Judas Iscariot

“ As a boy I was taught to look upon the Jews as the rejecters, betrayers and crucifiers of Christ, the man sent of God to establish peace and good will. I was taught to look upon Judas Iscariot as the meanest of all men—the man who pretended to love Jesus, but who betrayed him for thirty pieces of silver. If I were a Jew, I would point to the Christian churches, pretending to love the people as Christ loved them, but openly turning the blessings of Christ from their natural channels of peace, to blessing the armies and navies that go out to do violence. ”

“ In ecclesiastical legend and in sacred art Judas Iscariot is generally treated as the very incarnation of treachery, ingratitude and impiety. The Middle Ages, after their fashion, supplied the lacunae in what they deemed his too meagre biography. ”

“ Just at this time Judas Iscariot took the first definite step towards the Betrayal. He visited the chief priest Annas secretly. He was very roughly received, but that did not disturb him in the least, and he demanded a long private interview. When he found himself alone with the dry, harsh old man, who looked at him with contempt from beneath his heavy overhanging eyelids, he stated that he was an honourable man who had become one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth with the sole purpose of exposing the impostor, and handing Him over to the arm of the law. ”

“ Judas Iscariot has become to Christian people an object of horror more loathsome than even the devil himself. The devil rebelled because he could not brook subjection to the Son of God, a failing which was noble compared with treachery to the Son of man. The hatred of Judas is not altogether virtuous. We compound thereby for our neglect of Jesus and His precepts: it is easier to establish our Christianity by cursing the wretched servant than by following his Master. The heinousness also of the crime in Gethsemane has been aggravated by the exaltation of Jesus to the Redeemership of the world. ”

“ Jesus Christ had often been warned that Judas Iscariot was a man of very evil repute, and that He ought to beware of him. Some of the disciples, who had been in Judaea, knew him well, while others had heard much about him from various sources, and there was none who had a good word for him. If good people in speaking of him blamed him, as covetous, cunning, and inclined to hypocrisy and lying, the bad, when asked concerning him, inveighed against him in the severest terms.
“He is always making mischief among us,” they would say, and spit in contempt. ”

“ And first let me say what my own feeling, my own strong personal conviction is regarding Judas Iscariot. I believe him to have been a demon incarnated by the power of the Devil, whose intent was to frustrate God's plans. In all his foul work of destruction and confusion, the Devil, from the time of the Fall in Eden, has ever been busy counterfeiting all that God has wrought out for the salvation of the human race, and as the time approaches for his own utter defeat so the more cunning will his devices of evil become. ”

“ Certainly it was very little; but is Judas discontented, does Judas call out that he has been robbed? He is satisfied. Has he not contributed to a holy cause—yes, a holy? Do not the most sage people now listen to Judas, and think: He is one of us, this Judas Iscariot; he is our brother, our friend, this Judas Iscariot, the Traitor! Does not Annas want to kneel down and kiss the hand of Judas? Only Judas will not allow it; he is a coward, he is afraid they will bite him.”
Caiaphas said:
“Drive the dog out! What’s he barking about?” ”

“ Once more he glanced at Jesus and then, impetuously, like a rock dislodged from the mountain side, he gained the side of Judas Iscariot and loudly greeted him with a wide and unmistakable cordiality:—“Now you are with us, Judas!” Then he amiably slapped the newcomer’s curved back, and not seeing the Teacher, though feeling His glance, he added with that loud voice of his which dispelled all objections as water displaces air:
“Your bad looks do not matter. We get uglier creatures into our nets and they turn out the best to eat. ”

“ Other friends of Jesus lay the blame of his death on Judas Iscariot, But the whole story of his "betrayal" of Jesus is a downright absurdity. How could he sell his master when the commodity was common? What sense is there in his being paid to indicate the best-known man in Jerusalem? Even if the story were true, it appears that Jesus knew what Judas was doing, and as he could easily have returned to Galilee, he was accessory to his own fate. It may also be pointed out that Judas only killed Jesus if the tragedy would not have occurred without him ”

