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http://en.wikipedia.org/
Judas Iscariot (died April AD 29–33, Hebrew יהודה איש־קריות Yəhûḏāh ʾΚ-qəriyyôṯ) was, according to the New Testament, one of the twelve original apostles of Jesus, and the one who is said to have betrayed him.
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Judas is mentioned in the synoptic gospels, the Gospel of John and at the beginning of Acts of the Apostles.
Mark also states that the chief priests were looking for a "sly" way to arrest Jesus. They determine not to do so during the feast because they were afraid that the people would riot. It is after the feast that they do end up arresting him.
According to the account given in the gospels, he carried the disciples' money box and betrayed Jesus for a bribe of "thirty pieces of silver" by identifying him with a kiss—the "kiss of Judas"— to arresting soldiers of the High Priest Caiphas, who then turned Jesus over to Pontius Pilate's soldiers. These "pieces of silver" were most likely intended to be understood as silver Tyrian shekels.
Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, should not be confused with Jude Thomas (more commonly known as Saint Thomas the Apostle), or with Saint Jude who was also one of the twelve disciples and a brother of James the Less.
There are two different Canonical references to the remainder of Judas' life:
There have been several attempts through history to rectify the discrepancy between the two accounts, and some depictions in art portray Judas hanging himself, but with his stomach exploding as he does so.
The act of Judas has been much discussed in context of free will; the mainstream position has been that although Jesus, being divine, knew that Judas would betray Him, Judas was still acting in free will and was culpable for his actions.
In the Gospels, the portrayal of Judas (and Jesus' reaction to his betrayal) varies from the ambiguous portrayal in Mark to someone that is condemned by Jesus in Matthew and is possessed by Satan in John.
Early church writings until Irenaeus mostly ignore Judas Iscariot, and barely regard him as a traitor, and Irenaeus only mentions him to attack a Gospel of Judas, due to the fact that it supported Gnostic-like views. Origen knew of tradition according to which the greater circle of disciples betrayed Jesus, but does not attribute this to Judas in particular, and Origen did not deem Judas as a thoroughly corrupt person (Matt., tract. xxxv).
The early anti-Christian writer Celsus deemed literal readings of the story to be philosophically absurd, especially because Jesus knew about the treason in advance, and told of it openly to all the disciples at the Passover meal, as well as singling out who the traitor would be without attempting to stop them.
The canonical gospels, especially John, still show traces of Judas not being the corrupt person that orthodox Christian opinion makes of him. For instance, Judas is chosen by Jesus as an apostle although the latter knows in advance that he will be delivered by him, and, in fact, he is seemingly encouraged later by Jesus to do so (John 13:27).
Judas Iscariot is scarcely mentioned in the canonical gospels, and Mark does not even mention the betrayer of Jesus by name, although it is clearly the same person. However, there are other references to the name Judas; Judas Thomas Didymus, Saint Jude, and Judas the Zealot all share the name Judas, and are all equally shadowy figures in the New Testament. Mainstream Christians rule out identifying Judas Iscariot as being one of these three, due to their view of Judas Iscariot as an arch villain, and these as more saintly figures.
However, the Gospel of Mark is quite vague as to Judas Iscariot's morality, and it is only in the Gospel of John that Judas is portrayed as having great villainy, and even then he is said to be possessed, rather than acting under his own will. With the positive portrayal of Judas Iscariot in the Gospel of Judas, and certain ancient gnostic works, and the ambiguous portrayals in the Bible, speculation exists in critical circles, and in non-Christian scholarship, that Judas Iscariot may be one or more of the three other New Testament Judas', and hence that this Judas plays a far more significant part in the narrative than otherwise assumed.
One of the two main possibilities for the meaning of Iscariot is that it refers to the Sicarii, a faction of the Zealots, and hence the name Judas Iscariot would be fairly similar to Judas the Zealot. In turn, Judas the Zealot does not have a clear identity, but is usually thought to be either Saint Jude, or Simon the Canaanite; beginning in 3rd century Syrian tradition, it has been thought by some that Saint Jude is the same individual as Judas Thomas Didymus. Consequently there exists a reasonable possibility that Judas plays a far more significant part in the narrative, but that his identity has been blurred by referring to him in subtly different ways.
