Who was Judas Iscariot Part Two: The Story of Judas Iscariot

None of the four traditional gospels give much background on Judas Iscariot. In all four, he is introduced as one of the twelve disciples and the one who will eventually betray Jesus. As the gospels relate, Judas eventually strikes a bargain with the priests of Jerusalem: to lead them to his Master Jesus and hand him over, all in return for 30 pieces of silver.

In the famous scene, Judas arrives at the resting place of Jesus and the other disciples, leading a great multitude of priests, scribes, elders, and soldiers. As a means of identifying Jesus to the assembled authorities, Judas approaches and greets Jesus with a kiss.

After Jesus is seized and condemned, Judas attempts to return the money to the priests, and then, as one Gospel relates, he hangs himself.

It is on these foundations, then, that history has called Judas Iscariot a traitor. The story has been fleshed out in paintings, commentaries, and films, where Judas is often depicted as cowardly, weak, or greedy—incapable of grasping the true message of Jesus as the other disciples can.

However, even though it has historically been mocked and suppressed, there is another perspective on the role and character of Judas Iscariot that has recently started to re-surface.

The hidden story of Judas

Writing in 180 A.D., the early church father Irenaeus writes derisively of a "Gospel of Judas," which portrays Judas as one “knowing the truth as no others did.” It was this knowledge that allowed Judas to accomplish “the mystery of the betrayal,” Irenaeus writes, before dismissing it as a mere “fictitious history.”

For centuries, this brief reference was the only indication that the Gospel of Judas even existed, and one of the few suggestions of a different perspective on Judas’s life and actions.

But in 2005, as the culmination of an immense restorative effort, the National Geographic Society published an English translation of the Gospel of Judas. Once thought lost, the manuscript had been re-discovered, and after an eventful journey, painstakingly restored and shared with the world. The contents of this lost gospel shocked many, generating interest, criticism, and controversy. For the first time, an account of Judas as a hero rather than a traitor had entered the mainstream.

The Gospel of Judas indicates in many ways that Judas has a special or favoured status amongst the disciples of Jesus. At one point, Jesus says to Judas, ‘’Step away from the others and I shall tell you the mysteries of the kingdom. It is possible for you to reach it, but you will grieve a great deal.’’ In this way Judas is set apart from the other disciples—his task will cause him great pain but will also be part of his larger spiritual mission.

At another point, Jesus tells him, “you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.” And later, he states to Judas, “[y]ou will become the thirteenth, and you will be cursed by the other generations—and you will come to rule over them.” Here again we find Judas depicted as someone who will be hated and yet also exalted, a strange combination that incredibly seems to predict the harsh way that Judas will be judged throughout the ages for his actions. As much as the Gospel of Judas contributes to a new understanding of the disciple and his mission, it is not the first text to share this story in the modern era.

The teaching of Judas in the Modern Age?

Several decades before the Gospel of Judas was re-discovered and published, another book was published that relates an astoundingly similar tale. Called, The Flight of the Feathered Serpent, this text was first published in Spanish in the 1950s and provides a first-hand account of the betrayal from Judas’ perspective. In almost every detail, it agrees with the Gospel of Judas—and it was published about 50 years before the lost gospel was even known to still exist.

The Flight of the Feathered Serpent also provides many additional details of Judas’s life—how he first met Jesus of Nazareth, how he came to understand the mission of Jesus and his own place within it, and how he carried out the act which would darken his name for so many centuries.

After ages of living in infamy, Judas is presented to the world in a new way through these texts, which offer the opportunity to go deeper into the life and actions of this misunderstood disciple. For the first time, we can read a first-hand account of why Judas had to do the seemingly unthinkable—to turn over his beloved teacher Jesus to those who would eventually crucify him.

In this way, the story of Judas Iscariot has another chapter left to be written, as a new age of people can read his story and understand his sacrifice in a new light.