The Gospel of Judas is a gnostic text that has recently been unearthed and translated. It paints a different picture of Judas where Jesus asks Judas to betray him so that prophecy may be fulfilled. Judas here is presented a model disciple for those who wish to follow Jesus. He is the one who truly understands who Jesus is and what must happen.
This text comes to us from approximately 280 CE but was most likely copied from an earlier text. Most gnostic writing comes to us in the second century and this particular Christian Heresy was confronted directly by Ireanus in 180 CE
The text is clearly not canon, and deals with many gnostic themes: the fallen world and the spirit world, the God of this world and the true God of the next and that some possess secret knowledge. But the text does bring us to an interesting question, was Judas doing a good deed in handing Jesus over? Without the betrayal, there would be no arrest, without the arrest, there would be no trial, without the trial there would be no crucifixion, without the crucifixion there would be no resurrection and we would still wouldn’t be saved from our sins.
So why were Judas’s action such a bad thing? Can the irredeemable be redeemed?