Page 3883 - 1970S

From Garner Ted Armstrong's new book

DAS

How did Judas Iscariot, f ervent disciple, turn into Judas l scariot, ultimate traitor? God

only knows his inner motivations, but here's how it might have happened.

I

t is very likely that Judas was a

pleasant enough personality. For

slightly more than three ·and a

half years, from the time of his

first eager acceptance of Jesus' call

and his determination to remain a

loyal disciple of Christ, Judas, as

any other human being, would have

drawn close to the other eleven.

But in any group of a dozen

human beings, there will grow and

develop certain personal associa–

tions, and certain pe rsonality

clashes and petty resentments. Each

man was a strikingly different and

unique personali ty, and it is there–

fore natural that two or three of the

disciples would tend to gravitate

toward each other, thus forming

severa! different groups among the

twelve. There would not be an arti–

ficial, homogenized, equal relation–

ship among a ll of them.

Judas no doubt formed a few

fairly friendly attachments among

the disciples. These are never men–

tioned in the Bible after the original

group of twelve is identified. But

surely Judas was included when

Jesus sent His disciples out on a

brief evangelistic tour to give them

experience in teaching others what

He had taught them, in learning the

lessons of suffering, rejection and

persecution in this or that town, and

in having the courage to simply

by

Garner Ted Armstrong

shake the dust off their feet and go

on to the next place. Judas preached

just as fervently as the rest of them,

and who knows, he may have been

used in performing mi racles. But an

educated guess about how his road

to infamy may have commenced

follows.

Judas the Thlef

The first time Judas managed to

find a bargain for sorne foodstuffs

and lie about the price, pocketing

the difference,

he

probably felt ter–

ribly guilty. Certainly Jesus would

know about anything Iike that from

the very beginning, for

He

could lit–

erally read human minds and hearts

by the power of God's Spirit. Jesus

could see right through the agony of

conscience Judas was suffering. The

more deeply J udas became in–

volved, the more the normal psy–

chological reaction of anger toward

Christ developed. J udas had utter

contempt for himself, and was tre–

mendously jealous of Jesus' purity.

These resentments smoldered and

became twisted into the deepest sen–

sitivi ty concerning his own "hon–

esty" and " integrity" and into the

deepest hostility concerning Jesus'

"hypocrisy" and "egomania."

Probably, if any of the disciples

had actually called Judas a thief

(and that was exactly what he was-

John 12:6), it would have resulted in

an insane screaming tirade, proba–

bly even physical violence, and

Judas would have quit on the spot!

As the months passed, and Judas

continued to live the double life of

petty pilferage whenever his lusts

and appetites got the better of him,

his growing irritation with Jesus'

expenditures, personal tastes in

clothing and foodstuffs, and most

especially Christ's seeming in–

attention to the "poor suffering

people" continued to wear on Judas'

nerves.

Did Judas influence any of the

other disciples in these altitudes?

Probably so.

lt

would be ridiculous to think

that he held these opinions totally

secret inside himself. There must

have been times when groups of

three or four of the disciples in in–

tense personal conversations would

talk about the others who were not

present. as often occurs in any col–

lection ofhuman beings.

T here were minor personality

clashes and arguments from time to

time, but these were usually silenced

by Jesus Himself, who would rebuke

the disciples for their hurtful alti–

tudes toward one another.

Sorne of the more violen! argu–

ments centered around the jeal–

ousies of those who

were closest

to

4

From the bOok

The Real Jesus

Publlshed by Sheed Andrews and McMeet. tnc.. Shawnee Mlsslon . Kansas.