It’s bad enough when authors who write about Jesus distort the biblical text, then hide behind the fact that “it’s only a novel, fiction.” With that disclaimer, millions of readers (and later, movie-goers) were persuaded by Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code” that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children by her. There is, of course, absolutely no evidence that happened – but hey, “it’s only a novel.” At least Dan Brown had an excuse.

But when noted scholars – in cahoots with the National Geographic Society, no less – distort the contents of an ancient text about Jesus to sell books, that’s an offense without excuse. The saga is reported at length by Thomas Bartlett, senior reporter for The Chronicle Review, in its May 30, 2008, cover story, “Did Scholars Betray Judas?”

The text betrayed is the “Gospel of Judas,” a 1,700-year-old codex supposedly discovered by a farmer in a cave near Al Minya, Egypt, in the 1970s. Dealers and the profit motive got involved almost immediately, and as the negotiations dragged on for more than 16 years, the papyrus deteriorated badly.

Enter the National Geographic Society, which in 2004 paid $1 million for the rights to translate, from the Coptic, and publish the gospel, which was decayed by that time into a pile of tiny, faded fragments. The Society hired some very expensive experts to labor over their purchase, and included Elaine H. Pagels, a high-profile religion professor from Princeton University, to add some name recognition to the project.

Now bear in mind that the Gospel of Judas was itself a work of fiction, written in the second century, well after Judas’ death. Therefore, the contents were written by neither Judas nor one of his contemporaries. Still, the text reflects the thinking of at least some Christians of that day.

Therefore, it came as a thunderbolt when the National Geographic Society decided to market its purchase as a discovery that Judas was the most loyal of Jesus’ disciples; and that the world would be able to read and see it all in the heavily marketed book and documentary, to be released concurrently on the society’s cable network.

Bartlett writes, “In all of [the National Geographic’s] materials, the view of Judas as good guy was front and center.” He quotes the society’s translator, Marvin Meyers, who calls the text’s Judas the “most insightful and the most loyal of all the disciples.”

Apparently, all of those marketing efforts succeeded. Major newspapers around the world reported that Judas had been misunderstood – that he had really worked in partnership with Jesus to enable Jesus’ sacrifice. Some 7 million viewers tuned in to the National Geographic documentary, and when Pagels and Karen King (a professor at Harvard Divinity School) published their book, “Reading Judas: The Gospel of Judas and the Shaping of Christianity,” it became a New York Times best seller.

Pagels was quoted as saying that the Gospel of Judas “contradicts everything we know about Christianity.” Even U.S. News & World Report printed Pagels’ claim that, “the Gospel of Judas shows Judas as Jesus’ closest and most trusted confidant – the one to whom Jesus reveals his deepest mysteries and whom he trusts to initiate the passion.”

The problem with all this Judas hype, however, was that it was based on a flawed, and perhaps purposely fraudulent, translation of the text.

The hero of this story is a scholar of Coptic named April D. DeConick, a professor of biblical studies at Rice University. Bartlett reports that, “From her reading, even in translation, it seemed obvious that Judas was not turning in Jesus as a friendly gesture, but rather sacrificing him to a demon god named Saklas. This alone would suggest, strongly, that Judas was not acting with Jesus’ best interests in mind – which would undercut the thesis of the National Geographic team.”

DeConick soon found many other significant mistakes (including the mistranslation of the word “demon” as “spirit”) and has since published her own book, “The Thirteenth Apostle: What the Gospel of Judas Really Says,” on the subject. Chances are good it will sell only a tiny fraction of the number sold of the distorted book written by Pagels and King.

Since DeConick’s objections, several of the scholars who worked for the National Geographic documentary and book have acknowledged that mistakes were made. Few of them seem to recognize the damage their loose scholarship, combined with the society’s hype, may have caused Christian faith.

According to John’s Gospel, Judas was in charge of the disciples’ purse, and stole from it. He was infuriated when Jesus allowed his own anointing with an expensive perfume, claiming it “could be sold and the money given to the poor.” (John 12:4-7). John states that Judas would have raked off some of the money for himself. Judas’ approach to the Pharisees was, “What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?” (Matthew 26:14-16). They settled on 30 pieces of silver. It is clear from the gospels that Judas’ greed was the opening for his ultimate corruption.

Good and evil do not intentionally work together, in partnership, to the same end. The element of free will and choice is crucial to an understanding of the dualism of the world. Did Judas freely choose to sell out Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, or did he freely choose to be possessed by a devil who did the act through him? Either way, Judas chose the wrong path – and in recognizing his guilt, committed suicide.

We, like Judas, are free to serve the devil or the Lord, and at some point we make the choice. If God chooses to turn our evil deeds to good in the world, that is to His credit, not ours. In any event, the devil can work through scholars and the National Geographic Society, too, if they let him. And they let him.

Lee Witting is a chaplain at Eastern Maine Medical Center and pastor of the Union Street Brick Church in Bangor. He may be reached at leewitting@midmaine.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by Maine people who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.