Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§17.1 Crucifixus sub Pontio Pilato
sympathetic portrayal of the man who, in Christian faith, was an essential pawn
(both indispensable and dispensable) in the sacred drama to achieve Christ's
atoning death for the sins of the world. Who could not feel for the man elected
to be so despised and rejected, the all-time hate figure for subsequent centuries
of Christianity? 33 The trouble is that we have so little to go on. The Evangelists
hint that he did it for greed (Mark 14.11 pars.). 34 And John reinforces the suggestion
by naming him thief (John 12.6). But otherwise they show little interest
in him beyond the fact that he 'handed Jesus over'. And the reports of Judas's
death (Matt. 27.3-10/Acts 1.16-20), which gave an opportunity to exculpate Judas
in at least some measure, 35 were hardly counted as core tradition, come to
us in scarcely reconcilable versions, and scarcely provide sufficient basis for
speculation as to his motivation, either for his suicide or his earlier action. 36 Judas
remains an enigma.
c. The Last Supper
We need have no doubt that Jesus did meet with his disciples for what proved to
be their final meal together 'on the night when he was handed over' (1 Cor.
11.23). 37 Paul confirms that the timing was part of the core and foundation tradition
which he received as part of his personal Christian formation, and which he
in turn passed on when he established the church in Corinth. Such a meal would
have been in character anyway for a mission in which table-fellowship was such
a marked feature (§ 14.8a). And though as a meal shared only with his closest disciples
it is actually unique within the Gospel tradition, the implication of the ear-
presumably hell! In Dante's Divine Comedy Judas the arch-traitor is forever being devoured
by Lucifer (along with Brutus and Cassius!) in the deepest depths of hell (Hell, Canto 34.55-
69). See also H. Maccoby, Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil (London: Halban,
1992).
33. Note, e.g., the portrayal of Judas in the 'hit' musicals of the 1960s and 1970s 'Jesus
Christ Superstar' and 'Godspell' and in Scorcese's The Last Temptation of Christ. The most recent
attempt to rehabilitate Judas is by W. Klassen, Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus? (Minneapolis:
Augsburg, 1996), who makes much of the fact that paradidömi means 'hand over'
rather than 'betray' (47-58); also 'The Authenticity of Judas' Participation in the Arrest of Jesus',
in Chilton and Evans, eds., Authenticating the Activities of Jesus 389-410.
34. But only Matthew counts the sum as 'thirty pieces of silver' (Matt. 26.15), and there
is a suspicion that he derived the figure from Zech. 11.12-13, which he quotes in 27.9.
35. Matthew's account includes report of Judas' remorse: 'I have sinned by betraying innocent
blood' (27.4).
36. Further discussion in Brown, Death 637-60 (bibliography 566-67); Davies and
Allison, Matthew 3.559-60 (bibliography 572-73); also Klassen, Judas 160-76.
37. See above, §8.5c.
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