Judas the Misunderstood

Times Online ^ | January 12, 2005 | Richard Owen

[NYer]

JUDAS ISCARIOT, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican scholars.

The proposed “rehabilitation” of the man who was paid 30 pieces of silver to identify Jesus to Roman soldiers in the Garden of Gethsemane, comes on the ground that he was not deliberately evil, but was just “fulfilling his part in God’s plan”.

Christians have traditionally blamed Judas for aiding and abetting the Crucifixion, and his name is synonymous with treachery. According to St Luke, Judas was “possessed by Satan”.

Now, a campaign led by Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, head of the Pontifical Committee for Historical Science, is aimed at persuading believers to look kindly at a man reviled for 2,000 years.

Mgr Brandmuller told fellow scholars it was time for a “re-reading” of the Judas story. He is supported by Vittorio Messori, a prominent Catholic writer close to both Pope Benedict XVI and the late John Paul II.

Signor Messori said that the rehabilitation of Judas would “resolve the problem of an apparent lack of mercy by Jesus toward one of his closest collaborators”.

He told La Stampa that there was a Christian tradition that held that Judas was forgiven by Jesus and ordered to purify himself with “spiritual exercises” in the desert.

In scholarly circles, it has long been unfashionable to demonise Judas and Catholics in Britain are likely to welcome Judas’s rehabilitation.

Father Allen Morris, Christian Life and Worship secretary for the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, said: “If Christ died for all — is it possible that Judas too was redeemed through the Master he betrayed?” The “rehabilitation” of Judas could help the Pope’s drive to improve Christian-Jewish relations, which he has made a priority of his pontificate.

Some Bible experts say Judas was “a victim of a theological libel which helped to create anti Semitism” by forming an image of him as a “sinister villain” prepared to betray for money.

In many medieval plays and paintings Judas is portrayed with a hooked nose and exaggerated Semitic features. In Dante’s Inferno, Judas is relegated to the lowest pits of Hell, where he is devoured by a three-headed demon.

The move to clear Judas’s name coincides with plans to publish the alleged Gospel of Judas for the first time in English, German and French. Though not written by Judas, it is said to reflect the belief among early Christians — now gaining ground in the Vatican — that in betraying Christ Judas was fulfilling a divine mission, which led to the arrest and Crucifixion of Jesus and hence to man’s salvation.

Mgr Brandmuller said that he expected “no new historical evidence” from the supposed gospel, which had been excluded from the canon of accepted Scripture.

But it could “serve to reconstruct the events and context of Christ’s teachings as they were seen by the early Christians”. This included that Jesus had always preached “forgiveness for one’s enemies”.

Some Vatican scholars have expressed concern over the reconsideration of Judas. Monsignor Giovanni D’Ercole, a Vatican theologian, said it was “dangerous to re-evaulate Judas and muddy the Gospel accounts by reference to apocryphal writings. This can only create confusion in believers.” The Gospels tell how Judas later returned the 30 pieces of silver — his “blood money” — and h anged himself, or according to the Acts of the Apostles, “fell headlong and burst open so that all his entrails burst out”.

Some accounts suggest he acted out of disappointment that Jesus was not a revolutionary who intended to overthrow Roman occupation and establish “God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

In the Gospel accounts, Jesus reveals to the disciples at the Last Supper that one of them will betray him, but does not say which. He adds “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”

But he also — according to St Matthew — acknowledged that Judas had a divine function to fulfil, saying to him during the arrest, “Friend, do what you are here to do” and adding that “the prophecies of the Scriptures must be fulfilled”.

The “Gospel of Judas”, a 62-page worn and tattered papyrus, was found in Egypt half a century ago and later sold by antiquities dealers to the Maecenas Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.

MOCK OF AGES

• In Dante’s Inferno, Judas is relegated to the lowest pits of Hell, where he is eaten, head first, by a three-headed demon with flapping bat-like wings

• In Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent film The King of Kings, Judas’s attraction for Mary Magdalene and the resulting jealousy contributes to his betrayal of Jesus

• Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar depicts Judas as a disillusioned, angry character. In the 1973 film version he is presented as more of a victim than villain

• Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ shows Judas hounded by demon-like street children who send him to his death amid a sea of insects and maggots

[floridaobserver]

"Why didn't Jesus try to stop Judas from betraying Him?"
God never interferes with man's free will. As it was with satan, Judas attempted to force Jesus's hand to interfere in just such a way. Judas knew who Jesus was afterall.

