Gethsemane Week 4
The Betrayal
Judas - 1 of the 12
All three Synoptists tell us that Judas and those he was guiding to the spot came up while Jesus was still speaking, and all three remind their readers that he was one of the Twelve, a fact that emphasizes the enormity of his offense. This was not some member of the general public who happened to know Gethsemane, but one of Jesus’ chosen band.89 It is noteworthy that not one of the Evangelists attempts to blacken his character or use some abusive term of him. They simply tell us what he did and let that suffice
SON OF PERDITION
A title used twice in the NT, first of Judas Iscariot (John 17:12) and second of the coming antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3). The Greek apoleia, “perdition,” means destruction, ruin, or loss. It indicates not extinction of being but destruction of well-being and hence signifies perishing. Son of perdition, then, signifies the proper destiny of the one described.
12 While I was with them 5in the world, vI kept them in 6Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and wnone of them is 7lost xexcept the son of 8perdition, ythat the Scripture might be fulfilled.
14 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests 15 and asked, “How much will you pay me to betray Jesus to you?” And they gave him thirty pieces of silver. 16 From that time on, Judas began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them. 11 They were delighted when they heard why he had come, and they promised to give him money. So he began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus.
3 Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, 4 and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. 5 They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. 6 So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around.
The price is thirty silver coins, the significance of which Matthew will unpack in 27:9–10. If the coin was a shekel, the standard temple currency equivalent to four denarii, then Judas’s wage would represent 120 days’ earnings. Fulfillment of this plot (v. 16) will come in 26:47–50.
The extent of Judas’s treachery can scarcely be exaggerated. The Gospels supply no explanation for his motives.13 Suggestions have ranged from extremely niggardly ones—a simple desire for a fair sum of money—all the way to rather sympathetic ones—was Judas trying to force Jesus’ hand to bring in the kingdom sooner? Perhaps most plausible is an intermediate view, which sees Judas as growing increasingly disenchanted with the type of Messiah Jesus is proving to be, a far cry from the nationalistic, military liberator the Jews hoped would free them from Roman tyranny. Questions about Judas’s prior spiritual state remain unanswerable; the Scriptures simply do not tell us.
Both Luke and John link Satan with the act of Judas; they see the forces of evil as at work in the betrayal. Matthew in common with the other Evangelists makes it clear that the initiative came from Judas; it was not that the enemies of Jesus made inquiries among the disciples, looking for a weak one who might be their tool. Rather, Judas sought them out.
No indication is given in any of the Gospels as to why Judas took this action, and there have been suggestions that absolve him of treachery. Thus some have conjectured that, knowing the powers Jesus possessed and impatient at the delay in establishing the kingdom, he thought that he would put his Master in a position where he would have to put forward his unusual powers and in that way destroy the opposition and set up the kingdom for which so many patriotic Jews were looking. Another view is that Judas was really one of the violent men who were looking for ways of getting rid of the Romans at whatever cost. On this view he had followed Jesus because he thought that the man from Nazareth would in due course lead a successful rebellion against Rome. When he found that Jesus was a man of peace, he was disillusioned and took the action that would get rid of him. A third view regards him as disillusioned; he had come to the conclusion that Jesus was bound to fail and he betrayed him to save himself. A fourth view sees him as coming to realize that Jesus had chosen the path of suffering rather than militant leadership against the Romans and as rejecting such an approach. But such views are mere speculation. There is no indication in any of our sources of any motive other than that of money.26 That seems clear enough in Matthew; while Mark and Luke speak of money only after Judas has made it clear that he wants to hand Jesus over to his enemies, it is mentioned immediately after that; and there is no real doubt in any of our sources that money mattered to Judas. The sequence of stories may be significant.27 Matthew has just told the story of the pouring out of the costly perfume, and John tells us in connection with this that Judas was the treasurer of the little band and that he had wanted to get control of the money that might have been theirs had the perfume been sold (John 12:4–6). Disappointed of gain from one source, he now sought it from another. Matthew does not specify the person(s) to whom Judas went, speaking only of the high priests; the precise manner of the approach was not important, but it is plain that Judas went to the enemies of Jesus.
15. Matthew alone has the question, “What will you give me, and I28 will betray him to you?” He is clear that Judas was looking for money in return for handing Jesus over29 to his enemies. This initial request for money we find in Matthew only, as also the fact that the amount the high priests paid Judas was thirty silver pieces. Mark and Luke both say that when the high priests heard that Judas was willing to betray Jesus, they were glad and promised him money. But whoever raised the question of payment first, it is clear that the betrayal and its price were agreed upon. What is a trifle more difficult is when the money was paid. Matthew appears to say that it was paid then and there, Mark and Luke only that the amount was agreed. It was certainly paid early, for Judas had it shortly after the arrest, when he hurled it into the holy place (27:3–5). But since neither Mark nor Luke indicates when the money was paid, there is no real reason for doubting Matthew. At the same time we should notice that his verb does not necessarily mean that the money was paid then and there; it could mean that they set the price, or that the amount was agreed on (though even if we accept the meaning “set,” we could understand this to mean that they set the money down before Judas).30
16. That was the critical moment. Now Judas was committed to betrayal; all that remained was to find the best time for it. From that time indicates that Judas started immediately. He looked is in the imperfect tense (in all three Synoptists) and indicates a continuous search: Judas kept looking. What he sought was an opportunity, a convenient time31 for his task. The money was being paid for the right choice of time and place.
From their perspective “blood money” refers to Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. For Matthew it will double as an allusion to Judas’s death as well. The temple officials refuse to keep the money because it is ritually impure, so they buy a field for use as a cemetery for resident aliens (v. 7). Unclean money buys an unclean place for unclean people! Matthew mentions the potter’s field as if it were well-known. An ancient tradition associates it with a site at the east end of the Valley of Hinnom, just south of Jerusalem (cf. Jer 19:7), a natural place for a cemetery (see comments under 5:22). Understandably, a new name became associated with that plot of ground (v. 8). “To this day” refers to the time of writing of the Gospel. Like many Old Testament counterparts, this episode is an etiology—a story told, in part at least, to account for the rise of a particular practice or place name.
Matthew, however, tells the story of Judas’s suicide more for the opportunity to cite another fulfillment of Scripture (v. 9a). Verses 9b–10 most closely resemble Zech 11:12–13, with its reference to thirty pieces of silver thrown into the house of the Lord to the potter. But Matthew attributes the citation to Jeremiah. Many commentators thus point to Jer 32:6–9, in which Jeremiah buys a field for seventeen shekels of silver. Better still, however, is the interpretation which sees Jer 19:1–13 in Matthew’s mind, especially with its references to “the blood of the innocent” (v. 4), the “potter” (vv. 1, 11), the renaming of a place in the Valley of Hinnom (v. 6), violence (v. 1), and the judgment and burial by God of the Jewish leaders (v. 11).
The Timing
The Posse
The Kiss
48 The traitor, Judas, had given them a prearranged signal: “You will know which one to arrest when I greet him with a kiss.” 49 So Judas came straight to Jesus. “Greetings, Rabbi!” he exclaimed and gave him the kiss.
50 Jesus said, “My friend, go ahead and do what you have come for.”
Just as he was rousing them from their sleep, ‘a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him’ (22:47). Judas at the front of the crowd marches straight for Jesus and makes as if to kiss him. This was a common form of greeting in the ancient world, but it is obvious from the text that Judas had arranged with his accomplices that the one he kissed would be the one he was marking for arrest and betrayal. As he makes his move, Jesus stops him and says to him, ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’ Of all the ways to betray someone, Judas used a kiss, the symbol of friendship or love.