In a key passage Jesus tells Judas, "You will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me."

This indicates that Judas would help liberate the spiritual self by helping Jesus get rid of his physical flesh, the scholars said.

"Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom," Jesus says to Judas, singling him out for special status. "Look, you have been told everything. Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star."

The text ends with Judas turning Jesus over to the high priests and does not include any mention of the crucifixion or resurrection.

National Geographic said the author believed that Judas Iscariot alone understood the true significance of Jesus' teachings. The author of the text is not named in the writings.

Fascinating stuff! I have long suspected that Judas did exactly what Jesus had instructed him to do. Jesus' oddly passive behaviour both before, during, and after the arrest certainly would appear to support that. He wanted the arrest and his death to occur...he needed someone to play the role of "traitor" in the drama...Judas did so.   This implies that Judas had a higher degree of trust than any other apostle. It would have been in the interest of the other apostles, subsequently, to put the whole blame on Judas, thus exonerating themselves in some measure for running away and not having the courage to stand beside Jesus in his time of trial.

I hope Leon Rosselson gets to hear this theory and get really ticked off about it. ;-) It would royally screw the premise of his "Judas, hero of the working class" song.