I disagree. Didn't Jesus tell Mary the Prostitute to sin no more? Jesus frequently interceded and actively worked against sin. He didn't tell the Prostitute, well, just use your own free will.

[kittymyrib]

I'm sure next year during Holy Week we'll be treated to a sequel in which Pontius Pilate was really a closet follower of Jesus and sneaked Jesus out the back door and crucified someone else in His place. I am sick of the Jesus-haters coming out of the woodwork at this time every year, aided by their buddies in the msm, of course.

[spunkets]

"I disagree. Didn't Jesus tell Mary the Prostitute to sin no more?"

Jesus taught Judas also. Judas rejected His teaching in preference for his own values. It's not like Judas was a moron and had to be taught that betrayal is wrong, what Jesus taught was right, the plots against Him were evil, and he would be a part of their evil.

Also, Mary Magdalene wasn't a prostitute. Whatever Mary did, she did by her own free will. If some prostitute repents, they do so by their own free will, for the reasons they value.

"Jesus frequently interceded and actively worked against sin. "

He taught. He never interfered.

[spunkets]

"He didn't tell the Prostitute, well, just use your own free will."

Here's Jesus in action in John 8. He went to teach and then made requests. Let those of you w/o sin toss the first stone. Go, sin no more.

John 8:1-11

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

It can't be said that Judas was oblivious to all that Jesus had said and done. Judas acted on his own.

[floridaobserver]

The truth is that Peter denied Jesus three times, to save his own skin. Peter is now considered a Saint for that treachery.

Judas merely told the Sanhedrin where Jesus was camping out. Jesus wasn't even hiding from the Romans or Temple Elders, was He?

Maybe the reason he didn't try to stop Judas from telling his whereabouts is because he had told Judas to do so. If there is forgiveness for Peter, shouldn't Judas be forgiven as well?

According to the Gospel of Judas, Jesus had the highest respect for Judas, that is why he entrusted him with the money and the secrets of the Kingdom.

[floridaobserver]

Now someone betrayed Ann Frank when she was in hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust. As a result her entire family was sent to the concentration camps for execution.

But I didn't get the sense that Jesus was in hiding. He wanted a confrontation with the powers that be (especiallly the Temple Priests). If he wanted to avoid the confrontation He could have left the Holy City, which He did not do.

[spunkets]

"...someone betrayed Ann Frank when she was in hiding in Amsterdam during the Holocaust."

Anne wasn't God out on a mission to teach.

"I didn't get the sense that Jesus was in hiding."

Obviously He wasn't hiding. He was just impossible to find for a clandestine snatch and grab. Judas wanted to push the matter, that's why he betrayed Jesus.

"He wanted a confrontation with the powers that be (especiallly the Temple Priests). ..."Maybe the reason he didn't try to stop Judas from telling his whereabouts is because he had told Judas to do so."

Then He would have confronted them on His own. God doesn't decieve.

"If he wanted to avoid the confrontation He could have left the Holy City"

He was here to teach, not to confront.

"The truth is that Peter denied Jesus three times, to save his own skin. Peter is now considered a Saint for that treachery."

Peter acted out of fright. His was not an act of treachery, but one of self preservaiton out of paralyzing fear. There was no change in his heart about his Lord and the Holy Spirit. what was in his heart, that never changed, was why he is called a saint. No act of treachery counts towards sainthood.

Judas's act was an act of treachery. He turned over God's firstborn, His right hand, to be tortured and killed after the Passover meal. That was done in attempt to force God's hand against His will. Judas rejected the Holy Spirit. A living Spirit, that he had know and dwelt with.

" If there is forgiveness for Peter, shouldn't Judas be forgiven as well?"

Matthew 12:32
"Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."

Matthew 26:24
"The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born."