World's top scholars come to Rice to discuss Judas

For the first time, community of experts examine the Judas Codex

This week Rice University will host 30 world-renowned international religious studies experts as they examine the newly found Tchacos Codex that contains the Gospel of Judas, the Apocalypse of James, the Letter of Peter to Philip and a fragment of Allogenes and Satan. The Codex Judas Congress, March 13-16, is the first opportunity the scholars will have to investigate photographs of the entire original text, discuss it with their peers and present their findings.

The conference was organized by Rice Biblical studies professor April DeConick, who recently garnered national attention for her new book, "The Thirteenth Apostle," which debunked a stunning claim by National Geographic's translation of the Gospel of Judas. According to that translation, Judas was a hero, not a villain, who acted on Jesus' request to betray him. DeConick's translation confirms that Judas betrayed Jesus.

DeConick planned the conference as a way to encourage scholars to openly and interactively examine these new texts. She hopes that the conference will create a forum where scholars will suggest alternatives to the interpretation released by National Geographic nearly two years ago this Easter.

The National Geographic translators, Marvin Meyer and Gregor Wurst, will attend the conference, explaining their interpretation and discussing how the Gospel of Judas was restored. Meyer is the Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies at Chapman University in California and Wurst is a professor of ecclesiastical history and patristics at the Faculty of Catholic Theology of the University of Augsburg, Germany.

"I convened this conference because we need to have the opportunity to work together as a community of scholars on this newly discovered text," DeConick said. "We need to put our heads together to see what is going on within the text and what kinds of questions it raises. This can significantly impact our understanding of early Christianity."

DeConick hopes the results of the conference, which will be published, will contextualize the codex within its historical, religious and interpretative frameworks for the first time in 1,800 years. DeConick is the Isla Carroll and Percy E. Turner Professor of Biblical Studies.