Jesus could be found and arrested without causing a disturbance. In view of the newly discovered “Gospel of Judas,” it is interesting to note that there are several mentions of Judas in the early writings outside the New Testament that tend in the same gnostic direction. In all of them, however, the portrait of Judas is uniformly negative. The third-century “Acts of Thomas” has the devil boasting about having stirred up Judas to betray the Christ, and warns the reader against the covetousness which