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Judas: A Biography

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Susan Gubar is a professor of English. This fascinating and thought-provoking book is not about theology, biblical exegesis, or history. It is wide ranging and scholarly study of Judas Iscariot as he was portrayed through the ages. Judas as most people know him today represents betrayal. Gubar takes us through the history, not of the factual life or existence of Judas, but of how he had been portrayed. He was not always regarded as evil. The Gnostics, for example, see him differently; and an account is given of Irenaeus' destruction of the "heretics" and his explanation of Judas' origin as a demonic deviant. Some have worked sex into the relationship between Judas and Jesus. Gubar explores the homosexual theme and implications in the context of Judas and Jesus. She draws from diverse sources as Rheinau Psalter's "Kiss of Judas" (a fine reproduction is found in the plates between pages 166 and 167), and The Song of Solomon (from the Bible): "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine." The Song of Solomon has baffled many as an odd piece in the Bible (with its graphic allusions to physical love) but ancient and medieval theologians used it partly as an allegory of God's love for his followers, and partly, as Gubar writes, "the mystic's adoration of Christ".

The range of material used by the author is itself a treat. She discusses Martin's Scorsese's film, "The Last Temptation of Christ", a film maligned by some Christians. She also discusses Nikos Kazantzakis' book of the same title, and Jose Saramago's "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ" and how these books "invalidate any interpretation of the Passion that blames the murder of Jesus on the Jews or on a Jewish Judas." She traces the roots of anti-Semitism that connects Judas to the origin and propagation of that phenomenon. The synoptic gospels and the Gospel of John were also scrutinized for their hermeneutic possibilities of Judas. Matthew's Jesus as exemplified in the Beatitudes suggest perhaps that a contrite and repentant Judas deserves, and perhaps, received forgiveness and thus, vilification of him today is no longer justified. That is a question John Wesley had also pondered. As Gubar pointed out in the final chapter of her book, regarding Judas at the Last Supper, "the twelfth apostle nevertheless participates as an invited, if not cherished, guest in Jesus' company: a stranger but also a neighbour, an indigenous foreigner. A friend who becomes a foe, Judas stands between amity and enmity to signify how difficult it is to take to heart Jesus' injunction to `Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'" (Matt: 5:44)

This is a book that will appeal to all scholars, whether they are theologians, historians, philosophers, or scholars of English and language. Some Christians might disapprove of the interpretations and suggestions contained in the book. The reader will realise that this book is about interpretations, and more specifically, the history of the interpretation of the person of Judas. The history of Christianity is a history interpretation and exegesis.

This book illustrates the factories for useless drivel that our universities have become as professors feed the "publish or perish" beast. I obtained the book expecting a thoughtful exposition of the subject of Judas over the centuries. Instead, the author repetitively explains the premise of the organization of the book proclaiming its innovation while barely covering the subject matter. I looked forward to actual exposition or analysis only to be disappointed page after page by the author re-explaining why the organizational structure of biography of the perception of Judas over time was such a ground-breaking concept. Ok - I got that after the first several times it was explained in the Preface and, just in case, the first few times you repeated it in the Introduction. Did you really find it necessary to spend significant portions of subsequent chapters re-explaining it? Perhaps exposure to today's crop of undergrads year after year have unduly reduced the author's faith that a reader of her book might get the concept of her organizational structure after a single explanation.

I don't really have any particular issue with the thesis of the book and was interested by the concepts the author was attempting to illuminate. However, the self-congratulatory and self-indulgent repetitions of how the organizing principle of the book was so innovative made it unreadable; particularly when such detours occurred right in the middle of an interesting portion of the text. I'm sorry I wasted my time.

The New Testament records twenty two references to Judas ranging from the mere three recorded in the oldest gospel, Mark, to the eight recorded in the newest gospel John.

Those mentions leave a lot of blank canvas for the imagination be it clerical, literary or political.

And not surprisingly that blank canvas has been filled through ages more from those purporting to view the story of the twelfth apostle than of the twelfth apostle himself.

Gubar holds with the minimalist view that there was no historical Judas which is good because that view solidly holds with that of the Jesus seminar. The Jesus seminar was a group of some two hundred biblical scholars who painstakingly reviewed the gospels and held court on their historical accuracy.

