VATICAN SAYS MOHAMMED THE ONLY PROPHET, KORAN INSPIRED,
Perhaps sooner
Posted on 01/12/2006 7:42:57 AM PST by Alouette
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, the London Times reports
Judas Iscariot, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be given a makeover by Vatican scholars, according to the London Times.
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,” the London Times said.
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.”
According to the London Times, 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.
'Judas portrayed with a hooked nose'
In scholarly circles, it has long been unfashionable to demonize Judas and Catholics in Britain are likely to welcome Judas’ rehabilitation.
The London Times quoted Father Allen Morris, Christian Life and Worship secretary for the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, as saying, “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, according to the London Times.
'Fell headlong'
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-evaluate 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 hanged himself, or according to the Acts of the Apostles, “fell headlong and burst open so that all his entrails burst out."
Uh Oh. Assumption.
I assumed Judas would be remorseful - as I hope I would be.
If I were Judas, I would not commit suicide from fear, because I would fear the eternity of death experienced through betrayal more than a life filled with remorse.
If Judas had chosen life, redemption would be more assured.
Well, I guess that settles the matter.
There was a hilarious article a couple of years ago (it was either in "Inside the Vatican" or "Catholic World Report"). It took a particular example of MSM coverage of the Vatican to show how off-the-wall, inaccurate, and agenda-driven it was.
The example involved then-Cardinal Ratzinger, who made some rather innocuous remarks tying "assisted reproduction" technology back to eugenics and mentioning circumspectly that the philosophical viewpoints -- rationalism and utilitarianism -- underlying those things were the same viewpoints that formed the basis of certain ideas popular in Europe in the 1930's. (He didn't use the word "Nazi", IIRC.)
It went through about three newspapers before it was clear that they weren't reporting what Ratzinger had actually said anymore.
By the time the story got to Australia, the headline was something like "IVF COUPLES ARE NAZIS, VATICAN SAYS".
Draw your own conclusions.
Oh, I see....yeah, hoping people make the right choice at the time of death is an easy emotion to get wrapped up in. It does help comfort us to think others we know about will be in heaven too.
I'm not sure Judas qualified...someday we will find out though.
One of them being the relative ease in locating the whackos and their followers, thus we can stay clear of them. There is no ready method for identifying the whackos in the Catholic Church - it's all one big group, divided more by geography than theology. As I see it, your choices are limited if you're Catholic - put up with bad/rogue theology, or move to another parish. If you're Protestant, you can always cross the street :D
One would guess that Monsignor Walter Brandmuller, and the "Pontifical Committee for Historical Science" is simply speaking out of their own personal interpretation of Scripture when it comes to Judas Iscariot. But that can't be, because we Protestants are told that never happens within the Catholic Church, since they have a single, authoritative interpretation of Scripture ;)
This, of course, has it appearing some 100 years after Judas' death.
VATICAN SAYS MOHAMMED THE ONLY PROPHET, KORAN INSPIRED,
Perhaps sooner
Wow, I had no idea it was that hard. It's always seemed pretty easy to me.
As I see it, your choices are limited if you're Catholic - put up with bad/rogue theology, or move to another parish. If you're Protestant, you can always cross the street
Why is moving to another parish somehow "more limiting" than switching to a different denomination? You don't have to physically move your family unless the commute is really too long to bear; nobody cares about parish territoriality anymore for precisely this reason.
My family and I don't go to our territorial parish.
Have you sent your resume to the NY Times or the Boston Globe yet? I'm sure they'd love to have you on board.
I hope you're not suggesting that I'm a liberal!
Call me anything but that!
Is this a Catholic only thread?
"Thou hast said it."
Protestant instigators are encouraged to apply.
:-)
The guys wearing hats?
Every time I show up on one of these bizzare threads the Anti-Catholic Troll Hunter squad shows up to shoo me away. I'm just curious if our input is welcome on this rather bizzare topic.
Jesus said it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born. That's pretty clear.
55 posted on 01/12/2006 11:36:57 AM MST by Rocky
The silence of the Church is, therefore, the only appropriate position for Christian faith. Even when Jesus says of Judas, 'It would be better for that man if he had never been born,' His words do not allude for certain to eternal damnation."from First Things in The Public Square by the Editor : Richard John Neuhaus
b'shem Y'shua
I guess you have to be really smart to figure that out. Of course, the "really smart guys" in Jesus' day did not back Jesus.
It never ceases to amaze me how intellectuals can twist plain language around to make it consistent with their preconceived notions.
Catholic perspective. Funny how, while it's true that the Church has never defined that any particular person is in Hell, there is solid scriptural evidence for only one man in the NT to be "extremely likely" to be there. That man is Judas Iscariot. Matthew 26:24-25 says: "'The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but 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.' Judas, who betrayed him, said, 'Is it I, Master?' He said to him, 'You have said so.'"
Even if Judas had to spend a bazillion years in Purgatory, it would have been worth it for him to be born regardless, as the eternity of Heaven thereafter would make the stay in Purgatory a worthwhile means to an indescribably wonderful end. The fact that Jesus, knowing such a thing, still says that it would have been "better if he had not been born," certainly makes the prospect of Judas' salvation look inconceivably "remote." His "rehabilitation," in light of the fact that he is singled-out as the sole person explicitly named in the New Testament who is virtually certain to be in Hell, is an excercise in stupidity. I can't believe the Vatican would be so silly as to waste time on such a project. I'm *hoping* this was bobbled by the Times (not too hard to suppose!), or wherever they got it from, and thus it bears little resemblance to fact.
All I know is that (everyone say it along with me now)...
I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.
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