Judas Iscariot

(Luke 6:16) Judas Is·carʹi·ot, who turned traitor.

(Acts 1:16, 20) 16 “Men, brothers, it was necessary for the scripture to be fulfilled that the holy spirit spoke prophetically through David about Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus..... ²⁰ For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his dwelling become desolate, and let there be no inhabitant in it’ and, ‘His office of oversight let someone else take.’

(Psalm 109:8) Let his days be few; His office of oversight let someone else take.

(Psalm 41:9) Even the man at peace with me, one whom I trusted, Who was eating my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Why?

My question is: Why did there need to be a betrayer among the 12 apostles?

Not, why did he do it, but why was the role of a betrayer needed? What purpose did it serve?

This was set up from long before. (Ps 41:9)

This was intended.

This was planned.

This was intentionally put into motion.

The prophecies in Psalms were put there, not because God foresaw what was going to happen, but because God knew what He was going to cause to happen. That's what Jehovah's name means: "He causes to become." That's why Jehovah cannot tell a lie. (Tit 1:2) Because whatever He says, He causes to become reality. (1Ki 22:20-22)

Selected

To say that this was not planned ahead of time is to say that Christ erringly chose someone who would one day betray him. Is that the case? No.

(John 6:64) But there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the beginning those who did not believe and the one who would betray him.

Despite the convoluted reasoning in JW publications that this verse is referring to the "beginning" of Judas' fall into sin, in the very next verse Christ says: “This is why I have said to you, no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (Jn 6:65)

Yes, Christ is referring to the beginning, that is, the time that Judas came to Jesus. So from the beginning of their relationship, even when Judas became one of the 12, Jesus knew that he would betray him. Christ also "knew from the beginning those who did not believe." Just as this is not talking about the beginning of their disbelief, it is also not talking about the beginning of Judas' sin.

Do you ask: Why would he choose Judas if he knew that he would betray him?

He didn't choose him. Judas was not chosen by Christ. He was chosen by God.

(John 13:18) I am not talking about all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this was so that the scripture might be fulfilled: ‘The one who was eating my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

Christ drew a distinction between the one who would betray him and the ones that he had chosen, showing that he did not choose Judas. He merely put up with Judas' presence (Mt 17:17) "so that the scripture might be fulfilled." (Jn 13:18) And those times where Christ chose a few apostles to come with him for something, Judas was never selected. (Mt 17:1; Mr 5:37) There is no record of Jesus even speaking to Judas, except in regard to the betrayal.

And apparently Judas was the only Judean among the 12 apostles, the rest being Galileans, so he was a bit of an outsider to begin with since Christ only chose men from Galilee to be his apostles. (Mr 14:70; Mt 26:73; Ac 1:11)

[it-1 p. 883] According to the testimony of rabbis of ancient times, the Galileans valued reputation, whereas the Judeans placed greater emphasis on money than on a good name. The Galileans generally were not such sticklers for tradition as were the Judeans. In the Talmud (Megillah 75a), the former are, in fact, charged with neglecting tradition.

That's probably why Christ only chose men from Galilee, because they had that rebellious attitude needed to be his apostles since they would be going against tradition to follow him.

And Judas was a good choice by God to be his betrayer since Judeans placed more value on money then on being known as a good person. Christ would have known that about him and most likely would not have chosen such a person in the hopes that he would change his ways and be a loyal apostle.

Guide

Acts 1:16 says that Judas "became a guide to those who arrested Jesus," but was that role necessary?

(Mark 13:3) As he was sitting on the Mount of Olives with the temple in view, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately:

The place that Christ and the apostles went to at night was close, about 1/4 of a mile (1,300 feet) away from the temple. Spies could easily have followed them and known where they went each night. A campfire would no doubt have also given away their location. The Bible doesn't say they had a fire, but on cold winter nights it makes sense that they would have one.

Regardless of whether there was a fire or not, following a group of 13 men walking a short distance away into an olive orchard would not have been a problem. Surely spies could have easily followed them and seen where they went. And since Jesus was "teaching daily in the temple" (Lu 19:47) anyone so inclined would surely have known which one of the 13 he was.
If the two servant girls recognized Peter as his follower, surely they would have known what Jesus looked like as well. (Mt 26:69-71)

The officers of the chief priests and of the Pharisees (Jn 18:3) that arrested Jesus in the garden that night were sent to seize Jesus on an earlier occasion (Jn 7:32, 45-47) so they also knew what Jesus looked like and could identify him themselves. They did not need Judas to identify Jesus for them with a kiss. Jesus was showing himself in public all of the time, so people everywhere knew what he looked like. (Lu 6:54)

So Judas was not needed either to locate or identify Jesus.

Dual Prophecy?

So why did there need to be a betrayer among the 12 apostles? Why was this set up to happen? Is there more to it? In addition to the words spoken by prophets, many happenings recorded in the Bible are prophecies in themselves.

Is this a dual prophecy, one for the time of Jesus, and even more importantly another prophecy for the last days? Will there be a modern day parallel? Will someone turn traitor before Armageddon?

(Matthew 24:10) Then, too, many will be stumbled and will betray one another and will hate one another.

That verse says that there would be many betrayers, but even 1/12th of over 8 million JW's is still a lot of people (many). Or perhaps that verse doesn't apply and Judas' actions are a prophecy about a single betrayer among only a few, like Judas among the apostles, or about a single betrayer among many, such as "the whole association of the brothers". (1Pe 2:17)

If the actions of Judas are a prophecy of a betrayer in the end times, i don't think he has to be evil. I don't think Judas was evil. A thief, yes, unethical, yes, but not evil. Otherwise he wouldn't have committed suicide from remorse.

