Wed, May 20, 2009
Judas Iscariot
A MESSAGE POINTING OUT THE BIBLICAL ERRORS IN THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS
Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve followers, true enough, but the only reason that Jesus handpicked him was to hand him over to his antagonists. The name Judas means “traitor,” and his other name Iscariot means “murderer”. The name Judas is the Greek name for Judah which has a totally different meaning. Judah means ‘The praise of the LORD, or Confession.” Judas was a Jew, so why did he have a Greek name? Easy, his name described his character, or what he was going to do. (Our name is our identity, so it describes us, either what we do or how we act.) If you read Matthew chapters 26-27 you’ll find that Judas turned in Jesus for 30 silver coins – the price of a slave (Exodus 31:22). Notice, the priests thought so low of Jesus that he was sold like a slave – talk about real hatred. But later, in the next chapter, guilt drives him to commit suicide.
Now there is this manuscript that was suddenly discovered in 2001 that is called “The Gospel of Judas.” In this account, Judas tries to say that Jesus asked him to betray him, (note: this was during the last week of Jesus’ life) but in John 6:70 Jesus says, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” Jesus declared this prior to Palm Sunday! This proves that he already knew that Judas had evil in his heart. If Judas was a devil, then Jesus didn’t have to ask him. Plotting evil is natural to those who are evil (Proverbs 1:18). Then John states in the next verse, “He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.”
The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas as a hero because they say ‘without the Judas kiss, there would not have been a crucifixion,’ but Judas wasn’t a hero! The canonized scriptures say that he was a thief (John 12:6), a devil (John 6:70), a traitor (Matthew 26:48), someone who isn’t really a disciple (John 13:10), someone destined for hell (John 17:12) someone that was so guilty that he couldn’t live with himself, so he committed suicide (Matthew 27:5), someone that shared his food (Matthew 26:23 & John 13:18 & Psalms 41:9), and someone that sinned against Jesus (Matthew 27:4). These were eye-witnesses to Judas’s behavior.
The script also talks about Judas being transformed in a cloud, but Jesus was the one that was transformed, not in a cloud though, (Matthew 17:1-9).
To conclude this section, The Gospel of Judas portrays Jesus talking about stars, but whenever Jesus referred to the sky these are some of the things he said:
“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but known will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
Matthew 16:1-4
“The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Matthew 24:29
“You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:62
“The Son of Man in his day will be like lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.”
Luke 17:24
Usually in Christian art, Judas is portrayed as a sneaky greedy man. Kind of like the picture below.
Judas Iscariot was one of the twelve followers, true enough, but the only reason that Jesus handpicked him was to hand him over to his antagonists. The name Judas means “traitor,” and his other name Iscariot means “murderer”. The name Judas is the Greek name for Judah which has a totally different meaning. Judah means ‘The praise of the LORD, or Confession.” Judas was a Jew, so why did he have a Greek name? Easy, his name described his character, or what he was going to do. (Our name is our identity, so it describes us, either what we do or how we act.) If you read Matthew chapters 26-27 you’ll find that Judas turned in Jesus for 30 silver coins – the price of a slave (Exodus 31:22). Notice, the priests thought so low of Jesus that he was sold like a slave – talk about real hatred. But later, in the next chapter, guilt drives him to commit suicide.
Now there is this manuscript that was suddenly discovered in 2001 that is called “The Gospel of Judas.” In this account, Judas tries to say that Jesus asked him to betray him, (note: this was during the last week of Jesus’ life) but in John 6:70 Jesus says, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” Jesus declared this prior to Palm Sunday! This proves that he already knew that Judas had evil in his heart. If Judas was a devil, then Jesus didn’t have to ask him. Plotting evil is natural to those who are evil (Proverbs 1:18). Then John states in the next verse, “He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.”
The Gospel of Judas portrays Judas as a hero because they say ‘without the Judas kiss, there would not have been a crucifixion,’ but Judas wasn’t a hero! The canonized scriptures say that he was a thief (John 12:6), a devil (John 6:70), a traitor (Matthew 26:48), someone who isn’t really a disciple (John 13:10), someone destined for hell (John 17:12) someone that was so guilty that he couldn’t live with himself, so he committed suicide (Matthew 27:5), someone that shared his food (Matthew 26:23 & John 13:18 & Psalms 41:9), and someone that sinned against Jesus (Matthew 27:4). These were eye-witnesses to Judas’s behavior.
The script also talks about Judas being transformed in a cloud, but Jesus was the one that was transformed, not in a cloud though, (Matthew 17:1-9).
To conclude this section, The Gospel of Judas portrays Jesus talking about stars, but whenever Jesus referred to the sky these are some of the things he said:
“When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but known will be given it except the sign of Jonah.”
Matthew 16:1-4
“The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.”
Matthew 24:29
“You will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
Mark 14:62
“The Son of Man in his day will be like lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other.”
Luke 17:24
Usually in Christian art, Judas is portrayed as a sneaky greedy man. Kind of like the picture below.