0:00:04 > 0:00:06Today, on Good Friday, Christians across the world
0:00:06 > 0:00:09are looking again at the story of Jesus -
0:00:09 > 0:00:12of his journey into Jerusalem,
0:00:12 > 0:00:15his Last Supper, the Crucifixion
0:00:15 > 0:00:16and, of course, his suffering.
0:00:16 > 0:00:19And I'm no different - I'm going to look at that story again as well.
0:00:19 > 0:00:20But I always want to know,
0:00:20 > 0:00:22what is the thing in the story that I've not seen before?
0:00:22 > 0:00:23What have I missed?
0:00:25 > 0:00:29So this year, I want to look at the story
0:00:29 > 0:00:32through the eyes of the villain of the piece.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35I want to look at the story through the eyes of Judas.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37# Judas, Juda-ah-ah
0:00:37 > 0:00:40# Judas, Juda-ah-ah... #
0:00:40 > 0:00:42Judas still has the power to shock.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49The most famous traitor in history, he lives on because of a kiss...
0:00:51 > 0:00:55..which sent Jesus, his friend and teacher, to his death on the cross.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59His name is shorthand for treachery,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01used on the football terraces ...
0:01:02 > 0:01:03Judas!
0:01:03 > 0:01:05..and in the political arena.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08- Judas!- Nick Clegg's a Judas!- Judas!
0:01:08 > 0:01:10When we accuse someone of "selling out",
0:01:10 > 0:01:12there's an echo of Judas
0:01:12 > 0:01:16and the 30 pieces of silver he traded for his friend's life.
0:01:16 > 0:01:20And the kiss of death is a graphic reference
0:01:20 > 0:01:23to the moment when Judas the disciple
0:01:23 > 0:01:25became Judas the betrayer.
0:01:25 > 0:01:28Judas' great crime is the fact that he betrays his friend.
0:01:28 > 0:01:33He was the insider, the follower who turned against his master.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36He's the person who CANNOT be forgiven.
0:01:36 > 0:01:38And yet, at the same time,
0:01:38 > 0:01:42Judas' betrayal was a vital part of the Easter story.
0:01:42 > 0:01:47Without Judas, there is no death of Jesus and there is no salvation.
0:01:47 > 0:01:49He is just this fascinating figure
0:01:49 > 0:01:52because he's at the heart of the whole story.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Why did this man - who'd been living alongside Jesus,
0:01:59 > 0:02:01who'd been walking with him, teaching with him,
0:02:01 > 0:02:03preaching with him and believing in him -
0:02:03 > 0:02:06betray him at his most desperate hour,
0:02:06 > 0:02:09when he needed his friends more than ever?
0:02:09 > 0:02:11And on Good Friday,
0:02:11 > 0:02:14when we hear again that story of Jesus dying for our sins,
0:02:14 > 0:02:17is Judas excluded from that redemption?
0:02:33 > 0:02:35Welcome to my home from home.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Now, I always think best in a church,
0:02:38 > 0:02:41so here I've gathered all sorts of evidence
0:02:41 > 0:02:46so that we can get a better picture of the life and death of Judas,
0:02:46 > 0:02:48this shadowy and mysterious figure.
0:02:51 > 0:02:55'This is my place to think, ask questions,
0:02:55 > 0:02:58'and reassemble the facts and feelings I've collected
0:02:58 > 0:03:01'on my journey into the mind of Judas.'
0:03:02 > 0:03:04'I've travelled to Jerusalem,
0:03:04 > 0:03:07'and the places where he spent his final days
0:03:07 > 0:03:10'planning and executing his treachery.'
0:03:12 > 0:03:14'And to a remote English village
0:03:14 > 0:03:18'for a unique and moving interpretation of his death.'
0:03:20 > 0:03:24'Along the way, I've talked to fellow travellers on pilgrimage
0:03:24 > 0:03:26'and to some of the best minds in the country
0:03:26 > 0:03:29'to help me unravel this complex figure
0:03:29 > 0:03:32'many see as the embodiment of evil.'
0:03:34 > 0:03:38My journey began here, in my home village in Blyth.
0:03:42 > 0:03:44My name is Kate Bottley.
0:03:44 > 0:03:46I've been a Christian since I was 14
0:03:46 > 0:03:49and I was ordained a priest six years ago.
0:03:49 > 0:03:53I have a husband, two children, and three churches.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55Oh, and Buster the dog.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01This is one of my churches, St Mary's and St Martin's.
0:04:01 > 0:04:05It's Sunday morning and I've already taken one communion service.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08The Lord be with you.
0:04:08 > 0:04:09- CONGREGATION:- And also with you.
0:04:09 > 0:04:13'At every Eucharist service, I'm reminded of the events in Jerusalem
0:04:13 > 0:04:17'leading to Christ's crucifixion.
0:04:17 > 0:04:20'The words are taken from the earliest source we have
0:04:20 > 0:04:22'for the betrayal of Jesus,
0:04:22 > 0:04:26'which is St Paul's Letters to the Corinthians in the New Testament.'
0:04:26 > 0:04:30..who, in the same night that he was betrayed,
0:04:30 > 0:04:32took bread and gave ye thanks...
0:04:32 > 0:04:36'Paul doesn't even mention the name of Jesus' betrayer.'
0:04:40 > 0:04:43It's the four Gospel writers in the New Testament
0:04:43 > 0:04:47that fill in the name gap left by Paul in his letters.
0:04:47 > 0:04:49Judas is mentioned in 22 verses,
0:04:49 > 0:04:53and actually, that's quite a lot, second only to Peter.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12,
0:04:56 > 0:05:00went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them...
0:05:01 > 0:05:05When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he repented.
0:05:05 > 0:05:06"One of you will betray me."
0:05:08 > 0:05:12The accounts of the Gospel writers sometimes differ, sometimes overlap,
0:05:12 > 0:05:16but they remain the oldest and most reliable source
0:05:16 > 0:05:19in the search for Judas' elusive character.
0:05:19 > 0:05:22The New Testament Gospels were written by people
0:05:22 > 0:05:26who were in touch with the eyewitness testimony of the time,
0:05:26 > 0:05:30so within a generation or two of Jesus' ministry on earth.
0:05:30 > 0:05:33Mark's Gospel is generally thought to be the earliest Gospel.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36John is thought to be the latest of all,
0:05:36 > 0:05:41and that is the Gospel that paints Judas in the worst possible light.
0:05:43 > 0:05:48There are two details about Judas on which all the Gospel writers agree.
0:05:48 > 0:05:53First, that he was chosen by Jesus to be one of his 12 disciples.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57And secondly, and most crucially, that he betrayed his master.
0:05:59 > 0:06:02What else can the Gospels tell us?
0:06:02 > 0:06:04Just who was this traitor?
0:06:10 > 0:06:13One of the clues could be in his name.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19"Iscariot" is rather mysterious,
0:06:19 > 0:06:22and both in ancient times and in modern times,
0:06:22 > 0:06:25people have wondered what this means.
0:06:25 > 0:06:28One popular theory is that the name Iscariot
0:06:28 > 0:06:33links Judas to a group of radical nationalists called Sicarii,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35who fought against the Roman occupation
0:06:35 > 0:06:37and their Jewish collaborators.
0:06:39 > 0:06:43They were kind of terrorists of the 1st century in Judea,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45and they got their name from this little dagger,
0:06:45 > 0:06:49called a sica in Latin,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51and they used to stab people, basically.
0:06:51 > 0:06:53They were pretty violent.
0:06:53 > 0:06:58Some scholars have this idea that Judas got his name, Iscariot,
0:06:58 > 0:07:03from the Sicarius, and that he was a revolutionary.
0:07:03 > 0:07:05The difficulty with that explanation, though,
0:07:05 > 0:07:07is that we only know about the Sicarii
0:07:07 > 0:07:10from about the '50s onwards.
0:07:10 > 0:07:14Which puts Judas 20 years outside of the Sicarii timeframe.
