Judas Iscariot

Judas Iscariot was the twelfth apostle. He was chosen by Nathaniel, and later confirmed in this election by Jesus. He was born in Kerioth, a small town in southern Judea. When he was a lad, his parents moved to Jericho, where he lived and had been employed in his father’s various business enterprises until he became interested in the preaching and work of John the Baptist. 139:6.2 139:12.1-2

Judas’s parents were Sadducees, and when their son joined John’s disciples, they disowned him. 138:2.9 139:12.1

When Nathaniel met Judas at Tarichea, he was seeking employment with a fish-drying enterprise at the lower end of the Sea of Galilee. He was thirty years of age in A.D. 26 and unmarried when he joined the apostles. He was probably the best-educated man among the twelve and the only Judean in the Master’s apostolic family. He was cultured, educated, and a good thinker, but he was not truly honest. 138:2.9 139:12.1-2

Judas was accepted by Jesus in the group of apostles along with Thomas, in Tarichea. When Jesus accepted Judas, he told him: “Judas, we are all of one flesh, and as I receive you into our midst, I pray that you will always be loyal to your Galilean brethren. Follow me.”. Judas was the only Judean. All the rest were from Galilee. 138:5

In the Urantia Book

His work as treasurer

• Andrew appointed Judas treasurer of the twelve, a position which he was eminently fitted to hold, and up to the time of the betrayal of his Master he discharged the responsibilities of his office honestly, faithfully, and most efficiently. He carried the bag. He paid all expenses and kept the books. He made budget estimates for Matthew from week to week and also made weekly reports to Andrew. Judas paid out funds on Andrew’s authorization. 138:8.1 138:10.10 139:12.3
• Judas really was a great executive, a farseeing and able financier. And he was a stickler for organization. None of the twelve ever criticized Judas. As far as they could see, Judas Iscariot was a matchless treasurer, a learned man, a loyal, though sometimes critical, apostle, and in every sense of the word a great success. 139:12.5
• Judas carried in a bag with the apostolic funds, and used to keep that bag in a deep pocket 186:1.3
• Judas wisely made a deposit of the surplus of funds in a Jericho bank run by a friend. This deposit was there until the last year of Jesus' life. 147:2.1 163:2.11 172:2.3
• David Zebedee turned over to Judas the funds realized from the sale of the equipment of the Pella encampment, and Judas placed the greater part of this money in Simon of Bethany's care. 172:2.3
• Judas willingly gave all apostolic funds to David Zebedee before Jesus' death 178:2.10

His criticism

• Judas did not get along with Nathanael. He once took his criticism of Nathanael to Jesus because he thought he didn't take his apostleship seriously, which earned him a rebuke from Jesus. 139:6.5
• all the apostles, with the exception of Judas, succeeded in overcoming much of their prejudice against the Samaritans. 143:0.2
• Judas, along with Peter, John, and Simon Zelotes, was in favor of proclaiming Jesus king. When Jesus did not live up to these expectations, he thought that he would be oppressed with regrets that he did not have the courage to be made king. 152:2.5 153:0.2
• Judas, with Simon Zelotes, attempted to heal James of Safed’s son, unsuccessfully 158:4.6
• Judas Iscariot thought that Jesus had fled in haste into Phoenicia because he feared the Jewish leaders and Herod Antipas. 162:1.3
• Of all the apostles, Judas Iscariot was the most adversely affected by the processional entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. 172:5.12-13
• Judas did not realize it, but he had been a subconscious critic of Jesus ever since John the Baptist was beheaded by Herod. 138:5.4 177:4.11
• While his companions hesitated, Judas took a seat of honor at the Last Supper. 179:1.4
• the washing of the feet during the last supper was further proof to Judas that Jesus was not Israel's deliverer and would never qualify to be. (179:3.1,4)

