The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
At the Sea of Galilee (John 6)
- Chapter 47 -
Judas Iscariot
But here I obviously meant Judas Iscariot, since I had known from the very beginning what sort of person he was. (John 6:71) But nonetheless he had a lot of enthusiasm, was completely active and could speak and present the lessons well, and as such he was chosen by Me for a mission along with the other eleven because of the good and not the bad sides. But since he achieved more through his earnest hard work and through his ability of persuasion in the same time as the other eleven put together, he also began to pride himself more than he was.
2
But when his arrogance came up against something, a secret anger gnawed at him more and more, and from day to day he became more closed and had a sharp eye on the other eleven disciples, in order to spot something that he could bring up before Me. But since such did not happen which could have served to cool his anger, in secret he became ever bitterer and searched all the more fervently for an opportunity to embarrass his brothers; he often thought about finding a suitable means.
3
He was a greedy and money-loving person who often presented with all persuasion the possession of money as something highly necessary for earthly life, because the worldly rulers had introduced it to relieve the otherwise tiresome bartering.
4
Once he even said to the wise Nathanael, with whom he spoke the most: that I obviously need no money for earthly life, was quite clear and pure to see; for being equipped with divine omnipotence, one could get by without money anywhere. But people without this potential and without having the luck to be My disciples, would have to have money for the earthly life as well and necessarily the emperor himself in order to pay his soldiers and other state officials.
5
Nathanael indeed always corrected him, saying that money was nonetheless a great evil among the people, although it could also be the reason for many good things in the hand of a just person, like all earthly goods. But it would still contain evil in itself, in that it could awake the greed of man greatly and most of all be the reason for vices and iniquities of all sorts from great to small.
6
Our Judas Iscariot accepted this indeed, but explained money nonetheless to be a necessary evil, just as the body is also a necessary evil for the soul. But when the soul uses the body wisely, the body is then also a temple of salvation, through which alone it can achieve eternal life and the true childhood of God.
7
And because of his persuasive ability he was able to find a so-called legal angel everywhere, and it was difficult to argue with him. But he went so far with his legal opinions that he even claimed that theft was justified in an emergency, like the Spartans and Cretans did, and blamed Moses for feeblemindedness because he declared every theft to be a clear sin. But he did not consider that even the permitted, most necessary theft in time leads man to the greatest laziness and no-one would work and save any longer, if he knew that, if he had any reserves, it would soon be betrayed and taken away by those in need. But if such a custom was allowed to the people, what would happen then to love for one's neighbour or the recognition of God?!
8
Nathanael showed Judas quite well that his justification of theft did not correspond with his highly economical ambitions and that permitted theft would destroy even the most correct thrift. But then he came back again with his concealed cleverness and so there was nothing that could be done with him. Only when I chastised him did he leave off his ideas for a time and gave in to secret better considerations. Therefore I gave him this other nudge in the synagogue, which he understood quite well by himself, although the other disciples only guessed, but did not exactly want to point their fingers at him, because I did not want that, although I knew everything what he was going to do in future; for his measure had to become full for his fall, since in the end he livingly had to convince himself, that all his earthly action tendencies as a warning example for all people were fundamentally evil, otherwise no improvement would ever be possible for his soul, not even on the other side.
9
That is now the character of this disciple, given here in order to thoroughly see the reason why this time I called him a devil; for secretly it annoyed him the most that I was giving such a speech in the synagogue, because of which so many were becoming annoyed and thus withdrawing from Me; since secretly he already made all kinds of speculations with them by himself and was thus secretly also the most annoyed. Yes, he even made a comment to Nathanael that I expressed Myself quite sharply against the evil of annoyance in the house of Peter, but was now annoying thousands Myself until blue in the face, and how this could be connected to My teaching.
10
Nathanael of course pointed out that I then had spoken mainly about the evil nuisance of small children.
11
But our sophist had also a reply for this, and when I and the disciples left the synagogue at around the fourth hour of the afternoon and went back to our good inn, Judas Iscariot did not came with us, but instead went about the city to some acquaintances, where much was spoken about My incomprehensible speech. But there he proved himself once again to be My disciple and as a good speaker and through all kinds of quirky phony proofs he made My speech more bearable to them, even if not in the right light. We didn't see him for about seven days, the time we stayed in and around Capernaum. But then he came back to us again.