Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE CLIMAX OF JESUS' MISSION §17.1
The Fourth Evangelist, however, evidently chose to move the Temple incident
to serve as the frontispiece of his account of Jesus' Jerusalem ministry (John
2.13-22). 27 Though, perhaps mindful of the episode's actual historical role, John
is the only one to include Jesus' word about the destruction of the Temple (John
2.19), the word which seems to have formed the primary accusation against Jesus
(Mark 14.58). 28 But having removed the 'trigger' event from the last week of Jesus'
mission, he had to provide another plausible 'trigger'. On a Johannine
schema, the choice of the raising of Lazarus, with its message of life-giving
power overcoming death, made it a similarly suitable frontispiece to the
Johannine account of the final days. 29 Given John's freedom in rescheduling important
episodes and in elaborating earlier tradition, his version of a 'trigger'
event has much less claim on the attention of those engaged in 'the quest of the
historical Jesus' than do the Synoptics.
b. The Motivation of Judas
As already noted (§ 13.3b), the role of Judas as the one who 'betrayed' Jesus is
too deeply rooted in the tradition to be doubted as to its historicity. Whatever the
precedents, 30 it is hardly likely that they provided a sufficient template on which
some tradent with dramatic flair cut the cloth of his imagination to create Judas
ex nihilo. 31 The embarrassment of Jesus having personally selected Judas and
promised him one of the thrones to judge the twelve tribes (Matt. 19.28/Luke
22.30) would surely have created more tension in the Jesus tradition than is evident
were the Judas traditions of later contrivance.
But if Judas did 'betray' Jesus, the question Why cannot easily be silenced
— or answered. The question has been of endless fascination, just because
Christian hindsight regarded the act as so heinous, the very pinnacle of evil, the
most unforgivable of all sins. 32 But equally others have been drawn to a more
27. See above, chapter 15 n. 113.
28. See above, §15.3a.
29. See Brown's earlier discussion in John 1.428-30.
30. The story of Ahitophel, David's trusted counsellor who deserted him, is the most obvious
example: the story includes David's crossing of the Kidron and ascent of the mount of Olives
(2 Sam. 15.23, 30), and Ahitophel's subsequent suicide by hanging (17.23); further detail
in Brown, Death 125-26, 643; Davies and Allison, Matthew 3.565-66.
31. Brown concludes that the Ahitophel story probably generated Matthew's account of
Judas's suicide by hanging (Death 656-57).
32. 'It would have been better for that man if he had not been born' (Mark 14.21c/
Matt. 26.24c). His death is depicted in Acts 1.18 in the classic terms of the death of an evil
man (cf. 2 Sam. 20.10; Wis. 4.19; 2 Mace. 9.9), and he 'went to his own place' (Acts 1.25) —
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