...And I will acquire the collected estates...
This is what the Bible says about Judas' theft: “Mary took a pound of pure precious ointment, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the world. Then one of His disciples, Judas Simon Iscariot, who wanted to betray him, said: Why not sell this ointment for three hundred denarii and give it to the poor? He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. He had a cash drawer with him and carried what was put in it” (John 12 :3-6). In the Greek original of the Gospel this is stated even more categorically, because the usage of the Greek language allows us to understand the word translated as “carried” to mean “stole.”
Judas was the treasurer of the apostolic community. He had quite significant sums at his disposal, since among the admirers of Jesus there were rich women who were healed by Him from evil spirits and incurable diseases. They all served Christ with their property. But since the Lord was absolutely indifferent to wealth, the donated money was mostly distributed to the poor, with the exception of small expenses for the food of Christ himself and his disciples. Judas was in charge of the financial affairs of the apostles. The amounts distributed to the poor were not accountable; no one could check whether Judas distributed the money or appropriated part of it for himself. This lack of accountability, obviously, seduced the money-loving Judas at an evil hour. Of course, he could not spend the stolen money openly. Transferring them from the box to your pocket would be stupid and inconvenient. Apparently he had some kind of secluded place where he kept the stolen wealth. This treasure is directly mentioned as the reason for the betrayal of Judas in the liturgical tradition of the Church. This is what the Church sings on Holy and Maundy Thursday in Holy Week in one of the stichera of the morning service:
“Judas, the servant and the flatterer, the disciple and the accuser, the friend and the devil, came from his works: having followed the Teacher, and having learned from him the tradition, he said within himself: “I will betray Him, and I will acquire the wealth (wealth) that I have collected...”
It is impossible to find out exactly when he first put his hand into the apostolic treasury. But there is no doubt that Judas stole from there much more than thirty pieces of silver. It is also clear that Judas could use the stolen wealth only under one condition: if the apostolic community ceased to exist. And he achieved his goal. After the arrest of Christ, even the most faithful and devoted disciples fled in fear in all directions. And here a new series of inconsistencies arise. Instead of taking the collected treasure, adding to it the payment for betrayal, and finally living for his own pleasure, Judas suddenly commits suicide.
Judas Iscariot throwing a piece of silver. Platon Vasilievich Vasiliev. 1858
This can be explained in different ways. It is only absolutely clear that neither the thirty pieces of silver nor the stolen treasure he collected were no longer the main value in life for Judas. But what could devalue in the eyes of the thief the fortune that he had been systematically accumulating over three years? The answer suggests itself. The only thing more valuable to a thief and a money-lover... is very big money.
The main characters and their characteristics
The main characters of the story and their description:
- Judas Iscariot
– in his image a two-faced man appears, red-haired and ugly in appearance. The rest of Christ's disciples do not like him and consider him vile and deceitful. In the story, he either acts bravely or becomes hysterical.
- Jesus Christ
- a preacher, wanders with his disciples and reads philosophical parables. God's Son.
- Disciples of Christ
or the apostles - despite their holiness and pleasant appearance, the author endowed the heroes with human qualities: loud, naive, contradictory, ambitious. They're not perfect.
Royal Treasurer
The disciples recognized Christ as the Messiah. But just like all Jews, they saw in the Messiah an earthly ruler who, having come to power, would make Israel the strongest and richest country on earth. According to their ideas, the Messiah-king was supposed to subjugate all the nations of the world. And all the numerous parables and explanations of Christ that His Kingdom is not of this world could not convince the apostles. Until His Ascension, they were confident that the Lord would finally become the earthly king of Israel. The disciples of Christ saw themselves as the closest assistants and co-rulers of the Messiah and even argued about which of them would be more important in the new government of the Kingdom of Israel. The money-loving Judas, of course, was no exception here.
If Christ becomes king, then he, Judas, will become the royal treasurer, that is, the most influential person in Israel after the Messiah. In his dreams, he already imagined how he managed not the apostolic cash box, but the treasury of the richest state in the entire history of mankind.