During the 1970s, a Coptic papyrus [2] was discovered near Beni Masah, Egypt. This has been translated and appears to be a text from the 2nd century A.D. describing the story of Jesus's death from the viewpoint of Judas. The conclusion of the text refers (in Coptic) to the text as "the Gospel of Judas" (Euangelion Ioudas).
According to a 2006 translation of the manuscript of the text, it is apparently a Gnostic account of an arrangement between Jesus and Judas, who in this telling are Gnostically enlightened beings, with Jesus asking Judas to turn him in to the Romans to help Jesus finish his appointed task from God.
Judas has been a figure of great interest to esoteric groups, such as many Gnostic sects, because of the apparent contradiction in the idea of "the betrayal of God". The two main questions seem to be these:
Irenaeus records the beliefs of one Gnostic sect, the Cainites, who believed that Judas was an instrument of the Sophia, Divine Wisdom, thus earning the hatred of the Demiurge. His betrayal of Jesus thus was a victory over the carnal world. The Cainites later split into two groups, disagreeing over the ultimate significance of Jesus in their cosmology.
The text of the Gospels suggests that Jesus both foresaw and allowed Judas' betrayal. In April 2006, a Coptic papyrus manuscript titled the Gospel of Judas (see above section) dating back to 200 AD, was translated into modern language, to add weight to the possibility that according to early Christian writings, Jesus may have asked Judas to betray him [3]. While this seems quite at odds with the Gospel of John, where Judas is portrayed as an arch villain, the Gospel of Mark is much more ambiguous and could be considered to be fairly consistent with the stance of the Gospel of Judas on this question.
Judas is also the subject of many philosophical writings, including The Problem of Natural Evil by Bertrand Russell and "Three Versions of Judas", a short story by Jorge Luis Borges. They both allege various problematic ideological contradictions with the discrepancy between Judas' actions and his eternal punishment.
Was the monetary value of 30 pieces of silver the only motivating force for Judas' actions? (Remember that 30 pieces of silver was also the price one paid for a slave that had been gored by an ox in Old Testament Law.) After seeing Jesus' popularity declining, was Judas' motivation for handing Jesus over an attempt to force the hand of God into action? Jesus often spoke of creating a kingdom and saving his people. This was a reference to a spiritual kingdom not known to any of Jesus' followers until after the day of Pentecost. Furthermore, the Bible notes that Satan entered into Judas so to speak shortly before the events leading to Jesus's crucifixion, so it is possible Judas may not have been acting entirely according to his own will at the time. Many times Judas saw Jesus escape capture and stonings. Judas might have been trying to spur Jesus into a war with the Romans by telling them where he was.
The last reading may be plausible if the etymology of "Iscariot" (see below) is in fact related to Sicarii, a sect of the Zealots committed to the violent overthrow of Rome. If Judas was a Sicarius (which may or may not be historically possible), then it's possible that he saw Jesus as the Messiah in the fashion expected by the Zealots: a military leader who would defeat and cast out the Romans. If this scenario was the case, then Judas may well have been trying to force Jesus into a position where he had to reveal himself as the divinely appointed warrior-king who would destroy his enemies.
Most modern Christians, whether laity, clergy, or theologians, still consider Judas a traitor. Indeed the term Judas has entered the language as a synonym for betrayer.
However, some scholars have embraced the alternative notion that Judas was merely the negotiator in a prearranged prisoner exchange (following the money-changer riot in the Temple) that gave Jesus to the Roman authorities by mutual agreement, and that Judas' later portrayal as "traitor" was a historical distortion.
In his book The Passover Plot, the British theologian Hugh J. Schonfield argued that the crucifixion of Christ was a conscious re-enactment of Biblical prophecy and Judas acted with Jesus' full knowledge and consent in "betraying" his master to the authorities. Schonfield's hypothesis recognizes the fulfillment of prophecy in Judas' recorded actions without acknowledging that the prophecies were really fulfilled in history.
