Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/338

* JTJDAS ISCARIOT. 310 JTJDAS MACCAB-ffiUS. the Twelve, went oir to the high priests to deliver Jesus to tlicni, anj wlien they lieard this proposal thej' rejoiced and promised to give him money, and he began to seek how he might conveniently deliver him up. At the supper, Jesus predicts that one of the number is to betray him, l)Ut no name is mentioned. After Getlisemane, Judas, at the head of an armed force, comes to Jesus and gives liim a kiss, the traitor's audacious sign by which the crowd identifies Jesus. With this kiss, Judas passes out of histoiy for the oldest narra- tive. The other two Synoptists, Luke and Matthew, who here as elsewhere follow in general the narrative of JIark, add, however, at this point new material to the earliest tradition, cliielly of an interpretative character. Luke interprets Mark's pmmisc to give money as an (ifiixeiiicnt, after consultation with the high priests and temple otliccrs, to which Judas assents: and at- tributes the treason, moreover, to the entrance of Satan into him (x.xii. 3-G). Matthew likewise in- terprets Mark's promise as an agreement, and makes Judas say to the priests: "What will you give me to betray Him to you?" The result of the parleying is that they weigh out or pay him thirty pieces of silver. Both these details, the immediate payment and the exact amount of money, are preserved only in ^Mattliew. At the Paschal Supper, Judas is named as the traitor in the following words: "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" He says to him, "It is" (xxvi. 2n). Coming to the fourth Evangelist, we find that it is he alone who indicates any suspicion against .Judas before the betrayal. Already, in John vi. 70, Jesus is recorded as saying: "Have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" But nowhere is there reference to money in connec- tion with the betrayal, although it is suggested, in passing that Judas was the treasurer of the Twelve Ixiii. 20). The Evangelist does, however, distinctlv ascribe the act of treason to devilish or Satanic inllucnce (xii. 2, 27). After Jesus has washed the disciples' feet. He predicts His be- trayal at the hands of him to whom He gives the bread. "And when .Jesus had dipped the piece of bread. He took it and gave it to .Judas, the son of Simon Iseariot," whereupon Satan entered into him, "and he went out straightway, and it was night" (xiii. 26 sqq. ). To the narrative of the arrest of .Jesus in a place well known to Judas, the Evangelist adds further details, but omits the traitor's demonstrative kiss. Then for John, as for Mark, Judas passes out of history (xviii. 1-8). Two accounts preserved, one by Luke (Acts i. 16-20) and the other by Matthew (xxvii. 3-10), show the violent death of Judas and the name of the field. Aceldama ; but reveal differences in the matter of the purchase of the land, the land bought, the reason for the name 'Field of Blond,' and the motive of the story. A still later tradi- tion is the grewsome tale of Papias. which nar- rates that .Judas first tried death by hanging, but was rescued ; that later he died a horrible death in his own field. In view of the criticisms both ancient and modern, directed against the historicity of the betrayal by .Judas, and in view of the divergences in the Gospel narratives, it may be well to call attention to certain facts. It is generally ad- mitted that the Gospel of !Mark is the oldest of the Gospel narratives written by a friend and companion of the three prominent missionaries. Peter (an eye-witness of the betrayal), Paul, and Barnabas. In accord with his usual habit to give facts as he knows them, and not to make int'er- enees, Mark gives a simple, circumstantial narrative of the betrayal, with not a wonl about the motives of Judas. In favor of the essential historicity of Mark's narration, it is to be argued that the story is inil)edded in the oldest tradition: that it is narrated ol>jcct- ively; that it accounts for the sudden clisa])]ie:u- ance of .Judas and the election of Matthias; thiit it is the kind of story that no Christian would ever think of inventing. The later. Evangelists, as is their habit, introduce refiections and in- terpretations into their narratives, and give details according to individual inclinations and the purpose they had in view in writing. While rdark states only the facts of the betrayal, with no relieetion on the motive, and no emphasis on a money agreement with the priests, the later Evangelists add. along with other details, that there was a definite stipulation for a money con- sideration (ilatthew and Luke); that the deed was due to Satanic influence (Luke and John), or avarice (Matthew), or both (Luke). Beyond these two hints, the Gospels are silent as to motives. Matthew alone records the tradition that exactly thirty pieces of silver were paid, because to him the thirty pieces were the fullill- ment of prophecy (Zech. xi. 13, quoted as if from Jeremiah). Luke is interested in the explanation of the name Aceldama, and further in the deatli of Judas as preparing the way for the election of Matthias. The narrative of the death of Judas has at least this amount of fact, that .Tudas not simply disappeared, but met a violent death. It has been thought by some that the act of .Judas may have been prompted by a desire to place .Jesus in a crucial position where Jle would be forced to save Himself by the exercise of super- natural power. On this view the betrayal was a bold attempt to apply a decisive test to the claim of Jesus as the Messiah. Or it may have been the act of one who firmly believed in Him and expected, as the result, to behold .Jesus tri- umphantly establish Himself as king — a con- summation no dou'ot ardently desired by many of .Icsus' followers. JTJDAS MACCAB^'US. The hero of the .Jewish war of independence waged against the Syrian kings in the second century n.r. He was one of five brothers, all distinguished for bravery and skill, sons of Mattathias, a priest of the or- der of Joarib, whose home was at Mndin. a town about 18 miles northwest of .Jerusalem. When the emissaries of Antiochus Epiphancs. in the at- tempt to uproot the Jewish faith, in n.c. 16S. reached ilodin. Mattathias slew the King's officer, raised the standard of revolt, and with his sons tied to the mountains. At his death, shortly after, he committed the cause to his sons, appointing Judas their military leader. The surname of .Judas was ilaccabseus (I. Mace. iii. 1). commonly supposed to mean 'the hammerer.' though this is by no means certain. .Judas was. after David, the greatest of Israel's heroes. With a few thniisand followers he defeated four Syrian armies in suc- cession, two of them immensely superior to his own in numbers, and was able, in lieeembcr. B.C. lfi.5, to restore the .Jewish worship at the temple, which had be?n discontinued for three years. "The memory of this event was commemorated in the annual eight-day Feast of Dedication on the 25th Chislev (Xovember-December). From now