I think that what Judas did is similar to this fictional scenario: Once upon a time there was a man who was an undefeated expert in mixed martial arts. He had never lost a fight in or out of the cage. So in a bar one evening his unscrupulous friend bet this other large tough looking person in the bar that he couldn't beat up the man's friend.

The expert could very easily beat this man, but when he was confronted by him he just stood here and took a beating. Unbeknownst to his unscrupulous friend the expert had recently taken a vow of non-violence.

Though the friend was unscrupulous, he did not intend for his friend to get beaten up. He expected him to easily win, as he had seen him do countless times. That way he could make an easy buck with the bet.

Similarly, i think that Judas expected Jesus to easily talk his way out of this as he had seen him do many times before. (Jn 7:45-46) And of course he could have. When Jesus merely acknowledged that he was the one they were looking for, the mob "drew back and fell to the ground" out of fear. (Jn 18:6) Judas probably thought it would be an easy way to get 30 silver pieces. But he didn't know that this time Jesus would not take any action to save himself.

(Matthew 27:3) Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, felt remorse and brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the chief priests and elders,

Once Judas saw that his plan for easy money had backfired he felt remorseful. Things didn't go as he had planned. If his plan was to get Jesus killed, then his plan would have been successful and there would be no cause for remorse.

Nowhere does the Bible say that Judas began to doubt or disagree with Jesus' teachings, or want him dead. For him it was all about the money. (Mt 26:15) As John 13:2 tells us, it was Judas' heart that the Devil acted on. He didn't take control of his mind and force him to do something against his will. If he had, then Judas would have been innocent. No, but Satan played on Judas' greed to get him to act. (Ac 5:3) Judas chose to listen to that little voice urging him to sin.

End

So if this was not played out and put in the Bible as a dual prophecy and warning for what is to happen here in the end, then what was the point of arranging for Jesus' betrayal which was completely unnecessary in getting him captured?

Do any of you have any thoughts or theories on this?

Please share them if you do.

(07-16-2021)

===========================================

I think that i have stumbled upon the answer!

It all goes back to Jehovah's requirements for cleansing with a sin offering. (He 10:1a)

(Numbers 19:9) A clean man will gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and they should be kept by the assembly of the Israelites to prepare water that will be used for cleansing. It is a sin offering.

Although other animals were offered as sin offerings, only the prepared water with the red cow's (heifer) ashes could cleans someone from the highest form of impurity, which was contact with a human corpse. The defilement of touching a dead person was so strong that the Levite priests were forbidden to ever touch one. (Le 21:1, 11)

After the temple in Jerusalem was built, when a red heifer was sacrificed and burned it was done outside the temple to the east the priest could see to "spatter its blood seven times straight toward the front of the tent of meeting." (Nu 19:4)

The sacrifice of the perfect (Nu 19:2) red heifer would not have to be continually repeated. It would last as long as the ashes would last, which was a very long time since it was not just the heifer's ashes but also the ashes of the wood and other things that burned in the fire all mixed together. (Nu 19:6)

So what does all this have to do with the question of why Judas' betrayal of Jesus was necessary?

(Romans 5:12) That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because they had all sinned.

(John 11:26) and everyone who is living and exercises faith in me will never die at all. Do you believe this?”

Yes, "death spread to all men", and just as it was only the ashes of the red heifer that could cleans those who came into contact with a dead person, it was only Jesus' sacrifice that could cleans us from the un-clean state of death we inherited from Adam.

Now Jesus' death was a payment to Jehovah, and Jehovah expects things to be done a certain way, just like the instructions in the Mosaic Law about the red heifer. Here are the scriptures about that:

(Numbers 19:1-6) Jehovah spoke again to Moses and Aaron, saying: ² “This is a statute of the law that Jehovah has commanded, ‘Tell the Israelites that they should take for you a sound red cow in which there is no defect and upon which no yoke has come. ³ You are to give it to El·e·aʹzar the priest, and he will lead it outside the camp, and it will be slaughtered before him. ⁴ Then El·e·aʹzar the priest will take some of its blood with his finger and spatter its blood seven times straight toward the front of the tent of meeting. ⁵ The cow will then be burned before his eyes. Its skin and its flesh and its blood together with its dung will be burned. ⁶ And the priest will take cedarwood, hyssop, and scarlet material and throw them into the fire where the cow is being burned.

As Hebrews 10:1a (NIV) tells us, "The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming". So note at Numbers 19:2 that it is the Israelites that must provide the cow. There were many Israelites, so how could they all provide a single cow? They could do so by jointly paying for it. Did they have a second contribution box just for the cow? No, the priests just took money from the sacred treasury chest, which contained the money from all of Israel, to pay for the heifer.

So the red heifer's sacrifice foreshadowed Jesus' sacrifice, and just as the heifer was paid for with money acquired from the temple treasury, Judas was paid to hand over Jesus with money from the priests which also came from the temple treasury.

There were many prophecies in the Hebrew texts about the coming Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled all of them, including the one about being paid for with money from the priests. So that is why it was necessary for Judas to do what he did.

(see my article "Skull Place")

What do you think?

:^)
Dave

da.getmyip@gmail.com            http://da.getmyip.com/PDF/Ramblings

last edited 03-23-2024 (date created 03-06-2021)