02x14 - Hangin' with Judas

[bunniefuu]

What does it all mean?

This is where the archeology has been found.

Oh, hi how are you?

Look at that.

I need a planter.

A shrine to a bellybutton.

Is this a rock of salt?

Look at that!

No one gets into this place?

Whoa, don't take me too far!

Now that's naked archeology.

[theme music]

I'm on the Mount of Olives in the Garden of Gethsemane,

where according to the Gospels,

Jesus gets arrested here and led to the crucifixion.

It's one of the most tragic episodes in the Gospels,

and it also sets the groundwork for , years

of anti-Semitism, because Judas,

who betrays Jesus with a kiss,

becomes the prototype of the Jew.

What I'm wondering about is: who was the real Judas?

He must have been something special.

After all, Jesus chooses him to be one of the twelve disciples.

So who was he?

And why would he betray his master?

I'm on a quest to find out.

[SIMCHA] What everyone knows about Judas is:

he's the Bad Guy of the New Testament.

But does he deserve to be the most hated figure

in the Gospels?

I think there's evidence that his story has been

misinterpreted for two thousand years.

Who wrote the story in the first place?

Well, the earliest Gospel, Mark provides the basic narrative.

The Gospel of John provides the most detailed,

and the most negative portrait of Judas.

Scholars believe it was the last to be written,

and that it was rewritten by several anonymous authors.

I asked Professor James Charlesworth

what we can learn from the Gospels.

Who is the historical Judas Iscariot

and what's the mythology?

Can we separate the two?

The first piece of evidence, Judas one of the Twelve.

That runs throughout the New Testament.

Well, who put him in the Twelve?

Jesus. Alright. Then we go to John.

Now remember John is multi-layered

We have so many different hands,

and shaping of the text.

We hear from the Gospel of John that Judas is the treasurer.

He's in charge of the money.

This seems to be fairly accurate historical documentation.

But John also says: he used to steal money from the treasury.

This is interesting. It's like you have a kernel of history,

but to let it continue you have to say:

but he was the bad guy.

What you have is a historical progression

of making Judas worse and worse.

[SIMCHA] If Judas' portrait gets worse and worse

as time passes, I want to travel back to the time of the events

and see if I can find some archaeology

that will help tell his story.

The problem is: Jerusalem was flattened by the Romans

in and only a few traces of the ancient city remain.

Professor James Tabor tells me that a tradition

dating to the fourth century

tells us where Jesus and Judas ate

the night before the betrayal.

The Last Supper took place here.

-Remember Jesus goes, he says,

"Go into the city and you'll come to a house."

And he said, "Knock on the door,

and a man will come, and say the rebbe needs his room."

[SIMCHA] And there are still stones

from the building that stood here at the time of Jesus.

The second floor of the building

dates to the Crusader period, a thousand years ago.

Ok, I bet you this guy has supper here every day.

So this, this is , years, say,

this is where the Last Supper happened.

This space. Right.

This space.

[SIMCHA] At the Last Supper, Jesus predicted...

One of you will betray me.

[SIMCHA] Maybe Jesus knew Judas had already accepted

thirty pieces of silver from the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas

to betray him.

After all, In the week leading up to Passover

Jesus had already drawn the attention of Caiaphas...

They call him the Christ and King of Isreal!

[SIMCHA] And Caiaphas didn't like what he saw...

...he's stirring up the people for rebellion!

[SIMCHA] So why did the High Priest need Judas to find Jesus?

The thing with Judas Iscariot is: how do we find him?

We have three to five million people,

through here this week.

I know he's showing up in the morning in the Temple.

We haven't really tailed him.

We need an insider that knows his movements,

particularly on the night we plan to arrest him.

Where is he going to be?

It's like a John LeCare novel.

So Judas says, "We're going to eat at an upper room.

And then we always go afterwards

to a garden to pray."

So that garden he thought would be a place.

[SIMCHA] After the Last Supper

Jesus and his followers crossed the Kidron Valley

to a place the Gospels call "the Garden of Gethsemane"

on the Mount of Olives,

where Judas would finally turn Jesus over.