0:07:16 > 0:07:20There is a simpler interpretation of Iscariot,
0:07:20 > 0:07:23and it could tell us something about the status of Judas
0:07:23 > 0:07:25within Jesus' inner circle.
0:07:26 > 0:07:32The most common explanation is that it simply means "man from Kerioth".
0:07:32 > 0:07:33"Ish Kerioth."
0:07:33 > 0:07:37But the difficulty is that we don't know exactly where Kerioth is.
0:07:37 > 0:07:41People have suggested it may be a town in Judea, in the south.
0:07:41 > 0:07:44And since all of the other disciples were from Galilee in the north,
0:07:44 > 0:07:47that means that Judas would have been an outsider then,
0:07:47 > 0:07:51not necessarily part of the mainstream group.
0:07:55 > 0:07:59I've always been intrigued by this idea of Judas as an outsider,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01different from all the other disciples.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04In fact, when the Gospel writers do a list
0:08:04 > 0:08:08of all Jesus' disciples' names, they always put Judas last,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11and they always call him "Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus."
0:08:13 > 0:08:16But presumably at some time, he was just as trusted,
0:08:16 > 0:08:21just as respected and just as close to Jesus as any of the others.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25The disciples were not volunteers.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27They were chosen by Jesus
0:08:27 > 0:08:29and, as part of his select group,
0:08:29 > 0:08:31they were there not just to follow him
0:08:31 > 0:08:34but to play an active part in his ministry.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38Judas was one of the chosen few.
0:08:41 > 0:08:43Then Jesus summoned his 12 disciples
0:08:43 > 0:08:47and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out,
0:08:47 > 0:08:50and to cure every disease and every sickness.
0:08:52 > 0:08:58So what changed to turn Judas from a trusted believer to a betrayer?
0:09:03 > 0:09:06The catalyst seems to have been the decision by Jesus
0:09:06 > 0:09:09to take his message beyond the remote backwaters of Galilee,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12in the north of the Holy Land, where he'd grown up,
0:09:12 > 0:09:18and travel south to Jerusalem - the centre of the Jewish world.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20In the early part of Jesus' ministry,
0:09:20 > 0:09:21he'd been up in Galilee,
0:09:21 > 0:09:24broadly working around the sort of places that he knew.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27So he based himself in Capernaum,
0:09:27 > 0:09:31and he moved around the towns and villages around the Sea of Galilee.
0:09:31 > 0:09:33Some disciples maybe even went home at night.
0:09:33 > 0:09:37But the last part of his ministry, when he went down to Jerusalem,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39they had to leave their homes,
0:09:39 > 0:09:42and so this is really a new phase in the ministry of Jesus.
0:09:47 > 0:09:50I've also travelled to Jerusalem.
0:09:50 > 0:09:52It's my first visit.
0:09:52 > 0:09:56I want to absorb the atmosphere of the city and see the places
0:09:56 > 0:09:59where Jesus walked in his final days with his disciples.
0:10:01 > 0:10:02Of course,
0:10:02 > 0:10:06I come in full knowledge of the momentous events of that week.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11For the disciples, it was a journey into the unknown,
0:10:11 > 0:10:14and particularly disturbing because Jesus predicted
0:10:14 > 0:10:17that Jerusalem was where he would suffer and die.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them,
0:10:23 > 0:10:26"The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands,
0:10:26 > 0:10:28"and they will kill him,
0:10:28 > 0:10:32"and three days after being killed, he will rise again."
0:10:33 > 0:10:36But they did not understand what he was saying,
0:10:36 > 0:10:37and were afraid to ask him.
0:10:38 > 0:10:41All the way through the Gospel stories,
0:10:41 > 0:10:45the disciples find it difficult to understand what's going on.
0:10:45 > 0:10:48And I think particularly when it gets to Jerusalem,
0:10:48 > 0:10:51and Jesus starts talking about the need to die,
0:10:51 > 0:10:54I think they're all completely confused.
0:10:54 > 0:10:57I certainly have some sympathy for Judas,
0:10:57 > 0:10:59in the sense that he was struggling,
0:10:59 > 0:11:02as the other disciples were,
0:11:02 > 0:11:06to make sense of who this charismatic, unpredictable,
0:11:06 > 0:11:09extraordinary person of Jesus really was, and what he required of them.
0:11:09 > 0:11:12THEY SING
0:11:12 > 0:11:16'Today, Jerusalem's streets are full of pilgrims,
0:11:16 > 0:11:19'here to walk in the footsteps of Jesus.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22'But I doubt many of them are looking from
0:11:22 > 0:11:25'the rarely considered perspective of his betrayer.'
0:11:30 > 0:11:33I'm looking for something with Judas on it.
0:11:33 > 0:11:34You know Judas?
0:11:34 > 0:11:36- What?- Judas.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39- What, Jesus? - No, not Jesus, Judas.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42No, I don't have these things. I've got some other things.
0:11:42 > 0:11:44- Bye for now.- See you.
0:11:45 > 0:11:47No. No.
0:11:48 > 0:11:50He'll be here somewhere.
0:11:56 > 0:11:57Maybe down here, look.
0:11:57 > 0:12:00- Have you got anything with Judas on it?- No.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04Have you got anything at all with Judas on it?
0:12:04 > 0:12:05No.
0:12:05 > 0:12:07I'm looking for something with Judas on it.
0:12:07 > 0:12:09- With what?- With Judas.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12- Jesus? - No, not Jesus. Judas.
0:12:12 > 0:12:13The one that betrayed Jesus.
0:12:15 > 0:12:17Thank you.
0:12:17 > 0:12:21But which...? Ah, there he is, look. There's Judas.
0:12:21 > 0:12:23With his moneybag.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25Wow. Amazing.
0:12:30 > 0:12:34'Jesus and all his disciples arrived in Jerusalem
0:12:34 > 0:12:37'during the celebrations for Passover,
0:12:37 > 0:12:39'the holiest time in the Jewish year.'
0:12:39 > 0:12:44Jerusalem is a city that's full to bursting with pilgrims
0:12:44 > 0:12:47who are intent on spending at least a week, possibly two weeks there.
0:12:47 > 0:12:50They're going to be having parties with their family,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53lots of eating and drinking. It's a great celebration.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58But there were also simmering political tensions.
0:13:00 > 0:13:04The Holy Land at that time was occupied by the Romans.
0:13:05 > 0:13:09And the message of Passover heightened Jewish resentment
0:13:09 > 0:13:11against their military presence.
0:13:11 > 0:13:14Passover celebrated the fact that, in the Old Testament,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18God had rescued his people out of Egypt, rescued his people
0:13:18 > 0:13:21from the oppression by their Egyptian overlords.
0:13:21 > 0:13:24And so it was no surprise that many Jews
0:13:24 > 0:13:27saw the oppression by the Egyptians in the Old Testament
0:13:27 > 0:13:32as very much like the oppression that they were experiencing
0:13:32 > 0:13:34at the hands of the Romans in the present.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37There are Roman troops on the streets.
0:13:37 > 0:13:40Roman troops even in the porticoes of the Temple.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42Passover was a security nightmare.
0:13:42 > 0:13:44There's always that threat,
0:13:44 > 0:13:47always that worry that things could explode.
0:13:48 > 0:13:52It was in this already charged atmosphere
0:13:52 > 0:13:55that Jesus immediately drew attention to himself.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58Jesus is clearly somebody to be reckoned with
0:13:58 > 0:14:00from the moment he enters Jerusalem.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03He comes in on a donkey. He's somebody special.
0:14:03 > 0:14:07He's the king coming to claim his city.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil,
0:14:11 > 0:14:13asking, "Who is this?"
0:14:13 > 0:14:15The crowds were saying,
0:14:15 > 0:14:19"This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee."
0:14:19 > 0:14:22That would have got the notice of the authorities.
0:14:22 > 0:14:23They would have been onto him.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26They would have wanted to know what exactly he was about.
