Another early biblical thriller is the now-infamous The Mystery of Mar Saba written by in James H. Hunter 1940 which some claim inspired Morton Smith to “forge” Secret Mark. For a discussion of the book in connection with the gospel see HERE. Novelist Jeffrey Archer will add to the CA-related fiction next month with his The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot. You can read about it HERE, but here’s a quick publisher’s summary:

The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot sheds new light on the the mystery of Judas—including his motives for the betrayal and what happened to him after the crucifixion—by retelling the story of Jesus through the eyes of Judas, using the canonical texts as its basic point of reference. Ostensibly written by Judas’s son, Benjamin, and following the narrative style of the Gospels, this re-creation is provocative, compelling, and controversial.

The Gospel According to Judas, by Benjamin Iscariot is the result of an intense collaboration between a storyteller and a scholar: Jeffrey Archer and Francis J. Moloney. Their brilliant work—bold and simple—is a compelling story for twenty-first-century readers, while maintaining an authenticity that would be credible to a first-century Christian or Jew.

Another thriller named The Gospel of Judas by Simon Mawer appeared in 2002, before the rediscovery of the ancient text.

For those of you who missed the CNN documentary After Jesus: The First Christians can read the transcript available on-line. See also Stephen Carlson’s critique on his blog Hypotyposeis.

A pre-Christmas article from USA Weekend inspired by the film The Nativity Story discusses the various portrayals of Joseph in canonical and non-canonical gospels. You can read Mark Goodacre’s review of the film at the SBL Forum.

Jim Davila at Paleojudaica excerpts a report linking singer Kylie Minogue and Juliette Binoche with a play called “Gnosis” which is reportedly “loosely inspired by the same apocrypha as The Da Vinci Code.”

The Times Online presents a discussion of the apocryphal texts covered in Channel 4’s Christmas Documentary “The Secret Family of Jesus.” Jim Davila discusses the article at Paleojudaica.