There is probably no more controversial New Testament character than Judas Iscariot. In the canonical tradition, the traitor of Christ is the undoubted personification of evil, in the Apocrypha his image is more complex, and in the eyes of scientists, Judas is a victim of circumstances.
Silent person
Despite the fact that the figure of Judas Iscariot is one of the key in understanding the essence of Christianity, nevertheless, not so much attention is paid to him in the New Testament books. In each of the four Gospels, he is mentioned only five times: during the anointing of Jesus with myrrh, in collusion with the high priests, at the Last Supper, at the moment of the betrayal of Christ and on the eve of suicide.
Evangelists do not reveal to us the image of Judas, do not indicate their attitude towards him, only in passing remarking that he is a thief and a traitor. Writer Dmitry Merezhkovsky wrote about this: “The memory of what really prompted Judas to betray Jesus had died out already in the Gospels themselves,“Memoirs of the Apostles,”and perhaps even earlier, even before the Gospel records. Evangelists do not seem to know the real reasons for Judas' betrayal, do not remember, or do not want to remember.
Who named him?
It is known that the apostles received middle names from Christ. Thus, the Savior began to call Peter the "rock", Simon - "jealous", James and John - "sons of thunder." But who gave Judas the nickname "Iscariot"? The New Testament is silent about this. Moreover, the New Testament authors leave this name without translation.
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Interpreters of a later time divided the nickname of Judas into two parts: "Is" from Aramaic they translated as "man" or "man", and "Quarioth" was associated with the name of the ancient city in the Judah tribe. According to other hypotheses, "Iscariot" can be translated as "liar", "traitor", "robber", sometimes this word is endowed with the meanings "red" or "redhead".
The translation of the main name of the betrayer of Christ - Judas (Yehuda) - contains the Bible: "praise or glorified" (Gen. 29:35). It is noteworthy that he was the only one among the twelve apostles who came from Judea, all the rest were Galileans. This gives rise to some authors to see a conflict in the community, resulting in the distancing of Judas from other disciples of Christ.
Unexpected turn
The apocryphal traditions of Judas give us much more food for thought. So, in "The Legend of Jerome about Judas the Traitor" (not earlier than the 11th century), the parents of Judas, after a terrible dream, in which the son becomes the death of the family, throw the baby in a basket into the depths of the sea. The miraculously escaped Iscariot returns to his father's house many years later, kills his father and commits the sin of incest with his mother.
Chapter 35 of the "Arabian Gospel of the Savior's Childhood" (the original is presumably the 6th century) says that Judas and Jesus grew up in the same village. One day a mother brought her son, possessed by Satan, to the young Jesus, who already had the gift of healing. The raging Judas first bit Jesus on the side, then burst into tears, after which healing came. According to the apocrypha, Jesus was subsequently pierced into this side with a spear on the cross.
The apocryphal "Gospel of Barnabas" (end of the 15th century) says that God, through the prayer of Christ, transformed the appearance and voice of Judas so much that even the apostles took him for the Teacher. It was Judas Iscariot, according to the Apocrypha, who was desecrated and ridiculed, and then was crucified. Historian-antiquarian Irina Savitskaya notes that in medieval Muslim treatises a slightly different version is given, according to which Judas was mistaken and instead of Christ gave the soldiers another person. Realizing what he had done, he killed himself.
Mission destined
In the New Testament, Jesus repeatedly says that the Son of man will be betrayed, crucified, but after death on the third day he will be resurrected (Matt. 17: 22-23). This was precisely the meaning of the Savior's mission: to atone for human sins through suffering on the cross. If there were no betrayal, there would be no Golgotha.
Sergei Mikhailov, author of the book "Judas Iscariot - Traitor or Saint", believes that the apostles did not heed the words of Christ. The only one, in his opinion, who was able to fulfill the predestined by Christ, was Judas. He sincerely believed the Master and did not consign to oblivion a single word of his prophecies. According to Mikhailov's hypothesis, faith pushed Judas to the so-called "betrayal."
Not selfish, but weak-willed
The New Testament says that Judas was a treasurer in the community of Jesus, who knew the value of money (John 12: 6). Many do not doubt that the main motive for betraying Judas must be sought in money. Some New Testament stories indirectly testify to this. For example, in the episode of the anointing of Jesus with myrrh (consecrated with aromatic oil), Judas, opposing the squandering of valuable incense, declares that it would be better to sell myrrh and distribute the proceeds to the poor.
On the one hand, one can see the nobility here, on the other - the prudence of Judas. But John states bluntly: “He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because there was a thief” (John 12: 1-8). Self-interest is often seen as the main motive for Judas' betrayal, although the appointment of monetary rewards by the high priests was only a response to Iscariot's proposal. Church historian Mitrofan Muretov characterizes Judas' behavior as “complete indifference and passivity in relation to money, however, he could not resist the temptation of avarice.
No less popular interpretation of betrayal explains the behavior of Judas by obsession and is based on the statement of Luke: “Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the twelve” (Luke 22: 3). However, Bishop Michael (Gribanovsky) advises not to take the words of the evangelist literally, since Judas did not become possessed in the literal sense, the devil was only his feat to make an independent decision.
First revolutionary
In his reconstruction of a fateful episode for all of Christianity, the English writer Thomas de Quincey justifies Judas, noting that by his betrayal he wanted to induce Christ to take more active actions against enemies. Judas in this concept is a kind of revolutionary, pushing himself and his associates to great achievements.
A similar version is set forth in Protestant biblical studies: in it Judas Iscariot is a disillusioned disciple who, in despair, decided to destroy the failed religious and political leader. Another interpretation explains Judas' betrayal as an attempt to avoid persecution, which, in his opinion, should have inevitably been subjected to the apostles in the future.
Bloody money
Srebrenik (or shekel) at the time of Christ was equal to 4 denarii. According to the testimony of the Evangelist Matthew, 1 denarius is the daily wage of a worker on vineyards, respectively, in order to receive 30 pieces of silver, it was necessary to work in the vineyard for 4 months. Often, the silver coins of Judas are identified with the Phoenician tetradrachms (weighing 14 grams of silver), which circulated in Judea along with Roman and Greek coins.
What could you buy for 30 pieces of silver? This is the price of approximately 360 liters of olive oil or 1800 liters of grain. Matthew tells us that after the repentant Judas returned his 30 pieces of silver to the high priests, they, not wanting to keep the blood-stained money in the temple, bought potter's land with them for the burial of strangers (Matthew 27: 7).
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