Diary of Judas Iscariot

Catalog # SKU1198

Publisher TGS Publishing

Weight 1.00 lbs

Author Name Gregory A. Page

$15.95

Quantity

Ask a question about this product

Description

Diary of Judas Iscariot
or
the Gospel
According to Judas

By Gregory A. Page

LET no man venture to read this little book who is unable to shake himself free for a time, from those inherited and acquired conceptions of Christ as a divine Being of more than human perfection which have become woven into the very texture of every devout Christian's thought and faith. The reader must learn, at least to some extent, to regard the young Prophet of Galilee through the eyes of a contemporary Jew, to whom He came, making great and wonderful claims, it is true, but lacking all those credentials of splendour, authority, rank, and worldly power which he had been led to expect in the promised Messiah.

He looked for a King, and behold a carpenter! He had dreamt of a Conqueror, and lo! a Man meek and lowly, who carefully avoided conflict, and even contact, with the Roman authorities. lie expected one who would fulfil and amplify the Law, enforcing its obligations not only upon the Jews, but also upon all the Gentile world; and behold a Man who openly disregarded its most stringent enactments, and lived in a state of constant rebellion against the men whom he regarded as its chosen exponents and official guardians.

What wonder that many were outraged, others disappointed, and all men puzzled?

Even if my readers do not accept my estimate of Judas and of the stages which led to his calamitous fall, they must at least admit that Christ's acts and words must have seemed strange and inexplicable to most of the men among whom He moved and taught, and that I have in no case overstepped the bounds of probability in my statement of their effect on the mind. of Judas.

With this brief warning, I invite a careful and thoughtful perusal of the following study of our Saviour's career, as viewed by an average Jew, to whom the spiritual side of His mission remained a sealed book, and who only sought in Him a temporal and national Deliverer.

Excerpt from Preface:

This little book is not an apology for Judas Iscariot, but rather a restatemento of the 'facts of his case from the point of view -- so far as that can now be obtained --of the man Judas himself.

It has long seemed to the writer: that, during these centuries, Judas has been suffering under an exaggerated weight of censure. The fact that the person betrayed was the greatest, the purest, the loveliest and the most glorious character in all history has led men to magnify the sin of His betrayer until it now passes the wit of man to invent any terms of scorn or obloquy which have not already been heaped upon the traitor's thrice accursed head.

But the more closely one studies the life and words of Christ, the mote apparent does it become that that life and those words must have put a terrible strain upon the faith of the men and women who followed His leadership. He fulfilled hardly any of their expectations; He acted contrary to their most cherished traditions; He scouted and scorned their most trusted leaders, and disappointed theft fondest hopes. What wonder, then, that many went back from following Him! Indeed, the wonder is that, of the twelve chosen Apostles, only one broke down under the strain; and it is the fall of this one which I endeavour to trace in the following pages.

1 have imagined Judas to be an average Jew, with the hopes and fears, the training and prejudices of a Jew; striving to live a godly life according to the traditions of his fathers; filled with pride in the ancient glories of his race; and burning, therefore, with fierce hatred of the usurping and all-conquering Roman.

Such a man, aglow with Messianic hopes, and longing for the promised Deliverer, joins himself to the crowd of Christ's disciples, and soon feels a persuasion that this is indeed the long- hoped- for Messiah.

But he is a man of inquiring mind, who wishes to know the why and the wherefore of everything; and, as is natural with such a one, he begins from the very first to question and argue within himself concerning all that Christ does or says.

For a while the marvels wrought by the young Prophet, and the dignity and purity of His character, combine to sweep away Judas's doubts, and he is borne along on a flood of enthusiasm, until he enters the inner circle and becomes an Apostle.

The great difference between Judas and the other Apostles was this: that with them love to their Master became so deep and strong a principle that not all their doubts and misgivings could root it out; whereas with Judas the doubts and the misgivings gradually gained the upper hand. In one case -- as has so often happened since-love cast out fear; but in the other, alas ! it was fear, born of doubt, that cast out love.

In a word, Judas betrayed his Lord, not because he hated Him -- as most writers seem to think -- but because he had lost faith in him.

There have been many viler traitors since Judas, many worse men and women; and there are many worse in the world to-day. But only one ever betrayed the Son of Man; and, alas for Judas! he was that one.