Did Judas actually betray Jesus? (This one is tough....Bible scholars only)?
157114
IN MY OPINION HE DID BETRAY HIM, BUT AS YOU SAID IT WAS THE LORDS WILL BEING DONE.  SO I FEEL IF HE HAD NOT BETRAYED HIM HE WOULD NOT HAVE FELT GUILTY AND HUNG HIMSELF.  AND HE WAS ALSO REPLACED BY ANOTHER APSOTLE.
319870
Here it is, and I'm going to cut and paste from another answer I gave, b cuz I've answered this so many times now...\n\nThe gospel of Judas is not credible. Scientists believe it to be the work of gnostics, a mystical early Christian denomination. People in those times did not have the access to the scriptures as we do today. They rarely had more than one or two books of the Bible at one time, so they often did not know what the other parts said. Gnostics often wrote stories of the way they thought things might be. The gospel of Judas is a philosophical conjecture, not scripture. It was also written at least 100 years after the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - the 4 gospels present in the Bible that tell of Judas's betrayal.\nAlso, because "gospel" means "good news", and the good news is that Jesus died for our sins, the text would have to include the crucifixion and resurrection. The gospel of Judas tells of neither.\n\nAs for the other gospels, the earliest known manuscripts date from 65 to 95 AD. That is 35 to 65 years after Christ died. It is quite possible then, that even if these were the earliest manuscripts (and not just the earliest known ones) that they are first-hand accounts.\n\nAnd by the way, the verse that people use to say that we are not to add or remove from the Bible is found in Revelation 22:18 - For I testify to anyone who hears the words of the prophecy in this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are mentioned in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book.\n\n"This book" refers to the book of revelation - not the entire Bible. The Bible as a whole book did not exist when Revelation was written. Granted we are not to add or remove from scriptures, but this verse is misused all too often. Furthermore, we are to use good judgement by finding out the origins and intentions of any text before latching on to it as scripture.
875004
If you are thinking of trying to spot a contradiction, then you will be disappointed. The Bible did not say that Judas committed suicide in two different ways. It clearly says in Matthew that he hung himself. Acts simply recorded that he fell headfirst and his stomach was cut opened by the fall. You only call it a contradiction when the two accounts are impossible to reconcile. But it is perfectly plausible that he hung himself from a tree near a cliff or ravine and the branch upon which he was hanging later broke off. Unless you are saying that this scenario is impossible you do not have a contradiction to rave about.
734592
"For the Son of Man is to go just as it is written of Him; but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! It would have been good for that man if he had not been born." \n\nMark 14:21 \n\nDoes that really sound like someone you want for a role model?  The gospel of Judas was excluded from the Bible for good reason; it was not the inspired Word of God, and is therefore heresy.  The Bible clearly warns against this.\n\n"I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: if anyone adds to them, God will add to him the plagues which are written in this book;"\n\nRevelation 22:18
365679
I watched the special on National Geographic. Have they made the text available to read anywhere?\n\nBased on the information that was given on the National Geographic premiere...I firmly believe that Jesus chose Judas to sacrifice him. Someone had to do it and he wanted Judas to be the one. The thing that gets me is that when Jesus tells Judas that he will be known as deceitful person for many, many years but in the END, the truth will be known. Wow, that means we know now....does that mean that we are really close to the end?\n\nI would love to look at it more in depth when they release it; if you know anywhere it has been published, please let me know.
430941
Yes it's in the gospel of either Matthew, Mark, Luke or John that he was in charge of the money. So it would be senseless that money was the chief reason he betrayed Jesus.
495380
I don't think so.  I don't pretend to know what would have happened had Judas repented and not betrayed Jesus.  But we all have 'free will'.  If Judas was merely programmed to betray Jesus, then his 'free will' would have been negated.  And I don't think Jesus' death on the cross would have been valid if someone had to lose their 'free will' to bring the crucifixion about.\n\nThis is all too confusing for me to reason out.  Jesus was God and knows the past, present and future.  He knew Judas would betray him.  Does that mean Judas did not posess free will?  But if Jesus knew the past, present and future, why did he pray to His Heavenly Father for "this cup to pass from me, but not my will, but thine be done."  He knew the cup couldn't pass.\n\nI'm not smart enough to figure this stuff out.  A friend of mine asked me once if God could do anything.  I said with a very smug look on my face, "Of course he can!"  That's when my friend said "No he can't.  He can't make a rock so big that he couldn't lift it!"\n\nOK, my smug look disappeared in a flash.  My friend is right, God can't make a rock so big that he couldn't lift it.  So God can't do everything.  See why I don't rely on my brain, but rather my FAITH in the Lord?
