The name of Judas is a household name for every modern person - that was the name of the New Testament traitor, thanks to whom the founder of Christianity was captured by the Romans and subsequently executed.
And throughout the history of Christianity, Judas was branded as a Christ-killer. Although in fact we know very, very little about Judas …
Judas in the Gospels bears the additional name Iscariot. In Russian, this is unambiguously translated as Judas from Cariot, therefore, Cariot is such a place or such a city. But no Cariot, as historians say, did not exist then. The only town that fits at least in consonance is Krayot in Judea, but whether it is the birthplace of Judas is an open question. In addition to the place of birth, the Hebrew "ish-keriyot" can also be translated as "a husband from the suburbs", because "keriyot" is a suburb. So our Judas could not have come from an unknown Cariot, but simply from a village near Jerusalem.
Official history
In the same New Testament, besides Judas Iscariot, there is also Judas Simonov. And some scholars believe that our Judas Iscariot is Judas Simonov. True, who this Simon is is just as dark - either a father or an older brother.
One thing is certain about Judas: he is one of the twelve disciples of Jesus and part-time treasurer of this small community. This is where the use of the respectful “husband” to Judas becomes clear: the treasurer is a responsible position and was not appointed to it so easily. It is also known that Judas was thrifty and spoke badly about useless or unreasonable spending, he knew the value of money.
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Jesus' disciples hardly liked this, they reproached him for being stingy, and then a legend was born that Judas steals from the general treasury. Most likely, this is not true: a thief would not have held the position of treasurer with Jesus alive. And the fact that he did not like extravagance is quite understandable: the students were not rich people, they fed for charity fees.
The official history of Judas is very short. It is not known how and from where he came to be Jesus 'disciples, we immediately see him as a treasurer and even become witnesses to his reproaches to Mary of Bethany for wastefulness when she anointed Jesus' feet with peace for 300 denarii, which can be used to feed the poor.
Another time, Judas is presented to us during the Last Supper, when they eat at a common table and dip bread in a common dish, and Jesus utters his sacramental phrase that one of the disciples sitting at this table will betray him, and he is the one, who, together with Jesus, dipped bread into this dish. As everyone dipped it, a general confusion reigned.
And Jesus added: if you are planning to do this, then do it quickly. Allegedly, Judas understood him and almost immediately went to betray. For the surrender of Jesus, he received from the Sanhedrin 30 pieces of silver: an amount that became the same common noun as the name of Judas. Further, when Jesus went to spend the night on the Mount of Olives, Judas
brought a Roman detachment there and, in order to point at Jesus, went up to him and kissed him. Christians will call this kiss the kiss of a traitor.
The further fate of Judas is ambiguous: according to one version, he received money for the betrayal and returned it, repented of his deed, and then hanged himself, a friend - he received money, bought himself a field on them, which is called the field of the potter, because it was previously owned by the potter, and either died of an accident, or hanged himself.
Since the first version was not connected with the purchase of the field, the Gospel texts quickly corrected this: the Sanhedrin members bought the field with the money returned and began to use it as a cemetery for pilgrims. And Judas's death was arranged beautifully: he thrust his head into the noose, the rope of his weight could not withstand (obviously, indeed, the "husband" and the man was strong), he fell down and his insides fell out.
But everything in the story of Judas is extremely confusing.
Indistinct details
Firstly, the very amount of 30 pieces of silver is not clear, as it is not even clear what kind of money it was. If they meant an ordinary small silver coin, which was calculated in the time of Jesus, then it was impossible to buy even such a wretched field for 30 such coins. If these are the so-called Tyrian tickles, then - alas! - also impossible. So the field is strange, and so is the cost.
Secondly, Judas hanged himself from a tree (this was considered by the Jews a shameful death). But which one? The New Testament in the Russian translation definitely gives an aspen. And he even points out that after that, the aspen developed a peculiarity to tremble from the experienced fear. But where do aspen trees grow in Judea? Nowhere. Therefore, for the role of a tree for Judas (and in the text it is not an aspen, but a Judas tree), Christians selected different trees, based on the domestic landscape - birch, elderberry, mountain ash, etc.
