BiAS 7 – The Bible and Politics in Africa
portrayed secondary figures (Jesus disciples) like Judas Iscariot in relation to
Jesus.^2It is interesting to find that, when one reads the gospels; of the twelve
disciples, Peter and Judas seem to have received the most attention as
the narrative of the historical life of Jesus unfolds. However, the two
seem to portray two kinds of lives; where one (Peter) is shown in a posi-
tive light and the other one (Judas) in the negative perspective. This
theological agenda then becomes imperative when analyzing the charac-
ter and role of Judas Iscariot in the debate of selling out and related to
the Zimbabwean religio-political, social and economic platform as
shown above. For the most part in the gospels, the name Judas is equiva-
lent to all the demonic forces, where Judas is presented as the epitome
of evil or unparalleled evil, greediness, unfaithfulness, ingratitude and
betrayal. Societies have not been spared in shunning the name of Judas^3 ,
for example, the German law forbids parents to give a child the name of
Judas for the good of the child.^4 George Buttick says, ‘We would not
name a child, or even a dog, Judas’.^5
Most of the writings have also followed the trend by sparing their effort
in qualifying Judas as ‘traitor’ and his deeds are judged as standing
unique in perversity in the annals of history.^6 R Guardini adds that ‘Ju-
das Iscariot was the most notorious criminal and personifies the most
odious of traitors and the blackest of treachery in Christian history.’^7
What is interesting is that, Paul does not explicitly mention the name of
Judas Iscariot even though his writings are the earliest. In fact, Paul
pretends as if he knows nothing about the betrayer’s name, only to
choose statements like ‘Jesus was handed over to death’ (Rom 4:25, 8:32;
Gal 2:20 and 1Cor 11:23).^8 This possibly leads some to raise questions
(^2) B D Ehrman, The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and betrayed,
Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2006, 17.
(^3) A Jewish family use the name today as Yehudah and is their source of pride, especially
Israelis, because it is the founding name of Jews, linked to one of the Patriarchs of the
twelve tribes of Israel. But non-Jews would not think of naming a child Judas as shown
in the text.
(^4) W Klassen, Judas: Betrayer or Friend of Jesus?, Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1996, 5.
(^5) Klassen, Judas, 29.
(^6) Klassen, Judas, 4.
(^7) R Guardini, The Lord, Chicago: Regnery, 1954, 348.
(^8) K Paffenroth, Judas: Images of the Lost Disciple, Louisville: Westminster John Knox
Press, 2001, 1.