concern with getting the meaning of words right – in particular, the Course’s words – is evident throughout the Course, as can be seen in passages like the following (italics mine, except in the final example): In fact, his whole purpose is to change the form so that the original meaning is retained” (T-7.II.4:3-4). For instance, in a comment that is surely relevant to the Gospel of Judas translation issue, the Course’s author remarks that “a good translator, although he must alter the form of what he translates, never changes the meaning. While it has become fashionable in alternative spiritual circles to dismiss careful interpretation of words as a meaningless “head trip” that gets in the way of spiritual experience, the Course doesn’t share this view. In A Course in Miracles, too, how we interpret its words makes a huge difference. It’s hard to imagine two pictures more different. In one version, Judas is a hero in the other, he is a demon. (The National Geographic Society says that the translation issues DeConick raises are dealt with in the footnotes to the translation see their response here) But whatever the truth of the matter is, what really intrigues me is just how big a difference the translation and interpretation of a few words makes. This depiction, she says, is an expression of the author’s rejection of mainstream Christianity and its eucharistic ritual it is meant to mock the mainstream Christian view that Jesus was sacrificed to God as atonement for our sins.Īs I said, I don’t have the expertise to offer even a good guess about who is right here. (According to DeConick, the NG translators acknowledged that this was a mistake.)īased on her reading of the Gospel of Judas, DeConick concludes that far from depicting Judas as an obedient instrument of Jesus, this gospel depicts him as a manifestation of the “king of demons,” an agent of destruction who sacrifices Jesus to the demons. There is even one instance where DeConick claims the NG translators actually altered a word in the Coptic original the translation says that Judas will ascend to the holy generation, while the original actually said that he would not ascend to the holy generation. Elsewhere, the NG translation says that Judas was set apart “for” the holy generation DeConick says this should actually read that he was set apart from the holy generation.
The Gospel of Judas refers to Judas as a daimon, which the translators rendered as “spirit” she claims, however, that in Gnostic literature like this gospel that word actually means “demon” (“spirit” would be pneuma). But to me, this entire debate underscores just what a profound difference the interpretation of a few words in a scripture can make, be it the Gospel of Judas or A Course in Miracles.ĭeConick lists several errors (in her view) in the National Geographic translation. I am no scholar of ancient languages, so I have no idea who is right here. DeConick, a professor of biblical studies at Rice University, claims that this entire picture is due to mistranslation in fact, she says, this gospel presents Judas not as a hero, but as a demon. He did not betray Jesus rather, he handed Jesus over to the authorities because Jesus asked him to, and this act of obedience was rewarded with entry into the Kingdom of Heaven and a position above all of the other disciples. Most of the publicity centered around this gospel’s apparent reversal of the traditional view of Judas: He was not a villain but a hero. The recently discovered Gospel of Judas (a third-century gospel that no one believes was actually authored by him) caused quite a buzz when it was released by the National Geographic Society in 2006.