Introduction
In Christianity, Judas Iscariot is one of the 12 apostles who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. His name, Judas (Ioudas), is the Greek form of Judah, the southern territory of Palestine (renamed Judea by the Romans). The inhabitants of Judah were the Judahites (later abbreviated as “Jews”), and thus Judas’ name is equated with the Jews. The name “Iscariot” is subjected to two different interpretations. The first is that it means “Man of Kerioth,” a city in Judah (Joshua 15:25), which would be significant because it would present Judas as an outsider, a man who was different from the 11 Galileans. A second suggestion is that “Iscariot” derives from the Greek “sicarri,” a sect of the Zealots who took up arms (daggers) against the Romans. Whichever interpretation is preferred, Judas’ name is synonymous with betrayal; to call someone a “Judas” is to express contempt for the duplicitous behavior of that person.
Judas in the Bible
In the Old Testament, Judah was the son of...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Bibliography
Durling, R. M. (Ed.). (1997). The divine comedy of Dante Alighieri (Vol. 1). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Freud, S. (1976). Two lies told by children. In The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud (1st. Aufl., Bd. 12). New York: W. W. Norton.
Irenaeus. (1994). Against heresies. In A. Roberts & J. Donaldson (Eds.), Ante-Nicean fathers: The apostolic fathers, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus (Vol. 1). Boston: Hendrickson.
Jung, C. G. (1956). Collected works (Vol. 5). Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Klassen, W. (2004). Judas: Betrayer or friend of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress.
New American Bible.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Weldon, C. (2020). Judas Iscariot. In: Leeming, D.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_360
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24348-7_360
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-24347-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-24348-7
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences