Judas Iscariot

 The creators of The Chosen have short Youtube videos about different Biblical characters depicted in their drama. I was watching one while exercising this week and the narrator commented that Judas' name was actually "Judah" in Hebrew.  Of course I should have realized this before.  All the masculine Hebrew names that end in "ah"  in Hebrew end in an "s" in Greek because the "ah" ending sounds feminine in Greek. When the narrator made the comment, it created a cascade of ideas in my mind. 

All through the Old Testament we saw that someone's name is significant in the story.  One of the podcasters I listen to always says, "the name is the sermon".  Joshua means, "Jehovah Saves" and Joshua saved his people in the promised land. "Jacob" means "He supplants" and he ended up supplanting his older brother as heir to his father. I never have figured out if their names were changed in the storytelling to match the story, or if it was just divine intervention/inspiration at the time of their naming. 

What if Judas/Judah Iscariot is called Judah in the story because he represents the house of Judah, i.e. the Jews and their treatment of Jesus?  I have never heard anyone make this supposition before but I think it fits pretty well. 

What do we know about Judas?  He was one of the original twelve (Matt 10:2-4) but was not from Galilea like many of the other apostles (some scholars think Iscariot, means man of Kerioth, a town in Judea, not Galilea). He kept the purse (John 13:29) i.e. he was in charge of managing at least some of the group's finances.  He opposed Mary's waste of the ointment, (John 12 3-5) claiming it should be sold and given to the poor. John thought he was a thief (John 12: 6). He betrayed Jesus to the Jewish leaders for 30 pieces of silver (Matt 26: 14-16) John suggests that Jesus knew what Judas was going to do (13:27) and did not try to stop him. He indicated to the mob who Jesus was with a kiss (Matt 26:48-49).  John later felt remorse for what he did and killed himself (Matt 27:3-5).

How might these actions reflect Jewish response to Jesus?  Just like Judas, the Jews originally accepted Jesus and many followed him.  Then, like Judas, they seem to become distracted by the things of this world. John suggests that after Jesus fed the 5000, the Jews they wanted him to keep providing food from heaven (John 6) and when he didn't, but instead spoke to them "hard sayings" (John 6:59) they stopped following after him. Like Judas, they were focused on what they could get from Jesus materially instead of spiritually. Like Judas, the Jewish people betrayed Jesus by working through authority figures. Just as Judas approached the Jewish leaders to betray Jesus, the Jewish leaders used the Roman government to cause his execution. As Judas, once part of the inner circle, betrayed his master, the same Jews who had welcomed Jesus when he fed the 5000 and made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, later cried out, "Crucify him." Finally, as Judas ended up paying for his betrayal with his life, the Jews as a nation suffered much persecution for centuries because they were seen as the group that killed Jesus.

This may be bit of a stretch, but I think that (particularly) Matthew and John used the figure of Judas to represent all of Judah and their betrayal of Jesus.  I think they did this because it is easier for us to understand the relationship between two men than between one man and a whole nation.  Readers feel Judas' betrayal poignantly, and so we can understand the betrayal of the whole nation more clearly.  As it says in Zachariah 13:6 "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."  Judah, who was once Jesus' friend, represents the house of Judah, who should have been Jesus' friends.