Having become a thief, Judas initially made plans to betray Christ in order to acquire the collected money, as the Church sings about this. But the name of Christ became more and more glorious among the people of Israel. After an unprecedented miracle - the resurrection of the dead Lazarus - even those Jews who had previously tried to stone Christ saw the Messiah in Him. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the inhabitants of the capital showed Him royal honors, covering His path with their clothes. After such a reception, it became simply unprofitable for the practical and greedy Judas to betray the future king for the sake of stolen money. The love of money and theft burned his soul to the ground. He even intended to use the Messiah-king as a means to satisfy his passion for wealth.
And suddenly it turned out that Christ was not going to reign. The Israeli treasury, which was only a couple of steps away, again became inaccessible to Judah. It was necessary to urgently make some decision to correct the situation. And the decision was made.
And it was suggested to the traitor by the one whom Christ called “a murderer from the beginning.” True, Judas did not know then that this tipster would eventually drive him into a noose.
Film adaptations
At the dawn of cinema, the American Frank Gaylor was the first to try on the image of Judas in the film “Passion Play Oberammergau”. This was followed by a series of film adaptations on the theme of the life of Christ, in which the bright spot was the film “King of Kings” (1961) directed by Nicholas Ray. The role of Apostle number 12 went to Rip Torn.
Karl Anderson as Judas
Critics appreciated the film interpretation of the musical “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Canadian Norman Jewison made a film of the same name in the form of a play, where Karl Anderson played the traitor.
Actors Jerzy Zelnik, Ian McShane, Harvey Keitel, and Gerard Butler played Judas Iscariot. The film “The Passion of the Christ” (2004) by Mel Gibson, where Judas was brilliantly portrayed by Luca Lionello, is recognized as a striking picture. The last to appear on screen in the guise of a traitor of Christ was Joe Redden - in 2014, the film “Son of God” was released.
Igor Vernik as Judas
In Russia, two actors were hiding under the makeup of Judas, both in productions of the novel “The Master and Margarita.” In 1994, Yuri Kara made a film based on the work of Mikhail Bulgakov, but it reached the audience only in 2011. The director invited Igor Vernik to play the role of Judas.
Dmitry Nagiyev as Judas
In 2005, the premiere of “The Master and Margarita” from Vladimir Bortko took place on television. In this film, viewers enjoyed the performance of Dmitry Nagiyev, who convincingly portrayed the evangelical traitor.
Satan's Advice
All interpreters of Holy Scripture unanimously assert that Judas betrayed the Savior at the direct inspiration of the devil. The Gospel text directly testifies to this: “And Satan entered into Judas, who was called Iscariot, one of the Twelve, and he went and spoke with the chief priests and rulers, how to betray Him to them” (Luke 22:3-4).
In Orthodox asceticism, the action of the devil on the human soul is described as follows. An evil spirit gains access to a person through his passions (that is, the sick inclinations of the soul). Mentally, he whispers how best a person can satisfy his sick desires, and step by step he leads his victim to death. Moreover, first the devil assures the person that the sin, they say, is not so great, and God is merciful and will forgive everything. But then, after committing a sin, the evil spirit plunges a person into the abyss of despair, instilling in him that his sin is immeasurable, and God is inexorable. But what did Satan whisper to Judas, with what promise did he seduce him into betraying Christ?
Judas's greatest passion was the love of wealth - the love of money. And his most cherished desire, perhaps, is the position of Minister of Finance in the kingdom of the Messiah, where he would be able to steal such sums that the most successful thieves in the world could not even dream of. And this cherished goal was already very close.
But Christ was in no hurry to become the religious and political leader of Israel. Having come to Jerusalem, He did not expel the high priests and elders in order to rightfully take their place. All of Judas's plans collapsed.
At this moment, Satan, obviously, suggested to him the thought that pushed him to betrayal. Judas knew that the chief priests and Pharisees, fearing Jesus, gave orders that “if anyone knew where He was, he would announce it in order to take Him.” Judas also knew that Christ avoided direct conflict with the authorities.
And so, incited by Satan, he decides to betray Christ in order to provoke an open clash between the high priests and the Messiah. Jesus' victory in this conflict does not give him the slightest doubt. After all, he saw all the power of the Messiah, saw how the dead were raised at His command, how the storm obeyed Him, how evil spirits unquestioningly obey Him... Who can kill the Messiah? One word from Him is enough, and even the indestructible iron legions of Rome will scatter without a trace, like dry leaves!