The Gospels don't say exactly where Gethsemane is.

But the clue is in the name,

which most accounts say means "olive oil press".

Moshe Maoz showed me the ancient olive trees here

where tradition says Jesus was betrayed.

So we are in the Garden of Gethsemane.

We are in the Garden of Gethsemane.

They kindly let us in where no man has gone before

except the gardener.

Except the gardener and Jesus before him.

[SIMCHA] But he also told me that "Gat"

can refer to a wine press.

And that in a corner of the grounds locked away

from the tourists there's archaeological evidence

of synchronicity with the New Testament.

Welcome, welcome. Thank you, come on in.

This is the bedrock that most likely in the Byzantine era

was used as a wine press.

You see, and it goes, come on you can see it.

You see this is where, somehow a place for liquids.

You see? Once you go to-

So you're saying the liquid went through

where my feet are...

Yes. -And into here.

But this is only before the time of the crusaders.

We are, I'm inside where the wine would come down into,

right, they carved a container.

Yeah.

But the point is this is called a "Gat",

and that's where the name Gethsemane...

Gethsemane...

Cause Gat means press,

I'm literally in the press that gave Gethsemane its name...

and also Shemen, Get- Shemen, means oil.

Oil.

So this was the place of the, we see the olive trees

right there, so this was the place

of the wine press and the oil.

And oil, yeah.

And we come here here's the archaeology,

there's the tree.

We understand why this place is called Gethsmane.

Here, we've got olives, those are olives.

The wine. People go they Gethsemane, the Gethsemane,

they don't understand that Gethsemane has in it...

Combination of the two.

I got it. I got... get it? Got? Gat?

Got, Gat, Okay.

[SIMCHA] If the traditions about these locations

are supported by archaeology,

does that mean the tradition of the evil Judas is also correct?

This man has betrayed the acused!

[SIMCHA] It turns out that for almost years

there were rumors of another tradition.

And in scholars said they had found

the long lost "Gospel of Judas"

and the headlines screamed: Judas is innocent!

[SIMCHA] I've been trying to find out if Judas Iscariot

really is the villain the Gospels say he is,

or is there evidence that he's been misrepresented?

As I drove back to the Old City of Jerusalem,

by the Garden of Gethsemane,

I stopped by an unobtrusive Roman pillar,

which reminded me that a year old tradition

isn't just an academic puzzle.

This pillar on the Mount of Olives,

next to the Garden of Gethsemane

embodies years of Western anti-Semitism.

How so? It's supposed to mark a spot.

Which spot?

The spot where Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss.

Because of that tradition people came here,

marked crosses on it, but also chipped it,

whipped it spat on it.

And by doing that they really expressed their hate of Judas.

And Judas became a metaphor for the Jewish people.

So this pillar embodies in it two thousand years

of Western anti-Semitism.

[SIMCHA] With traditions like this,

I want to know how people will react

if it turns out Judas has been misunderstood

and that he's a good guy after all..

So I turned to Rique Sachs who is the head,

and sole member of the movement

of the Righteous Double Cross

whose mission is to rehabilitate the image of Judas Iscariot.

Judas being a new religion?

A movement. It could be a religion if you want.

Okay. Well, I- you know, I kind of think that maybe

you're getting a little off-base with that.

But Jesus would never have been glorified

if it hadn't been for Judas.

Judas in fact is the prime mover of the New Testament.

What do you think about that?

Now that is, that is very out there.

What do you guys think?

I mean, I mean, Jesus...

if he picked Judah, right, he must know what he's doing.

Judas could have asked forgiveness, but he didn't.

He repents, you know.

When throws the thirty shekels back. The man repents.

But who is he repenting to?

He's repenting to man,

he's not repenting to the Lord.

Judas has been the scapegoat for , years,

and Christians have not treated Jews all that benignly.

Yes. But I'm not going to argue that point.

[SIMCHA] Rique's cause may be noble,

but I think he's going to need some archaeological help.

For decades gossip swirled in academic circles

about a papyrus found in the desert of Egypt.

The artifact was being passed around the Black Market.

The rumor was that it was the Lost Gospel of Judas.

