Judas

Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve apostles of Jesus, identified in all four lists of the Twelve as the one who handed Jesus over to the authorities, and distinguished in the Gospels from other men named Judas by the surname Iscariot. The text says he was the son of Simon Iscariot (John 6:71; John 13:2, 26), and Luke's list says he "became a traitor" (Luke 6:16), while Matthew's simply appends "who also betrayed him" (Matthew 10:4).

Scripture traces a narrative arc for him. He is counted among the Twelve (Mark 14:10; Luke 22:3) and yet is the one through whom the betrayal comes: he goes to the chief priests to arrange the handing over (Matthew 26:14; Mark 14:10), and Luke and John both attribute his action to satanic agency, "Satan entered into Judas" (Luke 22:3) and the devil "put into the heart of Judas Iscariot" to betray Jesus (John 13:2). At the supper Jesus identifies him by the dipped piece of bread (John 13:26), and Matthew reports that afterward he "felt remorse" and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders (Matthew 27:3). Acts describes him as "guide to those who took Jesus" and says he "fell away" from the ministry and apostleship "that he might go to his own place" (Acts 1:16, 25). The two New Testament accounts of his death differ in detail — Matthew 27:5 and Acts 1:18–19 — a difference that has been discussed since antiquity and that no single harmonization has settled.

The name Judas is the Greek form of Judah, "praise," and Iscariot is of uncertain derivation; a long-standing scholarly suggestion, offered as interpretation rather than fact, connects it with Kerioth, a town in Judah. The Gospels are careful to mark him off from others of the same name: Luke lists "Judas the son of James" among the Twelve (Luke 6:16), and John specifies "Judas (not Iscariot)" as the one who asked Jesus a question at supper (John 14:22).

Christian traditions agree in treating Judas as a warning about betrayal and apostasy, but they read his case differently. In the mainstream patristic and medieval inheritance, Eastern and Western alike, he is the type of the freely chosen betrayal, with Matthew's "he felt remorse" (Matthew 27:3) debated as to whether it was true repentance or merely regret. A strong stream of Reformed and evangelical interpretation emphasizes that the betrayal occurred within a providential plan — Acts 1:16 says the Scripture "was necessary" to be fulfilled — while still holding Judas morally accountable; other interpreters stress the solemn warning against reading providence as excuse. A minority modern suggestion reads him as a tragic or even obedient instrument, drawing on a second-century Gnostic text, the Gospel of Judas, which is an established historical artifact but is not canonical Scripture in any tradition. All of these are confessional and interpretive positions rather than things the text itself states.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.