The Gospel of Judas provides a radical new version of the story of Judas Iscariot. The text portrays Judas as the only Apostle who truly understood Jesus. It reveals Judas as a hero for carrying out the betrayal that freed the Christ within the garment of Jesus. Those opposing that view undoubtedly destroyed the original text, but farmers in Middle Egypt discovered the Coptic copy of the papyrus codex in the 1970s. Later, antiquities traders bought and sold it. Experts have translated the fragile document from the Coptic into English.