0:14:28 > 0:14:31The following day, Jesus went a step further.
0:14:31 > 0:14:34He lashed out at the Jewish religious authorities, who,
0:14:34 > 0:14:38in exchange for their acceptance of Roman military occupation,
0:14:38 > 0:14:41were given money-making privileges.
0:14:43 > 0:14:46Then Jesus entered the Temple
0:14:46 > 0:14:49and drove out all who were selling and buying in the Temple,
0:14:49 > 0:14:52and he overturned the tables of the moneychangers
0:14:52 > 0:14:56and the seats of those who sold doves.
0:14:56 > 0:14:58Turning over the tables -
0:14:58 > 0:15:01this was the action of someone who was a troublemaker
0:15:01 > 0:15:04and someone who could upset the delicate political balance
0:15:04 > 0:15:07between the Jewish and Roman authorities at the time.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09Overturning the tables of the moneychangers
0:15:09 > 0:15:11is a spectacular way to announce yourself
0:15:11 > 0:15:14as a person who needs to be taken notice of.
0:15:14 > 0:15:15THEY SING
0:15:16 > 0:15:20I wonder what was going through the disciples' minds?
0:15:20 > 0:15:22There must have been a feeling of expectation,
0:15:22 > 0:15:26that something was about to happen, but they just didn't know what.
0:15:29 > 0:15:34Against this backdrop of political tension and uncertainty,
0:15:34 > 0:15:36which was shared by all the disciples,
0:15:36 > 0:15:40Judas took it upon himself to act.
0:15:42 > 0:15:46Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the 12,
0:15:46 > 0:15:49went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.
0:15:50 > 0:15:53When they heard it, they were greatly pleased
0:15:53 > 0:15:55and promised to give him money.
0:15:55 > 0:15:56So he began to look for
0:15:56 > 0:15:58an opportunity to betray him.
0:16:00 > 0:16:04So Judas had already taken the first steps towards treachery
0:16:04 > 0:16:08as Jesus and his disciples gathered for their Passover meal -
0:16:08 > 0:16:11a defining moment in Christian history,
0:16:11 > 0:16:13remembered as The Last Supper.
0:16:23 > 0:16:26The Last Supper took place in an upper room
0:16:26 > 0:16:29just outside the walls of the Old City.
0:16:30 > 0:16:34According to Christian tradition, this Gothic hall,
0:16:34 > 0:16:36built by Crusaders, marks the site.
0:16:42 > 0:16:46'Even though the room itself dates from centuries after Jesus,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48'I feel overwhelmed.'
0:16:50 > 0:16:52'I can imagine them all arriving together.'
0:16:57 > 0:17:00And when they had taken their places and were eating,
0:17:00 > 0:17:05Jesus said, "Truly I tell you, one of you
0:17:05 > 0:17:09"will betray me, one who is eating with me."
0:17:09 > 0:17:12Jesus was troubled in spirit and declared,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16"Very truly I tell you, one of you will betray me."
0:17:18 > 0:17:21In the middle of the feasting, in the middle of the chatting
0:17:21 > 0:17:24and the noise and a bunch of friends talking to each other,
0:17:24 > 0:17:29Jesus announces that one person around this table will betray him.
0:17:32 > 0:17:36That must have just cut the whole thing in two,
0:17:36 > 0:17:40that must have just split the whole table, really,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43and must have stopped them in their tracks.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46And Jesus' disciples are all saying, "Well, is it me?"
0:17:46 > 0:17:48Looking at each other, going, "Is it you?"
0:17:51 > 0:17:53And then there's this quiet conversation
0:17:53 > 0:17:55and in the middle of that hubbub,
0:17:55 > 0:17:58in the middle of those men chatting and discussing,
0:17:58 > 0:18:01is this moment of Jesus and Judas...
0:18:03 > 0:18:05..just looking each other in the eye,
0:18:05 > 0:18:07and knowing what was about to happen.
0:18:09 > 0:18:13And Jesus says, "Go and do it. Go and do it quickly."
0:18:16 > 0:18:20'And in that quiet conversation is the whole contradiction of Judas -
0:18:20 > 0:18:24'the ambiguity of his role in the events of Holy Week
0:18:24 > 0:18:28'as the perpetrator of an act that was so evil,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32'but also so pivotal in God's plan of redemption for all.'
0:18:33 > 0:18:40He is both the instrument of the horrible, painful death of Jesus
0:18:40 > 0:18:46and also necessary in God's path of salvation for humanity.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47Jesus himself says, you know,
0:18:47 > 0:18:51"Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54"It would be better for him if he hadn't been born."
0:18:54 > 0:18:57That's a pretty negative thing to say about anyone.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59And yet, at the same time, you can say,
0:18:59 > 0:19:03"Well, if Judas hadn't done what he did, where would we have been?"
0:19:06 > 0:19:11So does that excuse Judas as a hapless cog in God's machine?
0:19:12 > 0:19:13Well, I strongly believe
0:19:13 > 0:19:16that God allows us the freedom to make choices.
0:19:18 > 0:19:23When Jesus looked him in the eye, Judas could have changed his mind.
0:19:23 > 0:19:24But he didn't.
0:19:24 > 0:19:28And that decision to continue on the path to betrayal
0:19:28 > 0:19:31is made all the worse by what followed.
0:19:33 > 0:19:37While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread
0:19:37 > 0:19:40and, after blessing it, he broke it,
0:19:40 > 0:19:42gave it to his disciples, and said,
0:19:42 > 0:19:46"Take, eat. This is my body."
0:19:47 > 0:19:51Then he took a cup and, after giving thanks, he gave it to them,
0:19:51 > 0:19:54saying, "Drink from it, all of you,
0:19:54 > 0:19:57"for this is my blood of the covenant,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01"which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins."
0:20:01 > 0:20:06Jesus invited everyone round that table to eat with him,
0:20:06 > 0:20:08even the person he knew would betray him,
0:20:08 > 0:20:11even the person he knew would hurt him the most.
0:20:11 > 0:20:12He still ate with him.
0:20:14 > 0:20:182,000 years later, the sharing of bread and wine,
0:20:18 > 0:20:22the Eucharist, remains the central sacrament in Christianity.
0:20:23 > 0:20:28It deeply moves me to think about that moment when, for Jesus,
0:20:28 > 0:20:31suffering and death was so close.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35I celebrate the Eucharist every single Sunday,
0:20:35 > 0:20:40sometimes several times on a Sunday, you know, many times a week...
0:20:41 > 0:20:45..and I'll confess that not always do I realise the gravitas
0:20:45 > 0:20:49of what I'm doing when I break that bread and share that wine.
0:20:51 > 0:20:52Sitting here...
0:20:54 > 0:21:00..it feels, like, so significant and so important.
0:21:02 > 0:21:05And just the sense of sacrifice,
0:21:05 > 0:21:09the sense of Jesus understanding fully what was about to happen.
0:21:12 > 0:21:14It's just really powerful.
0:21:15 > 0:21:19It's really painful as well, it feels really painful.
0:21:19 > 0:21:22BELL TOLLS
0:21:24 > 0:21:25SHE CHUCKLES
0:21:29 > 0:21:30BELLS TOLL
0:21:36 > 0:21:40When Judas left the upper room, it was to betray his friend.
0:21:41 > 0:21:42Why?
0:21:46 > 0:21:49So what of Judas' motive?
0:21:49 > 0:21:53The earliest Gospel, the Gospel of Mark, tells us nothing.
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Perhaps that's why the later Gospel writers
0:21:56 > 0:22:01offered some possible explanations as to why Judas betrayed his friend
0:22:01 > 0:22:05so suddenly, so publicly and so terribly.
0:22:11 > 0:22:16The most commonly held belief is that Judas did it for the money.
0:22:16 > 0:22:19Then one of the 12, who was called Judas Iscariot,
0:22:19 > 0:22:22went to the chief priests and said,
0:22:22 > 0:22:25"What will you give me if I betray him to you?"
