One of the most important manuscripts discovered in recent times is the 4th century Codex Tchacos. It contains 4 texts, two of which (a oeThe Letter of Peter to Philipa and a oeThe [first Apocalypse] of Jamesa ) were already known from the finds at Nag Hammadi. The other two present hitherto unknown Gnostic writings (a oeThe Gospel of Judasa and a text which researchers have named a oeAllogenesa ). This publication presents the Coptic texts with a German translation on the facing pages, together with detailed linguistic indexes and observations on the content.

This book provides a critical edition of a major non-canonical Gospel: the Gospel of Judas. It is based upon the manuscript published in 2007 by the National Geographic Society as well as the fragments of the same codex Tchacos that have since become available for study. The introduction by Bas van Os explores various aspects of this writing: its inclusion in the Codex Tchacos, the literary genre and the structure of the text, the "Gospel" narrative that frames the text, the polemical story, the relation between mythological representations from this text and those from "Sethian" traditions and Genesis material, the intended audience of the text, and its provenance. Johanna Brankaer provides a comprehensive commentary covering the whole of the text. It contains philological as well as substantive elements and unveils the intra-textual coherence as well as the affinities with other, Gnostic, apocryphal, patristic, and biblical traditions. Special attention is paid to the characterization of the disciples and Judas, to the much debated sacrificial theory behind the text and its rejection of the Eucharist (and Baptism) of the apostolic church, to expressions of (astral and eschatological) determinism, and to the Gnostic protology and cosmology.