I found a book called “Judas Iscariot: Revisited and Restored” by Ivan Roger, and thought I have read it once before, this time the authors points seem to be sinking in a bit more.

The general theme of the book is that much of the popular understanding of Judas, and his relationship within Christianity, is colored by theological presuppositions and general bias against Judas.

In our introductory post on this book, I mentioned some presuppositions that color our understanding of Judas. With this post, I would like to consider the description of Judas as the betrayer.

In each of the listings of the apostles, Judas is always the last named, and is usually described as the one who betrayed Jesus.

Betrayal. Such a loaded term! But is this a required translation of the Greek? The word translated as betrayal, in the gospel of Matthew is from the Greek word παραδίδωμι paradídōmi (Strong’s G3860).

A number of the verses that have G3860 in them follows, with the translation of the term underlined for the readers convenience

Mat 26:15 and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver.
Mat 26:16 And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.
Mat 26:21 And as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”
Mat 26:23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me will betray me.
Mat 26:24 The Son of Man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.”
Mat 26:25 Judas, who would betray him, answered, “Is it I, Rabbi?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
Mat 26:45 Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Mat 26:46 Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”
Mat 26:48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.”
Mat 27:2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor.
Mat 27:3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders,
Mat 27:4 ESV – saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.”
Mat 27:18 ESV – For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.
Mat 27:26 ESV – Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

Notice that throughout the previous verses the Greek word paradídōmi has been translated as betray or deliver. Are these the same concepts in the original intent of the author?

Let’s take for example Matthew 27:26 and replace deliver with betray.

Matthew 27:26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, betrayed him to be crucified.

Does that make sense? Might the translators be taking a liberty that is not necessarily justified? The same might be said of Matthew 27:2.

Mat 27:2 And they bound him and led him away and betrayed him over to Pilate the governor.

Yet, if the term paradídōmi is consistently translated as “delivered”, the verses above continue to make sense, and open up an allowable scenario for Judas to perform a task that is not so emotionally charged as with the word betray, and in my opinion reinforces the Kingship of Jesus. For you see, this understanding may elevate His complete control over a situation that was at all appearance completely out of His control. Even at the time of seeming defeat, God was orchestrating a deliverance of mankind that no one saw coming, and had a depth of old covenant teaching in it I had never realized.

For Judas to be a “deliverer” has old covenant implications that I found quite astounding, and is expanded in the book. For those who have an open mind, I would suggest picking up a copy.  I am confident you may read it more than once.

In my next installment, we will consider another of the presuppositions the author brings to the table, (the woe of Matthew 26:24).  I hope you get a chance to visit and let me know your thoughts.

---

Follow Considering the Bible on WordPress.com

Thanks again for coming to visit. I hope you found something of interest in this post and would appreciate a comment, to begin a discussion.