13. JUDAS ISCARIOT

This is the thirteenth of a series fourteen articles by PAUL STENHOUSE MSC discussing Catholic tradition concerning the twelve Apostles, their background, mission and manner of death.
The final article will treat of St Paul the 'Apostle to the Gentiles.'

JUDAS, one of the original twelve Apostles, was, St John tells us, 'Simon's son'¹ Matthew, Mark and Luke do not call him by his father's name, but call him 'Iscariot,' seemingly to distinguish him from St Jude the Apostle and others of the same name.²
He held a position of trust, managing the funds for the little group of disciples that gathered around Jesus.³ In all the lists of the Apostles, he is placed last, and is called 'traitor.'
The term 'Iscariot' is variously interpreted. Some say that it means 'man from K'rioth; איש קריןח a place in Judah not from Hebron. If this be the case, then Judas would be exceptional, as all the other Apostles were from Galilee.⁴ Perhaps this was why his region of origin was noteworthy.
Others [Origen 185-254 AD, among them] ⁵ reads the term as 'Man who was strangled or suffocated,' איש אםכרא referring to the manner of his death by hanging.
'Iscariot' could also come from איםקריא - the horizontal beam [yard] that supports the topmost sail on a ship, and from which men were hanged - once again referring to the manner by which Judas died. In this case the term would mean: 'Man of the Gibbet.'
Some think that we have here a Latin word siccarius 'murderer', 'assassin' with the prosthetic aleph that is customarily added, in semitic languages like Hebrew, Aramaic or Arabic, as a prefix to foreign words to make them pronouncable. 'Iscariot' in this hypothesis would mean 'Dagger-man.'
St John, on one occasion,⁶ calls the father of Judas 'Simon Iscariot', which suggests that the 'Iscariot' referred to Judas's family, and not just to him. This would make 'Man from K'rioth' the more likely of all the above suggested meanings of the term.

ALONE OF ALL THE APOSTLES, Judas Iscariot has no feast. Liturgically, he is mentioned in the account of our Lord's passion read out in Holy Week. The young idealistic disciple of John the Baptist and then of Jesus - the traitor who betrayed his Master - is remembered today because of this heinous act, and because his very name has become synonymous with treachery.

Nothing is known of the life of Judas before he joined the Twelve. The biblical description of his discipleship, and eventual betrayal of Jesus is too well-known to be repeated in detail here.
His death is described in three sources of Catholic tradition: Matthew's Gospel [xxvii,3-5], The Acts of the Apostles [i,16-20] and the writings of Papias, a disciple of St John.
Matthew alone unambiguously treats the death as suicide. Papias, as we will see later, considers that Judas died from some frightful disease of the body brought on by his evil life, and seems to base this notion on the text of Acts. See also Apollinaris of Laodicea [310-390 AD] below.
According to St John Chrysostom,⁷ many other Fathers of the Church,⁸ and St Thomas Aquinas,⁹ Judas did receive the Body of the Lord at the Last Supper.
St Thomas notes that St Hilary of Poitiers [315-367 AD] says that Jesus did not give Communion to Judas.

'And this would have undoubtedly been only right, granted the malice of Judas. But because Christ wanted to set us an example of Justice it wasn't right to deny Communion to Judas whose sins were not publicly known, without anyone accusing him of evil, and without evident proof, lest prelates in the Church use this example as a pretext for acting in the same way; and Judas, exasperated, use this as an occasion of further sin.¹⁰ 'Christ gave Judas Communion,' adds St Thomas, 'so as to set an example for other priests not to deny Communion to those whose sins are not publicly know.'¹¹

What follow are some of the references to Judas in the writings of the Fathers of the Church and in Catholic tradition, as well as in Apocryphal writings. It should be borne in mind as we read excerpts from these Apocryphal writings, that they were never accepted as part of the canon of Scripture by the Catholic community precisely because of the absurd and often grotestque ideas and teachings they contain.
According to Papias,¹¹ a disciple of the Apostle John, Judas owned the land where his diseased body died and was buried.
St Irenaeus of Lyons, 130-200 AD, was a disciple of St Polycarp of Smyrna [69-155 AD] who had been himself a disciple of St John the Evangelist, the beloved disciple. Irenaeus quotes¹³ a metaphor of Our Lord concerning the times of the resurrection of the dead, and the renewal of creation, and then adds:
'Papias,¹ a very old man, the one who listened to John and was a companion of Polycarp, gives a written account of these things in his Fourth Book. For he wrote five books. And, in addition, he says: "These things can be believed by those with faith. And the traitor, Judas”, he goes on, "did not have faith, but asked, How then can the Lord bring forth such superabundance?' The Lord then replied, "Those who come into these times, will see.”'

