EASTER NEOCONS

Ancient text claims Judas was no traitor ...

An ancient manuscript dating from the third or fourth century, containing the only known surviving copy of the Gospel of Judas, has been conserved, authenticated and translated after being lost for nearly 1,700 years, scientists say.
In the Gospel of Judas, Jesus selects Judas from among the other disciples for a special task: “... you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” Jesus would thus have been asking Judas to help him get rid of his physical flesh, to free the spiritual being within.

[Scholars said the 66-page manuscript contains not only the Gospel of Judas but also a text titled James, also known as First Apocalypse of James, a Letter of Peter to Philip, and a fragment of a fourth text provisionally called the Book of Allogenes.]

... and Satan isn't such a bad guy, either

According to Dr. Henry Ansgar Kelly's "Satan: A Biography", the Evil One feared by Christians is just an invention of the Roman church.
Satan is the same sort of celestial functionary we see in the Book of Job - appointed to govern the world, specifically to monitor and test human beings. A bit like an Attorney General.
And like some Attorneys General he is brutal and deceitful in his methods, and Jesus predicts that his rule will soon come to an end.
"Lucifer" -- Latin for "light bringer," or Venus the morning star -- is the result of a sloppy 4th Century Latin translation of a story about an Iraqi king. The whole tale of Lucifer being a beloved angel of God who does something bad and "falls" to Earth was entirely invented centuries later, supposedly from a verse in Isaiah about a plain old king being taunted by exiled Jews.

[IN OTHER NEWS: A new study suggests Jesus was strolling on a patch of floating ice, not walking on water.Yeah, right. That is even less believeable than the original story.]