Matt 28:11–15
8. However, they were losing their authority with the people, and could do nothing about those Jews who were forsaking the faith of their ancestors to join a new sect, which believed that Jesus had risen from the dead.
9. Peter had become the leader of these converts and was claiming that the spirit of God had been given to this small group in Jerusalem.
see
Acts 2:2–13
10. Judas could not accept that Jesus had risen from the dead, and he parted company with Peter.
11. He held on to John the Baptist’s belief that Jesus was a holy man, even a prophet, who followed in the tradition of Jeremiah, Isaiah and Ezekiel.
12. But Judas no longer accepted that Jesus was the chosen one, destined to rescue the Jews from their oppressors.
13. Judas continued to believe that YHWH was their god, and Israel the chosen people.
14. Had not Moses prophesied, Cursed is anyone who hangs from a tree?
Deut 21:23
15. Because of all that had taken place, Judas was now a marked man, with no friends to protect him.
16. Whenever he showed his face in the Synagogue, the Elders rejected him, as they did not wish to be reminded who had led them to Jesus.
17. Shunned by the Jewish leaders and abandoned by the followers of Jesus, after thirty days Judas departed from the Holy City and set out on the long journey to Khirbet Qumran.
18. There he joined the community of Essenes, who lived in a fortress on the shores of the Salt Sea and were committed to spending the rest of their days in the solitude of the desert.
19. Although the Essenes detested the Romans, they despised the Sadducees with equal passion.
20. They considered the Sadducees had forfeited their moral authority to be the chosen leaders of Israel by colluding with the pagans to ensure that they remained in office and retained their vested privileges.
21. The Essenes also disapproved of the Pharisees, who they believed were no longer interpreting the fine traditions of Israel.
22. In contrast, the Essenes devoted their lives to re-enacting the desert experience of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
23. They awaited the coming of the Messiah, who would surely vanquish all God’s enemies before ascending the throne on that great and terrible day when the kingdom of Israel would be restored to the Jewish people.
24. Although Judas devoted the rest of his life to working with the Essenes, not a day passed when he did not fall on his knees and mourn the death of Jesus.
Chapter 25
The sins of the father
1. I had not seen my father since I was a child of eight years, when he left for Jerusalem as a trusted disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
2. I would never have discovered his fate had not a wandering preacher who was passing through Kerioth told me that he had come across my father while visiting Khirbet Qumran.
3. Within days, and with the blessing of my family, I left to make the long journey across the Judean desert to the Salt Sea, so that I might be reunited with my father.
4. The Essenes reluctantly allowed me to enter their gates, but not before I had been able to convince them that I was the first born of Judas Iscariot.
5. When I first saw my father I did not recognize him, for he had grown old and did not know me.
6. Once Abba had accepted that I was his son, he warned me that I could only stay for a month and a day, unless I was willing to enrol with the Essenes, and spend the rest of my life in the solitude of the desert preparing for the coming of the Messiah.
[xxxv]
7. It was not until the third day that I asked my father to explain why he had not returned to Kerioth to defend his good name.
8. Abba believed that his very presence would continually remind all around him of the unwitting role he had played in the death of Jesus.
9. He could also never forget Peter’s parting words: It would be better for you not to have been born.
Mark 14:21;
Matt 26:24
10. Once he had told me of that final encounter with Peter, he made no further reference to his days as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
11. He only seemed interested to talk about our family and what had become of them.
12. I did not answer all the questions Abba put to me, as I had no desire to acquaint him with the fact that even distant relatives were daily reminded that they shared the same blood as Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus.
13. I did tell him that my mother had given up her spirit at the age of two score years and three, after two of my brothers had fled from Israel to live in far-off lands.
14. Later, I admitted that none of my sisters was married, and I had yet to produce a son.
15. Abba’s only response was that the sins of the father would surely be visited on the third and fourth generation.
Deut 5:9
16. With each new revelation, Abba became more and more desolate.
17. For days, no words passed his lips, and I feared for his life.
18. It was not until the eleventh day that he began to speak again, and then only to acquaint me with his work during those years of self-imposed exile at Khirbet Qumran.
19. He and his fellow Essenes had laboured night and day to build a library of scrolls that would ensure that the history of the Jewish people would not be lost, however long the pagan invaders inhabited the Holy Land.
20. Moreover, the Romans had become more and more authoritarian after their informers had warned them of a possible uprising among the people.
[xxxvi]
21. Titus had issued an edict declaring that all establishments that refused to open their gates to the Romans were to be razed to the ground and their inhabitants sentenced to death for defying the authority of Caesar.
see
Josephus,
Jewish War
VI. 323–355
[xxxvii]
22. Legions of Roman forces swept through the land of Israel carrying out the Supreme Commander’s orders.
23. Following the sacking of Jerusalem, Judas told me that he feared it would not be long before the Romans crossed the desert and turned their attention to Khirbet Qumran.
24. Whenever my father spoke, it was only to talk of our ancient past, and I was beginning to despair that he would ever refer to those days when he had been a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
25. That changed when he asked if I had any knowledge of what had become of the other eleven disciples.
26. I told him of a document that had been circulating among the Christians in Antioch and another that had appeared more recently in Ephesus.
27. My father listened to these revelations in disbelief.
28. Judas poured scorn on the writer who claimed that he had seen Jesus walk on water, and another who suggested that while at a wedding feast in Cana he had watched the Master turn water into wine. These things never happened he declared.
see
Matt 14:22–27;
John 2:1–10
[xxxviii]
29. While he pondered these affairs I remained silent.
30. It was not until he pressed me again that I reluctantly admitted that another gospel was being spread abroad reporting that Peter had given a direction to say that Judas’ name should be struck from the list of those disciples who had originally been chosen by Jesus.
31. He was to be replaced by one Matthias, who had been selected by lot, and would in future be numbered as one of the twelve apostles.
see
Acts 1:21–26
[xxxix]
32. ‘Why, why?’ he demanded to know.
33. ‘Because one of the apostles recorded that Judas had hanged himself.’
see
Matt 27:5
34. Judas responded immediately: ‘If only he had remembered their traditional upbringing, he would have recalled that no pious Jew would ever consider taking his own life.’
[xl]
35. I warned my father that yet another had written that Judas had fallen and his body had burst asunder.
Acts 1:18
36. Abba pondered on these words before saying: ‘If either of these reports were accurate – and clearly they could not both be – surely such an act would have been confirmed by the other apostles, so that all Christians might know how Judas had ended his life.
37. ‘And what other blasphemies do these men spread abroad?’ he said quietly.
38. I did not reply, although I was unable to hide my distress.
39. ‘Tell me everything,’ Abba demanded, ‘so that I might know what my fellow disciples say of me.’
40. I bowed my head and whispered that one of them had written: ‘Judas had betrayed his Master in return for thirty pieces of silver.’
see
Matt 26:15
[xli]
41. When Abba heard these words, he could no longer control his temper.
42. It was then that Judas demanded his own account should be recorded so that all may know the truth of what had taken place during the time he had been a disciple of the Prophet Jesus.
43. I spent my final days at Khirbet Qumran, taking down his every word.
44. Like so many old men, Abba could recall every detail of what had happened forty years before, while barely remembering what had taken place the previous day.
45. I could have written much more, but when the Essenes learned from a passing stranger that a legion of Roman soldiers had been seen crossing the Judean desert in the direction of Khirbet Qumran, Abba insisted that I should make haste, leave and return home.
46. I wanted to go on setting down my father’s words, but his mind was now preoccupied with my safety and the likely consequences of the approaching Roman army.
47. I obeyed Abba’s command and, placing the several pages of this manuscript in a leather pouch, reluctantly left him to go back to my family in Kerioth.
48. Many of the Essenes had already deserted the compound and fled south, to take refuge in the fortress at Masada.
[xlii]
49. When they left, I witnessed several of them carrying manuscripts on their persons.
50. I later learned that such was their passion in all things that at Masada the Essenes chose to die by their own hand, rather than be captured, taken back to Rome and paraded in front of the pagans on a victory march.
51. I fear that all the trouble the Essenes had taken over the years to preserve their treasured scrolls must surely have been in vain.
52. Judas was three score years and ten at that time, and too feeble to contemplate the steep climb that would have taken him to the relative safety of Masada.
53. Judas, along with a handful of his companions, remained resolutely inside the compound of Khirbet Qumran.
54. The gates of the fortress were locked and barred as they awaited the approach of the Roman army.
55. Four days later the compound was overrun by a legion of Roman soldiers.
56. Judas was arrested and along with seven of his companions, sentenced to death without trial.
57. Judas fell on his knees when the sentence was pronounced.
58. He gave thanks to YHWH when he learned that he would suffer the same fate as Jesus.
[xliii]
59. Judas died as Jesus did. He was crucified by the Romans.
Glossary
THE GLOSSARY provides clarifications for certain details of The Gospel According to Judas, written against the background of a first-century world.
HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGES in The Gospel According to Judas are either direct citations from the biblical text, or paraphrases of it. Sources are always indicated, but the citation of the biblical source is preceded by ‘see’.
ALL BIBLICAL TEXTS are an original translation of the author(s), guided by the Revised Standard Version and the New Revised Standard Version.
i. GOSPELS: The Gospels were written late in the first century (Mark: circa AD70, Matthew: circa AD85, Luke: circa AD85, John: circa AD100). We do not know the identity of the Evangelists, as the names Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were all added to manuscripts late in the second century. It is probable that none of the Evangelists was an Apostle. Christian tradition holds that Mark was a close associate of Peter in Rome, but not an Apostle. Matthew was a well-instructed Jew who became a Christian (see Matt 13:52). The fact that the name of the tax collector (Levi) in Mark 2:14 (see also Luke 5:27) becomes ‘Matthew’ in Matt 9:9 may be a self-identification of the Apostle Matthew (see Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15), but this is not proof positive. ‘The Beloved Disciple’ of the Fourth Gospel was identified as John late in the second century. The author of the Fourth Gospel was more likely an ex-disciple of John the Baptist who became a close follower of Jesus, but not one of the Twelve. The Christian Church regards the four Gospels as ‘Sacred Scripture’. They are narrative descriptions of what God did for humankind through the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus.
ii. FATHERS AND SONS: As a result of the empire created by Alexander the Great (336–323BC), Greek was the language commonly spoken and used for written communication throughout the Mediterranean basin, and beyond. All the documents of the New Testament, the product of a Jewish world, are written in Greek. The ‘family’ (the bet-’ab: ‘the house of the father’) is the most important unit in the nation, and for the survival of the individual. The numerous genealogical lists in both the Old and the New Testament (see, for example, Gen 36:9–14; 1 Chron 9:39–44; Matt 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38) show how crucial it was to ‘own’ one’s patrimony. As well as economic and social patrimony, sons had a responsibility to continue the traditions of their fathers. This responsibility is powerfully presented in the Jewish document The Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs, and also in Ben Sirach. In the former the ‘sons’ are instructed by their father to pass on his tradition, and the latter is a text that shows this being carried out with respect by a grandson. This book, also known as Ecclesiasticus, originally written in Hebrew, was translated into Greek before the Christian era.
iii. GOSPELS NOT ACCEPTED BY THE CHRISTIANS: There were many ‘gospels’, known as ‘apocryphal gospels’, that were not accepted by the emerging Church. A collection of such gospel material, written in Coptic, but originally in Greek, The Codex Tchacos, was made public in 1999. Several fragments of a ‘Gospel of Judas’ can be found in the codex, and these possibly date back to AD180. The text is fragmentary, not really a ‘gospel’, and is representative of a second-century Gnostic understanding of Jesus. Judas is presented as someone who is encouraged by Jesus to do God’s will by setting in motion the action that will liberate Jesus from the wicked human condition to become a heavenly figure. For a discussion by the Archbishop of Durham, see T. Wright, Judas and the Gospel of Jesus (London: SPCK, 2006). The Gospel According to Judas recorded here was not inspired by this text, but attempts to present the Christian story through the eyes of Judas.
