Is it true that there are more than the four legitimate gospels; for example the Gospel of Judas?
Answer:
Yes, I definitely have something to say about this. A number of so-called gospels were produced during the second century A. D.. These include the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Phillip the Gospel of Judas and so forth. These supposed "gospels" were written by Gnostics who were heretics and who were not even true Christians by any reasonable definition. The Gnostics did not accept that Jesus was human. The book of 1st John was written specifically to counter the arguments of these gnostic false teachers. He says in 1 John 2:21-23 that those who do not accept the true Jesus are the antichrist. So the writers of the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Judas are the antichrist. This is not a good pedigree for producing a legitimate gospel.
Let us consider the actual documents which some have falsely claimed ought to be conidered gospels; on par with the four canonical gospels. A "gospel," by definition, will be a story of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ which focuses in on his death and resurrection for our forgiveness of sins. If this is the definition, then neither the Gospel of Thomas or the Gospel of Judas meets the criterion. (I assume what you are calling the Gospel according to Judea is actually the Gospel of Judas). The Gospel of Judas does not tell the story of the ministry of Jesus. It does not have Jesus working any miracles or ministering to the people. It does not even mention the death of Jesus. It contains wild ideas which we know are found in the Gnosticism of second century Greece.
There is VERY strong evidence that the church only recognized the four canonical gospels. Justin Martyr, in AD 150 mentioned the four "memoirs of the apostles." Irenaeus, around AD 180 called Matthew, Mark, Luke and John the "four pillars of the gospel." Interestingly, Marcion was a second century heretic who accepted much of Gnosticism. He also left us a list of writings he considered to be inspired. Marcion does not mention any of the Gnostic writings, even though he himself was a Gnostice. This shows that even these false Christians did not dare list the Gospel of Thomas or other writings as true gospels. All four gospels were written before AD 90 and were circulated as a group during the first century. The earliest of the Gnostic "gospels," the Gospel of Thomas was written some time after AD 125.
In summary, some who oppose biblical Christianity have tried to create the impression that there is some confusion about what the true gospels are, but their attempts do not work well at all for those who simply do a little research and actually read these other false "gospels." There is a power point on the Gospel of Judas at the web site. Just do a search or look in the Power Point section.
John Oakes, PhD