Last weekend a huge splash was made when a scholar from Rice wrote an op-ed condensing her new book, which claims that National Geographic's translation of the Gospel of Judas that it acquired a while back.
The original translation claimed that Judas had betrayed Christ on his orders and was promised a place in paradise for his actions, despite his earthly vilification. The new book claims that this is exactly the opposite of what the gospel really says, that it characterizes Judas as a demon and claims that he is given access to the mysteries of heaven only to know what he will forever be separated from. The article is fascinating and covers quite a bit of ground concerning how translations of ancient manuscripts should be done in order to prevent such mistakes. It's also amazing that such small linguistic mistakes can have such wide-ranging impact on the meaning of texts.
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