Blinded by the lust for wealth and the whispers of Satan, Judas betrays Christ. But at the same time, he does not even admit the thought that He could be killed. After all, in Jesus, who defeated the high priests, was all his hope, all his hope for the future.
Did Judas want Christ to die? No, because it was not profitable for him. Did Judas love Christ? No, Jesus was just a means for him to become fabulously rich. With such a motive for betrayal, the strange method chosen by the traitor to point out Christ to the guards at night in the Garden of Gethsemane becomes clear. With a kiss, Judas simply showed his respect to the king, who was about to defeat his enemies.
In culture
Dozens of writers have tried to interpret the image of the biblical Judas in their own way. In the mid-19th century, Italian journalist Ferdinando Gattina published the book “Memoirs of Judas,” which outraged the religious community - the traitor was exposed as a fighter for the freedom of the Jewish people.
Leonid Andreev's novel “Judas Iscariot”
Alexey Remizov, Jorge Luis Borges, and Roman Redlikh rethought the hero’s life. Leonid Andreev shared an interesting view of the acts of Judas Iscariot in his book of the same name. The representative of the Silver Age showed a traitor who in his soul endlessly loved Christ. Russian readers are also familiar with the character from Mikhail Bulgakov’s book “The Master and Margarita,” where Judas commits a disgusting act for the sake of his beloved.
Painting invariably connects Judas with “dark” forces. In paintings, frescoes and engravings, a man is either sitting on the lap of Satan, or is depicted with a black halo above his head or in profile - this is how demons were painted. The most famous creations of fine art belong to the pen of artists Giotto di Bondone, Fra Beato Angelico, and jeweler Jean Duve.
The character became the hero of musical works. In the acclaimed rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, “Jesus Christ Superstar,” there was a place for Judas’s aria.
They even say that at the end of the summer of 1918, Leon Trotsky erected a monument to this traitor, as the first revolutionary, in the center of the city of Sviyazhsk. However, this story remained a myth.
“...and has nothing in Me”
Satan inspired Judas that Christ would certainly accept the challenge, sweep away the high priests, the Roman occupiers, and Himself reign in Israel.
But he deceived Judas, just as the father of lies should have deceived the unfortunate man, mired in the swamp of his passions and blinded by the brilliance of the ghostly treasures of a man. The idea that the Savior would renounce the Labor of the Cross, tempted by the earthly kingdom, is truly satanic. With this thought the Devil tempted Christ in the desert, before He went out to preach the Gospel. The evil spirit tried to instill this same thought in the Apostle Peter when he began to dissuade Christ from Redemptive suffering, and immediately received a harsh rebuke from Him: “...Get away from me, Satan! You are a temptation to me! Because you think not about what is God, but about what is human.” The Savior knew well who was trying to speak to Him through his most devoted disciple. He also knew who Judas believed. Just before the arrival of the traitor with a detachment of guards, Jesus said to the disciples: “I have a little time to speak with you; For the prince of this world comes and has nothing in Me.” Christ called, of course, not Judas, but Satan, the prince of this world. Who once again, now through a traitorous disciple, wanted to tempt the Savior with the temptation of earthly dominion. But the Lord walked the Way of the Cross, for which he came into this world. Satan was left with nothing, and Judas went bankrupt with him.
Christ really threw down the soldiers who came to take him to the ground. But he did this only to let the students escape, who could also get hurt. And then he allowed himself to be tied up, humbly proceeded to the place of trial, and by the morning, in violation of almost all norms of Jewish law, he was condemned to death.
Image
Judas had no family. Several years ago he left his wife. Since then, her fate has not bothered him. There were no children in the marriage. Apparently it was God's will; he did not want offspring from him.
Judas's appearance made a repulsive impression. In order to perceive it normally, it was necessary to get used to its appearance. Tall, thin. A little stooped. An incomprehensible skull, decorated with red hair. One half of the face was alive, with a black eye and active facial expressions, and was dotted with wrinkles. The other half of the face is deathly smooth, without wrinkles. The blind eye was always open, day and night. The voice is disgusting, just like him. Iscariot knew how to change it from shrill and feminine to courageous and strong.