0:22:26 > 0:22:29They paid him 30 pieces of silver.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31And from that moment,
0:22:31 > 0:22:33he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38Matthew's account is supported by other hints
0:22:38 > 0:22:41to suggest that Judas was greedy.
0:22:41 > 0:22:44So it's John who says that he was the keeper of the purse,
0:22:44 > 0:22:47so like he was the treasurer of the Jesus movement.
0:22:47 > 0:22:48And he also says that...
0:22:48 > 0:22:51Again, this image again that sticks with Judas all the time,
0:22:51 > 0:22:55that he stole the money out of the common purse.
0:22:55 > 0:22:59So is that it? Judas was simply corrupted by greed?
0:22:59 > 0:23:02It's certainly been one of the most enduring portrayals
0:23:02 > 0:23:06down the centuries - Judas clutching his bag of money.
0:23:06 > 0:23:12One of the earliest images that we have is from the early 5th century.
0:23:12 > 0:23:17It's a little ivory plaque from a Roman casket,
0:23:17 > 0:23:20and it sets the tone for Judas imagery throughout the ages,
0:23:20 > 0:23:22which is that these images
0:23:22 > 0:23:26are not just simple illustrations of Bible stories,
0:23:26 > 0:23:31but they are adding symbolic elements, moralising elements.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33Perhaps one of the things that everyone would still know
0:23:33 > 0:23:34if you asked them about Judas
0:23:34 > 0:23:37is that he sells Christ for 30 pieces of silver.
0:23:38 > 0:23:42Yet, to me, blaming Judas' treachery on avarice
0:23:42 > 0:23:44seems a little too easy,
0:23:44 > 0:23:50and today, there's doubt as to how plausible the accusation really is.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54The Gospels might explain it was all about the money,
0:23:54 > 0:23:58the reward money, but that seems a very weak reason
0:23:58 > 0:24:03for someone who had been with Jesus so closely,
0:24:03 > 0:24:06who would have been teaching his teaching, healing in his name.
0:24:06 > 0:24:08It's very mysterious.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12It was a fairly small sum of money, 30 pieces of silver.
0:24:12 > 0:24:14It may have been a sort of slight incentive,
0:24:14 > 0:24:16but it certainly wouldn't have been the trigger
0:24:16 > 0:24:19for Judas betraying Jesus.
0:24:20 > 0:24:22It's the price of a slave.
0:24:22 > 0:24:25It would probably have kept him going a month or two.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27It's not a huge amount.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31So I think it's very unlikely that it was simply for the money.
0:24:34 > 0:24:36A second explanation for Judas' betrayal
0:24:36 > 0:24:39appears in the Gospels of Luke and John,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42who both say that he was possessed by the devil.
0:24:46 > 0:24:49And actually, in a way, that lets him off a bit, doesn't it?
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Because the traditional Christian idea of being possessed by the devil
0:24:52 > 0:24:54is the devil comes from the outside.
0:24:54 > 0:24:56You can be a good person, the devil will still get you.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58So Judas could still have been a good person,
0:24:58 > 0:25:01but have just been got by the devil at that moment.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06To the modern mind, it all feels rather unbelievable.
0:25:07 > 0:25:10I think, in the 21st century, it's hard for all of us -
0:25:10 > 0:25:13certainly it's hard for me - to get our heads around
0:25:13 > 0:25:16exactly what is meant by the language of Satan
0:25:16 > 0:25:18and of demons in the New Testament.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22One problem I have with this explanation
0:25:22 > 0:25:26is that if Judas' behaviour is put down to an inhuman force,
0:25:26 > 0:25:30then he becomes a monster, and not like the rest of us.
0:25:30 > 0:25:33When someone does something so terrible,
0:25:33 > 0:25:35what we want to do is to separate them out from ourselves,
0:25:35 > 0:25:37to label them.
0:25:37 > 0:25:41But evil is part of our shared human story,
0:25:41 > 0:25:44and it's part of Judas' story, too.
0:25:44 > 0:25:47All human beings are capable of doing terrible things
0:25:47 > 0:25:52and kind of splitting in that kind of way is comfortable deception.
0:25:52 > 0:25:53It's a way of persuading ourselves
0:25:53 > 0:25:55that WE couldn't do such terrible things
0:25:55 > 0:25:58and WE'RE not implicated in the terrible things in the world,
0:25:58 > 0:26:00and that is just plain wrong.
0:26:06 > 0:26:11There is one radical theory that Judas didn't betray Jesus at all.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15This different version of events appears in an ancient document
0:26:15 > 0:26:17called the Gospel of Judas.
0:26:21 > 0:26:25The betrayer of Jesus is transformed in the Gospel of Judas
0:26:25 > 0:26:28into Jesus' trusted disciple,
0:26:28 > 0:26:30the one who really receives the revelation
0:26:30 > 0:26:33that none of the other disciples do,
0:26:33 > 0:26:35the one who has really privileged access
0:26:35 > 0:26:37to the truth from Jesus himself.
0:26:38 > 0:26:40In this scenario,
0:26:40 > 0:26:43the handing over of Jesus to the authorities by Judas
0:26:43 > 0:26:47was a plan that they had cooked up between them
0:26:47 > 0:26:49so that Jesus could fulfil his destiny.
0:26:49 > 0:26:52It means there was no betrayal.
0:26:52 > 0:26:56The portrayal of Judas in the Gospel of Judas, er...
0:26:56 > 0:27:01is one that avoids all the difficult questions about him.
0:27:01 > 0:27:04You don't have to worry any more about whether Judas can be forgiven
0:27:04 > 0:27:08because he's Jesus' best friend, and being explicitly ordered
0:27:08 > 0:27:12to do what he's doing, and acting just as Jesus wanted him to do.
0:27:12 > 0:27:14He's the beloved disciple, if you like,
0:27:14 > 0:27:16who really understands who Jesus is.
0:27:18 > 0:27:22Judas as the hero rather than the villain?
0:27:22 > 0:27:26Well, it's a nice thought, but these are the writings of a sect
0:27:26 > 0:27:29who were not part of the mainstream early church.
0:27:29 > 0:27:31The Gospel of Judas was written
0:27:31 > 0:27:35about three generations after the New Testament Gospels,
0:27:35 > 0:27:38and sits alongside other ancient texts
0:27:38 > 0:27:42known collectively as the Gnostic Gospels.
0:27:42 > 0:27:43Why were they written?
0:27:43 > 0:27:45What was the context in which they were written?
0:27:45 > 0:27:47They were written in the context of the early church,
0:27:47 > 0:27:51the growing church expanding, having arguments around doctrine.
0:27:51 > 0:27:56So what people who had a particular gripe against the official line
0:27:56 > 0:27:59would do is they'd name themselves after kind of Gospel characters,
0:27:59 > 0:28:00often after apostles,
0:28:00 > 0:28:03and then they would contradict the official version.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06And that is the context in which to see the Gospel of Judas.
0:28:06 > 0:28:08If you're feeling a bit suspicious of institutions
0:28:08 > 0:28:10and want to be a bit anti-establishment,
0:28:10 > 0:28:12there is a great appeal in thinking,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15"Yeah, these Gnostic Gospels are really what it's all about."
0:28:15 > 0:28:16The idea that this is a text
0:28:16 > 0:28:19which actually tells you truly about Jesus...
0:28:19 > 0:28:23The other ones have a much, much stronger claim to history
0:28:23 > 0:28:26than the Gospel of Judas, so read it at your peril.
0:28:27 > 0:28:31My final theory for Judas' motive comes from academics
0:28:31 > 0:28:35who have looked beyond Biblical and Gnostic accounts
0:28:35 > 0:28:39to what was going on in that part of the world in the 1st century.
0:28:39 > 0:28:40They believe that Judas
0:28:40 > 0:28:43may have seen Jesus as a political activist,
0:28:43 > 0:28:47a military leader who would free the Holy Land by force.
