Judas Iscariot. - The gospels of Judas : the definitive collection of gospels and legends about the infamous Apostle of Jesus

T HE RECENT PUBLICATION OF THE LONG LOST G OSPEL OF J UDAS , with its remarkable portrayal of Judas Iscariot as the disciple closest to Jesus, provides a fitting occasion to reconsider the figure of Judas as presented in ancient texts and traditions.1 Typically Judas has been demonized in Christian sources as the quintessential traitor, the disciple who betrayed his master for the infamous thirty pieces of silver. The roots of the demonization of Judas go back to the New Testament gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, in which the progressive defamation of Judas during the final decades of the first century CE may be traced, and these sorts of themes come to expression in our own day in such popular presentations as Jesus Christ Superstar, in which Judas pleads, in song:

I have no thought at all about my own reward.

I really didnt come here of my own accord.

Just dont say Im damned for all time.

It is instructive to lay out the four gospels of the New Testament in chronological order, from Mark through Matthew and Luke to John, in order to read the developing story of Judas as it was written and rewritten in the gospels during the first, formative years. Such a chronological reading makes it clear that, as the decades passed, more and more abuse was heaped upon Judas, and his character was subjected to more and more vilification. In Mark, the earliest New Testament gospel, composed around 70 CE , Judas Iscariot hands Jesus over to the authorities, but the motivation of Judas is unclear and the precise nature of his act is uncertain. In Matthew, composed a decade or so after Mark, Judas is portrayed as an evil man who betrays Jesus for money, and after his heinous act he confesses his guilt and commits suicide by hanging himselfthough at least he may be seen as remorseful. In Luke, it is said that the devil makes Judas do what he does, and his death in Acts, although claimed to take place in fulfillment of prophecy, is depicted as a horrific disembowelment. In John, Judas becomes the personification of evil, and Jesus says that Judas is a devil. In John 17, the so-called high-priestly prayer, Jesus does not name Judas but refers to him, we may be sure, as the son of perdition or the son bound for destruction. Not only is it announced, in John 13, that one of the disciples is unclean and inspired by Satan; Jesus also tells his disciples, in John 6, Didnt I choose you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil.2

This process of the demonization of Judas Iscariot continues in Christian literature and art during the decades and centuries that follow. Still, in the writings of Paul, composed before the New Testament gospels, and in some of the early Christian gospels outside the New Testament, no mention whatsoever is made of Judas by name. In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul does recall, in general, that the night of the last supper was the night Jesus was handed over, but he does not say by whom. Elsewhere Paul proclaims, however, that God was the one who handed Jesus over to be crucified or that Jesus gave himself over to death, and he uses forms of the same Greek verb ( paradidonai ) to describe the act of God or of Jesus as the New Testament gospel authors use to describe the act of Judas. This Greek verb means give over, deliver over, or hand over, and it does not necessarily mean betray, with all the negative connotations inherent in that word. Paul writes, in Romans 8, that God handed over his Son for us all and, in Galatians 2, that Jesus as the Son of God loved Paul and handed himself over for Paul.

In other early Christian texts, however, there is an awareness of the New Testament gospel traditions about Judas handing over Jesus, and the legends about Judas grow in number and negativity. Papias, a second-century Christian author who wrote Expositions of the Sayings of the Lord, calls Judas an unbeliever and betrayer who would never see the kingdom of God, and Papias depicts the appearance of Judas in life and in death in disgusting detail. He writes that Judas becomes so bloated that he cannot get through passageways, he cannot see through his swollen eyelids, and when he relieves himself, he produces pus and worms. Tormented in life, Judas kills himself, and the land where he is buried develops a sickening stench from his putrid body. In one manuscript of the Gospel of Nicodemus (or the Acts of Pilate ), a colorful detail is added to the traditional tale in the Gospel of Matthew about Judas committing suicide. Judas, it is said, is hunting for a rope with which he can hang himself, and he asks his wife, who is roasting a chicken, to help him. She responds by saying that Judas has nothing to fear from the crucified Jesus he has betrayed, since Jesus cannot rise from the dead any more than the roasting chicken can speak, whereupon the chicken on the spit spreads its wings and crowsand Judas goes out and hangs himself.

The Arabic Infancy Gospel includes a story suggesting that Judas was possessed by Satan even as a child. According to this text, little Judas goes out to play with Jesus, and Satan makes him want to bite Jesus. When he is unable to do so, he hits Jesus instead on his right side, Jesus ends up crying, and Satan races off as a mad dog. The spot where Judas struck Jesus, the text declares, is the very spot where the Jews would pierce the side of Jesus during his crucifixion. The reference to the piercing of the side of Jesus is from the Gospel of John, but there it is a Roman soldier who pierces Jesuss side. By the time of the Arabic Infancy Gospel, perhaps in the fifth or sixth century, the Jews are being blamed for all that has to do with the crucifixion and death of Jesus, the Christian Savior and Son of God, and Judas is understood to be, in youth and adulthood, an evil Jew.

Other portrayals of Judas in Christian literature show a similar interest in depicting him as a Jew who is the embodiment of evil. In one text Judas is described as having infiltrated the Jesus movement in order to catch Jesus saying or doing something for which he could be condemned. Judass wife is sometimes said to be complicitous in the plot to hand Jesus over, and as a result a baby boy of Joseph of Arimathea, who is being cared for by Judass wife, refuses to nurse with her. Elsewhere it is suggested that Judas ends up worshiping the devil, and in the Golden Legend he is depicted as a Christian Oedipus who kills his father (Reuben [Ruben] or Simon3) and marries his mother (Ciborea). Judas finally is subjected to punishments and torments in hell, and Jesus says to him, in a text with anti-Semitic proclivities, Tell me, Judas, what did you [gain] by handing me, [your Master], over to the Jewish dogs?4

The interpretation of Judas Iscariot as the evil Jew who betrayed Jesus has contributed a great deal to the history and development of anti-Semitic thought. Judas becomes a building block in the construction of the hateful system of anti-Semitism, and Judas himself appears, in legend and artwork, as a caricature of a wicked and greedy Jew who turns against his friend for money. Until the discovery and publication of the Gospel of Judas, this Judas, the quintessential traitor, provided the dominant image of Judas Iscariot in Christian discussions.

Codex Tchacos

The Gospel of Judas was discovered in the 1970s, in Middle Egypt, in the region of al-Minya, although the precise circumstances of the discovery remain unknown. The Gospel of Judas is one text among others in an ancient codex, or book, now called Codex Tchacos. According to Herbert Krosney, who has pieced together much of the story of the ancient gospel and the bound book, Codex Tchacos was found by local fellahin, or farmers, in a cave that was located at the Jabal Qarara and had been used for a Coptic burial. The cave contained, among other things, Roman glassware in baskets or papyrus or straw wrappings. Krosney writes, in The Lost Gospel: