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Heard a theory last week that Judas betrayed Jesus in order to provoke him to foment a revolution against the Romans. Judas truly believed that Jesus was the messiah, but he misunderstood what that messiah came to do.

It's no wonder he was named Judas, he was following in the footsteps of his eponym, Judas Maccabeus. The fact that Judas is now seen as the basically worst person in history has probably prevented numerous revolutions in its own right.

Revolution is not the way to freedom, freedom comes through submission to the King.

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Discussion

matata 2y ago

which king

hodlbod 2y ago

The one with the capital letter, and maybe some others, dunno

John 2y ago

Transformation through regeneration not revolution.

Robert Allen 2y ago

Yeah, I have thought along those lines. He may have had “good intentions” but it all didn’t go according to his plan. Might have even hung himself from grief.

jonb 2y ago

Interesting idea.

But, I do think it's pretty clear from the narrative that he was motivated by greed. With references to him stealing from the group's collective purse prior to the betrayal and the fact that he was paid the infamous 30 pieces of silver to turn over Jesus.

Jordan Eskovitz 2y ago

I think both can be true, but we do have more weighted evidence of his greed. And his betrayal f Jesus for silver is typologically consistent with Judah's betrayal of Joseph and subsequently selling him to Ishmaelite traders for a profit.

jonb 2y ago

Biblical types are awesome. I think that strikes at the heart of it. Fundamentally, I think his betrayal is a replaying of Judah and Joseph, Cain and Abel, etc. He destroyed his brother because he could not master the sin that was crouching behind him.

Jordan Eskovitz 2y ago

Yeah! Typology is one of my favorite interpretative methods for understanding Scripture.

Along these lines, Judas is also a type of Absalom. The former betrays David (driving him out of Jerusalem) and dies by hanging on a tree. The latter betrays the heir of the throne of David and dies by hanging on a tree.

Jordan Eskovitz 2y ago

Moreover his name is a Greek translation of Judah. He is typologically connected to one of the twelve sons of Jacob who betrayed Joseph. The name Judah is also where the term 'Jew' comes from which makes Judas a kind of representative of the whole of Jerusalem which rejects Christ the true king and eventually turn to revolution and are destroyed in 70AD.

hodlbod 2y ago

Very interesting, typology ftw

Marakesh 𓅦 2y ago

Yeah, I'm not sure we could say Judas was named for Judas Maccabeus. It's possible, but Judah was a common Jewish name at the time. Jesus even had a brother by that name, who wrote the biblical Epistle of Jude. And one of Jesus's other disciples was named Judas, who is always distinguished as being "not Iscariot."

I've seen a portrayal in some Jesus movie of Judas Iscariot trying to push Jesus to be a revolutionary, however. In a couple of the lists in the gospels of Jesus's 12 apostles Judas Iscariot is mentioned together beside Simon the Zealot. It may have been that when Jesus sent them out in pairs to preach those two were partners. The Zealots wear Jewish revolutionaries who opposed the Roman occupation of Judea, as well as taxation, and their idolatry, etc. Being a libertarian/anarchist myself, I'm happy to see Jesus had a disciple with views like this! 😃

No king but King Jesus!

JoYo 2y ago

Judas, the OG accelerationist.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to spell this out in the scripts rather than leave it to interpretation and mistranslation?

hodlbod 2y ago

"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen."

JoYo 2y ago

this is a good example of what I commented.

no one talked like that and that's not how it was written in the scripts but priests can use it to justify genocide and slavery so it's all good to the devout.

hodlbod 2y ago

Here's another one:

"Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,

And seeing you will see and not perceive;

For the hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing,

And their eyes they have closed,

Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,

Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,

So that I should heal them."

JoYo 2y ago

https://youtu.be/IbhQ4p-XQnE

JoYo 2y ago

> "...it's interesting to make the claim that this text is of divine origin but then in the very first sentence decide that all the literary attributes are completely irrelevant to the message."

hodlbod 2y ago

I don't think anyone's making the claim that we don't have to study the original language just because we have English translations. Except for KJV-only people 😏

JoYo 2y ago

I grew up Mormon, so KJV only plus fanfics.

Lethal Lee 2y ago

Have you heard about the Gospel of Judas? I haven’t read it myself, just a summary of its contents. It paints Judas in a different light in that, he had to betray Jesus in order to fulfill the prophecy.

hodlbod 2y ago

I hadn't , the gnostic gospels get wild though

Matthew 2y ago

This was a major blindspot of my younger self as an Ayn Rand libertarian type. Powerful urge to be free, but the subject of so many urges and desires of which I was not even aware.

Christ fixes this.

Veritas ✝️🇺🇲⚓⚡💊 2y ago

How does that fit in with him stealing from the purse? Doesn't it indicate covetousness which is idolatry and that his first priority was always himself?

hodlbod 2y ago

Super good point. Maybe he was trying to fund revolutionary activities with it or something. But I agree the traditional reading is more compelling.