0:28:48 > 0:28:53One of the scholarly theories that is held by quite a number of people
0:28:53 > 0:28:59is that Judas wanted Jesus to lead a revolution against the Romans...
0:28:59 > 0:29:03..to overthrow the Romans and restore a Jewish state.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07And, if so, he may well have become gradually disillusioned,
0:29:07 > 0:29:10particularly when the group got to Jerusalem
0:29:10 > 0:29:12and Jesus started talking about dying.
0:29:13 > 0:29:17And that may well have been the issue for Judas.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20Jesus wasn't talking like a man of action.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Jesus was actually planning to lay down his life
0:29:23 > 0:29:27and be crucified by the Romans, the total opposite
0:29:27 > 0:29:31of what many Jews would have wanted a Messiah figure to do.
0:29:31 > 0:29:35This notion of a suffering Messiah who would die for their sins
0:29:35 > 0:29:37rather than the kind of conquering Messiah,
0:29:37 > 0:29:40I mean, this is something radically new and difficult.
0:29:40 > 0:29:45So that's one possible theory for why Judas betrayed Jesus -
0:29:45 > 0:29:49that he gave up hope in Jesus being the kind of Messiah
0:29:49 > 0:29:51that he and other Jews might have wanted.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55And taken one step further,
0:29:55 > 0:29:59that could mean that Judas alerted the authorities
0:29:59 > 0:30:03only as a means of forcing his master to lead the revolution.
0:30:03 > 0:30:08You can construct a scenario that he was trying to prompt Jesus
0:30:08 > 0:30:12to sort of come out of his shell and really make a stand
0:30:12 > 0:30:15and be the revolutionary,
0:30:15 > 0:30:19the Che Guevara figure that could lead Israel.
0:30:21 > 0:30:24For me, this seems like the most credible motive
0:30:24 > 0:30:29with which to set the scene for the moment of betrayal itself -
0:30:29 > 0:30:33the kiss, which delivered Jesus to his death on the cross.
0:30:36 > 0:30:39I've seen the image of Jesus and Judas kissing thousands of times
0:30:39 > 0:30:41in pictures and in postcards.
0:30:43 > 0:30:46But what strikes me again, looking at it now,
0:30:46 > 0:30:48is just the intimacy of that moment.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55It's so tender, yet so terrible.
0:30:57 > 0:31:00The Bible tells us that after The Last Supper,
0:31:00 > 0:31:03Jesus and his disciples, without Judas,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05walked across the Kidron Valley
0:31:05 > 0:31:08to a place called the Garden of Gethsemane
0:31:08 > 0:31:10on the Mount of Olives.
0:31:10 > 0:31:12It was a place to rest, a place to pray.
0:31:15 > 0:31:16"While he was still speaking,
0:31:16 > 0:31:19"Judas, one of the twelve, arrived;
0:31:19 > 0:31:21"with him was a large crowd
0:31:21 > 0:31:23"with swords and clubs,
0:31:23 > 0:31:27"from the chief priests and the elders of the people.
0:31:27 > 0:31:29"Now the betrayer had given them a sign,
0:31:29 > 0:31:33"saying, 'The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.' "
0:31:34 > 0:31:38"At once he came up to Jesus and said, 'Greetings, Rabbi!'
0:31:38 > 0:31:40"and kissed him."
0:31:45 > 0:31:47The betrayal scenes remain
0:31:47 > 0:31:50incredibly constant in how they're shown
0:31:50 > 0:31:51through the centuries.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55It captures that moment, it's held frozen in these images,
0:31:55 > 0:31:59the absolute moment where Christ is betrayed.
0:31:59 > 0:32:01We all know, however secular we are,
0:32:01 > 0:32:05if we've never set foot in a church, we know what a Judas kiss is.
0:32:05 > 0:32:07It is extraordinarily powerful.
0:32:07 > 0:32:09The kiss is horrible.
0:32:09 > 0:32:14It is indicative of an incredibly close relationship Jesus had
0:32:14 > 0:32:16with his close disciples.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20They saw each other as brothers and sisters,
0:32:20 > 0:32:21they were all one family,
0:32:21 > 0:32:25they were doing something that was going to change the world.
0:32:25 > 0:32:32And then someone uses that emotion, that...that love,
0:32:32 > 0:32:36to come up and do something that is the very opposite,
0:32:36 > 0:32:41that is going to lead Jesus to horrific abuse
0:32:41 > 0:32:45over the next few hours, and ultimately to crucifixion.
0:32:49 > 0:32:51This is where Christians come
0:32:51 > 0:32:54to remember the moment of Christ's betrayal.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Here at the foot of the Mount of Olives,
0:32:58 > 0:33:01I'm walking in centuries of pilgrims' footsteps.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08These are the oldest olive trees in Gethsemane -
0:33:08 > 0:33:13maybe even offshoots of the trees that witnessed Christ's arrest.
0:33:14 > 0:33:18The pruned branches are cherished mementos.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25'I start chatting to British pilgrim Christine,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28'and I'm confronted again by the paradox of Judas -
0:33:28 > 0:33:32'that he is condemned for an evil act that was necessary.'
0:33:32 > 0:33:37I feel quite sorry for Judas, because I feel it was God's plan.
0:33:37 > 0:33:39So do you think there is a place for Judas in Heaven?
0:33:39 > 0:33:42- I think there is a place for Judas in Heaven.- Do you?- Yes.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44I wonder if we can see a bit of ourselves in Judas?
0:33:44 > 0:33:45All the time, I do.
0:33:45 > 0:33:47- Really?- Yes, yes.
0:33:47 > 0:33:49Because I'm on a journey,
0:33:49 > 0:33:52and I haven't come to the end of my journey -
0:33:52 > 0:33:55I don't mean life, I mean my journey in faith.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58- Yeah.- And I know there's a lot that I don't believe
0:33:58 > 0:34:00and that I should believe.
0:34:00 > 0:34:02- And my faith isn't strong enough. - And so the idea that...
0:34:02 > 0:34:06letting Jesus down in the same way that Judas let Jesus down.
0:34:06 > 0:34:08- Definitely.- Fascinating.- Yes.
0:34:11 > 0:34:15What Christine says is actually something I'd like to believe.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17Yet I'm wrestling with that awful truth
0:34:17 > 0:34:20of what Judas did.
0:34:20 > 0:34:24He didn't just betray a friend, awful though that was.
0:34:24 > 0:34:27He betrayed God, who had taken human form
0:34:27 > 0:34:29to offer us all hope and salvation.
0:34:31 > 0:34:34I'm going to a more secluded part of the garden to have a think.
0:34:36 > 0:34:39Jerusalem is a really busy place.
0:34:39 > 0:34:44There's car horns and dogs barking and just noise the whole time.
0:34:44 > 0:34:46But actually, here, there's a real stillness,
0:34:46 > 0:34:48a real oasis.
0:34:48 > 0:34:52You can hear the birds singing, and there's a sort of peace.
0:34:54 > 0:34:55And it reminds me so much
0:34:55 > 0:35:00of the picture I've got in my head of Judas arriving
0:35:00 > 0:35:02with all the soldiers and their flaming torches
0:35:02 > 0:35:04and swords and all that sort of stuff,
0:35:04 > 0:35:07and in the middle of all that,
0:35:07 > 0:35:09all that sudden noise and sudden chaos,
0:35:09 > 0:35:12there's this moment of absolute intimacy,
0:35:12 > 0:35:15this moment of quiet, this moment of stillness
0:35:15 > 0:35:20where one friend betrays another one friend.
0:35:20 > 0:35:22What made Judas so different from you and me
0:35:22 > 0:35:24is that he was actually there
0:35:24 > 0:35:28to witness everything that Jesus did during his ministry.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30Judas was in that privileged position
0:35:30 > 0:35:32where he was actually with Jesus -
0:35:32 > 0:35:34he actually ate with him, he walked with him,
0:35:34 > 0:35:36he talked with him, he listened to him.
