So ... what's behind this story from NewsNet5:

A long-lost manuscript known as the Gospel of Judas is causing biblical scholars, historians and others to rethink their views about Judas, the apostle who betrayed Jesus.

According to the document, Jesus asked Judas to betray him in order to fulfill the prophesy of his death. NewsChannel5's Jonathan Costen reported that part of this groundbreaking document is located right here in northeast Ohio.

R. Scott Haley is the keeper of antiquity. As an attorney, he's recently been appointed to catalog some ancient possessions of a Summit County art collector who has fallen on hard financial times.

Part of the collection that is caught in the middle of an ownership squabble is the Gospel according to Judas.

"This is how the Gnostic gospel was delivered to me, which is now identified as the Book of Judas, the Gospel of Judas," said Haley.

The manuscript in Akron is just a portion of the ancient document, believed to have been written on papyrus in 300 A.D. The manuscript was discovered in a cave in Egypt in 1970.

Right now, it is tucked away in a vault somewhere in the First Merit Building in downtown Akron.

"They are priceless items and they hold a very high value. Some of them are quite small and can easily be stolen and transported and sold on a black market for great value, so they need to be protected and preserved from theft," said Haley.

The papers could possibly unlock the true relationship between Jesus and the disciple that has been despised for centuries.

"We grew up believing that Judas was the ultimate betrayer, and that whole thought process that we have and the idea of the name Judas, the concept of Judas, has really changed," said Haley.

... a bit more detail from the Beacon Journal:

You may have heard about the Gospel of Judas, a long-lost manuscript that has been getting international attention.

But you haven't heard this: Part of it is in Akron.

A portion of the 1,700-year-old treasure is sitting in a bank vault on South Main Street.

At least that's what the National Geographic Society says.

If you haven't been following the story, National Geographic helped fund a mission by an international team of experts to authenticate, translate and preserve the only known copy of the Gospel of Judas, an ancient book based on the life of Jesus' least popular disciple.

A sizable chunk of that manuscript -- 10 to 20 percent, by one estimate -- is right here.

How did it get here?

The short version is this: The manuscript was discovered in a cave in Egypt in the 1970s and wound its way through antiquities dealers in Europe and the United States before being purchased in 2000 by Bath Township resident Bruce Ferrini.

Ferrini is an internationally known art dealer who filed for bankruptcy last September. He bought the ancient book, known as a codex, for $2.5 million. But because of his failing finances, the deal fell through.

Ferrini was at least $4.6 million in debt last year, according to court filings, and creditors began to battle for his holdings. Akron attorney R. Scott Haley was appointed to catalog and assess Ferrini's possessions.

In 2001, when the sale fell apart, Ferrini supposedly returned the whole codex to its previous owner. But according to Haley and National Geographic, which photographed the Akron pieces in February, a significant portion of the gospel remained in Ferrini's possession.

Ferrini referred a phone call to Akron lawyer Morris Laatsch, who said Ferrini returned everything he was given by the previous owner, and questions whether the National Geographic experts are correct.

``There's more than one series of writings,'' Laatsch said. ``The Gnostics apparently wrote lots of things. Possibly this could be from this same document. But if the experts do say it is, I guess perhaps you can rely on them or not rely on them.''

Manuscript's location

The delicate fragments are inside a special vault at FirstMerit. Only the bank has the combination to an outer vault, and only Haley has the combination to an inner vault.

The Akron fragments are stored in 26 plastic folders, each about the size of half a standard envelope.

Traditional Christian belief has it that Judas, a disciple of Christ, betrayed him, turning him over to Roman authorities for execution. This new account argues that Judas was actually Jesus' closest disciple, and that the only reason Judas blew the whistle was Jesus asked him to.

Christian scholars are widely split in regard to the potential religious impact of the discovery. Some believe the name Judas may no longer be synonymous with ``traitor.'' Others say the find will have little impact. But the historical value is unquestioned.

The papyrus manuscript survived -- just barely -- because it lay untouched for 1,600 years in a limestone box in a desert cave. It almost didn't survive because it also spent 16 years in a safe deposit box in Long Island, N.Y.

Ferrini didn't do it any favors, either, according to one account. The Associated Press reported that he damaged it by storing it in his freezer.

``You can't believe how much I regret having sold it (to Ferrini),'' European dealer Frieda Nussberger-Tchacos told the AP.

International interest

Haley first realized what he was dealing with when a lawyer for Nussberger-Tchacos and the Maecenas Foundation in Switzerland, a partner in the National Geographic project, contacted him to say part of the codex was missing and probably in Ferrini's possession.

Haley invited the lawyer and National Geographic to view the material in February. National Geographic photographer Kenneth Garrett -- the same person who shot the King Tut exhumation for the society last year -- photographed both sides of every fragment. He was assisted by a document-handling expert from Switzerland.

Ferrini's lawyer said Nussberger-Tchacos signed a document in 2001 saying the material had been returned, and questions her credibility, pointing out that she was once detained by Italian authorities in connection with a smuggling case.

That's one reason Yale University officials passed up a chance to buy it after authenticating it immediately before she sold it to Ferrini.

Still, the National Geographic team has proclaimed the documents real.

Ferrini is ``not saying they are or they're not,'' Laatsch responded. ``They're from that era... and very well could be part of the Gospel of Judas -- or may not be.''

Even if they are, he said, they were obtained in a different transaction and do not belong to Nussberger-Tchacos.

Codex's origins, future

The Gospel of Judas was written about 300 A.D. It is in Coptic, an ancient Egyptian language that uses modified Greek letters.

A codex is a book that consists of folded pages bound on one side. They were easier to manage than scrolls, and found favor with people writing scripture.

In 2009, the codex will be returned to Egypt, where it will be displayed at the Coptic Museum in Cairo.

Ferrini has successfully applied to have his bankruptcy dismissed, and now Haley will go about liquidating the collection through a receivership -- although he won't do anything with the Judas codex until the Swiss legal claim is resolved.

Ferrini made front-page news in 2002 when he pledged to donate $6.8 million to Kent State University, the largest gift in the school's history. But, as the school acknowledged in December, he never gave Kent any of that money.

These must be the pages Tertullian.org has been wondering about. I suspect we'll be hearing more about Ferrini ... in the past, he was involved in a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibition which might be tied to this bankruptcy; he was also the victim of a theft himself a couple of years ago. He appears to be very well-known in medieval manuscript circles.