Judas Iscariot. We all know him as the disciple who betrayed Jesus. We know him as a deceiver, a liar, a manipulator, etc.

I have been watching Hero the Rock Opera and listening to the soundtracks and really observing what and who Judas was.

Judas, as far as we can know, was from the village of Kerioth, and he was also the only Judaean disciple among the Twelve. Judas, again, as we all know was the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, in return for money. Judas, after he recieved his payment, threw the money back at the ones who gave it to Him and went and hung himself. I would assume out of guilt.

This is basically what we know about Judas, or at least what he is remembered most for. But is there more to this story? Some questions I am asking:

1. When Jesus called Judas to follow Him, did He know that Judas was the one who would hand Him over?

2. Was Judas "the bad guy" from the beginning or did Satan start working in Judas' heart and little by little Judas was decieved?

3. Why did he hang himself?

4. What was Judas' motive for betrayal?

5. What was Judas' role as a disciple?

Here are some answers I am looking into. I dont say they are "Gods" answers necessarily, they are just some of the possibilities and probabilities that could be true.

1. When Jesus called Judas to follow Him, did He know that Judas was the one who would hand Him over?

-Honestly, I cannot even begin to answer this question. There are such mixed opinions as to whether Jesus could know or not. This is all surrounding the predestination or nonpredestination debate which I will not even get into, but I would love to know what other people think about this question. SO LEAVE COMMENTS!

Also, I think its sort of interesting that Jesus gave Judas charge of the money.

--John 13: 29 29Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor.

-Was Jesus giving him the money as a test? Or did He already know Judas would betray Him and may as well have access to the money to do it? Some more questions I would love opinions on.

2. Was Judas "the bad guy" from the beginning or did Satan start working in Judas' heart and little by little Judas was decieved? On the same note, why did he hang himself?

-I am not sure if Judas was a bad guy from the beginning.

John 13:18-30

18"I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill the scripture: 'He who shares my bread has lifted up his heel against me.'[b]

19"I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. 20I tell you the truth, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me."

21After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit (I wonder if God had maybe JUST revealed who the betrayer would be and waited until that moment to let Jesus know who it would be? Just a thought.) and testified, "I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me."

22His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, "Ask him which one he means."

25Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"

26Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon. 27As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him.

"What you are about to do, do quickly," Jesus told him, 28but no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the Feast, or to give something to the poor. 30As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.

Luke 22:1-6

1Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover, was approaching, 2and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus. 5They were delighted and agreed to give him money. 6He consented, and watched for an opportunity to hand Jesus over to them when no crowd was present.

FROM: http://www.dianedew.com/judas.htm
Luke 22:3 "Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve." John 13:27 "And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly." John 13:2 says, "And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's [son], to betray him."
Jesus called Judas a devil: John 6:70 "Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? "
Yet Scripture refers to Judas as "one of his disciples" (John 12:4 and Luke 6:13, 16), and "one of the twelve" (Luke 22:47; John 6:41)
Judas saw the miracles (Luke 6); he attended prayer meetings of Jesus with his other disciples (John 18:2). He had a "ministry" (Acts 1:17) and place of responsibility among the believers (John 13:29). He was trusted by the other believers - enough to carry the bag of money (John 13:29).
Judas was suspicious of his own spiritual condition - it says he even asked Jesus if he was the one who would betray him:
Mat 26:25 "Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said."




So, I dont really know the answer to this question but here is some info on his background to maybe give us a little insight into Judas' mind.

3. Why did he hang himself?

Matthew 27:3-5

3When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders. 4"I have sinned," he said, "for I have betrayed innocent blood."
"What is that to us?" they replied. "That's your responsibility."


5So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.
So, the question is, did Satan enter Judas just to get the job done and then leave once Jesus was captured? Did Judas feel remorse and guilt afterwards? I doubt he could have felt bad when he was posessed by Satan. So, I am guessing that Satan had used Judas for what he needed him for and moved on leaving Judas with the realization that He had just changed history and done something really screwed up. He admitted that he had sinned and admitted that Christ was innocent. I wish I could have been in Judas' brain when that clicked. I dont think he could live with the guilt of delivering the Son of God to death.
4. What was Judas' motive for betrayal?
Well, this is a loaded question. This also goes along with the #2. Was he bad from the beginning?
It seems as tho Judas had alot of inner turmoil. Satan couldnt have just been like "cool. lets enter a disciple." Judas had to have had some open doors for him to enter. I bet Judas felt pretty good about himself since Jesus trusted him with the money, he probably felt important being one of the "chosen" 12, he probably felt awesome getting to be involved with miracles, he probably felt pretty awesome because people looked up to him as a disciple. Judas probably had alot of arrogance and pride issues.
John 12:4-6



4But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5"Why wasn't this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year's wages.[b]" 6He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

It also doesnt appear that Judas was personally very close to Jesus. You hear alot about Peter and James being favored but not much about Judas except when he was in trouble (lol). It never seemed as though Jesus and Judas had any great, close encounters with each other. You never see Judas even admit that Jesus was the Son of God (AT LEAST NOT THAT I COULD FIND IN SCRIPTURE).

