Judas Iscariot #83

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles and the disciple who handed Jesus over to the authorities. Every list of the twelve names him last and identifies him as the betrayer (Matthew 10:4; Mark 3:19; Luke 6:16). The meaning of “Iscariot” is uncertain, though the most common suggestion is that it means “man of Kerioth,” a town in Judea. His story appears in all four Gospels and again in Acts.

Biblical Significance

John reports that Judas kept the common money bag and used to steal from it (John 12:4-6; see also 13:29). Matthew says he went to the chief priests and asked what they would give him for delivering Jesus, and they paid him thirty pieces of silver (Matthew 26:14-16), the price recalled from Zechariah 11:12-13. Luke and John both say that Satan entered him (Luke 22:3; John 13:27). At the last supper Jesus predicted the betrayal, and Judas left into the night (John 13:26-30).

In Gethsemane, Judas arrived with a crowd armed with swords and clubs and identified Jesus with a kiss (Matthew 26:47-50). Matthew records that when Judas saw Jesus condemned, he was seized with remorse, returned the silver, said “I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood,” and then hanged himself. The priests used the money to buy a field for burying strangers (Matthew 27:3-10).

Acts gives a different, complementary account: Judas acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, fell headlong, and his body burst open (Acts 1:18-19). Readers have long harmonized these details in various ways, for example that the rope broke or the body fell later, but the two accounts are not identical. Peter says that Scripture had to be fulfilled, citing the Psalms, and the eleven then chose Matthias to take his place (Acts 1:15-26).

Legacy

Judas’s name has become a byword for betrayal by a close friend. The Gospels emphasize both his responsibility, since Jesus says woe to the man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed, and God’s purpose being carried out through the event (Matthew 26:24). Christians have debated how these fit together, which is part of the wider discussion of divine sovereignty and human choice.

His remorse in Matthew is often contrasted with Peter’s repentance after denying Jesus. Both men failed badly, but Peter turned back and was restored (John 21:15-19), while Judas’s story ends in despair. Later writings, such as the Gospel of Judas, offer a very different picture, but scholars generally regard that text as a Gnostic composition from the second century or later, long after the events, and not as evidence about the historical Judas.