Roelof van den Broek from the University of Utrecht (Netherlands) published the book "Pseudo-Cyril of Jerusalem on the life and passion of Christ", in which he first offered a translation of the Coptic Gospel, written almost 1,200 years ago.
This apocryphal is unique: it contains plot twists that researchers have never encountered anywhere else. For example, Pontius Pilate dines with Jesus before the crucifixion at the same table and offers to sacrifice his son in order to save Christ. And Judas kissed Jesus due to the fact that he had the ability to change his appearance and the detachment of "soldiers and ministers from the high priests and Pharisees" could not recognize him. In addition, the arrest, according to this text, took place on a Tuesday night, and not at all on Thursday, as the canonical scriptures report.
The document exists in two copies held at the Morgan Library and Museum (New York) and at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Mostly the New York manuscript was used for translation, because the other version is practically unreadable.
The Coptic and Ethiopian churches regard Pilate as a saint, which explains the sympathy towards him on the part of the author of the text. “Without further ado, Pilate set the table and ate with Jesus on the fifth day of the week. And Jesus blessed Pilate and all his house."
Further, Pilate says to Jesus: "Behold, the night has come, get up and be gone, and when morning comes and they accuse me for You, I will give them my only son, so that they would kill him instead of You." But Jesus consoles him: "O Pilate, you have been rewarded with great grace, for you have received Me well." Jesus also made it clear to Pilate that he could hide at any moment if he wished: “Pilate looked at Jesus, and, behold, He became incorporeal; and he did not see Him for a long time."
On the same night, Pilate and his wife have the same dream, in which an eagle, that is, Jesus, is killed.
As for Judas, in the canonical texts he betrays Jesus in exchange for money with a kiss, which helps to identify the Savior. This apocryphal explains this act as follows: “The Jews said to Judas: How can we arrest Him if He does not have one form and changes. Sometimes He is blush, sometimes white, sometimes red, sometimes the color of wheat, sometimes pale, like an ascetic, sometimes He is young, sometimes old. Unable to give a description of Jesus' appearance, Judas offers to kiss him.
Mr. van den Broek explains that the early Christian author Origen was the first to offer such an explanation for Judas' act in his work Against Celsus: "Everyone saw Him in their own way."
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The text was written on behalf of St. Cyril of Jerusalem, who lived in the 4th century. He tells this Passover story during homily, the pastoral instruction. Such homilies attributed to St. Cyril, there were several, and all of them, most likely, were fakes.
At the beginning of the Apocrypha, the author, whoever he is, claims that in Jerusalem, “in the house of Mary,” a book was found with the writings of the apostles about the life and crucifixion of Jesus. Mr. van den Broek thinks it is unlikely that something like this actually happened: it is a standard trick to bolster the reader's confidence by invoking the apostles, which is often found in Coptic literature.
Most of all, the researcher was struck by the postponement of the apostolic supper and the arrest of Jesus on Tuesday. And it turns out that Jesus really did share the last supper not with his disciples, but with Pilate - after he appeared before Caiaphas and Herod.
1,200 years ago, a New York manuscript was kept in the library of St. Michael's Monastery in the Egyptian desert near today's Al Hamuli town in the west of Fayum. The document notes that this is a gift from “Archpriest Father Paul” and that this book exists thanks to his writings.
The monastery apparently ceased to exist at the beginning of the 10th century, and the text was rediscovered only in the spring of 1910. In December 1911, the American financier John Pierpont Morgan, along with other manuscripts, acquired it, on the basis of whose collection the aforementioned library was later formed.
The text of the New Testament, as we know it today, took shape and was canonized by the 4th-5th centuries, but the Apocrypha remained popular for a long time, especially among Egyptian monks.