Was Judas just out for fame, money, power? Did he think if he betrayed Jesus he could get in with the big dogs aka the Pharisees?

From: http://www.gotquestions.org/Judas-betray-Jesus.html

Additionally, Judas, like most people at the time, believed the Messiah was going to overthrow Roman occupation and take a position of power ruling over the nation of Israel. Judas may have followed Jesus hoping to benefit from association with Him as the new reigning political power. No doubt he expected to be among the ruling elite after the revolution. By the time of Judas’ betrayal, Jesus had made it clear that He planned to die, not start a rebellion against Rome. So Judas may have assumed—just as the Pharisees did—that since He would not overthrow the Romans, He must not be the Messiah they were expecting.

5. What was Judas' role as a disciple?

Judas, it seems, was the treasurer. As we noted in Scripture above, Jesus entrusted the moneybag to Judas. Judas went with ther 12 wherever they went. He saw the miracles, He hung out with Jesus all the time, He got to experience the SOn of God firsthand yet He still was the disciple who betrayed Jesus.

This comes down again to was Judas chosen as a disciple because someone had to betray Jesus? Was that his "predestined" role? All over the New Testament prophets we read about Judas, just not by name.

So, we ask, was it "pre-planned" for Judas to betray Jesus? Was that his role? Was they why Jesus called him?

Ive seen a play called, "Hero the Rock Opera", which is about the ministry of Jesus in modern Brooklyn. It gives a little insight into the thought process of Judas that I find fascinating. Watch the videos below (Judas (known as Jude in the play-acted by Michael Quinlan) and get a little insight into what may have been the inner turmoil of Judas Iscariot. This is what provoked me to thinking about Judas as a disciple.

]











These are just questions I find myself asking and would love some input from the readers! Please leave comments and your own thoughts and ideas!!

You need to be a member of KingdomInsight to add comments!

Join KingdomInsight

Email me when people reply –

Replies

  • If the Gospel of Judas is "fact" then when would Judas have written it since He killed himself right after? He literally would have had to write that "gospel" in like 10 minutes while feeling guilty, angry, sick and half-crazed and suicidal. I doubt Judas was thinking, "Maybe before I hang myself I should write a book."
    I dont know. What do others think?
  • If Jesus is god,he had to have known Judas was going to turn him in. An explanation is that Jesus allowed the betrayal because it would allow God's plan to be fulfilled.

    Gospel of Judas dating back to 200 AD, was translated into modern language, suggests that Jesus may have asked Judas to betray him.
    Origen an early Christian scholar and theologian, knew of a tradition according to which the greater circle of disciples betrayed Jesus, but does not attribute this to Judas in particular, and Origen did not deem Judas to be thoroughly corrupt.

    It has been speculated that Judas's damnation, which seems to be possible from the Gospels' text, may not actually stem from his betrayal of Christ, but from the despair which caused him to subsequently commit suicide. This position is not without its problems since Judas was already damned by Jesus even before he committed suicide (see John 17:12), but it does avoid the paradox of Judas's predestined act setting in motion both the salvation of all mankind and his own damnation.

    The answer for #2

    In Matthew it says that Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Another possible reason is that Judas expected Jesus to overthrow Roman rule of Israel. In this view, Judas is a disillusioned disciple betraying Jesus not so much because he loved money, but because he loved his country and thought Jesus had failed it.

    According to Luke 22:3-6 and John 13:27, Satan entered into him and called him to do it.

    Some scholars have embraced the alternative notion that Judas was merely the negotiator in a prearranged prisoner exchange (following the money-changer riot in the Temple) that gave Jesus to the Roman authorities by mutual agreement, and that Judas's later portrayal as "traitor" was a historical distortion.

    In his book The Passover Plot the British theologian Hugh J. Schonfield argued that the crucifixion of Christ was a conscious re-enactment of Biblical prophecy and Judas acted with Jesus' full knowledge and consent in "betraying" his master to the authorities.

    Theologian Aaron Saari contends in his work The Many Deaths of Judas Iscariot that Judas Iscariot was the literary invention of the Markan community. As Judas does not appear in the Epistles of Paul, nor in the Q Gospel, Saari argues that the language indicates a split between Pauline Christians, who saw no reason for the establishment of an organized Church, and the followers of Peter. Saari contends that the denigration of Judas in Matthew and Luke-Acts has a direct correlation to the elevation of Peter.