27681
The new guy has obviously been influenced by the _da_Vinci_Code_ or other, similar works that posit that Jesus was married (most likely to Mary Magdalene), and likely had children through that union.\n\nThere are a couple verses in the gospels (depending on your translation - I'm looking at the New International Version) where Jesus is referred to as having brothers; I'd look specifically at Matthew 13:54-56, which says \n\n"54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. 55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren't all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"\n\nWhile scholars have argued that "brother" might actually mean "cousin" or "other close male relative", the text wouldn't directly support that.\n\nThe wife and children thing can't be disproved Biblically - but neither can it be proven.  Some take the absense of direct reference to a wife as proof, while say that any man referred to as a rabbi/teacher would need to be married to have that status (as per the culture of the time).  Either way, there isn't anything that can be used definitively either way.
70418
If you claim that Jesus was only one of these three choices:::\n\n1) A lunatic (for claiming to be God in the flesh)\n2) A liar (for claiming to be God in the flesh)\n3) Exactly who He said He was (God in the flesh)\n\nthen you give me no choice but to say he was a liar.\n\nHowever, there are a lot more possibilities than the few three you give.\n\nJesus could have been one of the many people thought to have been the messiah, but that were proven wrong by time. Even the book of Acts in the Christian's New Testament lists two such false messiahs, Judah the Galilean and Theudas. \n\n          Act 5:36-37  For before these days rose \n          up Theudas, boasting himself to be \n          somebody; to whom a number of men, about \n          four hundred, joined themselves: who was \n          slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, \n          were scattered, and brought to nought. \n          37  After this man rose up Judas of \n          Galilee in the days of the taxing, and \n          drew away much people after him: he also \n          perished; and all, even as many as obeyed \n          him, were dispersed. \n\nWhat if the followers of Theudas or Judah the Galilean said the same thing, that either they were who they said they were, or they were lunatics or liars, or the messiah, with no other choice?\n\nAnd the reason they say that Jesus was only a good man and not Gd, is because we have Gd's promise in Hosea 11:9, where He said, "..for I am Gd and not a man." We have the same thing in Numbers 23:19 \n\n          Numbers 23:19 "Gd is not a man, that he \n          should lie; neither the son of man, that \n          he should repent: hath he said, and shall \n          he not do it? or hath he spoken, and \n          shall he not make it good?" \n\nwhich means IF Gd were a man, He would be a liar, since all men lie. IF Gd were a man he would need to repent, since all men sin.\n\nGd becoming a human, or a human becoming Gd, is the hallmark of the pagan faiths, where the stories of children of a god and a human mother, or the incarnation of a god, were told. Pharaoh thought he was a god, and the emporers of ancient empires were thought to have been gods, or the children of gods.
412701
thats nice... you also watched that!!!\n\nactually, there is alot of inconsistent details in the bible but nonetheless the same....\n\njudas' gospel was very compelling it contradicted the 4 gospels but i guess you wouldn't believe in that unless you have a strong faith towards jesus...\n\n\nnow, i'm having a hard time thinking.......
680818
Judas, then he committed suicide. Peter wept over betraying Jesus.
284161
It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it.  Even Jesus knew that at the time.\n\nHe told Judas to go do what he had to do.