“ The agonizing knowledge that at each onward step he was plunging deeper and deeper into the sin which could not be forgiven—the continual remembrance that he was dispensing to others the mercy of that God who would forget to be gracious to him, may be easily conjectured; but may Heaven spare us all from such agony of conflicting thoughts and hopes as must have been the daily and nightly companion of Judas Iscariot, long before he came out from the disciples’ ranks to betray his lord into the hands of sinners! ”

“ It is to be observed, that the Scripture makes mention of three Judases; the first in Judas Maccabeus, the second Judas the son of Joseph, the reputed father of our Lord; and third, Judas Iscariot, the son of a tanner, living in repute at Joppa, a sea-port town near Jerusalem. This Judas who betrayed our Lord, was his mother's first child, who dreamed that the child in her womb would prove both a thief and a murderer, and bring her and her generation to shame & disgrace: which so terrified her, that she was like to go distracted ”

“ On Saturday occurs the most grotesque and curious of all the festivals of the Church. It is the day on which final disposition is made of that arch-traitor Judas Iscariot, and the day is devoted to his humiliation and death. Effigies of the traitor are hung over the streets everywhere and all day long men parade the streets with figures of the betrayer of Christ upon poles. ”

“ Sleep ye now, and take your rest. It is enough: the hour is come: behold the Son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of sinners.
42 Rise up, let us go. Behold, he that will betray me is at hand.
43 And while he was yet speaking, cometh Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve: and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the ancients. ”

“ JUDAS ISCARIOT Judas Iscariot, the twelfth apostle, was chosen by Nathaniel. He was born in Kerioth, a small town in southern Judea. When he was a lad, his parents moved to Jericho, where he lived and had been employed in his father's various business enterprises until he became interested in the preaching and work of John the Baptist. ”

“ And it is this, and the feeling of this, which explains why poor wretches will kill themselves, as Judas Iscariot did, and rush into hell itself, under the horror and pain of shame and disgrace. They feel a hell within them so hot, that they actually fancy that they can be no worse off beyond the grave than they are on this side of it. They are mistaken: but that is the reason; the misery of disgrace is so intolerable, that they are willing, like that wretched Judas, to try any mad and desperate chance to escape it. ”

“ Now when Judas heard her lamentable story he cry'd out, Oh I am the man! So began to tell her how that he was taken in a boat at sea, by some that did belong to the island of Iscariot, and likewise told her how he had killed the prince of Iscariot's fon, that brought him up ; and he was the man that killed as he understood the man that was his father in the garden ”

“ And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him,"—that is, gained more entire possession of his soul; as will always be the case when we once listen to the Devil. What our Lord said to John does not appear to have been heard by any of the other disciples. Judas himself now dared to ask, "Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said,"—which was a most solemn form of saying "Yes." Jesus then said unto Judas, "That thou doest do quickly." Judas immediately left the company, and went out. ”

“ The critic who said, whether innocently or ironically, "What wicked men these early Christians were!" was certainly more successful in innocence than in irony; for he seems to have been innocent or ignorant of the whole idea of the Christian communion. Judas Iscariot was one of the very earliest of all possible early Christians. And the whole point about him was that his hand was in the same dish; the traitor is always a friend, or he could never be a foe. ”

“ He knew that Judas Iscariot, one of his own disciples, would betray him to the chief priests and magistrates who hated him, because they were afraid he would convert the people and uncover their own wickedness. Christ Jesus knew that he must suffer violence at the hands of those who hated goodness so that he might prove beyond shadow of doubt, by his resurrection, that love is greater than hate—that love is always victorious, because God is Love. ”