A similar interpretation became well known to the general population through Martin Scorsese's controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis' original conception was that Judas Iscariot's only motivation in betraying Jesus to the Romans was to help him, as Jesus' closest friend, through doing what no other disciple could bring himself to do. This portrayal shows Judas obeying Jesus' covert request to help him fulfill his destiny to die on the cross, thus making Judas the catalyst for the event later interpreted as bringing about humanity's salvation. This view of Judas Iscariot is curiously reflected in the recently discovered and translated third or fourth-century text, the Gospel of Judas.
The Roman Catholic Church has never officially stated that it believes Judas is in Hell. According to one Catholic writer, if he had not committed suicide but repented of his actions it would still have been possible for him to become a great saint, just like Saint Peter who denied Christ three times.
Garry Wills, NT scholar, believes that Jesus rescued Judas from Hell, as part of the Harrowing of Hell. See What Jesus Meant.
In the Eastern Orthodox hymns of Holy Wednesday (the Wednesday before Pascha), Judas is contrasted with the prostitute who anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and washed his feet with her tears. (Tradition identifies the prositute with Mary, sister of Lazarus, although some identify her as a separate person.) According to the Gospels, Judas protested at this apparent extravagance, suggesting that the money spent on it should have been given to the poor. After this, Judas went to the chief priests and offered to betray Jesus for money. The hymns of Holy Wednesday contrast these two figures, encouraging believers to avoid the example of the fallen disciple and instead to imitate the prostitute's example of repentance. Also, Wednesday is observed as a day of fasting from meat, dairy products, and olive oil throughout the year in memory of the betrayal of Judas. The prayers of preparation for receiving the Eucharist also make mention of Judas' betrayal: "I will not reveal your mysteries to your enemies, neither like Judas will I betray you with a kiss, but like the thief on the cross I will confess you."
According to medieval copies of the Gospel of Barnabas, it was Judas, not Jesus, who was crucified on the cross. It is mentioned in this work that Judas' appearance was transformed to that of Jesus', when the former, out of betrayal, led the Roman soldiers to arrest Jesus who by then was ascended to the heaven. This transformation of appearance was so identical that the masses, followers of Christ, and even the Mother of Jesus, Mary, initially thought that the one arrested and crucified was Jesus himself. The Gospel then mentions that after three days since burial, Judas' body was stolen from his grave, and then the rumours spread of Jesus being risen from the dead. When Jesus was informed in the third heaven about what happened, he prayed to God to be sent back to the earth, and so he descended and gathered his mother, disciples, and followers and mentioned to them the truth of what happened, and having said this he ascended back to the heavens, and will come back at the end of times as a just king.
Some scholars of the New Testament suggest that the name "Judas" was intended as an attack on the Judaeans or on the Judaean religious establishment held responsible for executing Christ. The English word "Jew" is derived from the Latin Judaeus, which, like the Greek Ιουδαίος (Ioudaios), could also mean "Judaean". In the Gospel of John, the original writer or a later editor may have tried to draw a parallel between Judas, Judaea, and the Judaeans (or Jews) in verses 6:70-7:1, which run like this in the King James Bible:
In Greek, the earliest extant language of the Gospels, the words Judas -- Jewry -- Jews run like this: Ιούδας (Ioudas) -- Ιουδαία (Ioudaia) -- Ιουδαίοι (Ioudaioi). In Latin, the language of the Catholic Vulgate Bible, they run Judas -- Judaea -- Judaei. Whatever the original intentions of the original writers or editors of the Gospel of John, however, there is little doubt that the similarity between the name "Judas" and the words for "Jew" in various European languages has contributed powerfully to anti-Semitism. In German the same words run Judas -- Judäa -- Juden; in Spanish Judas -- Judea -- judíos; and in French Judas -- Judée -- juifs.
Over time Judas came to be seen as the archetypal Jew. He was said to have red hair, which was proverbially called "Judas-colored", and the ancient stereotype of Jews was that they had red hair too: in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice the Jewish money-lender Shylock is said to have been portrayed with red hair on the Elizabethan stage. Judas's betrayal of Christ for money was also seen as a typical piece of Jewish venality and avarice.
A few modern critics of European culture assert that in paintings and art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, while the other apostles are portrayed as powerfully built Northern Europeans, Judas was given stereotypically Jewish characteristics. Specific examples of such portrayals in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, are hard to come by.
