Judas Iscariot - Art and Literature

Art and Literature

Judas has become the archetype of the betrayer in Western culture, with some role in virtually all literature telling the Passion story.

• Judas is the subject of one of the oldest surviving English ballads, which dates from the 13th century. In the ballad, the blame for the betrayal of Christ is placed on his sister.
• In Dante's Inferno, he is condemned to the lowest circle of Hell, the Ninth Circle for Traitors, also known as Cocytus, where he is one of three sinners deemed evil enough that they are doomed to be chewed for eternity in the mouths of the triple-headed Satan (the others being Brutus and Cassius, the assassins of Julius Caesar).
• In art, one of the most famous depictions of Judas Iscariot and his kiss of betrayal of Jesus is The Taking of Christ by Italian Baroque artist, Caravaggio, done in 1602.
• In Memoirs of Judas (1867) by Ferdinando Petruccelli della Gattina, he is seen as a leader of the Jewish revolt against the rule of Romans.
• Edward Elgar's oratorio, The Apostles, depicts Judas as wanting to force Jesus to declare his divinity and establish the kingdom on earth.

• In Trial of Christ in Seven Stages (1909) by John Brayshaw Kaye, the author did not accept the idea that Judas intended to betray Christ, and the poem is a defence of Judas, in which he adds his own vision to the biblical account of the story of the trial before the Sanhedrin and Caiaphas.
• In 1954, Jose Limon choreographed "The Traitor," a depiction of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and also commentary on the naming of names in McCarthy's House Un-American Activity Hearings.
• In Mikhail Bulgakov's novel The Master and Margarita, Judas is paid by the high priest of Judaea to testify against Jesus, who had been inciting trouble among the people of Jerusalem. After authorizing the crucifixion, Pilate suffers an agony of regret and turns his anger on Judas, ordering him assassinated. The story-within-a-story appears as a counter-revolutionary novel in the context of Moscow in the 1920s–1930s.
• Tres versiones de Judas (English title: '"Three Versions of Judas"') is a short story by Argentine writer and poet Jorge Luis Borges. It was included in Borges' anthology, Ficciones, published in 1944, and revolves around the main character's doubts about the canonical story of Judas who instead creates three alternative versions.
• The film King of Kings presents Judas betraying Jesus as a means to force an attack on the Romans, rather than Jesus' death: "I will force his hand! When he feels the Roman sword at his throat he will smite them down with the wave of one arm."
• In Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas is portrayed as a tragic hero who believed that Jesus was not the son of God, but rather just a man. Since he feared that if Jesus' following grew too large then the Romans would attack and kill the Jews, he betrayed Jesus to Caiaphas and Annas to prevent a bloodbath.
• Taylor Caldwell's 1978 novel I, Judas portrays Judas as a much misunderstood political person who conspires with the Zealots for the sake of Jewish liberation and who is persuaded that an appearance before the Sanhedrin will offer Jesus an opportunity to prove himself. This view of Judas Iscariot is also featured in the miniseries Jesus of Nazareth
• In Martin Scorsese's film The Last Temptation of Christ, based on the novel by Nikos Kazantzakis, Judas Iscariot's only motivation in betraying Jesus to the Romans was to help him accomplish his mission by mutual agreement, making Judas the catalyst for the event later interpreted as bringing about humanity's salvation. This view of Judas Iscariot is reflected in the recently discovered Gospel of Judas and was also featured in Robert Graves's novel King Jesus, Michael Moorcock's novel Behold the Man, Morley Callaghan's novel A Time for Judas, José Saramago's novel The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt's novel The Gospel According to Pilate and in Gerald Messadié's novel Judas le bien-aimé.
• In the short story The Way of Cross and Dragon by George R.R. Martin, a cult in the distant future has risen up and made a saint of Judas Iscariot.
• In The Last Days of Judas Iscariot, a critically acclaimed play by Stephen Adly Guirgis, Judas is given a trial in Purgatory.
• The Leon Rosselson song "Stand Up for Judas" presents Judas in a positive light, as a revolutionary who wanted justice in this world, not the next.
• In Dracula 2000, it is suggested that the legendary vampire is actually Judas Iscariot, who, after his betrayal of Christ, hanged himself at dawn the day after he handed Christ over to the Roman authorities, to embrace death but was cursed by God for his actions. This version attempts to explain why vampires in folklore have aversions to Christian relics (for betraying Christ), stakes (for the spikes that were used to nail Christ's hands and feet to the cross), silver (for the 30 silver he accepted) and sunlight (for hanging himself at dawn).
• In the TV movie Judas, Judas sincerely took Jesus as the future King of Israel, but when Jesus refused to take real action to depose the Romans became disappointed and finally betrayed the man he thought would lead them to victory.
• In C. K. Stead's novel My Name Was Judas, Judas, who was then known as Idas of Sidon, recounts the story of Jesus and recalled by him some forty years later.
• The American recording artist Lady Gaga explained that her song "Judas" (2011) is a metaphor and an analogy about forgiveness and betrayal and things that haunt you in your life.
• In the short story "Kakekomi uttae" (Heed My Plea) by Osamu Dazai, Judas narrates the story of his betrayal to Jesus.
• The character of William Barrow in The Judas Chronicles series by Aiden James is in reality Judas, cursed to walk the earth as a cursed immortal and now an archivist for the Smithsonian Institute and part-time operative for the CIA.
• In the TNT film The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice Flynn Carsen must find the Judas Chalice, which is revealed to be a vampiric Holy Grail made out of the 30 pieces of silver given to Judas—the world's first vampire.

• In DC Comics' 2011 The New 52 relaunch, the Phantom Stranger is heavily implied to be Judas himself, who tried to hang himself after betraying Jesus, but was instead cursed to wander the planet by an ancient council of wizards, betraying all those he tries to help until his penance is served.