Judas the Misunderstood

The Times, London


Europe

The Times
January 12, 2006

Judas the Misunderstood
From Richard Owen, in Rome
Vatican moves to clear reviled disciple’s name


JUDAS ISCARIOT, the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss, is to be
given a makeover by Vatican scholars.

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”.

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”.

Now, 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.

In scholarly circles, it has long been unfashionable to demonise
Judas and Catholics in Britain are likely to welcome Judas’s
rehabilitation.

Father Allen Morris, Christian Life and Worship secretary for the
Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, said: “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.

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-evaulate 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 h anged himself, or according to
the Acts of the Apostles, “fell headlong and burst open so that all
his entrails burst out”.

Some accounts suggest he acted out of disappointment that Jesus was
not a revolutionary who intended to overthrow Roman occupation and
establish “God’s Kingdom on Earth”.

In the Gospel accounts, Jesus reveals to the disciples at the Last
Supper that one of them will betray him, but does not say which. He
adds “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.”

But he also — according to St Matthew — acknowledged that Judas had a
divine function to fulfil, saying to him during the arrest, “Friend,
do what you are here to do” and adding that “the prophecies of the
Scriptures must be fulfilled”.

The “Gospel of Judas”, a 62-page worn and tattered papyrus, was found
in Egypt half a century ago and later sold by antiquities dealers to
the Maecenas Foundation in Basle, Switzerland.

MOCK OF AGES

In Dante’s Inferno, Judas is relegated to the lowest pits of Hell,
where he is eaten, head first, by a three-headed demon with flapping
bat-like wings

In Cecil B. DeMille’s 1927 silent film The King of Kings, Judas’s
attraction for Mary Magdalene and the resulting jealousy contributes
to his betrayal of Jesus

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber’s musical Jesus Christ Superstar
depicts Judas as a disillusioned, angry character. In the 1973 film
version he is presented as more of a victim than villain

Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ shows Judas hounded by demon-
like street children who send him to his death amid a sea of insects
and maggots