The story of Judas, the man who turned Jesus in to the authorities, can be found in all four Gospels. However, when we line up each Gospel, we can see that the character development of Judas differentiates from one Gospel to the next. There are “nodes” of oral tradition we can track Judas to, and each is used differently in the four Gospels. White stresses the importance of Judas’s motivation to turn Jesus in and what happened to him afterward.
According to White, Mark narrates these “nodes” of oral tradition in Judas’s story in a rather simple way. When turning Jesus in, Mark shows Judas doing it in his own will but not expecting a reward. Mark says, “Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. And when they heard it they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he sought an opportunity to betray him.” (14:10-11). To me, this seems very passive and casual, which is why I was surprised when reading the other accounts of this same event in the other Gospels. Some scholars believe Judas was an overly zealous disciple who truly believed Jesus could save the kingdom, but did not see him as an evil character. However, in this story I think he is still portrayed as a betrayer, and even though Jesus gives no sign of knowing that it is specifically Judas, he still knows that one of his disciples will betray him. Mark also does not mention the end of Judas’s life. Mark does, however, mention Jesus saying that the scriptures will be fulfilled (14:49).
In Matthew, Judas develops into a more evil character because he actually asks for money in exchange for turning Jesus in. The Gospel says that Judas approaches the chief priests and asks, “What will you give me if I deliver him to you?” (26:15), and in return Matthew mentions the specific price of thirty pieces of silver that they paid him. White states that by Judas blatantly asking for money, he is not such a good character anymore, but rather a disloyal and greedy friend. Then, as Jesus is predicting the betrayal of one of his disciples, Judas now specifically asks, “Is it I, master?” (26:27). At the moment of betrayal when Judas kisses Jesus to give him away, Jesus speaks and says “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (26:53-54). I think this extra quote from Jesus that is not mentioned in Mark, is a “node” of oral tradition trying to help us remember that all of this is fulfilling the prophecy from the Old Testament and to make sense of Judas’s actions. At the end of this section, Judas’s death is described: “And throwing down the pieces of silver in the temple, he departed; and he went and hanged himself” (27:5). Another “node” of oral tradition can be seen after this event with the mention of Jeremiah and the fulfillment of the prophecy after they buried the coins in the Field of Blood, and Matthew says “Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah” (27:9).
Judas takes another leap towards a malicious character in Luke as the story starts out with “Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot” (22:3). The point of this, as we will find out by reading on, is to make Jesus look like the most high, and the most good. Luke does not include the direct dialogue from Jesus’ disciples or from Judas, asking if they were the one to betray Jesus. Instead, Jesus becomes all-knowing and divine and he knows that Judas is going to kiss him and betray him. Luke says “He drew near to Jesus to kiss him; but Jesus said to him, ‘Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?’” (22:47-48). Judas doesn’t even have to say one word, and we already can see how big this act of betrayal is. Luke adds on by Jesus healing the ear of the high priest whose ear was struck off by a man standing with Jesus, an interesting scene that was not mentioned in Mark or Matthew. Acts takes over to explain the death of Judas later on, after Jesus was resurrected and ascended. Peter speaks to the people and mentions that scriptures had to be fulfilled regarding Judas’s death. He describes Judas’s death: “With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.” (1:18). This goes to show that Judas still does not feel guilty for betraying Judas, and his death is an accident instead of an intended killing. A quotation is added, saying “’For,’ said Peter, ‘it is written in the Book of Psalms…’” (1:20) and he then proceeds to quote Psalms. I think this is another “node” of oral tradition because the fulfillment of the prophecy is being made clear once again.
John takes Judas’s character further by starting without an introduction, what was about to happen. Satan was already inside of Judas, who is portrayed as a treasurer, and John makes Judas look even more evil by stating that “Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees…” (18:3) and then with Jesus’ response: “Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him….” (18:4). This passage makes Judas look like a complete monster. But Jesus still knew that Judas would be the one to betray him even though Judas doesn’t say anything. In John’s version, Judas does not directly identify himself or show that he is the betrayer, and he stays within the group of people. When Jesus identified himself, the disciples literally fell back (18:6), I’m assuming because of the divine power emitted from Jesus. However, we don’t see any interaction between Judas and Jesus in this Gospel, and we don’t witness Judas’s death. John does not mention any fulfillment of the prophecies at this moment, but White points us to an earlier chapter where Jesus says that he knows Judas will be the one (if we draw from other clues about Judas in this story) to betray him. John writes, “’I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But it is to fulfill the scripture…’” (13:18). The prophecy is still important here, even if it is not mentioned at the same time as the other Gospels.
Overall, the story of Judas is a great representation of how early Christian storytellers chose to write their own pieces. I think that they were trying to make sense of everything and everyone that came in contact with Jesus. It is especially difficult when they were not even at the scene. If I were trying to retell the story of Jesus, I would want it to be as clear as possible but I’m sure I would be confused by a lot of concepts. By adding and omitting different quotations or details, and even changing the way a character develops, this all contributes to the story of Jesus in a way that each storyteller thought was best-fitting. I think their writing practices were not all uniform, which is why it is difficult to dissect each “node” of oral tradition to try piece together into a story. However, we can see clearly that the fulfillment of the prophecy is the goal of each piece, the important aspect of oral tradition. It is interesting to note how unique each Gospel is in the way they depict this, even though they are all telling the same story. It makes me wonder what was going through the minds of each storyteller as they wrote their own piece.