National Geographic's Commercial Motives Are Revealed by New Translation of the Gospel of Judas
Remember that big controversial Gospel of Judas that National Geographic Society released during the Easter Season last spring? The one that supposedly depicted Judas as a hero that Jesus had told to betray him?
Seems that initially the NGS had not released the manuscript for other scholars to translate. They eventually did, under pressure, and now it has come to light that their translation was very very poor. In fact, the meaning of the text is nothing close to what they proposed in their magazine issue. Another scholar has translated the original texts, published the results in the New York Times (and other places), and come up with something much different and ... less controversial of course. A text that would not sell nearly as many magazines certainly.
The text is still said to be Gnostic but portrays Judas as a demon rather than a hero.
Ah but no one will care about it now. The damage is done. The public has moved on to other things and the impressions are left lingering in their minds.
And the reputation of the NGS is further tarnished. This is surely a magazine you only want to buy for the great pictures. :)
4 comments:
NG came out with an edition of Pakistan as well couple of months ago, and it was so biased that they totally neglected to even mention all the good things happening in the country. That edition damaged the rep of the country. I agree with you, NG is something you want to buy for the pictures. lol. Unfortunately, no one is going to read what you have mentioned here about NG doing a poor translation, but I still thank you for bringing it up because it can be useful in discussions.
M
Excellent article. I was particularly interested in what the author said about the Dead Sea Scrolls:
"The situation reminds me of the deadlock that held scholarship back on the Dead Sea Scrolls decades ago. When manuscripts are hoarded by a few, it results in errors and monopoly interpretations that are very hard to overturn even after they are proved wrong."
From what I understand, the tragic consequences of the Scrolls monopoly are indeed still continuing today, in a misleading exhibit taking place in a "natural history" museum in San Diego. Talk about commercial motives! See this article for details:
http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/did-christian-agenda-lead-biased-dead-sea-scrolls-exhibit-san-diego
So I will be curious to see whether liberal Christian scholars -- by which I mean scholars of Christian faith who, like April DeConick, seek to do their research in accordance with fundamental scientific principles rather than any religious agenda -- will part company with their Evangelical-minded colleagues and frankly condemn what is going on with the Dead Sea Scrolls in one museum exhibit after another.
In recent years, National Geographic (both the magazine and the TV channel)has sacrificed its intellectual credibility for a blatantly obvious, fervent adherence to humanist / materialist presuppositions.
It's sad - it's a visually beautiful magazine, but the presuppositional bias is almost comic.
Dear John and "View from Here",
I couldn't agree more with your comments... great pictures though :)
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