(G) From i<"i3DX, ascora = strangling (angina), as given after his death, and commemorating it (Light- foot, I, c), or indicating that he had been subject to a disease tending to suffocation previous^ (Heinsius, in Sidcer, Thes.s.y.'lovSac). This is mentioned also as a meaning of the name by Origen, Tract, in Matt. xxxv.
2. Personal Notices. — Of the life of Judas, before the appearance of his name in the lists of the apostles, we know absolutely nothing. It must be left to the sad A'ision of a poet (Keble, Lyra Innocentium, ii, 13) or the fantastic fables of an apocryphal Ciospel (Thilo. Cod. Apoc. N. T., J-Jvanff. Infant, c. 35) to portray the infancy and youth of the traitor. His call as an apostle im- plies, liowever, that he had previously declared him- self a disciytlc. He was drawn, as the others were, by the preacliing of the Baptist, or his own ]Messianic hopes, or the " gracious words" of the new teacher, to leave his former life, and to obey the call of the Prophet of Nazareth. What baser and more selfish motives may have mingled even then with his faith and zeal we can only judge by reasoning backwards from the se- quel. Gifts of some kind there must have been, ren- dering the choice of such a man not strange to others, not unfit in itself, and the function which he exercised afterwards among the Twelve may indicate what they were. The position of his name, uniformly the last in the lists of the apostles in the Synoptic Gospels, is due, it may be imagined, to the infamy which aftenvards rested on his name, l)ut, prior to that guilt, it would seem that he externally differed in no marked particu- lar from the other apostles, and he doubtless exercised the same mission of preaching and miracles as the rest (Matt, X, 4; xxvi, 14-47; Mark iii, 19; xiv, 10, 43; Luke vi, 16; xxii, 3, 47, 48; John vi, 71; xii, 4; xiii, 2, 26; xiv, 22; xviii, 2, 3). A.D. 27.
The germs (see Stier's Words of Jesus, at the passa- ges where Judas is mentioned) of the evil, in all likeli- hood, unfolded themselves gradually. The rides to which the Twelve were subject in their first journey (Matt. X, 9, 10) sheltered him from the temptation that would have been most dangerous to him. The new form of life, of which we find the traces in Luke viii, 3, brought that temptation with it. As soon as the Twelve were recognised as a body, travelling hither and thither with their ^Master, receiving money and other offerings, and redistributing what they received to the poor, it became necessary that some one should act as the stew- ard and almoner of the small society, and this fell to Judas (.John xii, 6; xiii, 29), either as having the gifts that qualified him for it, or, as we may conjecture, from
his character, because he sought it, or, as some have imagined, in rotation from time to time. The Galiliean or Judajan peasant (we have no reason for thinking that his station differed from that of the other apostles) found himself intrusted with larger sums of money than before (the three hundred denarii of John xii, 5 are spoken of as a sum which he might reasonably have expected), and with this there came covetousness, unfaithfulness, embezzlement. It was_ impossible after this that he could feel at ease with one who asserted so clearly and sharply the laws of faithfuhiess, duty, unsellishncss; and the words of Jesus, " Have I not chosen you Twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John vi, 70) indicate that even then, though the greed of immediate or the hope of larger gain kept him from " going back," as others did (John vi, GG), hatred was taking the place of love, and leading him on to a fiendish malignitj-. The scene at Bethany (John xii, 1-9 ; Matt, xxvi, 6-13 ; Mark xiv, 3-9) showed how deeply the canker had eaten into his soul. The warm outpouring of love calls forth no sym- patliy. He utters himself, and suggests to others, the complaint that it is a waste. Lender the plea of caring for the poor he covers his own miserable theft.
The narrative of Matt, xvi, Mark xiv, places this his- tory' in close connection (apparently in order of time) with the fact of the betrayal. Diuing the days that intervened between the supper at Bethany and the pas- chal or quasi-paschal gathering, he appeared to have concealed his treachery. He went with the other dis- ciples to and fro from Bethany to Jerusalem, and looked on the acted parable of the barren and condemned tree (Mark xi, 20-24), and shared the vigils in Gethsemane (John xviii, 2). At the beginning of the Last Supper he is present, looking forward to the consummation of his guilt as drawing nearer every hour. All is at first as if he were still faithfid. He is admitted to the feast. His feet are washed, and for him there are the fearful Avords, " Ye are clean, but not all." At some point during the meal (see below) come the sorrowful words which show- ed him that his design was known. " One of you shall betray me." Others ask, in their sorrow and confusion, " Is it I ?" He, too, must ask the same question, lest he should seem guilty (Matt, xxvi, 25). He alone hears the answer. John only, and through him Peter, and the traitor himself, understand the meaning of the act which pointed out that he was the guilty one (John xiii, 26). After this there comes on him that paroxysm and insanity of guilt as of one whose human soul was possessed by the Spirit of Evil — " Satan entered into him" (John xiii, 27). The words, " What thou doest, do quickly," come as a spur to drive him on. Tlie other disciples see in them only a command wliich they inter- pret as connected with the work he had hitherto under- taken. Then he completes the sin from which even those words might have drawn him back. He knows that garden in which his Master and his companions had so often rested after the weary work of the day. He comes, accompanied by a baird of officers and ser- vants (John xviii, 3), with the kiss which was probably the usual salutation of the disciples. The words of Je- sus, calm and gentle as they were, showed that this was what embittered the treachery, and made the suffering it inriicted more acute (Luke xxii, 48).