The Overview:
Thousands of years ago, religious officials in the fledgling Christian church decided that some early writings should be suppressed and hidden from the world.  Thousands of years later, evidence these lost writings was found—including the Lost Gospel of Judas Escariot.

The Site:
National Geographic undertook an intensive conservation, evaluation, and authentication of a long-lost codex containing the Gospel of Judas.  As part of an international event revealing this important document, this website told the story of these efforts and introduced the team of world-renowned experts.  An interactive timeline recounts the story of early Christianity, the historical discovery of other important religious writings, and the journey of the Gospel of Judas from forbidden handwritten documents to its rediscovery and revelation in 2006.

And the actual document itself is brought online in the document viewer, where users can explore the document firsthand, with overlays of transcribed Coptic and translated English.  Full text translations of the entire Codex—including this Gospel—are provided for download.  Within the document viewer, users can toggle on and off detailed areas, which provides additional video, photos, and descriptions of this historic document.

“Each page’s English translation opens a door to a striking encounter with the world’s most famous traitor … Gorgeously rendered, this feature [the timeline and map] juxtaposes early Christian history with the discovery of Biblical documents.” Yahoo! Picks, April 11, 2006.

Project completed as an employee of National Geographic.