jeffrey archer judas miracles

Jeffrey Archer, Judas, Miracles

I noticed mention at the NT Gateway Weblog today of a novel by British

politicain Jeffrey Archer - The Gospel According to Judas ...

This story is extensively reported today, but surprisingly little

touched on in the biblioblogosphere. Jeffrey Archer, the notorious

British popular novelist-cum-Tory-politician who recently spent time

in prison for perjury, has collaborated with Francis Moloney of the

Catholic University of America in a new book about Judas .... One

curiosity. It is only a year since the Gospel of Judas was published,

with its accompanying National Geographic documentary, but it is not

referenced in any of the media pieces I have seen about the new Archer

novel. I suppose it shows what short memories people have ...

And here's a liitle info from The Guardian on the book ...

The cyclical rehabilitation of Jeffrey Archer has completed another

astounding turn. Following his conviction for perjury, two years in

prison and another four years of more or less self-imposed exile from

the media spotlight, Archer is back. Still apparently a

member-in-not-very-good-standing of the House of Lords, Archer this

week follows his recent thriller, False Impression, with the

publication of The Gospel According to Judas: By Benjamin Iscariot, a

book which, unlike its author, fairly begs to have its credentials

closely examined. It is, insists Archer, not a novel but a "gospel" -

it's written in numbered verses, and edged in gold leaf - and it is

co-authored by an Australian Silesian scholar called Father Francis

Moloney (although the title page has a slightly less generous, "with

the assistance of"). It purports to be Judas's account, retold by his

son Benjamin, of the betrayal of Jesus. Judas, he claims, never

accepted the 30 pieces of silver, and never hanged himself. Father

Moloney is on board to keep it real.

Neither the premise nor the title is particularly original, or even

controversial; there are about a dozen books with the same name, and

last year saw the publication of a second century Gnostic text, The

Gospel Of Judas, which posits a revisionist view of the wayward

disciple's culpability. It has long been suggested that if Jesus's

crucifixion was the fulfilment of scripture then you can't lay all the

blame at Judas's feet. Archer's latest book has, however, earned

praise from an unfamiliar quarter. Thanks to Moloney's involvement it

has the official approval of the Pope and the imprimatur of Archbishop

Desmond Tutu - he's the voice of the audio CD (you can hear him do

chapter one on Archer's own website) .....

There are some interesting things about the book ... that it's based

on the Gospel of Judas that was so much in the news last year ... that

it's co-authoring by Fr. Francis Moloney, who apparently had no

problems with a portayal of Jesus that's somewhat contrary to the

offical Church stance (Jesus as the biological son of Joseph, for

example).

What might be considered most controversial about the book is that

Judas is not seen as the betrayer of Jesus (no surprise here, as it's

based on the Gospel of Judas), though even the Vatican has of late

been up on the idea of rehabilitating Judas' image. Myself, I'm fine

with giving Judas a break - I can so easily see myself making a

terrible mistake of the same nature, I'm willing to give him the

benefit of the doubt. But what disturbs me is that Archer's book shows

a Jesus who did not perform miracles ... no changing the water into

wine, no walking on water, etc. :-(

I guess most christians fall somewhere along the continuum between

strict naturalism (think Jefferson's Bible) and full blown

supernaturalism (think CS Lewis' Miracles), and I realized that I lean

very hard towards supernaturalism. Did Jesus really perform nature

miracles? I can tell you what Hume or Thomas Aquinas or John

Polkinghorne think, but really all they have are opinions ... ok,

extremely intelligent opinions, but still :-). I can't answer the

question of whther the miracles happened or not, so maybe I'll try to

answer a different question ... why is it so important to me to

believe that Jesus performed miracles? That will probably take a while

to answer, so in the meantime, remember this poem about Judas? .....

Saint Brandan

- Matthew Arnold

Saint Brandan sails the northern main;

The brotherhood of saints are glad.

He greets them once, he sails again;

So late!--such storms!--The Saint is mad!

He heard, across the howling seas,

Chime convent-bells on wintry nights;

He saw, on spray-swept Hebrides,

Twinkle the monastery-lights;

But north, still north, Saint Brandan steer'd--

And now no bells, no convents more!

The hurtling Polar lights are near'd,

The sea without a human shore.

At last--(it was the Christmas night;

Stars shone after a day of storm)--

He sees float past an iceberg white,

And on it--Christ!--a living form.

That furtive mien, that scowling eye,

Of hair that red and tufted fell--

It is--Oh, where shall Brandan fly?--

The traitor Judas, out of hell!

Palsied with terror, Brandan sate;

The moon was bright, the iceberg near.

He hears a voice sigh humbly: "Wait!

By high permission I am here.

"One moment wait, thou holy man

On earth my crime, my death, they knew;

My name is under all men's ban--

Ah, tell them of my respite too!

"Tell them, one blessed Christmas-night--

(It was the first after I came,

Breathing self-murder, frenzy, spite,

To rue my guilt in endless flame)--

"I felt, as I in torment lay

'Mid the souls plagued by heavenly power,

An angel touch my arm, and say:

Go hence, and cool thyself an hour!

"'Ah, whence this mercy, Lord?' I said.

The Leper recollect, said he,

Who ask'd the passers-by for aid,

In Joppa, and thy charity.

"Then I remember'd how I went,

In Joppa, through the public street,

One morn when the sirocco spent

Its storms of dust with burning heat;

"And in the street a leper sate,

Shivering with fever, naked, old;

Sand raked his sores from heel to pate,

The hot wind fever'd him five-fold.

"He gazed upon me as I pass'd

And murmur'd: Help me, or I die!--

To the poor wretch my cloak I cast,

Saw him look eased, and hurried by.

"Oh, Brandan, think what grace divine,

What blessing must full goodness shower,

When fragment of it small, like mine,

Hath such inestimable power!

"Well-fed, well-clothed, well-friended, I

Did that chance act of good, that one!

Then went my way to kill and lie--

Forgot my good as soon as done.

"That germ of kindness, in the womb

Of mercy caught, did not expire;

Outlives my guilt, outlives my doom,

And friends me in the pit of fire.

"Once every year, when carols wake,

On earth, the Christmas-night's repose,

Arising from the sinner's lake,

I journey to these healing snows.

"I stanch with ice my burning breast,

With silence balm my whirling brain.

Oh, Brandan! to this hour of rest

That Joppan leper's ease was pain."--

Tears started to Saint Brandan's eyes;

He bow'd his head, he breathed a prayer--

Then look'd, and lo, the frosty skies!