Judas tells his side of the story 2000 years late; PR experts fear damage already done Judas Iscariot, much maligned as the betrayer of Christ, has just released his gospel. If by 'released' you mean 'found in an Egyptian cave in 1978, passed among antiquities dealers, then finally restored and translated'.

The scroll, written between 220 and 340 CE, apparently paints a fairly flattering picture of ol' Judas, at least compared to the typical portrayal of him as a demonic monster. According to the scroll, Jesus ordered Judas to sell him out, and thus complete his destiny.

While you'd think something like this might raise some eyebrows in the Christian Church, most scholars are skeptical. Apparently, it was written by the Gnostic sect, who were long ago ruled 'heretics'. You might remember the Gnostics from The Da Vinci Code; they were the blokes that kept the Gospel of Mary Magdalene, brutally punished for their interpretation of Christianity. Apparently, there were almost 30 different gospels excluded from the bible for various reasons, not least of which was the reliability of the sources. Still, there was a lot of politics in the early church, as different sects fought for control over doctrine, a lot of stuff was edited out of the bible. Like a flattering depiction of women, for example.

Anyway, in a perfect world, the release of a document like the Gospel of Judas might spark a healthy little debate within the walls of Christianity about the foundation of its dogma. In a perfect world.  ¶ 5:53 a.m.