The Judas Mystery

Who was judas? According to the gospels, Judas was the betrayer, who betrayed Christ for 30 silver pieces, betraying him with a kiss. Throughout the gospels, though not implicitly stated, or as per my interpretation, Judas appears to be a greedy, calculative man, who with his betrayal set in motion the passion and death of Christ. You can say that his actions made him one of the antagonist, if not the chief, of the gospel.

But still there’s this lingering question (again this is an interpretation, an observation, not a fact, and I am no theologian to interpret accurately, just a lay man’s interpretation) why did Judas truly betray Christ? Was greed the true motive for his betrayal? Was he truly the person he is seen to be in the gospel? After all he did realise his mistake and repented for it, trying to return it back the silver pieces he took for Christ.

Was he a disciple who was slowly disillusioned with Christ? Who felt that Christ was growing bigger than his purpose, overshadowing it. Was he someone who felt that Christ’s popularity was getting ahead of him losing sight of his mission, losing focus on the task at hand. Was he someone who believed that something needed to be done to bring some semblance of sense to what he interpreted as madness, something that would destroy their hard work. Much like the way Nathuram Godse felt about Gandhi.

Or was Judas the unfortunate soul who was marked from the beginning to betray Christ, destined to be one of the villains of the gospel, forever to be known as the betrayer, for no apparent fault of his. His actions were prophesied much before hand, by the prophets in the Old Testament, so his actions could be seen as a medium to fulfil these prophecies, in a way enabling the building of the foundation on which Christianity is built. A poor unfortunate soul.

So who was Judas? Was he the Betrayer, a disillusioned believer, or was he a poor soul destined to betray the Christ and forever to be seen in the negative, only to be forgotten who he truly was. So who was Judas will be something that we will never truly know, except what it’s in the gospels.