The gospel of Judas

The National Geographic, and media in general, is excited about a document which was written about the year 300. The scholars are triumphant. The document is valid! It was really composed 1700 years ago!

This is fine. But the fact that paper was really produced in the fourth century says nothing about its content. It only means that someone wrote a story about Judas Iscariot three hundred years after the event. No one claims that Judas wrote that Gospel.

It is like you, writing a story about the French Revolution. You were not there. You never met anyone who was there. You read a book. But the author of that book was not there, either. And he never met anyone who was there. So it was with the author of this Gospel. He was getting second hand, third hand, fourth hand information.

The author of that Gospel treated Judas with creative imagination, very much as Zeferelli treated Judas in his beautiful film on the life of Christ. Zeferelli stayed with the Gospels, religiously, until he came to Judas. He could not face the real Judas. It was like looking into a mirror. So he created a character.

Zeferelli’s Judas is a crafty politician, who wants to get ahead. The Pharisees are on top, but they are weak, and in danger of going down. The rising figure is Jesus of Nazareth. Zeferelli’s Judas feels that if he is the agent who gets them together, when they share all power, he will get into the big money. So he brings them together. When he sees the Nazarene condemned to death, he is stricken. Then the Scribe, as an afterthought, puts his hand into his pocket and throws him a bag of coins. Judas steps back. The bag falls to the ground, and the coins roll all over the temple floor. Then Judas runs out, to hang himself.

It is a dramatic story. The only trouble with it is that it is not true. It is the creative imagination of Zeferelli. The author of the Gospel of Judas does the same thing. He creates a character. His Judas is the closest friend of the Nazarene. Christ Our Lord asks him to hand him over to the Pharisees, so that they will relieve him of the body which clothes him, and free his spirit, letting it go to God. So he does it, as a favor to Our Lord.

It is a good story. The only trouble is – it is not true! The author of that Gospel was not present at the passion and death of Our Lord. He was not there. He never spoke to anyone who was there! . . . . But we have witnesses who were there! John was there. Matthew was there.

And John says:

"Six days before the Passover, we went to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead.

They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him.

"Mary came in with costly perfume, made from genuine aromatic nard. She anointed the feet of Jesus and dried them with her hair. The whole house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment.

"Then Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, the one who would betray him, said: "Why this waste? Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred days’ wages, and the money given to the poor?

"But Judas said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he held the common purse, and was taking from that which was put therein. For Judas was a thief."

Those are terrible words – the infallible words of God. Judas was a thief. What kind of a thief? A small time thief! There was not much in that common purse, so he could not take much out. He was a small time thief.

Matthew and John were at the Last Supper. Matthew, an eye witness and an ear witness, records the exact words of Christ Our Lord.

"He who has dipped his hand into the dish with me is the one who will betray me. The Son of Man indeed goes, as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

And the money given to Judas was not an afterthought. "He went to the chief priests and said: ‘What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?’ They paid him thirty pieces of silver, and from that time on he looked for an opportunity to hand him over."

Those are the exact words of Matthew, who was Levi, the publican. He knew the Scribes and Pharisees, at close range.

If Judas was doing this as a favor to Christ Our Lord, he would not have to "look for a chance to hand him over".

And when Judas kissed Our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane, to identify him for the Roman soldiers, Our Lord said: "Judas! Dost thou betray the Son of Man with a kiss?"

Would Judas have hanged himself, if he had done exactly what Our Lord asked of him?

This is a free country. Anyone can think, or say, whatever he wants. But if you accept the Gospel of Judas as a true story, an accurate history, you have to give up the witness of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. John was "the disciple whom Jesus loved". Matthew was the highly intelligent tax collector, Levi. Both of them were there.

Our Lord is quoted as saying: "Money is the root of all evil". He never said that, really. He said: "Love of money is the root of all evil". And that is a different thing.

But I think that is what happened to Judas. He was a small time thief who sold his God for thirty pieces of silver – a month’s wage for an ordinary laborer. When he realized what he had done he was so ashamed that he threw the money down on the floor of the temple, ran out, and hanged himself with a halter.

The one hope that I have for poor Judas is the amazing love and mercy of God.

"Between the saddle and the ground

Is mercy sought, and mercy found."

That means: if a soldier, riding into battle on a horse, is shot and falls, dying as he hits the ground – in that brief moment of the fall he could be sorry for all his sins and go safely home to God.

A woman in tears, wearing black, came to confession to the Cure of Ars, mourning for her husband who had committed suicide. The Cure of Ars could not see her – she was kneeling on the other side of the confessional screen. But before she could say a word, he said: "Between the bridge and the water, your husband was sorry for all his sins. He is now in the arms of God".

The Church teaches that – even if a man should shoot himself – between the moment he pulls the trigger and the moment the bullet hits the brain, in that split second he could be sorry for his sins, including the suicide, and die in the love of God.

So between the moment that Judas fastened the halter around the limb of the tree, and the moment his soul left his body, he could have been sorry for everything – both his betrayal and his despair. He could have been saved by the agony of Christ on the Cross, by the infinite love and compassion of God.

Still, it is hard to get around those terrible words of our Lord at the Last Supper: "Woe to the one by whom the Son of Man is betrayed. It would be better for that man if he had never been born."

For all of us, I think the lesson of Judas Iscariot calls out to us from the pages of the Gospel, loud and clear:

"For God’s sake, don’t let money get you by the throat!"

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