iv. THE NAME ‘JUDAS ISCARIOT’: As well as the explanation of the surname Iscariot put forward in The Gospel According To Judas 1:12–15, several other hypotheses have been advanced, e.g. that Judas was a ‘deliverer’ on the basis of the Hebrew root verb, skr. The name ‘Judas’ is a Greek form of the Hebrew ‘Judah’.
v. THE BIRTH OF JESUS: Judas’ understanding of the birth of Jesus is not the ‘Roman Catholic’ interpretation, as expressed in the Marian doctrines, especially that of Mary’s perpetual virginity. It is, however, a widely accepted understanding of such texts as Matthew 1:25; Mark 3:31–35; 6:3; John 7:3–8. Judas, like any strictly brought-up Jew, could only accept Jesus as the first born of a lawful Jewish wedlock.
vi. SEXUAL UNIONS BETWEEN ANGELS AND WOMEN: Pre-Christian and Rabbinic traditions look back on the unions between angels and human women, as told in Genesis 6:1–4, as the source of evil and the presence of giants in the world. So serious was this evil that God regretted putting Adam and Eve on the earth. His heart grieved, and in the destruction th
at followed, only Noah and his family survived (see Gen 6:1–9:17). See the development of Gen 6:1–4 in the Qumran documents (e.g. 4QBook of Giants) and in 1 Enoch (see 1 Enoch 6 and 7).
vii. TOUCHING A WOMAN: Jesus’ touching a woman who is not his wife would be regarded as a breach of piety. Later Rabbinic legislation prohibits a woman from serving at table, as the private matter of a woman’s menstrual cycle could not be ascertained. For the biblical background of this custom, see Lev 15:19–24; 18:6; 22:10; 36:17, and the tractate Niddah in the Mishnah. As Rabbi Samuel (died circa AD254) said: ‘One must under no circumstance be served by a woman, be she adult or child.’
viii. THE DAVIDIC THRONE: King David was Israel’s second and greatest king. He ruled from about 1010–970BC, and built an empire that stretched from Egypt into present-day Iran. Psalm 89:4 and 2 Sam 23:5 speak explicitly of an everlasting covenant between YHWH and David. There are many understandings of how this promise was to be fulfilled. One of them is that YHWH will raise up a ‘Son of David’ who would be restored to a royal throne in Jerusalem. He would once again establish the glory of Israel by means of great military victories. Christians believe that Jesus does fulfil the promises of the Davidic covenant (see Matt 1:1; Rom 1:3), but Jesus never accepted the role of a potential military leader. The Gospels suggest that the first disciples may have followed him in the hope that he would.
ix. THE SCRIBES AND THE PHARISEES: The Scribes were largely a servant group. They were men who studied the law and served as legal consultants to anyone who required their expert services. Thus, there were Scribes of the Sadducees and well as Scribes of the Pharisees. The Pharisees emerged in Israel during the two centuries before the Christian era. At that time Jewish leadership, including the High Priest, was controlled by foreign powers, initially the Hellenistic leaders, and then the Romans. The Pharisees (whose name probably reflects the concept of being ‘cut off’ from corruption) attempted to live a strict Jewish life, obedient to the commands of the Torah. They opposed corrupt leadership and suffered a great deal because of their faith. They travelled wherever there were Jews, but their base was always the Synagogue, where the Torah was the centre of Jewish worship. Their focus on the Torah and Synagogue ensured mobility; thus they survived the Jewish War and eventually produced what is known as Rabbinic Judaism.
The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot Page 8