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Not so long ago, the message that considered the long lost “Gospel of Judah,” from which only separate fragments survived, describes Judas as not a traitor, but a beloved disciple of Christ. Now scientists are ready to confirm the authenticity of this document, which was created in the II-III centuries ad. Scientists could not do this before. To make sure authenticity of the gospel had to study the ancient egyptian acts of matrimony and property contracts. Find out what is before us original, not fake – ink helped. Mentions of the founders of Judah early Christian church, for example, Bishop Irenaeus of Lyon in his the work “Against heresies” (180 AD). But a long time manuscript was considered lost until in 1970 in the Egyptian city of El Minya the ancient Egyptian papyrus was not discovered, which by its name the owner received the name “Codex Chakos” (Codex Tchacos). In it with 33 to page 58 is the text of the “Gospel of Judah” which is a translation from an unsaved Greek original into Said dialect of the Coptic language. Recall that this gospel It was written not by Judas himself, but by an unknown author. Judas is in it, like Jesus, just one of the characters in action, is mentioned in third person. In the early 2000s, the owner of the Codex Frida Nussberger-Chakos (Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos) sent artifact to Basel Patronage Fund of Ancient Arts (Maecenas Stiftung), which in turn passed it to the American National geographic society for restoration and translation. Over the years Careless storage of the document is badly damaged. In 2006, Joseph Bareyb (Joseph Barabe) – the microscope from the American firm McCrone Associates (Illinois) and colleagues doing research The Gospels of Judah on behalf of the National Geographic Society The United States has concluded that the ink used to write the text genuine. Thanks to the study of the chemical composition of ink, scientists very often distinguish the original from a fake. So, in 2009 managed to expose the fake version of the “Gospel of Mark”, which was allegedly written in the 14th century, but turned out to be a modern fake. From time to time Bareib and his colleagues collaborate with the FBI to help expose fraudsters, selling false cloths. During the study it turned out that used in writing the “Gospel of Judah” ink is an early type of iron gall ink. Typically, such inks are made by mixing of ferrous sulfate and tannic acids, traditionally extracted from ink nuts – growths on oak leaves, having a parasitic nature. However, it turned out one more curious circumstance. The composition of the ink used in writing the entire Codex Chakos corpus, also included soot and tar gum arabic, but there was no sulfur, which was widely used up to the beginning of the 17th century in the manufacture of iron galls ink. Initially, this fact made scientists think, Is it not a fake in front of them. But a little later it was discovered French study of ancient Egyptian marriage documents and documents on real estate transactions related to the III-IV centuries n e. At one time in the scientific community on this study looked askance and almost forgot about him. In that old study it was said that used in writing similar documents the ink contained either little or no sulfur at all. Quite often, sulfur was replaced by copper. In the laboratory at the Louvre Museum specialists from the Bareib team took ink samples. After studies of their chemical composition and comparison with samples, taken from the Gospel of Judah, they concluded that ink completely identical in chemical composition. Received data allow us to talk about the full authenticity of the entire “Chakos Code”. Used in writing “Codex Chakos” ink is transitional option between ancient coal and medieval iron gall. During their manufacture, mixing took place. components that were designed to create diverse types of ink. In all foreign publications called to investigate the authenticity of the “gospel of Judah”, it is noted that we are talking only confirmation of the fact that the document is really compiled in the II-III century AD. This is not fake, but genuine historical document – and nothing more. And about the content texts and attitudes towards the image of Judah historians prefer to keep silence: fragmentary passages do not allow clear conclusions about the role of this fallen apostle. So revise the formula of “Judas – traitor “is too early. Igor Bukker
Time