His relationship with Jesus

• Jesus advised Andrew to continue to place the utmost confidence in Judas despite his last acts. 157:7.1
• Jesus did everything possible to save Judas 179:4.7
• Judas was faith adventure to Jesus. From the beginning the Master fully understood the weakness of this apostle and well knew the dangers of admitting him to fellowship. 139:12.7 177:4.10
• At the last supper Jesus addressed his last words to Judas. He first warned him in a veiled way: “Although it is necessary that I return to the Father, it was not necessary for one of you to become a traitor to fulfill the will of the Father.” In view of the fact that Judas was determined in his purpose, he simply told him: “What you have decided to do, do it immediately.” 179:4
• The words of encouragement in Bethany for Judas were: “Judas, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts of ridicule.” 174:0.2
• Jesus warned the apostles of an impending betrayal, without indicating that it was Judas 153:5.4 177:5.2 179:3.6 179:4 180:6.1

The betrayal

• Judas was always financially loyal to his Master and his fellow apostles. Money could never have been the motive for his betrayal of the Master. It was not for money that Judas went to the home of Caiaphas to arrange for the betrayal of Jesus. 139:12.5 172:5.12 177:4.4
• The day that Mary, Lazarus' sister, broke an expensive jar of incense at the feet of Jesus seemed to Judas such a waste that when Jesus so sweepingly disallowed his public protest, it was too much for him, and this event determined the mobilization of all the accumulated hate, hurt, malice, prejudice, jealousy, and revenge of a lifetime, and decided Judas to take revenge 139:12.10-13 153:1.5
• Some relatives and Sadducees led Judas to believe that he would forthwith receive high honors from the Sanhedrin if he withdrew from the movement of Jesus and his “Galilean” followers. 177:4.2
• in various situations that bothered Judas is when he began to seriously think about how to break with Jesus the apostles 172:5.12-13 173:0.2 175:4.1 177:4.2
• David Zebedee knew about Judas's plot to kill Jesus and so he tried to let the Master know, but he asked him to keep quiet. 178:2.3
• the apostles only began to harbor suspicions of Judas' treachery when they were returning to the camp from the upper room 181:2.6 182:0.2
• Judas really feared for his life when going to capture Jesus, and for this reason he dared to ask for a company of forty armed soldiers, which the Jews had to request from Pilate. 183:2.3
• Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss on the brow while greeting him in front of the captive guards 183:3.5
• both the temple guards and the Roman centurion showed deep contempt for Judas as the traitor 183:5.2-3 186:1.2
• Judas did not dare to enter the house of Annas but he was present at the trial of Jesus before the Sanhedrin and then before Pilate 184:2.1 184:5.1 185:0.1
• Throughout the trial of Jesus before Caiaphas and during his appearance before Pilate, Judas was pricked in his conscience about his traitorous conduct. 186:1.2
• The Sanhedrin rewarded Judas with a bag containing 30 pieces of silver, the current price for a healthy slave. 186:1.2
• Seeing Jesus raised on the crossbar where he was nailed to the cross, he felt strong repentance and ran to the temple to deliver his reward money. 186:1.4

Causes of downfall (157:7.2-4) (193:4)

• When analyzing the causes of the fall of Judas, we are told:
• * failed to love the truth with his whole soul; he let deceitful intellectual pride lead him to spiritual downfall 179:4.2
• * Judas was tremendously influenced by the ridicule of his Sadducean friends. 172:5.13
• * He was an isolated type of human being. He was highly individualistic and chose to grow into a confirmed “shut-in” and unsociable sort of person. 193:3.2 193:4
• * his love grew cold, and he refused to trust his loyal brethren 193:3.2
• * Despite Jesus' prohibition to enter Jerusalem without him, Judas encountered Jesus' enemies, exposing himself to their clever insinuations and subtle taunts. 175:4.1 177:4 178:0.1 182:2.13 183:2.1
• * he persistently harbored grudges and fostered such psychologic enemies as revenge and the generalized craving to “get even” with somebody for all his disappointments; sought revenge for hurt feelings 139:6.5 172:1.7 177:4.4 182:1.5 193:4.2
• * Judas was an only son of unwise parents. When very young, he was pampered and petted; he was a spoiled child. 139:12.6 177:2.4
• * He persistently refused to confide in, or freely fraternize with, his fellow apostles. 193:4.2-3
• * When he was impelled, by the accumulation of his emotional conflicts, to seek relief, he sought the advice and the unwise consolation of his unspiritual relatives or those chance acquaintances who were either indifferent, or actually hostile, to the heavenly kingdom. 193:4.3
• * Judas was self-satisfied and he dared to criticize Jesus often 139:12.4
• * Judas was a well-intentioned but cowardly and self-centered personality (177:4.9,11) 183:2.2 193:4.14