0:35:36 > 0:35:39Not only did he betray Jesus, but he also, in a way,
0:35:39 > 0:35:41betrayed all the Christians that have come after,
0:35:41 > 0:35:44because...he should have made more of it.
0:35:44 > 0:35:46He should have seen it for the thing that it was
0:35:46 > 0:35:47and how great it was.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50And instead, he chucked it all away on a kiss.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59Just before we go, here in the trees in Gethsemane,
0:35:59 > 0:36:00people write their prayers
0:36:00 > 0:36:03and fold them and tuck them into the branches
0:36:03 > 0:36:06and the nooks and crannies in the olive trees,
0:36:06 > 0:36:08and it's really quite moving,
0:36:08 > 0:36:12because just as Jesus prayed for his friends and for his followers,
0:36:12 > 0:36:16people are praying for their friends for their family here, too.
0:36:16 > 0:36:18That's so lovely.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31Before leaving the Mount of Olives,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34I went to see a place not visited by many pilgrims,
0:36:34 > 0:36:37which I hoped might help explain a question I had
0:36:37 > 0:36:40over that kiss in Gethsemane.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43Why did the authorities need Judas at all?
0:36:43 > 0:36:47The authorities have already decided that they want to arrest Jesus,
0:36:47 > 0:36:50but what they really want to do is to make sure
0:36:50 > 0:36:52that they do it secretly, somewhere quiet.
0:36:52 > 0:36:54Their reason for caution
0:36:54 > 0:36:59goes back to the volatile atmosphere in Jerusalem during Passover.
0:36:59 > 0:37:03They didn't really want to cause any trouble in the Temple
0:37:03 > 0:37:05or where there were lots of crowds.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09But, I wondered, why did the authorities need Judas
0:37:09 > 0:37:12to identify someone who had drawn so much attention to himself
0:37:12 > 0:37:14over the previous week?
0:37:14 > 0:37:17I mean, frankly, there wouldn't have been a single person in Jerusalem
0:37:17 > 0:37:19that haven't heard about him, if not seen him.
0:37:19 > 0:37:22Jesus went around throwing his weight around a bit -
0:37:22 > 0:37:24went into the Temple, overturned the tables.
0:37:24 > 0:37:26And then he goes off to the Garden of Gethsemane.
0:37:26 > 0:37:29And the idea that they needed Judas
0:37:29 > 0:37:32to identify Jesus at that moment is laughable.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34Of course they would have known who he was.
0:37:34 > 0:37:36They would have seen him all around Jerusalem.
0:37:36 > 0:37:37He would have been the leader,
0:37:37 > 0:37:41and, indeed, John in his Gospel acknowledges that, really,
0:37:41 > 0:37:43because in John's Gospel, there is no Judas kiss.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45In John's Gospel, Judas arrives
0:37:45 > 0:37:47and Jesus says, "Hey, is it me you're looking for?"
0:37:47 > 0:37:48and then off he goes.
0:37:48 > 0:37:51The Judas kiss is incredibly powerful,
0:37:51 > 0:37:54echoes down through the ages, wonderful dramatic gesture -
0:37:54 > 0:37:56utterly unnecessary.
0:37:58 > 0:38:03Perhaps Jesus wasn't as easy to find as tradition suggests.
0:38:04 > 0:38:06A different interpretation of Gethsemane
0:38:06 > 0:38:08lends support to that theory.
0:38:08 > 0:38:10It puts paid to the idea of a garden
0:38:10 > 0:38:13as the setting for the betrayal of Jesus.
0:38:15 > 0:38:19Gethsemane means "oil pit",
0:38:19 > 0:38:23or "a place of oils" and it seems that it was a place
0:38:23 > 0:38:26where they pressed the olive oil
0:38:26 > 0:38:29from the olive trees they grew on the Mount of Olives.
0:38:29 > 0:38:34Now, if you're looking for a place that fits that description,
0:38:34 > 0:38:39it's actually perfect that we have this place called Gethsemane
0:38:39 > 0:38:45that is a cave, a kind of pit, a cave pit on the Mount of Olives.
0:38:56 > 0:38:58'Archaeologists have discovered evidence here
0:38:58 > 0:39:00'of first-century oil presses.'
0:39:00 > 0:39:02Wow.
0:39:02 > 0:39:03'So could this be the place
0:39:03 > 0:39:06'where Jesus and his disciples came that night?'
0:39:07 > 0:39:11Jesus is going to a place where he could be safe,
0:39:11 > 0:39:13away from everyone.
0:39:13 > 0:39:17There would have been a doorway that you would have been able to close,
0:39:17 > 0:39:22and he would have been locked away quite secure in the cave.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26So Judas' betrayal is all about,
0:39:26 > 0:39:31"This is the place - I can show you where Jesus is tonight."
0:39:31 > 0:39:35So maybe that's the true horror of Judas' betrayal -
0:39:35 > 0:39:40that he led the authorities to a hidden place and let them in.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45I can imagine Jesus praying quietly, in a corner, perhaps...
0:39:49 > 0:39:54..and then the other 11 disciples were all asleep, snoozing,
0:39:54 > 0:39:59and Judas sneaks out, sneaks out into the darkness
0:39:59 > 0:40:04and leaves behind him his sleeping friends and his master
0:40:04 > 0:40:07to go out and to betray Jesus
0:40:07 > 0:40:09and to come back with those authorities.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11And I imagine him walking alone through the quiet
0:40:11 > 0:40:14and through the dark of the night and the stars
0:40:14 > 0:40:18and he's completely alone and he's turned him back on everything -
0:40:18 > 0:40:22his friends, his master - and he's walking towards betrayal.
0:40:26 > 0:40:31As the full horror of Judas' actions unfold,
0:40:31 > 0:40:36Matthew in his Gospel allows Judas one final moment of regret,
0:40:36 > 0:40:39and it's the most terrifying part of his story.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42"When Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45"he repented and brought back
0:40:45 > 0:40:48"the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders.
0:40:48 > 0:40:54"He said, 'I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.'
0:40:54 > 0:41:00"But they said, 'What is that to us? See to it yourself.'
0:41:00 > 0:41:04"Throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed,
0:41:04 > 0:41:07"and he went and hanged himself."
0:41:10 > 0:41:14So he does actually realise what he's done.
0:41:14 > 0:41:15He does try to make amends,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18and then he goes and he hangs himself.
0:41:18 > 0:41:22I mean, was there ever a more lonely and appalling death, really?
0:41:23 > 0:41:25It gets you there when you hear it.
0:41:25 > 0:41:30Um...you know, there's a lot of despair in the world,
0:41:30 > 0:41:33there's a lot of despair in most human lives.
0:41:33 > 0:41:36And I don't see that very much elsewhere in the Gospels,
0:41:36 > 0:41:37but I see it in that moment.
0:41:45 > 0:41:47I'm making my way to Akeldama.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51Translated, the name means "field of blood".
0:41:51 > 0:41:54And it's here, according to tradition,
0:41:54 > 0:41:56that Judas took his own life.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00There are no pilgrims here.
0:42:00 > 0:42:05This is the Valley of Hinnom - the Valley of Hell.
0:42:05 > 0:42:08It's certainly a bleak, barren place -
0:42:08 > 0:42:10a dumping ground for the city's rubbish.
0:42:12 > 0:42:17Where Judas is said to have died, there's a Greek Orthodox monastery.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21It's dedicated to an obscure fourth-century saint, Onuphrius.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26There's no acknowledgement of Judas.
0:42:30 > 0:42:32On a beautiful day like today,
0:42:32 > 0:42:36it's really hard to imagine Judas here at the end of his story,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39desolate and alone, taking his own life.
0:42:40 > 0:42:43And it makes me wonder, who found him?
0:42:43 > 0:42:45Who came across this young man?
0:42:46 > 0:42:47Who cut him down from the tree?
0:42:49 > 0:42:50Who took his body away?
0:42:51 > 0:42:52Who buried him?
0:42:54 > 0:42:55Who mourned him?
