JUDAS – JUDAH – JEWS and money

JUDAS – JUDAH – JEWS and Money

Hugh Fogelman

Scholars and Jews are looking closely with the word association of Judas, Judah, Jews. Just about all of the Gospels were written after the fall of Jerusalem and Jewish Temple in 70 CE when the feelings of Rome against Jews were strong. Christianity was trying to promote their new religion and the best way to have people accept you is to have a common enemy. The Jews were the enemy of Rome―hence, the Jews and Judas had to be the enemy of Jesus, his betrayer.

Isn’t it strange, that of all Jesus’ twelve disciples, the one name that can be associated to Judah and the Jews throughout eternity happened to be Judas? But, according to Christianity, didn’t Jesus have to die because it was preordained? Wasn’t Jesus’ mission to die for the sins of mankind? Therefore, the name of the betrayer of Jesus was not important, unless there was a strong motive behind it. Was that why the name “Judas the betrayer” is mentioned over 30 times in the New Testament?

So why did the Gospels write so much about Judas being the betrayer? Scholars today suggest the writers were trying to associate the name Judas (the betrayer of Jesus) with the Jews in Judah (the betrayer of God's Son). Judas = Judah = Judaism. In other words, Judah, the Jews were the enemies of Jesus.

What is also strange is the close parallel in the story in Genesis 37:25-29, of the selling of Joseph. Christians will say the Gospel writers knew all the stories in Genesis (otherwise, how could they write which prophecy was fulfilled if they did not know the prophesies mentioned in the Torah?) Ergo, Matthew probably remembered the amount of money Judah, the brother of Joseph received for the betrayal of Joseph. The brothers of Joseph wanted to kill Joseph, but argued as to how the evil act should be performed, so they threw him down into a pit (a well). It was Judah who talked the others into selling Joseph to Arab traders for twenty pieces of silver. Twenty pieces of silver is also the redemption price for a twenty year-old male, as told in Leviticus 27:5.

In the Gospels of Mark, Luke and John, Judas was never associated with any exact sum of money. It was only in Matthew’s gospel that elaborated on the story and put a specific price on the betrayal of Jesus. Apparently Matthew had to elevate Jesus’ stature by making him better than Joseph. If Joseph was sold/betrayed for 20 pieces of silver, Jesus had to be worth much more. If 20 pieces of silver was for a mere 20-year old man, Jesus should be worth at least 30 pieces of silver, since he was in his 30ths when he died.

The Encyclopedia Judaica tells, "For Christians, Judas Iscariot was considered the "typical Jew." The Gospel of John is considered the most anti-Semitic book in the New Testament. John goes over-board showing Judas's greed by making him into the corrupt treasurer of Jesus' band of disciples. John's picture of Judas carrying his money-bag was implanted in Christian thoughts with tragic results to the Jews as a whole. John turns Judas Iscariot into a man associated with evil and money. This expansion of Judas's money-corruption was a most fateful development for the history of anti-Semitism as Christian Europe, later on, associated Jews with money-lending, forcing them, by the order by the Church, to make this their only permitted occupation.

John tells another tale about the evil Judas in his story of Martha and Mary. Mary buys very costly perfume and pure oil that she anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped them with her hair. At this time, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, said; "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence and given to the poor? Not that he cared for the poor but because he was a thief and wanted the money for himself" (John 12:3-6). Notice how John connects Judas with being associated to sharp business practices (a Jewish image carried forward to this day) while at the same time being evil and crooked. This association helped to establish the derogatory meaning of the word "Jew" in popular usage by meaning people who "extort money ruthlessly, moneylenders, driver of hard bargains, to cheat by sharp business practices, uncaring for the helpless, and of charging extra high interest". Thus, the synonym Jew and money are linked together in semantics and popular Christian usage.

John portrays Judas as the corrupt controller of the moneybags, a thief whose greed is suggested by the fact that he sells Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Which gospel writer is telling the truth? Perhaps this was just an opportunity to show Rome that Christians also detest the Jews - that the Jews were both their enemies?

Christian art goes out of its way to show that Judas was treated as symbolic of the Jewish people as a whole when we see pictures of Judas bearing the unmistakable characteristics of the medieval Jewish stereotype. Church art contributed its quota of degraded-looking Jews both in pictorial representations in churches and popular illustrated Christian Bibles. The dehumanizing of both Judas and the Jews begins to be found in the art of Central Europe and Germany in the 13^th century. As a result of this kind of art it lowered the status of the Jews to a subhuman level, and paved the way for Hitler and the Nazi attitude to the Jews as evil beings.

By now the Judas legend begins to be told in the manner of folk-tales: The infamous "Passion Plays" sprung up all over Europe. They would show Judas, a Jew and money lender being associated with the devil. Then other gospels were written, i.e. - The Arabic Gospel of the Savior’s Infancy, written sometime between 500-1000 CE. provides some fantastic details of Judas's childhood by saying: "Another woman was living in the same place, whose son was tormented by Satan. He, Judas by name, as often as Satan seized him, used to bite all who came near him; and if he found no one near him, used to bite his own hands and other limbs. The mother of this wretched creature, then, hearing the fame of the Lady Mary and her son Jesus, rose up and brought her son Judas with her to the Lady Mary. In the meantime, James and Joses had taken the child the Lord Jesus with them to play with the other children; and they had gone out of the house and sat down, and the Lord Jesus with them. The demoniac Judas came up, and sat down at Jesus' right hand. Being attacked by Satan in the same manner as usual, he wished to bite the Lord Jesus. But instead, he struck Jesus on the right side, whereupon He began to weep. Immediately Satan went forth out of that boy, fleeing like a mad dog. This boy who struck Jesus, and out of whom Satan went forth in the shape of a dog, was Judas Iscariot. The same boy, upon becoming a man betrayed him to the Jews. And that same side on which Judas struck Jesus, the Jews (not the Romans) transfixed with a lance." This Gospel was translated from Arabic into Latin and published in 1697.

The developers and theorists of Christianity, during the years in which the Judas saga was being formed, did realize that Judas was a great symbol for all Jews. This is a favorite theme of Saint Jerome (340-420 CE), the greatest scholar of the Church, who translated the whole bible from Greek into Latin. The death of Jesus began to be seen not as the unfortunate failure of another messianic claimant, but instead, it was a victory over evil. The death of a god demands an antagonist of equal status. This figure, according to Christianity, could only be Satan. Thus Jews became the follower and helper of Satan. This identification had already been made in the Hellenistic world by the "Gnostics", who regarded the Jews as people of the Demiurge, the evil Creator of the material world. All this is tied perfectly into a nice picture - Jews - Judas - Devil.

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