In the last two centuries, several ancient Christian texts have been discovered and brought into the public eye, having been hidden for around fifteen hundred years. The most famous of these are contained in the Nag Hammadi Library, the Berlin Codex where we find the Gospel of Mary (Magdalene), and the Pistis Sophia, which was kept in various locations unheralded throughout the centuries. These are texts of the Gnostics - a part of early Christianity, which was persecuted into effective oblivion by the organised orthodox Christians. Important though these texts are, they were largely brushed aside at the time of their re-discovery by conventional Christianity.

However, in the 1970s the Gospel of Judas was found. It could not be ignored and would fundamentally challenge the way the world thinks about Christianity. For many, it calls into question the straightforward literal interpretation of the life of Jesus.

The Gospel is an account of conversations between Jesus and his disciples. Judas is chosen by Jesus as the one who would sell him to those who would ultimately crucify him.

It is already written in the orthodox Gospels that Jesus not only knew that one of the twelve would betray him: "Assuredly I say to you, one of you who eats with me shall betray me" (Mark), but also that he knew it would be Judas: "That thou doest, do quickly" (John).

In the Gospel of Judas the betrayal leading to Jesus’ death was not only known in advance, as we see in the orthodox Gospels, but it was also planned in advance.

The discovered document is a copy of an earlier copy, just as a modern Bible we can buy from the local shop today is a copy of an earlier text. It is an authentic historical document, which is even mentioned in a treatise around A.D. 180 by the bishop Irenaeus of Lyon, in what is now France. Being a conventional Christian, he denounced it as heresy and wrote, “They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion.”

This illustrates the split at the time between conventional or Pistic Christianity and Gnostic Christianity; one public, the other esoteric, both with different interpretations of the role of Judas. Eventually conventional Christianity was organised into a branch of the Roman state and with that power (sometimes through murder) it eventually obliterated Gnostic Christianity. The discovery of this Gospel causes many to question the authority of those that excluded it and to question why certain beliefs are held.