0:42:57 > 0:43:01It feels as if here, his memory is obliterated.
0:43:01 > 0:43:06And then, unexpectedly, I find him, inside the monastery chapel.
0:43:19 > 0:43:21I love this icon, because what you've got here
0:43:21 > 0:43:23is a culmination of the Judas story.
0:43:23 > 0:43:27Up here, Judas with the high priest,
0:43:27 > 0:43:30taking his bag of money for the dastardly deed.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33And across here, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36the soldiers with their flaming torches,
0:43:36 > 0:43:39and Judas betraying his friend with a kiss.
0:43:41 > 0:43:44Down here, Judas seems to have changed his mind
0:43:44 > 0:43:46and he's trying to give back the money.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48It lays spilt on the floor.
0:43:50 > 0:43:51And of course, over here...
0:43:53 > 0:43:56..Judas has taken his own life, hanging from the tree.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01His arms behind his back, his eyes closed.
0:44:03 > 0:44:05In the moment of his death, he's completely alone.
0:44:05 > 0:44:09There's nobody there, nobody with him.
0:44:10 > 0:44:12It's just really sad.
0:44:14 > 0:44:16Down in the middle,
0:44:16 > 0:44:20an angel is offering the cup of Christ, the Communion,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24but it's not Judas that's receiving.
0:44:25 > 0:44:26He's excluded.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30This is St Onuphrius, whose chapel this is.
0:44:31 > 0:44:34There's no reconciliation for Judas at all.
0:44:37 > 0:44:40On Good Friday, Jesus showed God's love to the world
0:44:40 > 0:44:42by laying down his life.
0:44:42 > 0:44:46But here, tucked away, in this remote monastery,
0:44:46 > 0:44:48I'm confronted by the image of a man,
0:44:48 > 0:44:51in the very place where he killed himself,
0:44:51 > 0:44:56excluded from sharing in God's love, excluded from redemption.
0:44:57 > 0:44:58Can this be true?
0:45:01 > 0:45:05For centuries, that is what the Church has taught.
0:45:05 > 0:45:07By taking his own life,
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Judas was committing an unforgivable sin.
0:45:13 > 0:45:15Giving up hope in God.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21His sin became, not that he betrayed Jesus,
0:45:21 > 0:45:25not that he was greedy for money, but that he despaired at the end.
0:45:25 > 0:45:28The idea of despair as a terrible sin,
0:45:28 > 0:45:31it was seen as something that is the direct opposite of hope,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33which was a Christian virtue.
0:45:33 > 0:45:38And despair was defined as not believing in Christ's mercy,
0:45:38 > 0:45:42not believing that you could be forgiven for what you had done.
0:45:42 > 0:45:47Jesus shows God's love and expresses that
0:45:47 > 0:45:50in his laying down his life for others,
0:45:50 > 0:45:51but according to Jesus,
0:45:51 > 0:45:53that's for those who accept him.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55And so for Judas,
0:45:55 > 0:45:58as one who rejects Jesus,
0:45:58 > 0:46:01he's heading in the wrong direction.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04You can be forgiven of anything if you're truly sorry,
0:46:04 > 0:46:05if you repent of your sin.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08And so even Judas could have been forgiven,
0:46:08 > 0:46:13could have made a good end if he hadn't given up hope.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19Is this the ultimate meaning of the Judas story?
0:46:19 > 0:46:24That because he despaired of God, Judas could not be forgiven?
0:46:25 > 0:46:27I'm not prepared to condemn anyone
0:46:27 > 0:46:29for taking their own life, and thankfully,
0:46:29 > 0:46:33today's Church has a much more enlightened attitude to suicide.
0:46:33 > 0:46:37But I do think that it's a complete tragedy
0:46:37 > 0:46:39that at the very moment that Christ was dying
0:46:39 > 0:46:43and opening the way to Heaven for us all,
0:46:43 > 0:46:45Judas believed he was cut off from salvation.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52I don't think I'm ready to light a candle for Judas just yet.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58But I do think I could light one for everybody I've ever let down...
0:47:02 > 0:47:05..and all the people that have let me down.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08I think I can light a candle and say a prayer for them.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39Before leaving Jerusalem,
0:47:39 > 0:47:42there was one last place I needed to go.
0:47:42 > 0:47:44It's where the Judas kiss leads us -
0:47:44 > 0:47:49the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in Christendom,
0:47:49 > 0:47:52said to be built over Calvary,
0:47:52 > 0:47:53where Christ was crucified,
0:47:53 > 0:47:56and containing the empty tomb where he was buried.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04I love all the crosses carved into the pillars.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06Generations and generations of pilgrims coming here
0:48:06 > 0:48:10and leaving their mark here, and I like that.
0:48:10 > 0:48:15This is where the betrayal takes us, to here.
0:48:17 > 0:48:18I'm not sure how this is going to feel.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28Just inside is the Stone of Unction,
0:48:28 > 0:48:30marking the place where many believe
0:48:30 > 0:48:33that Christ's body was prepared for burial.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38Around me is a chaotic series of altars and shrines.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Each Christian community has its own part of the church
0:48:42 > 0:48:46with its own daily services, its own processions.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51What really hits me about in here is that there's this massive contrast
0:48:51 > 0:48:55between the light of the candles and the shadows that are all around.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00And actually, that's at the heart of the story of the crucifixion,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03at the heart of Judas' story.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05Even though Judas was in the presence
0:49:05 > 0:49:07of the light of the world,
0:49:07 > 0:49:11he just couldn't step into that light,
0:49:11 > 0:49:14and he went into the shadows, he went into the darkness.
0:49:17 > 0:49:20It brings home to me my growing frustration with Judas,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23that although I feel sympathy and compassion for him
0:49:23 > 0:49:25in his final moments,
0:49:25 > 0:49:28I find it unbelievable that he closed his mind
0:49:28 > 0:49:30to what was right in front of him -
0:49:30 > 0:49:34that Jesus offers hope and salvation to everyone,
0:49:34 > 0:49:37no matter what we may have done.
0:49:37 > 0:49:39So I just feel really disappointed.
0:49:39 > 0:49:43I mean, disappointment is a ridiculously small word
0:49:43 > 0:49:47to describe how I feel about Judas,
0:49:47 > 0:49:49because disappointment is something that you do,
0:49:49 > 0:49:52you know, if you don't quite get what you want for your birthday
0:49:52 > 0:49:56or, you know, that cake you were baking
0:49:56 > 0:49:59didn't quite turn out how you wanted it to. It's just...
0:50:00 > 0:50:02Oh...
0:50:02 > 0:50:05I'm angry, but I'm not angry.
0:50:05 > 0:50:07I'm angry at Judas for not realising,
0:50:07 > 0:50:10for not realising that even he wasn't beyond redemption.
0:50:10 > 0:50:16Even he wasn't...beyond the words of forgiveness.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18If Jesus could forgive those people
0:50:18 > 0:50:20that were actually putting the nails in his hands,
0:50:20 > 0:50:23then he could have forgiven his friend.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26And I don't think Judas realised that.
0:50:26 > 0:50:27And that is really sad.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34It makes me think - how many others have followed in Judas' footsteps?
0:50:34 > 0:50:37Who, when they've heard the Christian story,
0:50:37 > 0:50:39think forgiveness isn't for them,
0:50:39 > 0:50:41that God couldn't possibly love them?
0:50:43 > 0:50:45I think it's time to go home.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56I'm back from Jerusalem,
0:50:56 > 0:51:01having seen the events leading up to Good Friday through fresh eyes.
0:51:05 > 0:51:08In a rollercoaster of emotion,
0:51:08 > 0:51:13I've gone from sympathy to sadness to incomprehension and frustration.
0:51:13 > 0:51:16Yet the question I still think about
0:51:16 > 0:51:18is whether perhaps there might, after all,
0:51:18 > 0:51:21be some room for forgiveness in the Judas story.