A more modern example, however, can be found in John Fiester's monument clock, the Apostolic Clock. Judas is half the height of the other eleven apostles, hunched over, and possesses an exaggerated nose. The notes provided at the Hershey Museum, where it is on display, claims the artist made Judas shorter because he considered him to be less of a man than the other apostles, not because of anti-Semitism.
Judas has become the archetype of the betrayer in Western culture, with some role in virtually all literature telling the Passion story. In Dante's Inferno, he is condemned to the lowest circle of Hell, where he is one of three sinners deemed evil enough that they are doomed to be chewed for eternity in the mouths of the triple-headed Satan. (The others are Brutus and Cassius, who conspired against and assassinated Julius Caesar.)
Judas often appears as a metaphor for the archetypal, profit-driven betrayer in much late 20th and early 21st century culture, although some portrayals have been more complex and sympathetic. Some examples:
In the Greek of the New Testament, Judas Iscariot is called Ιούδας Ισκάριωθ (Ioúdas Iskáriōth) and Ισκαριώτης (Iskariṓtēs).
"Judas" is the Greek form of the common name Judah (יהודה, Yehûdâh, Hebrew for "praised"). In English translations of the Bible is also found the name Jude, however there is no such distinction in the original Greek or in the Latin Vulgate translation. King David united the Kingdom of Israel and King Solomon built the First Temple, however the kingdom split into two in 928 BC, namely the northern kingdom Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah. In 722 BC, the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V conquered Israel and renamed it Samerina (Samaria). In 586 BC, the Babylonian King Nebuchadrezzar II conquered Judah, destroyed the First Temple, and exiled the "Judeans" to Babylon. Cyrus II of Persia conquered Babylon in 539 BC and granted the Judeans the right to return and to rebuild their Temple (Second Temple). For this reason Isaiah 44:25-45:4 proclaimed Cyrus to be anointed. Hence, to make a long story short, Judah, Judean, and Jew are almost synonymous. Technically, for the context of the New Testament, Judean is correct, as the Roman Emperor Augustus created Iudaea Province (6-64 , 73-132 AD) in Latin which is generally translated into English as Judea, hence its people were called Judeans.
What Iscariot signifies is unclear, other than its Greek suffix -otes, like English "-ite" or "-ian". No territory "Iscaria" has ever existed. A birthplace is sometimes offered at the Karioth that is mentioned only once, in a long list of cities in the time of Joshua (Joshua 15:25), concerning which The Classical Gazeteer tactfully remarked "of uncertain position" [4]. Karioth is not mentioned in any text of the centuries before or after Judas Iscariot. (Compare Cana and Arimathea.)
There are two major theories on the meaning of this name, each of which must satisfy certain expectations in order to be credible:
In more fringe etymologies theory suggests that "Iscariot" could also be derived from the Aramaic sheqarya' or shiqrai, indicating a person who is a fraud; "the false one" would usually be written as ishqaraya. It could also have been derived from the Hebrew sachar. It also has been theorised that Iscariot could mean deliverer, derived from the Hebrew sakar (Hebraist Joel M. Hoffman's table of Hebrew and Greek names is helpful for understanding this sort of etymology). One factor arguing against "Iscariot" deriving from Judas' betrayal of Jesus is the reference in John 6:71 to Judas as son of Simon the Iscariot. In light of this, Iscariot appears to be a family name, or at least something that could be applied also to his father, which would make these fringe theories unlikely.
Because of Judas' role in betraying Jesus Christ, the name Judas - which was common during the time of Jesus - has almost entirely fallen out of use as a name among Christians, though its Hebrew equivalent Yehuda remains common among Jews, and the etymologically equivalent name Jude is not unknown among Christians.
In Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper an overturned salt cellar lies in front of Judas (a reference to the superstition that spilling salt is bad luck).
In the British television show Red Dwarf, Arnold Rimmer's middle name is Judas, but he tells everyone it is Johnathan to avoid mockery.
| Apostles of Jesus Christ | |
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| Evangelists: John | Matthew | Mark | Luke Others: Simon Peter | Andrew | James | Philip | Bartholomew | Thomas James son of Alphaeus | Simon the Zealot | Thaddaeus | Judas Iscariot |
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