Thirdly, either he hurt himself and “his stomach opened, and he himself was swollen,” or he committed suicide. But if he died of illness, then he did not kill himself. If he committed suicide - why did the insides fall out? This death with the entrails falling out leads to one strange circumstance of the case: under what damage can the entrails fall out? Yes, only in one case: if the body was ripped from groin to throat, that is, if Judas was killed with a dagger and hanged, and then the rope could not stand it!
But did Judas hang himself? Or was he hanged? Or neither?
Non-canon biography
According to the non-canonical version, Judas was born on the most unlucky day of the year - April 1, and before his birth, his mother had a terrible dream that this child would bring death to her family, therefore, without thinking twice, she put the newborn in the ark and threw it into the nearest river. Judas did not die and accurately fulfilled the prediction: he grew up on the island of Kariof (here's Kariof for you!), Returned home and, like the hero of the Greek tragedy Oedipus, killed his father and entered into an incestuous relationship with his mother. When the unfortunate man found out what sins he had committed (without being guilty of it), then for thirty-three years every day he walked up the mountain with water in his mouth and watered a dry stick there until it was covered with leaves. After that he became a disciple of Jesus.
According to another legend, Judas and Jesus were neighbors in childhood, and since the boy was sickly, his mother brought him to little Jesus, about whom the fame as a healer had already gone. Jesus began to heal Judas, to which the latter became angry and bit his savior on the side so that he left a scar forever, and the place where Judas bit him became the place where the Roman legionary drove his spear. But Judas was healed and became a disciple of Jesus when he grew up. According to this version, Judas was even a brother of Jesus, and was very jealous of him. According to another version, Jesus was jealous of Judas, and Judas loved his brother so much that he himself did all the miracles, and he gave the glory acquired for this to Jesus.
And according to the version of the newfound Gospel of Judas, where nothing is said about his life before meeting Jesus, Judas did not commit suicide after the death of Jesus and did not die of illness.
The hidden gospel
In this Gospel, Judas is completely different from the traitor and villain that he was for Christians for all two thousand years. Judas is a completely sane person and a worthy student of his teacher. And what looks like betrayal is not. It is to him that Jesus reveals the most secret knowledge about the universe and the fate of mankind. It is he who for Jesus is the most devoted and faithful disciple, and he is entrusted with a terrible mission to betray his teacher so that his destiny may be fulfilled, and to sacrifice his human essence to the Heavenly Father, and Judas fulfills this mission, realizing what will remain for the followers of the new faith despicable traitor, because the descendants will not understand either this order of Jesus or the essence of the sacrifice.
Jesus allowed Judas to enter the cloud of heavenly glory, see his star and fulfill his destiny. And when Judas entered the cloud of glory and saw his star, he understood everything and went to the chief priests, betrayed Jesus and took the money.
It is not without reason that after the public familiarization with this apocrypha, several high-ranking officials from the Vatican raised the issue of revising their attitude towards Judas. True, in addition to restoring justice to the slandered Judas, they set another, more mundane task - by justifying Judas and ending anti-Semitism. After all, one of the reasons for anti-Semitism is the accusation by Christians of Jews that they have become Christ-sellers.
Scientists were able to prove the authenticity of the "Gospel of Judas"
New research into the Gospel of Judas manuscript describing a previously unknown version of biblical events resulted in confirmation of the authenticity of the ancient text.
The Gospel of Judas was discovered by scholars in 2006. The manuscript, written in the ancient Egyptian language, says that Judas Iscariot was not at all a traitor to Christ, but on the contrary - his faithful ally in preparation for the resurrection of the Savior. According to this text, Jesus himself asked Judas to turn to the authorities, hoping for help, which he will be provided with during his ascension to heaven. In this version, neither betrayal nor 30 pieces of silver is mentioned.
To determine the authenticity of the text, a group of American scholars led by Joseph Barabi of Illinois analyzed the ink used to write the Gospel, comparing it to the ink on Egyptian marriage certificates and real estate documents dating from the same period.
In those days, the Egyptians used ink, which was previously subjected to special processing, which, in fact, allowed the experts to prove that the Gospel was not a late forgery. And even despite the fact that the document is fragmented, its authenticity is no longer in doubt.
Barabi specializes in verifying the authenticity of ancient documents as well as various art objects. They often help the FBI identify fake paintings.