Most modern Christians, whether laity, clergy, or theologians, still consider Judas a traitor. Indeed the term
Judas has entered many languages as a synonym for
betrayer.
However, some scholars have embraced the alternative notion that Judas was merely the negotiator in a prearranged prisoner exchange (following the
money-changer riot in the Temple) that gave Jesus to the Roman authorities by mutual agreement, and that Judas' later portrayal as "traitor" was a historical distortion.
In his book
The Passover Plot the British
theologian Hugh J. Schonfield argued that the crucifixion of Christ was a conscious re-enactment of Biblical
prophecy and Judas acted with Jesus' full knowledge and consent in "betraying" his master to the authorities. Schonfield's hypothesis recognizes the fulfilment of prophecy in Judas' recorded actions without acknowledging that the prophecies were really fulfilled in history.
A similar interpretation became well known to the general population through
Martin Scorsese's controversial film
The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the novel by
Nikos Kazantzakis. Kazantzakis' original conception was that Judas Iscariot's only motivation in betraying Jesus to the Romans was to help him, as Jesus' closest friend, through doing what no other disciple could bring himself to do. This portrayal shows Judas obeying Jesus' covert request to help him fulfill his destiny to die on the cross, thus making Judas the catalyst for the event later interpreted as bringing about humanity's salvation. This view of Judas Iscariot is curiously reflected in the recently discovered and translated third or fourth-century text, the
Gospel of Judas.
The
Roman Catholic Church has never officially stated that it believes Judas is in Hell. According to one Catholic writer, if he had not committed suicide but repented of his actions it would still have been possible for him to become a great saint, just like
Saint Peter who denied Christ three times.
Garry Wills, New Testament scholar, believes that
Jesus rescued Judas from Hell, as part of the
Harrowing of Hell.
The book
The Sins of the Scripture, by
John Shelby Spong, investigates the possibility that early
Christians copied the Judas story from three
Old Testament Jewish betrayal stories. He writes, "...the act of betrayal by a member of the twelve disciples is not found in the earliest Christian writings. Judas is first placed into the Christian story by
Gospel of Mark (
3:19), who wrote in the early years of the eighth decade of the Common Era". He points out that some of Gospels, after the Crucifixion, refer to the number of Disciples as "Twelve", as if Judas were still among them. He compares the three conflicting means of Judas's suicide, hanging, leaping into a pit, and disembowling, with three Old Testament betrayals followed by similar suicides.
Spong's conclusion is that early
Bible authors, after the
First Jewish-Roman War, sought to distance themselves from
Rome's enemies. They augmented the
Gospels with a story of a disciple, personified in Judas as the Jewish state, who either betrayed or handed-over Jesus to his Roman crucifiers. Spong identifies this augmentation with the origin of modern
Anti-Semitism.
Theologian Aaron Saari contends in his work
The Many Deaths of Judas Iscariot that Judas Iscariot was the literary invention of the Markan community. As Judas does not appear in the Epistles of Paul, nor in the Q Gospel, Saari argues that the evident anti-Twelve language indicates a split between Pauline Christians, who saw no reason for the establishment of an organized Church, given the imminence of the Parousia, and the followers of Peter. Peter leaves the Gospel of Mark--the first gospel in which Judas appears--in absolute disgrace, no longer the "Rock," but rather as Simon. Saari contends that the denigration of Judas in Matthew and Luke-Acts has a direct correlation to the elevation of Peter in these texts (see, for example, the bestowing of the keys to the kingdom upon Peter, which is special-M material). In an interesting theory, Saari argues (much as Elaine Pagels does in her work
Beyond Belief) that early Christian gospels record the conflicts of communities over Christological and theological concerns. Highly provocative, Saari's theory challenges conventional notions concerning Judas Iscariot.
