Some thirty years after a papyrus manuscript written in Coptic script was unearthed in the Egyptian desert, carbon dating has authenticated the manuscript’s age. Today, CNN reports that National Geographic announced that the text, written around 300 A.D., “indicates that Judas betrayed Jesus at Jesus’s request.” According to the scholars, Jesus may have asked Judas to betray him in order to help him (Jesus) set aside his physical flesh in order to fulfill his spiritual calling.

The manuscript was first mentioned in a treatise around 180 A.D. by a bishop, Irenaeus of Lyon, in what is now France. The bishop denounced the manuscript as differing from mainstream Christianity and said it produced a fictitious story. There were several gospels in circulation at the time in addition to the four in the Bible. When those gospels were denounced, it was thought that believers hid them away.

From a literary standpoint it’s a fascinating discovery–few manuscripts have the same sort of elasticity that the Bible has had over the centuries. Unlike most modern books, which are published and stay fixed over time, with only minor adjustments occurring in later printings, the Bible has myriad faces, as its contents have always been shaped by passionate political and religious forces.