[djmcmath]

I'm with Hugh and Bob (at least partially). If it's earliest possible date is hundreds of years later, then it falls into the prime window for legendary text. The four primary gospels date to within about 30 years, which doesn't even compare to this. I'll also be curious as to the textual analysis. The guys who study ancient texts talk a lot about writing styles, dates that certain words appeared, that sort of thing. While carbon dating and ink analysis are good, the textual analysis is a big one, in my mind.

It is an interesting speculation item, though. Consider this brief theological train of thought: God knew that Judas would betray Jesus -- God is all-knowing, and is never surprised. God also directs all things, so at some level, he must have _told_ Judas to betray Jesus. Jesus is God. So remove the middle-man, and you get Jesus telling Judas to betray him. (shrug) I don't know why it would take 300 years to generate that legend, but it isn't hard to make a logical path for it's production.