Judas Iscariot is the only one of the Twelve who is not from Galilee. "Iscariot" probably means "man of Kerioth," a town in southern Judea (Joshua 15:25). He was the treasurer of the Twelve and, according to the Gospel of John, a thief who helped himself to the common purse (John 12:6).
In the Gospels
All four gospels report that Judas betrayed Jesus to the chief priests. Matthew and Mark say he did it for money — thirty pieces of silver (Matt. 26:15), the price of a slave in the Mosaic law (Exodus 21:32). Luke and John say that Satan entered into him (Luke 22:3; John 13:2, 27).
The gospels differ in their accounts of his death. Matthew 27:3–10 says he returned the money, threw it into the temple, and hanged himself. Acts 1:18–19 says he bought a field with the money and fell headlong, bursting open. The two accounts are difficult to reconcile literally, and the differences have been discussed since the patristic period.
The Historian's Question
What did Judas actually intend? The gospels present his motive as greed, demonic influence, or both. Some modern scholars have proposed that Judas was trying to force Jesus' hand — to provoke the messianic confrontation with Rome that he believed would begin the kingdom. The gospels themselves do not support this reading, but the question of what Judas thought he was doing remains open in scholarly discussion.
His name is remembered in every Christian liturgy as the one "who betrayed" Jesus. And yet he was also a disciple, chosen by Jesus, and present at the Last Supper. The gospel writers do not resolve the tension. They simply record it.
Sources
- Matt. 26–27; Mark 14; Luke 22; John 12–13; Acts 1:15–20.
- Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament, 889–890.
- William Klassen, Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus? (Fortress, 1996), for a scholarly exploration.