“ Next I cast a glance outside the town, and, near the south gate, I beheld the traitor, Judas Iscariot, wandering about, alone, and a prey to the tortures of his guilty conscience; he feared even his own shadow, and was followed by many devils, who endeavoured to turn his feelings of remorse into black despair. Thousands of evil spirits were busying themselves in all parts, tempting men first to one sin and then to another. ”

“ And while he was speaking, came Judas the traitor, saying, Hail, Master, and kissed him. For it is written, that it was the manner and custom of our Lord Jesus towards his disciples, that when at any time he had sent them out, at their return again, he would receive them with a loving kiss. Then they laid hands on the Lord, and bound him as a thief and a murderer, and led him away to the high Priest and Elders, who asked him many questions ”

“ Then, seizing Iscariot by the sleeve, he took him to the window and pointed to the pale mists of dawn that hovered in tenuous masses above the earth. 'Seest thou that sun just showing above yon mountain?' he asked the wretched man, whose despairing eyes were barely lifted and whose head was bent painfully beneath the iron grasp of Caiaphas. 'Before that sun shall rise again thou wilt be lying with thy eyes glazed in death, unless thou keep thy promise to betray this Jesus.'"
"Oh, poor Judas!" exclaimed the tender-hearted Mary. "Could we not help him to escape this man?" ”

“ The poor innocent prince being curious to see what was therein, came to the brink of the well to look down there, and then Judas treacherous like, as he was, came behind him, and with all his might thrust him down headlong into the well, where he miserably ended his life. Now when the young prince was a-missing, great search was made for him through the island, but all in vain ; but some whispered it about that he was seen along with Judas on the day he was missing, and must needs know what is become of him. ”

“ Those two possible uses of the name of Judas would give us yet another compact embodiment of the case for Zionism. Numberless international Jews have gained the bad name of Judas, and some have certainly earned it. If you have gained or earned the good name of Judas, it can quite fairly and intelligently be affirmed that this was not the fault of the Jews, but of the peculiar position of the Jews. A man can betray like Judas Iscariot in another man's house; but a man cannot fight like Judas Maccabeus for another man's temple. ”

“ As Jesus and the eleven made their way back to camp, the apostles began to wonder about the meaning of Judas's prolonged absence, and they spoke to one another concerning the Master's prediction that one of them would betray him, and for the first time they suspected that all was not well with Judas Iscariot. ”

“ But this text, "And Judas Iscariot," brings to our recollection the story of a man who lost his opportunity to be good and great; the picture of one who was heartless in his betrayal, for within sight of the Garden of Gethsemane he saluted Jesus with a hypocritical kiss; the recollection of one in whose ears to-day in eternity there must be heard the clinking sound of the thirty pieces of silver; and the account of one who died a horrible death, all because sin had its way with him and the grace of God was rejected. ”

“ But Caiaphas and the multitude of the Jews had no passover but were in great grief because of the robbery of the sanctuary by the thief. And they sent for Judas Iscariot who was brother's son to Caiaphas, and had been persuaded by
the Jews to become a disciple of Jesus, not to follow his teachings, but to betray him. ”

“ Judas hearing the power of Jesus, and knowing himself to be a notorious sinner, as the worst of men sometimes may have good thoughts, when taken to be one of the apostles. Note, Our blessed Lord and Saviour knew what he was, and what he would be, there he was accepted, and there continued for a while, but it was no longer than he found an opportunity to betray our Saviour Christ, and he sold him for thirty pieces of silver. ”

“ He lies and dissembles. Throughout the whole story the dual personality of the Traitor is brought out with wonderful skill. In “Judas Iscariot” Andreyev contrasts Judas with Jesus. In “Lazarus” he contrasts the morose Jew, whom Jesus brought back from death into life after three days and three nights in the darkness of the tomb, with the life-loving Augustus. If in “Judas Iscariot” Judas, wise, cunning and evil, overcomes Jesus, naive, meek and trustful, in “Lazarus” it is the Roman Emperor who causes the eyes of the Jew to be pierced, but is in the end overcome himself. ”