h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Is it Escariot or Iscariot? I've seen both...

I'm also a little surprised at the entry being so definate that the guy hanged himself. Wasn't there an alternate version in which he disembowels himself?

Escariot, Iscariot, I don't know. I've seen both, too - I just plumped for the latter. And as for his death, I plumped for the hanging theory after a little research,. I have to say, I didn't come across the disemboweling theory anywhere.

http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com/contra/judas.html

Acts 1:18
" Now this man [Judas] purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out."

Well, it's as reliable as anything in the bible, I guess.

Yeah, there's different accounts; I just plumped for one.

There's no evidence that one or the other of the accounts is more reliable then?

Hello...no, no evidence at all (excuse my butting in here but I've done a heap of research on this...and even wrote - and got published - a novel about Judas's wife).

In the book and the movie 'The Last Temptation of Christ' he's actually presented as a good guy and, if you read the NT in the original Greek you can see that a lot of the translations are seriously iffy. It's not at all clear that he is the disciple who betrays Jesus. In the Greek it could easily refer to Peter's denial of Jesus after the arrest.

The theory (and it's not dismissed by theologians such as Dr Mark Goodacre at Birmingham University - who was my tutor) is that the name 'Judas,' which in Koine (NT Greek) is 'Judah' simply means 'Jew' and the tinting of the plot is to condemn the Jews.

Interestingly there's nothing in St Paul's letters (which pre-date the Gospels) about any betrayal whatsoever. You'd have thought he'd have commented on it...

John Romer (Testament) says 'the gospels were the first loss of nerve' amongst the early Christian community. They had to make the story 'stick' and they needed a baddie.

(pauses to catch her breath here!)

Most of which - having now read your footnotes - I see you already know!

This is very interesting. And you wrote a book about Judas's wife? Wow! Very impressive. What's it called? This sounds like a fascinating read. I'm dipping in and out of Mark Tully's Lives of Christ, at the minute, which is also very absorbing. Nothing can be taken as fact. Lots of supposition and *interpretation* of many shadowy half-facts.

Thank you!

It's called 'The Book of Deborah' and it's published by Little, Brown (will that be moderated??).

I started it because I wanted to know about what it really was like to live as a woman in Jesus's time - there isn't much in the Bible about it. And also because I read that there was a huge furore in Los Angeles because someone had done a statue of Jesus smiling! 'They' (whoever 'they' are!) didn't think that was right. Jesus should be serious.

Anyway, I was on an interfaith pilgrimage in Israel and all the women were getting hacked off because they thought they were being treated like second class citizens in the synagogues (segregation - and the leader of the tour was male so we missed some of his talks).

I said it was up to us to do something and make it fun and meaningful - but no one knew anything about what worship/life etc was about for the women.

So, I started researching. The story just came. I was as surprised as anyone when Deborah fell in love with Judah. But novels do that to you - the characters take on a life of their own.

Well, that sounds *very* interesting. I shall have to hunt the book down. Thank you.

Hi Everyone.

I read this article just recently. I hope the purpose of this forum is to try to track down the truth rather than starting a senseless debate. The topic of Judas is a very interesting one and being a Muslim it is more attractive to me rather than many Christians and Jews. The reason is that in Islam the Holy Book of Muslims known as the Quran talks about Jesus Christ on a number of occasions. Actuallly his name appears no less than 25 times in this Final Testament of the Almighty God to mankind. The Quran denies many of the things which we have com to believe over the centuries, most of which are not even in the Bible. Quran tells us that Jesus was one the Mighty Massengers of God and not a son of God. It also tells us about the Miracle BIrth of Jesus in a Chapter called Mary, named after the mother of Jesus. It also tells us that Jesus could Heal the sick and give Sight and even Bring the Dead back to Life with God's permission. Another thing that the Quran tells us, and this is where Judas ties in is, that Jesus was never Crucified or Killed. The story according to the Quran goes like this:
The Jews came in Search for Jesus in order to take him for execution. However Allah saved him and opened the heavens for him and make him ascend the heavens. it also affirms to the fact that Jesus will return in the Last Days with the truth. So what about this crucifixtion which we hear about so often. Well according to Islamic Sources this companion named Judas Thomas Escarriot was the hypocrite among the lot and had leaked secret information about the hideout of Jesus for some money. The bible also afirms to this. However what most people don't realize is the full name of this companion. If you do a little bit of research you will come to know that this guys was known as Thomas by the people of his time. Thomas is a common name these days, however in those days it was not a name, rather a title. This title was given to Judas because of a special reason. The reason was that he looked exactly like Jesus in his appearance. Go and check out a dictionary which gives you the meaning of the word Thomas. It will tell you that it means a twin or someone who looks the same in appearance. So it was Judas who was mistakenly captured by the enemies and put to the Cross rather than Jesus. And Verily if God knows the Truth in this matter. May He Guide all of us towards that.

Wow! That's really interesting. I've not heard that interpretation of events before. I also find it very interesting to think that Jesus and the disciples were middle-Eastern in appearance. When you think of the divisions in the world today, isn't it odd that 'white Christian' societies never really portray their saints and Messaiah as dark skinned and middle-Eastern?

When you've got time, will you consider filling in your personal space, Researcher 206018 - just saying a little bit about yourself and maybe giving yourself a Researcher name!

All the best.