When the document was unveiled,

international headlines and a

National Geographic television special

confirmed that the Gospel portrayed Judas not as a villain

but as a hero and that Jesus had asked Judas

to hand him over.

Finally, the evidence I've been looking for.

Judas has been misinterpreted for centuries.

I spoke to Professor April DeConick.

What is this?

What's the story behind this Gospel of Judas?

The National Geographic team,

when they worked up the initial translation of that text

thought that Judas in there was actually a positive figure.

It was a friend of Jesus, was asked by him to be,

to hand him over, and not betray him.

But April DeConick noticed that in the text

Judas was described as a "Daemon",

which was translated as "Spirit".

And she thinks the National Geographic team

got it all wrong.

He in this text is called daemon, the demon.

The demon. Demon. In Greek.

In Greek. It depends on what context you're in

as far as what this word really means.

That word can mean a spirit of some sort,

not necessarily indicating if it's malicious or a good spirit.

But when you're working in New Testament materials,

daemon is always a demon.

They are the beings that possess you and tempt you,

make you do terrible things,

tempt you to do terrible things.

So to call Judas the daemon is not a positive thing.

He's not a spirit in the sense of a good spirit;

he's a spirit in the sense of demon.

But you're saying they got it dead wrong?

In these, in these cases they were wrong

in their translations.

So what does that do when you translate it right to...

the good Judas?

The good Judas disappears.

Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

Here is all these international headlines

saying "Judas, good guy"

You're saying he's actually worse in this thing

than he is in the regular...?

That's correct.

[SIMCHA] It turns out that this portrait of Judas

may be even worse than the original.

With so few mentions of Judas in the Gospels

where can I find evidence about who he really was?

It turns out the evidence is encoded right here,

in the names of the Disciples.

[SIMCHA] In the year Judea was in turmoil,

occupied by the Romans,

who struggled to contain revolt.

The popular image of Jesus and his followers

is of a pacifist movement

who turned the other cheek

and relied on spirituality to rescue them.

A strange teaching...

[SIMCHA] But there are contradictions in the text.

In Luke Chapter , Jesus says:

"... and he that hath no sword,

let him sell his garment and buy one."

And later, at Gethsemane the disciple Simon Peter

pulls out a sword "and att*cks the High Priest's servant,

and cut off his right ear"

And then there's the Disciple called Simon the Zealot.

The Zealots were a movement

who wanted to expel the Romans -

revolutionary extremists who believed

in armed struggle, not pacifism.

According to the Historian Josephus

even the Zealots weren't radical enough

for a splinter group known as the Sicarii

who carried daggers hidden in the folds of their clothes.

My alligance goes with the sword.

[SIMCHA] And what about Judas?

His name, Judas Iscariot is usually translated

as Judas, Man from the City.

I spoke to Professor Robert Eisenman.

A lot of people say...that Judas Iscariot

means Judas Iscariot, "guy from the big city."

Nonsense.

The only thing that Judas Iscariot represents

is Judas the Sicarius.

In Josephus, he says the Sicarii were people

that were called Sicarii because of a dagger

that looked like a Roman Sica-

short, Roman, curved dagger.

The etymology is Iscariot, the "S" and the "I"

are simply reversed from the word Sicarius.

Could it be that there really were Sicarii and Zealots

that participated in that movement?

What do you mean, "Could have been?"

Of course they were.

That's what the movement was.

It's not "could it be"... The point is that

among Jesus' Apostles are zealots.

[SIMCHA] If Judas was a Sicarii

then there were at least two armed revolutionaries

among Jesus' disciples.

So why would Judas, a Jewish revolutionary

betray a fellow Jew and send him to the Crucifixion?

It turns out he didn't.

According to the Gospels,

Judas turned Jesus over

to the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas,

and his influential father-in-law, Annas,

and not to the Romans, who ruled Jerusalem

and were the only ones

with the authority to crucify Jesus.

Judas would have known that according to Roman law

it was forbidden for the Jewish High Priest

to condemn Jesus to death.

So why did Judas betray Jesus?

I asked Professor James Charlesworth.

I heard it said that he was trying to goad Jesus

into a confrontation.

