It is the
impulsive man who frequently suffers what appears to be inversion, and
Judas was impulsive exceedingly. Matthew, and Matthew only, says that
Judas asked for money from the chief priests. "What will ye give me,
and I will deliver Him unto you?" According to Mark, whose account of
the transaction is the same as Luke's, "Judas . . . went unto the chief
priests to betray Him unto them. And when they heard it, they were
glad, and promised to give him money." If the priests were the
tempters, a slight difference is established in favour of Judas, but
this we will neglect. The sin of taking money and joining in that last
meal in any case is black enough, although, as we have before pointed
out, Judas did not at the time know what the other side of the bargain
was. Admitting, however, everything that can fairly be urged against
him, all that can be affirmed with certainty is that we are in the
presence of strange and unaccountable inconsistency, and that an apostle
who had abandoned his home, who had followed Jesus for three years
amidst contempt and persecution, and who at last slew himself in self-
reproach, could be capable of committing the meanest of sins.
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