Judas: The Most Hated Name In History

Description

In this fascinating historical and cultural biography, Peter Stanford deconstructs that most vilified of Bible characters: Judas Iscariot, who famously betrayed Jesus with a kiss. Beginning with the gospel accounts, Stanford explores two thousand years of cultural and theological history to investigate how the very name Judas came to be synonymous with betrayal and, ultimately, human evil. But as the author points out, there has long been a counter-current of thought that suggests that Judas might in fact have been victim of a terrible injustice: central to Jesus' mission was his death and resurrection, and for there to have been a death, there had to be a betrayal. This thankless role fell to Judas; should we in fact be grateful to him for his role in the divine drama of salvation? "You'll have to decide," as Bob Dylan sang in the sixties, "Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side." An essential but doomed character in the Passion narrative, and thus the entire story of Christianity, Judas and the betrayal he symbolizes continue to play out in much larger cultural histories, speaking as he does to our deepest fears about friendship, betrayal, and the problem of evil. Title......Page 3 Copyright......Page 4 Dedication......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 Prologue: The Field of Blood, Jerusalem......Page 9 Judas – the evidence......Page 28 1. What’s in a Name?......Page 30 2. The Twenty-Two: Judas in the Gospels......Page 43 3. The Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem......Page 66 4. Life After Death: How Judas Lived On......Page 78 5. A Good Betrayal? The Gospel of Judas......Page 90 Judas – Satan’s tool......Page 104 6. The Making of the Medieval Judas......Page 106 7. Devilish Visions in Volterra......Page 127 8. Bags of Money: Judas and the Original Merchant-Bankers......Page 139 9. An East Anglian Journey in the Company of the Arch-Traitor......Page 165 Judas – God’s agent......Page 178 10. How Judas Became an Enlightenment Hero......Page 180 11. The Judas Myth and Modern Anti-Semitism......Page 201 12. Giving Judas a Second Glance......Page 220 13. Three Contemporary Versions of Judas......Page 235 Epilogue: Sir Laurence Whistler’s Judas window, Dorset......Page 247 Acknowledgements......Page 255 Notes......Page 258 Index......Page 269 Picture Acknowledgements......Page 285