Is there any, is this fanciful stuff,

or is it grounded in history, archaeology or the text?

Here is Judas, he's with Jesus two, three years,

he sees Jesus do phenomenal things.

We know Jesus did incredible things.

We call them miracles. Okay Judas says wow!

This is incredible. God is with him.

If I just push him a little further,

God will send all his angels.

Jesus has given us enough evidence:

here are two swords, that is enough.

I have not come to bring peace but a sword on the earth.

A lot of people don't know that's in the text.

Maybe they should start reading

the New Testament carefully and in their own way

asking where is the real Judas,

where is the real Jesus?

So what would a man, that Judas,

what would he want his leader to do?

To make a big move so that the w*r would begin

and the angels that everybody knew

were around would jump on the bandwagon

and say this is the son of God.

He wanted a Holy w*r and the Holy one

was none other than Jesus.

Maybe that's our answer.

[SIMCHA] Judas seemed to believe

that if Jesus were imprisoned it would provoke a revolt.

But Caiaphas and Annas

would have been aware of the risks of an uprising.

And so they quietly turned Jesus over to the Romans

who crucified him, turning Judas' expectations inside out.

You're taking himt o his death!

[SIMCHA] When Jesus was crucified

Judas walked to a place called Akeldama

and hanged himself.

The traditional view is that the villain felt remorse.

I have betrayed me master...

[SIMCHA] But I think Judas committed su1c1de

because he himself felt betrayed.

And a recent archaeological discovery at Akeldama

may finally shed light on the truth.

It makes sense.

I think we just figured out why Judas hung himself here.

[SIMCHA] I've found evidence that Judas Iscariot

may have been part of a revolutionary movement

called the Sicari, and that he believed that

when the people saw Jesus imprisoned

by the Jewish High Priest Caiaphas

it would provoke a revolt.

But Judas' plan went horribly wrong

when Caiaphas and his father in law Annas

quietly turned Jesus over to the Romans who crucified him.

I have betrayed my master...

[SIMCHA] Did Judas feel double crossed by the High Priest?

Professor James Tabor showed me a place

where few tourists go, Akeldama, the field of blood,

where the Gospels say Judas hanged himself.

The tradition is he felt remorseful for betraying Jesus,

and he went up to the Temple,

and he threw the money down.

And they said, "Too late," you know.

And he--look. He came- picture him coming right-

that--down here.

And he picked this place, and found a tree,

and put a rope around his neck,

and jumped off the limb.

[SMCHA] But why did Judas pick this place,

a mile down the valley from the Temple?

Now, look. What do you see right down there?

Come here.

Tombs.

These are tombs of the wealthy.

They want to see the Temple.

The very rich want to be buried by the Temple.

These tombs are the tombs of Annas, the Annas family.

That's the guys- the same family that-

That crucified Jesus.

[SIMCHA] In these tombs were identified

as the Annas family tombs.

And the traditional view that Judas hanged himself

out of remorse can't explain why he did it

in front of these tombs.

Why do people make tombs?

'Cause they want everlasting rest....

These are the guys that set up Jesus,

and these are the guys that kind of suckered in Judas.

If you want to ruin their peaceful rest forever,

what do you do?

You go and you hang yourself in front of their tomb.

Defiling it. -Yeah.

I never really thought of that.

I never thought of that til just now.

That Judas...

I haven't thought of that I think you're right...

It makes sense.

I think we just figured out why Judas hung himself here.

This is powerful evidence that Judas never intended

to have Jesus crucified.

If Judas didn't expect Caiaphas to hand Jesus over

to the Romans it would have been Judas who felt betrayed.

Perhaps knowing that he would forever be seen as a villain

he walked a mile down this valley.

In an act of vengeance, he hanged himself here,

in front of the Annas family tomb,

defiling the last resting place of those who had betrayed him.

Maybe Judas isn't the hero of the Gospels,

but the archaeological evidence suggests

that he didn't expect Jesus to die.

In the end, Judas is probably the best known of the Disciples.

But maybe, instead of betrayal,

he should be remembered for wanting freedom for his people:

a desire he shared with Jesus, right to the end.