Apollinaris of Laodicea [310-390 AD] says that Judas did not die, but survived after being cut down before he choked to death. The Acts of the Apostles, says Apollinaris, indicated this when they say, "Falling headfirst, he burst forth in the middle and his intestines spilled out”.¹⁵
Apollinaris goes on to quote Papias [60-130 AD] who describes Judas before his treachery as having a very bloated body 'a doctor could not see his eyes, even with an optical device'. Papias goes on:

'He died on his own land, and that land has been until now desolate and uninhabited because of the stench. Indeed even to this day no one can pass by the place without holding his nose. This was how great an outpouring he made from his flesh on the ground.'¹⁶

Origen [185-254 AD] speculates that Judas may have committed suicide because despairing of pardon in this life, he wanted to rush into the land of the dead and meet his Lord, confess his guilt, and beg his pardon.¹⁷
According to the Apocrypha Judas was one of the nephews of Caiaphas the High Priest;¹⁸ he was married;¹⁹ his wife urged him to betray Jesus;²⁰ and he left the upper room on Holy Thursday evening without receiving the blessing at the end of the meal.²¹
The Apocryphal Acts of Pilate²² describe the repentance of Judas, his bringing the money back to the priests and their abusing him at length for his treachery. Then he throws the money back at them, and leaves. He then returned to his house to make halter of rope to hang himself, and found his wife roasting a cock on a fire of coals He said to her,

“'Get up, wife, and give me a rope for I want to hang myself as I deserve.' But his wife said to him, 'Why do you say such things?' He replied, 'You must know that it is true that I have wickedly betrayed my master Jesus to the evil-doers, so that Pilate can put him to death; but he will rise on the third day. Woe is us.' But his wife said to him, 'Don't say or even think like that. It is as likely for the cock that is roasting on the fire of coals to crow, as it is for Jesus to rise again as you say.' Then as soon as she said this, the cock spread his wings and crowed thrice. That convinced Judas even more, and he straightaway made a halter with the rope, and hanged himself.”

