Judas Iscariot

(first century)

   Apostle.

   Judas was one of the twelve disciples of Jesus. Unlike most of the others, he seems to have come from Judaea in the south and he was the treasurer of the group. He is remembered as the disciple who betrayed Jesus with a kiss for thirty pieces of silver. According to the Gospels, he led the soldiers to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus was away from the crowds. His motives were obscure. His subsequent remorse and suicide are recorded in the Gospel of matthew. In the Christian tradition, Judas has always been regarded as the worst of all sinners and, all too often, as the archetypal Jew.

   R.B. Halas, Judas Iscariot (1946);

   H. Maccoby, Judas (1995).