What the seminar said and Gubar seems to agree with is that any original historical Jesus story is much different from the one we've come to view. As to expertly outlined by Burton Mack in his many books on nascent Christianity the gospels and the Christian story along with them have been driven by Church imperative rather than any attempt at journalistic accuracy in recounting the events of around 4 BCE to 30 CE.

And the story of that Church imperative is perhaps best outlined in James Carroll's Constantine's Sword though Gubar certainly does a serviceable job of re-telling it here.

Owing to the necessarily negative nature of Judas' actions they stain not only an individual but a people for whom the name serves as a namesake. And again as shown by Gubar the distance between denounciations of "Judas" and pogroms or passion plays and mass executions is slight. Indeed, as recounted in both this book and James Shapiro's excellent Oberammergau the story of Judas and the story of the passion play was but a dress rehearsal for holocaust.

Starting in 1634 the villagers of Oberammergau hosted a periodic passion play to give thanks for delivery from a plague. The alleged villainy of Judas and the Jews was so overplayed that Adolph Hitler himself gave a positive review to the play's 1935 performance, a fact decidedly not coincidental to the fact that Auschwitz was located a mere ninety miles away...sadly both ends of what was then the same device.

While Gubar ends her book on a high note hoping that the events of the holocaust and the recent discovery of the gnostic gospel of Judas will provide a more balanced appreciation for Judas and perhaps even Jewry itself, maybe the more reasonable observation is the honest one which is that ironically a character whose supposed sin was complicity in wrongful persecution became himself the inspiration for such persecution and incited such sins for which no repentence may exist.

There is another reviewer here that hit it square in the nose. The author goes over how she is going to tell us, rather than just telling us. To make sure we understand, she tells us how she's going to tell us again, and again. The thought behind the book, if you can read past these parts and the reiterating of not-to-difficult-to-understand concepts, such as the archetypes of Judas, it's really not a bad book and may have some thought provoking ideas in it. Could definitely be a jumping off point to get the mind thinking about the aspects of Judas, to continue study.

The subtitle of Susan Gubar's "biography" triggers alarm bells, because even after the discovery in 2002 of the lost Gospel very little is known about the historical Judas. This book is the history of the mythology, but disappoints even more because it is a triumph of style over substance. In case my bias or mood was to blame I turned to read another new title, Sisters of Sinai: How two lady adventurers unearthed the lost gospels. Here the history of the discovery of early manuscripts of the canonised gospels is highly informative, readable and leaves one both entertained and much the wiser.

If you want to pursue the Judas literature, tread with care but see The Lost Gospel: The Quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot and THE SECRETS OF JUDAS: THE STORY OF THE MISUNDERSTOOD DISCIPLE AND HIS LOST GOSPE. Krosney unveils the real life intrigue and adventure, stranger than any novelist could conceive. The indefatigable and charismatic James M. Robinson gives an insight from the view of an excluded specialist.

The story of Judas has been used with the approval of fundamentalists from both sides very atrociously to divide Jews and Christians and thus to divide the world but can we today separate facts from myth just as scholars for a hundred years have tried to separate the historical Jesus from the theology? I believe that I have material for the first book which can do just that. From Irenaeus in 2nd century to Pope Benedict in October 2006, the Church has hinted at the mystery of Judas. I believe that it goes much further than mistranslating handing-over for betrayal. If you read the gospels of Matthew and Luke very carefully there emerges in the nativity story and the trial under Pilate something about the identity of Jesus connected to the identification by Judas, something which Irenaeus describes as throwing Heaven and Earth into confusion. He knew the secret, as did at least two of the evangelists. It is the secret which really could undermine the myth of the Church but, I hope replace it with the wisdom of Jesus.

This is more an opinion than a formal review.

This was on one of the most profound examples of bait and switch I have ever run across.


This book is more of a study of the authors extreme perspective and I fear anti Christian bias than a biography of anyone.

Judas is utilized as vehicle for the authors political and philosophical proselytizing and bears no resemblance to the historical or biblical character I have studied.

Judas was a man with free will who lost faith with his teacher and sold him for thirty pieces of silver. He then despaired which was his greatest sin.

To claim he was created as Christianity's prime personification of anti semitism is in my opinion baseless .

No sensible thoughtful person questions the presence of anti semitism historically or currently But really some of the conclusions that the author tries to steer the reader to are just so wacked out for me it is unreadable in parts.

On balance reading this book was a waste of my time.