339520
When I read in my bible in John 6:70 "Jesus answered them, have I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him being one of the twelve." Judas was hand picked just like the other twelve. There will always be a devil or somebody similar who will go the opposite of what thus saith the Lord all the time. Judas tried to stop Jesus in doing what was right. John 12:3-8 "Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. Then saith Judas Iscariot Simon's son which should betray him, why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief and had the bag and bare what was put therein. Then said Jesus Let her alone: against the day of my burring hath she kept this. For the poor always ye have with you; but me ye have not always."\n\nWhenever you want to do the will of God the devil will always be there to stop you. Moses in crossing the Red Sea the devil was right there not only Pharaoh was right there with his men and army to stop him but the people who didn't have any faith after what God had showed them in Egypt. Jesus said in Matthew 13 about the tares and the whet. There will always be tares in whet all the time because the devil doesn’t want anybody to believe the word the bible. Luke 10:38-42. Again another example how one (Mary) was at the feet of Jesus and listening to his word, (Just like I am today in the bible the feet of Jesus listening to his word doing what the bible says) and Mary tried to stop her sister Martha and was upset about the worldly things of setting the table etc. Jesus told Martha Luke 10:41 "And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her." I read all over the bible that when Holy man of God from Adam and Eve and until today where doing the will of God the devil is always there to stop them. Jesus was tempted and was always facing rebuke from the serpent the devil. Jesus never listened to the devil he knew his bible as he was God's word in the flesh and he knew the writings of the Old Testament he didn't at all listened to the devil he just went on no matter what rebuking the devil. \n\nI face the same thing today with soph called Christians who claim they can't stop sinning, and they claim they can't be holy, (but they believe in holiness but they claim they can't be holy) and they claim they can't be perfect, (blameless doing what the bible says) and they claim they can't be righteous, they claim they can't be sanctified. The reason why they claim such stuff is because they have been seduced (bewitched) by the serpent that was talking to Eve and that came into Judas Iscariot and try to entice me in their false teachings. Paul said in 2nd Timothy 3:12 "yea, and all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." John said this in 1st John 2:26 "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." (The word) The bible was also written for those people who seduce me to their funny gospel. Christians today don't read their bible and they have been seduced and bewitched for centuries and are going to the lake of fire and brimstone because they deny what the bible says and go against the bible. We are told to come out from among those liars called church. Revelation 18:4-5 "And I heard another voice from hea
405645
I have to say absolutely yes, he did forgive him because he knew what was going to happen.  He knew why he was here.  He knew from the first what his destiny was.  When he spoke to Judas at the last supper and told him to do what he had to do, he knew.  When he was praying in the garden, he knew.  When the soldiers came to take him, he knew.\n\nWhether you buy the theory now being talked about from the manuscript being called The Gospel of Judas, that he was Jesus' favorite, and the only one he could trust to do the deed, or whether you think he was a weasel and a betrayer, it changes not one bit that Jesus knew his reason for being here and the "betrayal" was part of the plan.  Judas being a willing friend, or a "traitor" doesn't change the outcome or the certainty it was going to happen.  Anyways, Jesus was here for forgivness of ALL mankinds sins and that includes Judas.
565921
No. Jesus stated very clearly that Judas was the son of perdition and that it would have been better for him to not have been born.\n\n\nJohn 17:12\nWhile I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
343780
As Judas leads the procession up the Mount of Olives, he feels sure he knows where to find Jesus. During the past week, as Jesus and the apostles traveled back and forth between Bethany and Jerusalem, they often stopped in the garden of Gethsemane to rest and to converse. But, now, with Jesus possibly concealed in the darkness beneath the olive trees, how will the soldiers identify him? They may never have seen him before. Judas provides a sign, saying: “Whoever it is I kiss, this is he; take him into custody and lead him away safely.”\n\nJudas leads the great crowd into the garden, sees Jesus with his apostles, and goes straight up to him. “Good day, Rabbi!” he says and kisses him very tenderly.\n\nHe led a great crowd, including Roman soldiers and a military commander. The mob had clubs and swords as well as torches and lamps, which they would need if clouds covered the full moon or if Jesus was in the shadows. The Romans probably would not recognize Jesus, so, according to a prearranged sign, Judas greeted Christ and in an act of hypocrisy “kissed him very tenderly,” thus identifying him.
398397
Um, there IS a gospel of Judas, and it says NOTHING about Judas being the Messiah. You can read it for yourself at the link. What's with the disdainful way you phrase your questions? I know it has little to do with beliefs, because I've met many a respectful and tolerant atheist and agnostic on this site.