The Gospel of Judas, written in the fourth century and translated to Coptic from Greek lay hidden for centuries before coming to light in the late twentieth century - before disappearing into a web of antiquities traders and thieves, and then reappearing again. Now, the story of the Judas Gospel is being told by National Geographic, which commissioned a study to verify the age and authenticity of the papyrus manuscript.

The Judas Gospel was rumoured for centuries before it made its first appearance, More decades passed until the age of the documents could be verified, and its inscriptions translated from ancient Coptic to English.

The papyrus translation of the Judas Gospel was found by local peasants along the Nile in the 1970s, who found the manuscript written in an unreadable language. They handed the papyrus over to an antiquities dealer Hanna, who tried to sell the document for three million dollars. Though he could not make out what was written on the parchment, he almost correctly estimated the codex to be from biblical times. He could not find any takers for the parchment. Around 1980, the Gospel was stolen from him, but Hanna managed to recover it from Geneva. Later, he went to US to sell the codex at a lower price of one million dollars, but still couldn't find any buyers.

Hanna knew there would be buyers in the US, but he could not push sales because he lacked English skills. With the help of a local priest, he opened a bank account in Hicksville and kept the parchment in a safe vault there. Then, it was forgotten for years. Hanna went back to Egypt and got married. He kept the key to the vault for 16 years. The Gospel of Judas sat idle in the Hicksville vault, molding and waiting for a visitor.

That visitor came in 2000, but not directly. Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos, an old acquaintance of Hanna had heard of the document in Hanna's possession, and sought to buy it from him. Money changed hands, and Hanna flew into US, where they opened the vault - only to find the document crumbled to a thousand pieces. Tchacos' face fell. She had expected the document to be in the same condition as it was left.

After 1700 years in exile and ignominy, Judas now refused to die. Tchacos handed over the box of crumbled parchment pieces to an art foundation in Switzerland for restoration and possible translation. That was when National Geographic came by, and offered to help restore the historic document. The crumbled pieces were systematically put together to rebuild the original parchment. National Geographic sent the parchment for carbon testing and other scientific tests, which confirmed the age of the Judas Gospel. Rodolph Kasser, a retired 78-year old professor in Coptic language was roped in to assist the translation of the codex. Many of the pieces were barely readable, due to holes formed in the parchment. (Someone who kept the parchment in a freezer for years assuming it will be safe that way). Finally, after painstaking work, the translation was over. Talking from across the centuries, to the Christian world where he was the eternal traitor, Judas finally had his say.

The disputed Gospel says that Jesus actively "conspired" with Judas to hand him over to the Romans. It also portrays Judas as Jesus' dearest ally, who helped him fulfill the wish of God. Jesus tells Judas that "he will exceed all others" and that his act of handing over Jesus will bring him great grief. However, the Gospel portrays him as a hero, who took his destiny into his own hands.

According to Matthew's Gospel, Judas felt remorseful for his act, returned the thirty coins and hanged himself. But the Gospel text does not mention any of his internal dilemma. Several in the clergy have already spoken out against the Judas Gospel. The Church has historically rubbished texts which do not fall into the approved list.

The Coptic version of the Judas Gospel was written in the fourth century, possibly around 340 AD. It was a translation from Greek, in which the Gospel of Judas originally appeared. Now, with the English translation, the Judas Gospel threatens to turn one of the entrenched beliefs of Christianity on its head - that Judas Iscariot betrayed his guru Jesus Christ in exchange of thirty silver coins. According to the official, Church-approved version of the New Testament, Judas Iscariot was ravaged by feelings of guilt at handing over his master to the Romans, and hanged himself.

The Gospel of Judas portrays a different picture of Christianity's ultimate traitor. Unlike the four testaments, by Mathew, Mark, Luke and John, Judas does not betray the God as made out to be. According to the Judas Gospel, the "traitor" was the most favoured disciple of Jesus, and understood him better than others. He is a hero. While other disciples of Jesus Christ felt that Judas handed over Jesus to the enemies, his own Gospel says that Jesus wanted him to do so. He was delivering Jesus Christ from his human destiny and freeing the divine being within by his act, which has been portrayed across centuries of Christian thought as treachery.

It is no wonder that Judas Iscariot found following within the Gnostic school during the early days of Christianity. Jesus' life and teachings inspired several lines of thought, of which the Gnostic line was one. 'Gnosis' means knowledge in Greek, and the followers of this sect felt that man can connect to divinity without a priestly community acting as middlemen. No wonder that the established priesthood of the day (up to this day) do not recognize Gnostics as part of Christianity, even if they revere the same God. Judas, who was admired among early Gnostics as a mystic who found the higher meaning of Christ's teaching and destiny, not surprisingly, never found favour with the organised church.

Is the Judas Gospel genuine? It depends on what you mean by genuine. There is no doubt that there were several gospels written during early days of Christianity, and most of them were junked by the Church. These include the Mary Magdalene Gospel, the Judas Gospel and the Gospel of Truth. Multiple carbon dating techniques used by the Arizona lab date the papyrus manuscript written in Coptic language to 340 AD or thereabouts. However, this Coptic translation was not the original. It is not known exactly when the original Greek codex of Judas Gospel was written, but it can be safely presumed that it was written around the time the other gospels were written. Evidence to this stems from the fact that the prominent Bishop of Lyons Iranaeus had questioned the Judas Gospel and had termed it as a heretic work. In his treatise called "Against Heresies," Iranaeus had attacked the Judas Gospel as "fierce denunciation of all those whose views about Jesus and his message differed from those of the mainstream church." He also attacked those who revered Judas the traitor, and announced that the Judas Gospel was a "fictitious history," of the Christian Church.

Iranaeus' acidic attack on the Greek Judas Gospel before the Coptic translation was written points to the early existence of the Judas Gospel and the Church's awareness of it. The unearthing, age-testing and translation of the Coptic Gospel of Judas has now convincingly underlined the genuineness of the Gospel of Judas.

The documents have been proved to be genuine, but interesting questions remain: what about the claims of Judas? Did Jesus trust Judas more than his other disciples? Was he right or wrong in exposing his guru to the Romans? Did he hand over Jesus to Romans to fulfill the destiny of his Master? If so, was he the wronged disciple, tar-painted throughout the history of Christianity? We may never know the answers to these questions - At least, not until the Christian Church decides to take these documents seriously.

In AD 367, the Alexandrian bishop Atahanasius - a keen follower of bishop Iranaues - authenticated a list of 27 texts, which include the four "famous" Gospels. This same list of 27 texts is still followed by the Christian Church. Needless to say, the list does not include the Judas Gospel. As early as 180 AD, when Iranaeus poured venom on Judas, Judas' fate was etched in history. With a curious turn of fate and history, the documents have come to light. Now, history's biggest traitor has a second chance at life.