response to Borges versions of Judas.
I was conflicted between whether to talk about the first or the second interpretation of Borges’ fiction versions of Judas, though the second one is the one that made the most sense.
In the second version, Nils changes his argument where he claims Judas sacrificed the most, and also ended up renouncing honor, kingdom of god, and many other things. Here is what doesn’t make sense about this interpretation.
Is that Jesus before he was crucified at the last supper according to the gospel, he knew that he will be betrayed and so he says it out loud that someone of the twelve disciples will betray him. Keeping in mind he never mentioned who that would be. So if Jesus knew what’s going to happen to him as in getting crucified, and the reason he was sent to earth is to get crucified in-order to make up for humanity’s sins. Then how come it’s a betrayal defined by Jesus, when it’s actually something that helped Jesus finish the mission that god sent him to do.
Though before the supper according to the gospel when the chief priests were plotting a way of how to put Jesus to death, “Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot” then “he went away and conferred with the chief priests” it makes you wonder who went on to plot the death? Judas or Judas after the serpent has entered were he became “Iscariot”? it looks like Judas is not in control of his own will. So again does that make Judas a Betrayer?
What really makes Borges second interpretation add up so much, is the kiss according to the gospel, to me it sounded and seemed really intimate and very sentimental and out of context, that Judas went to Jesus and out of the blue was about to kiss him, actually in the gospel it doesn’t say whether he was eventually kissed, nor where was the kiss, a lot of the paintings out there indicate the place of the kiss was either on the cheeks or on the lips, which makes the situation even more bizarre, why is Judas giving Jesus a kiss. Since a very important point, which was brought up in class, is that Judas’ kiss wasn’t a sign to let people know that Jesus is here, Jesus wasn’t a king or a prince that isn’t showed to the people as a protection protocol, he was social and a very well-known figure due to his political statements against the current rulers who were extremely the opposite of fans to Jesus.
In both cases whether he was aware of his doings or not, Judas indeed did sacrifice the most and that’s why the second interpretation made sense the most, because no matter how much you want to go around the story, Judas did sacrifice the most, and he did give up so much to do what he did. Though what I would like to believe, that he was aware of his actions, and he did what he did to help Jesus complete his assignment, knowing the consequences of people his name being written in history as the man who killed the beloved miracle.
so this is nonetheless a very conflicting interpretation, though in my opinion it is the most fair prediction of what might have gone with Judas.