Judas, minus the betrayal.

• Position: RELIGION

An ancient Christian manuscript, including the only known text of the Gospel of Judas, has surfaced after 1,700 years, and it portrays Judas Iscariot not, as tradition holds, a betrayer of Jesus but as his favored disciple and willing collaborator. In this text, scholars report, Jesus asks Judas to betray him to the Roman authorities. Some experts say the text sheds new light on the relationship between Jesus and Judas. Others say it is yet another scripture produced by the Christian cur of Gnostics, whose followers lived a few hundred years after Jesus' day and could not...