Certain Coptic Apocrypha²³ contain stories about Judas and his wife. Judas would take his ill-gotten gains home to his wife, and sometimes would cheat her of them. She advised him to betray his Master, Jesus and he listened to her, as Adam listened to Eve. He took the thirty pieces of silver home. His wife [unnamed] was foster-mother to the child of Joseph of Arimathea, which was seven months old. When the money was brought into the house the child fell ill and would not stop crying. Joseph was called and took the child away.
Then follow the kind of fantastic tales much loved of the Apocrypha. The wife of Simon the Pharisee offered Jesus a cock on a magnificent plate and set it before him on the table of the Last Supper. After Satan entered into Judas, Jesus touched the slain cock and it was made whole. He then ordered it to follow Judas, to see what he did, and to report to him. It followed Judas home, listened as his wife urged him to betray Jesus, and then returned to Bethany [sic!] and told Jesus and the Apostles what had happened.
The Apocryphal Legend of Joseph of Arimathea makes Judas one of the nephews of Caiphas the High Priest. It also puts a name to the second, the unrepentant, thief crucified with Jesus: Gestas. It also names the repentant thief, as Demas. Catholic tradition names him Dysmas.
According to the Apocryphal Book of the Resurrection of Christ,²⁴ when Jesus went down to hell and freed all the souls there after his resurrection, he turned to Judas Iscariot and rebuked him, describing the suffering that he must endure. Then Jesus left hell. Death and Pestilence returned only to find hell empty except for Cain [who slew Abel], Herod [who slew the Holy Innocents] and Judas [who betrayed Jesus].
The Apocryphal Coptic Acts of Andrew and Paul list as remaining in hell along with Judas, murderers, sorcerers and those who drown little children.²⁵
Readers of The Da Vinci Code, or The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, will have no difficulty in believing that among all the Christian heresies of the 2nd century, one that called itself the Cain-ites, or followers of Cain [who slew his brother Abel], is supposed to have honoured Judas as the only Apostle who possessed true 'gnosis' or knowledge. They made Judas an object of their worship and constructed a Gospel in his name.
These Cain-ites rejected almost all of Catholic teaching, following sensual habits of the most grotesque kind. Having rejected orthodox Catholic understanding of Jesus, the Gospels and all scripture and abandoned themselves to immorality, they joined forces with gnostic sects and attempted to give the appearance of a rational system to their excesses. They fell back on Apocryphal writings like The Gospel of Judas and The Ascension of Paul and a third, unnamed, Gnostic writing that was even more outrageous in order to justify their evil conduct as meritorious and even salutary.
The Gospels record the gradual yet inexorable moral and spiritual disintegration of a good man.
In his account of the last days of Jesus, St Luke records a warning that our Lord gave his disciples and those standing round 'Keep a watch on yourselves: do not let your minds be dulled by dissipation and drunkenness and worldly cares so that the Great Day closes upon you suddenly like a trap'.²⁶ Judas would have been listening to these words; and yet appears to have paid them no heed.
St Luke goes on, 'Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the Twelve'. Again Judas seems to have been oblivious of the consequences of his actions, as he goes 'to the chief priests and the officers of the temple police to discuss ways and means of putting Jesus in their power'.²⁷
During the account of the Last Supper, and the institution of the Eucharist and the priesthood, our Lord interrupted his words and said, 'My betrayer is here - but alas for that man by whom [the Son of Man] is betrayed'.²⁸
St Matthew notes that our Lord went on to say: 'It would be better for that man if he had never been born'. Then Judas spoke, the one who was to betray him, 'Rabbi, can you mean me?' Jesus replied, 'It is as you say'.²⁹ And still Judas went on to betray him.
Dante Alighieri, in his Divine Comedy,³⁰ named the bottommost part of hell Judecca after Judas whom he portrayed as suffering there, along with Brutus and Cassius. Judas, because he betrayed the Lord of Heaven, represents treason against God; and Brutus and Cassius because they betrayed Julius Caesar, represent treason against secular government and Man.
Did Judas die unrepentant? Despite the fantasies of the Apocrypha we have no way of knowing. But we do know that 'betwixt the stirrup and the ground, is mercy sought, and mercy found'.³¹ God's love and mercy are infinite, and he alone knows what fate ultimately befell the unhappy apostle whose life was originally so full of promise, and who ~ betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver.

Footnotes

John iv, 71; also xiii, 2,26.
Matthew x, 4; Mark iii,19; Luke vi,16.
John xiii, 29.
Acts ii,7.
Tract. in Matt xxxv.
John vi, 71.
Hom.xxxiii in Matthaeum.
William Smith, Dictionary of the Bible, London, 1860, vol I, p.l162. See St Jerome., Cont, Jovin. lib.ii, 14; St Augustine in many places; Pope St Leo I, Sermons iii and vii De Passione, etc.
III^a,quaest.lxxxi, ad. 2^um.
lib.cit. Respondeo dicendum…
loc. cit
See The Apostolic Fathers, ii, Loeb edition, pp.105,106.
Against Heresies, v, 33,3-4.
60-130 AD.
Acts 1,18.
See The Apostolic Fathers, ii, Loeb edition, pp.105,106.
Tract in Matthaeum xxxv,
The Apocryphal New Testament, Montague Rhodes James, OUP.1974.p.161.
ibid, p.116
ibid, p.149
Ethiopic 'Book of the Cock,' Revue Semitique, 1905, p. 276.
See The Apocryphal New Testament, Montague Rhodes James ed cit. p.116.
ibid p.149.
See Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, Coptic Apocrypha in the dialect of Upper Egypt, 1913.
See The Apocryphal New Testament, ed. cit. p.473.
Luke xxi, 34.
Luke xxii, 3.
ibid, 21, 22.
Matthew xxvi, 24,25.
Inferno, canto xxxiv.
See William Camden [1551-1623]. Remains. Epitaph for a man killed by falling from his horse.

From ANNALS AUSTRALASIA 21 SEPTEMBER 2005 - formerly "Annals Australia"

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