    Mark 16:14 and Luke 24:33 state that following his resurrection Jesus appeared to "the eleven." Who was missing? After all that had transpired one would just naturally think it was Judas. Apparently not, because in John 20:24 we learn that the one missing was Thomas. Therefore the eleven had to include Judas. To further confuse things, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:5 that following his resurrection Jesus was seen by “the twelve.” This had to include Judas because it wasn't until after the ascension, some forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3), that another person, Matthias, was voted in to replace Judas (Acts 1:26). So, apparently Judas neither committed suicide nor died by accident. In Acts 1:25 we are told that Judas "turned aside to go to his own place."
    Another clue confirming the absence of the Judas story in the earliest Christian documents occurs in Matthew 19:28 and Luke 22:28-30. Here Jesus tells his disciples that they will “sit on the twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” No exception is made for Judas even though Jesus was aware of his impending act of betrayal. The answer may lie in the fact that the source of these verses could be the hypothetical Q document ). Q is thought to predate the gospels and would be one of the earliest Christian documents. Given that possibility, the betrayal story could have been invented by the writer of Mark.

    Juanita said:
    1. When Jesus called Judas to follow Him, did He know that Judas was the one who would hand Him over?

    I would said he knew that Judas was evil. Jesus said, at one point, Didn't I choose all of you and yet one of you is a devil?

    What do othes people think?
  • Luke 9 vs 1-2 says: "Then He called His twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. and He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick." Acts 1 vs 17 says: "For he(Judas) was numbered with us, and obtained part of this ministry." When Judas was with the other disciples casting out devils(demons), Jesus was not referring to Judas as a devil, that didn't happen until right before He was betrayed. Jesus also predicted that Peter would betray Him, which he did. Afterward, Peter experienced godly sorrow leading to repentance, where Judas experienced worldly sorrow leading to death. Jesus Christ was tempted in every way that we are, but was without sin. Jesus Christ was fully human and experienced life like we experience life. He saw the big picture like he wants us to see the big picture, but like us, He didn't know every detail that was going to happen in His life, because that would suggest that he was not fully human. I don't think that Jesus Christ commissioned Judas as an apostle to set him up for failure. I think the deeper issue in this is that people don't want to believe that they can lose their salvation. There are many teachers, teaching many with itching ears that Judas was never really saved, the scriptures that I started this reply with teach otherwise.

    Juanita said:
    1. When Jesus called Judas to follow Him, did He know that Judas was the one who would hand Him over?

    I would said he knew that Judas was evil. Jesus said, at one point, Didn't I choose all of you and yet one of you is a devil?

    What do othes people think?
  • 1. When Jesus called Judas to follow Him, did He know that Judas was the one who would hand Him over?

    I would said he knew that Judas was evil. Jesus said, at one point, Didn't I choose all of you and yet one of you is a devil?

    What do othes people think?
  • It was a book of the bible someone over two thousand years ago decided you could not handle seeing.So it was hunted out and destroyed as heresies.

    James said:
    This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
  • Don't you ever wonder what was in ALL the book that some men over two thousand years ago said needed to be destroyed so we could have the bible we have today. Much of old world history was destroyed to cover it up.
    Men just men voted on what made it into the bible and what did not. I wonder if a book made it into the bible by one vote or if a book did not make it by one vote.Hmmm that to was destroyed.

    There are over 20 books mentioned in the Bible, but not found there. This is proof that many have been removed and there is evidence that many more fell under the same fate.
    Human history has allowed precious few ancient religious writings to survive the onslaught of the more aggressive and powerful religious forces, which seek only to gain territory and wealth. Genocide and cultural eradication always go hand in hand with missionary zeal. In many cases every trace of the conquered society's religious writings, practices, icons, and even buildings were destroyed in the name of conversion from worship of gods considered evil, and religious customs labeled as heresies.

    Read a little history of what the Spanish did to the Aztecs written history,only two of their books remain.

    Sierra: twitter.com/OneForerunne said:
    yeah i looked at it. i think its sketchy.

    David L Patterson said:
    Sierra: twitter.com/OneForerunne said:
    What is the Gospel of Judas?

    James said:
    This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
  • yeah i looked at it. i think its sketchy.

    David L Patterson said:
    Sierra: twitter.com/OneForerunne said:
    What is the Gospel of Judas?

    James said:
    This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
  • Sierra: twitter.com/OneForerunne said:
    What is the Gospel of Judas?

    James said:
    This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
  • What is the Gospel of Judas?

    James said:
    This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
  • This is but one side of the story as far as Judas Iscariot goes. Lone ago another book,though to be destroyed was found.
    Full GOSPEL OF JUDAS found here.
    http://www.nationalgeographic.com/lostgospel/_pdf/GospelofJudas.pdf

    Found out what it says.
This reply was deleted.