Judas Has Been Misinterpreted?

Hey All,

This will probably be my first and last religiously themed thread.

Now, I don't have great knowledge of the Bible. I'm certainly not a biblical scholar. But, growing up in the western world, it is nearly impossible not to be familiar with the most common biblical stories.

My favourite character in the Bible has always been Judas. In my opinion,, he was the one that sacrificed everything he had to support Jesus. Judas provided the 'hook' required to inflame peoples feeling towards those they viewed as 'betraying' Jesus. Anger can be used as a very powerful tool to consolidate power.

It seems to me that Judas has been misinterpreted. Surely if the Christian religion is based on forgiveness, shouldn't people forgive Judas for his actions?

Judas showed the ultimate remorse out of all the apostles. As I understand it, he killed himself out of shame and remorse. Although another theory could be that Jesus instructed Judas to kill himself afterwards to join him in heaven. Unlike the other apostles, who continued with their life after Jesus death, Judas was the one who stood up and took responsibility for the failings of ALL of the apostles. To me most of the other apostles seemed to be hanger-ons. Certainly not people I would want to associate with.

Questions:

Could Jesus have instructed Judas (who as I understand it was closest to Jesus) to initiate his crucifixion?

Could Jesus have known it would provoke anger towards those that tried to put down his religion?

Without Judas would we have the Christian religion, or would it have died out long ago?

Maybe the ultimate test of the Christian religion is to forgive the one they view as the ultimate traitor. Have the acting Christians here on ATS forgiven Judas? Or do they continue to demonise him for something that may have been completely out of his control?

Just a thought, like I said, religion to me is a rather distant subject. Just looking for some opinions on this one. I mean no disrespect to anybody reading this who's views do not agree with my own. It's a world of free opinions, and that is the one thing about this world that I value the most.

Cheers

Shane

[edit on 6/7/09 by shamus78]

Judas represents the zodiac symbol Scorpio.

Just as the "scorpion stings the sun" causing it to "Fall", Judas kisses Jesus(the son/sun) causing him to fall..

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Without Judas, I think that Jesus would have faced the same or a similar fate, just not quite as soon. He was already unpopular with Sadducees and Pharisees, and they were just looking for an excuse to do what they did. Judas gave it to them, but they would have found one without him.

I have also seen theories about Judas like you mention. I've seen one theory (I think it comes from the book of Judas, but I haven't read that) that says Judas and Jesus both knew what they were doing, and both knew that Jesus had to be crucified, and Judas simply provided the way. Personally, I don't believe that theory, but others do.

The other part you mention, that Judas killed himself out of shame and remorse, that I do believe. The Bible states that Judas hung himself after tossing away the 30 pieces of silver he got paid for the betrayal. I think he did this because he felt like pure crap after betraying the man who was probably his best friend, just for money.

I have no evidence for my theories, beyond that Judas did indeed hang himself after the betrayal, and I can't think of any other reason someone would do this other than feeling so horrible that they couldn't bear to live any longer.

2000 years later, I don't feel any hatred or animosity towards Judas, but I'm pretty sure if I was living when it happened, I wouldn't have been able to forgive him very easily, if at all. Regardless of Judas's motives, Jesus had to sacrifice himself for the rest of us, and he in part made that happen. It ended up working out in the end, but whether this was aided or hindered by Judas... I'll let God be the judge.

If anyone here has read the book of Judas, what does it say about this subject?

There is a contradiction in the Bible regarding the death of Judas. Matthew 27:3-5 claims Judas returns the money and then hangs himself in an act of suicide. But in Acts 1:18 Judas is said to have used the money to buy a field in which "he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out,"

reply to post by TheRDP


Threw him self of a cliff ??

In that way the body would open in that fashion..SPLATT !

reply to post by shamus78


Judas is often seen as a traitor. But perhaps what if Jesus indeed asked Judas to "betray" him, knowing that he would have to die. (Not my beliefs, but it would make sense.)


Such fact would have never been included in the bible. Judas never got to put his word in, and if he did, people would of burned it out of hate.