0:51:25 > 0:51:27'I'm meeting with art historian Janet Robson
0:51:27 > 0:51:29'to see how the Church has dealt
0:51:29 > 0:51:31'with this question down the centuries.'
0:51:31 > 0:51:33- Wow! Look at all these!- Yes.
0:51:33 > 0:51:35So in terms of these amazing, powerful images
0:51:35 > 0:51:37that the medieval Church has given us,
0:51:37 > 0:51:40what are they trying to teach me, the observer?
0:51:40 > 0:51:42What are they saying to me about Judas? Are they saying,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45"Be careful, otherwise you could go the same way"?
0:51:45 > 0:51:46What's the message?
0:51:46 > 0:51:49I think some of earlier images are very much saying,
0:51:49 > 0:51:53"Look at him, he's damned," and it's a rather...
0:51:53 > 0:51:55It's not a very subtle kind of message.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59- It's, you know, associating him with the Devil, particularly.- Mm.
0:51:59 > 0:52:01But when we start getting to the period
0:52:01 > 0:52:05of really high interest in Judas, from the 13th century onwards,
0:52:05 > 0:52:07things really change.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09So from the 13th century, there's a great shift
0:52:09 > 0:52:13from the kind of feudal, agrarian society to capitalism.
0:52:13 > 0:52:16Suddenly, avarice is thought to be the worst sin of all,
0:52:16 > 0:52:19- the idea that sort of...money is the root of all evil.- Right.
0:52:19 > 0:52:22And Judas becomes the carrier of all that?
0:52:22 > 0:52:25Yeah, he's the real poster boy for evil avarice
0:52:25 > 0:52:29and you can see how they play on that in images like this.
0:52:29 > 0:52:30That's where his eyes are looking,
0:52:30 > 0:52:32his eyes are going straight down to the money.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34Yeah, he's looking...
0:52:34 > 0:52:38He's absolutely intent on the coins as they're being counted out.
0:52:38 > 0:52:40You know, it's all about the money. The interesting thing is
0:52:40 > 0:52:43it hasn't really changed to now, this is very contemporary.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45We still have these issues.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49So is there no redemption for Judas at all?
0:52:49 > 0:52:51- Let me show you this image.- Mm-hmm.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56So this is from an illustrated Bible and this is English,
0:52:56 > 0:52:58this was from the early 14th century
0:52:58 > 0:53:02and this is him trying to give the money back.
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Now look at him here!
0:53:05 > 0:53:07- He's looking away, isn't he? - He's looking away.
0:53:07 > 0:53:09- He's got his hand up to his face. - Yes.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13He's quite stricken, sort of...genuinely suffering.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16In the late medieval period onwards,
0:53:16 > 0:53:19this isn't really the kind of images they want to put forward of Judas
0:53:19 > 0:53:21because, you know, he looks quite sympathetic.
0:53:21 > 0:53:25- Mm.- And so this... this scene is dropped,
0:53:25 > 0:53:28- so it's quite unusual even to see this scene being shown at all.- Wow!
0:53:28 > 0:53:30Do you feel sorry for Judas?
0:53:30 > 0:53:32I do, in the end.
0:53:32 > 0:53:35Because the Church wants to use Judas
0:53:35 > 0:53:37to get those messages across -
0:53:37 > 0:53:41he's forever suffering and dying and being punished.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44- Such a powerful picture.- Yeah.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53So Judas became the ultimate cautionary tale,
0:53:53 > 0:53:57a kicking boy for the concerns of the Church and of wider society.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00And for that reason, he couldn't be shown mercy.
0:54:02 > 0:54:03But this image of Judas,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06the figure beyond God's love, troubles me.
0:54:06 > 0:54:10I preach that God loves us all, that no-one will be turned away.
0:54:12 > 0:54:13Surely that means Judas, too.
0:54:17 > 0:54:20It's in search of that possibility of salvation
0:54:20 > 0:54:24that I've travelled to the village of Moreton in Dorset.
0:54:25 > 0:54:29In 1940, the little 18th-century church
0:54:29 > 0:54:33of St Nicholas and St Magnus was hit by a German bomb
0:54:33 > 0:54:35which destroyed its stained glass.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38It took one decade to rebuild the church
0:54:38 > 0:54:40and another three to replace its windows
0:54:40 > 0:54:45with these breathtaking panels of engraved glass by Laurence Whistler.
0:54:50 > 0:54:54Light and darkness is the theme which brings them together.
0:55:03 > 0:55:05After completing 12 windows,
0:55:05 > 0:55:11Whistler offered one last 13th panel as a gift to the church,
0:55:11 > 0:55:13but its subject was so shocking
0:55:13 > 0:55:17that 30 years passed before it was installed in 2014.
0:55:25 > 0:55:30Whistler's gift was a depiction of Judas unlike any other.
0:55:36 > 0:55:38There he is.
0:55:38 > 0:55:41Wow.
0:55:43 > 0:55:45You sort of have to move around
0:55:45 > 0:55:47to try and get the light to hit the window right
0:55:47 > 0:55:49so that you can make out the detail.
0:55:52 > 0:55:53One minute, he's in the darkness,
0:55:53 > 0:55:55and the next minute, he's in the light.
0:55:58 > 0:55:59The reason it's so hard to see
0:55:59 > 0:56:02is because it isn't actually a window at all.
0:56:04 > 0:56:06Behind the glass is a wall,
0:56:06 > 0:56:08which means that the engraving can only be seen
0:56:08 > 0:56:11from outside the church.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15Even now, Judas is excluded,
0:56:15 > 0:56:18with his face turned away from us.
0:56:18 > 0:56:22And yet what makes this panel so unique
0:56:22 > 0:56:24is its other overriding message.
0:56:26 > 0:56:28In many ways, this picture of Judas
0:56:28 > 0:56:31is very like the medieval pictures we see of Judas hanging,
0:56:31 > 0:56:35of him taking his own life, but there are some real differences,
0:56:35 > 0:56:37and it's those differences that I especially love.
0:56:37 > 0:56:39So for example, in his hand,
0:56:39 > 0:56:42the coins that he's been given are falling,
0:56:42 > 0:56:45and as they fall, they turn into flowers,
0:56:45 > 0:56:47and there's exactly 30.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51And Judas is looking up toward the light,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53which is shining on him.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01Whistler called it The Forgiveness Window,
0:57:01 > 0:57:03and everything about it suggests
0:57:03 > 0:57:05that at the moment of death,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08maybe Judas did recognise God's love
0:57:08 > 0:57:10and was forgiven.
0:57:10 > 0:57:13It really is a rather beautiful, beautiful thing.
0:57:24 > 0:57:26Here, I've had the opportunity
0:57:26 > 0:57:29to pull apart and reassemble my thoughts,
0:57:29 > 0:57:33and at the end of my journey in the footsteps of Judas,
0:57:33 > 0:57:36I've discovered a figure beyond the cardboard cut-out
0:57:36 > 0:57:37that history has created.
0:57:39 > 0:57:43Judas is the character in there who, in a way,
0:57:43 > 0:57:46feels the most human, feels the most like us.
0:57:46 > 0:57:48If you look Judas in the eye,
0:57:48 > 0:57:51you're sort of looking yourself in the eye a little bit.
0:57:51 > 0:57:55Judas is rather like an image of the human condition
0:57:55 > 0:57:57in which we human beings get things badly wrong.
0:57:57 > 0:58:00And I, for one,
0:58:00 > 0:58:04think leaving the possibility of salvation there for Judas
0:58:04 > 0:58:06is rather important,
0:58:06 > 0:58:09because it means the possibility of salvation is there for all of us.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13I'm left with a picture of a real man
0:58:13 > 0:58:17with shortcomings and failings not that different from my own.
0:58:19 > 0:58:20If only Judas could have heard
0:58:20 > 0:58:24those words that Jesus said from the cross -
0:58:24 > 0:58:27"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
0:58:29 > 0:58:31There's no reason to think
0:58:31 > 0:58:35that those words don't extend to Judas, too.