His end

• After the terrible disappointment with the reward from the Sanhedrin, Judas committed suicide by attempting to hang himself from a tree in the Valley of Hinnom. The belt he used came undone and he died when he hit the rocks of the precipice. 139:12.13 186:1
• The worlds have found it difficult to forgive Judas, and his name has become eschewed throughout a far-flung universe. 139:12.14

Bible parallels

Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.

• Lived in Cana 139:6.2 — Jn 21:2.
• Judas Iscariot chosen 139:12.1 — Mt 10:4; Mk 3:19; Lk 6:16.
• Judas carried the bag 138:10.10 — Jn 12:6; Jn 13:29.
• A way that seems right 139:12.5 — Pr 14:12; Pr 16:25.
• I have come to bring joy 139:6.5 — Jn 15:11. *I have come to bring gladness*: Mk 4:16; Acts 2:46; Acts 14:17; Heb 1:8-9. *I have come to bring abundant life*: Jn 10:10.
• “Keys of the kingdom” 158:4.6 — Mt 16:19.
• Apostles' failure to exorcise 158:4.6 — Mt 17:16; Mk 9:18b; Lk 9:40.
• Misunderstanding Jesus' motives 162:1.3 — Jn 7:1.
• Apostles dispute over honors 179:1.4 — Lk 9:46; Lk 22:24.
• Whosoever will may come 139:12.7 — Ps 50:15; Jl 2:32; Zec 13:9; Mt 7:24; Mt 10:32-33; Mt 12:50; Mt 16:24-25; Mk 3:35; Mk 8:34-35; Lk 6:47; Lk 9:23-24; Lk 12:8; Jn 3:15-16; Jn 4:13-14; Jn 11:25-26; Jn 12:46; Acts 2:21; Acts 10:43; Acts 13:26; Ro 9:33; Ro 10:13; 1 Jn 2:23; 1 Jn 4:15; 1 Jn 5:1; Rev 22:17b.
• Be not dismayed by future events 174:0.2 — Is 41:10; Jer 46:27.
• Trust not the arm of flesh 174:0.2 — 2 Ch 32:8.
• Foundations of rock 174:0.2 — Mt 16:18.
• Appearances deceiving 174:0.2 — Jn 7:24.
• Remain firm in your faith 174:0.2 — Heb 3:6.
• Know reality of your beliefs 174:0.2 — Jn 1:12.
• Be gentle 174:0.2 — 2 Ti 2:24.
• Love your enemies 174:0.2 — Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27,35.
• I trusted you with many things 174:0.2 — Mt 25:21,23.
• Ignore outward appearances 174:0.2 — 2 Co 10:7; 1 Sam 16:7.
• Be you steadfast 174:0.2 — 1 Co 15:58; 1 P 5:8-9.
• Commission as ambassadors 174:0.2 — 2 Co 5:20.
• Be unmoved, unshaken, by events 174:0.2 — Heb 3:14.
• Keep eternal reward 174:0.2 — Col 2:18; Col 3:24.
• Walk by faith, not sight 174:0.2 — 2 Co 5:7.
• I am able to finish work 174:0.2 — Jn 4:34; Jn 9:4; Jn 17:4; Jn 19:30.
• My spirit will teach you 174:0.2 — Jn 14:26.
• Seek true realities of spirit 174:0.2 — Mt 6:33; Lk 12:31.
• Be not weary in well doing 174:0.2 — Ga 6:9; 2 Th 3:13.
• Be of good cheer 153:5.4 — Jn 6:63-70.

Where it appears

Judas Iscariot is linked in 73 paragraphs of the text; the first 40 are listed.

See also

• apostles of Jesus

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