Judas Iscariot. The traitorous apostle

An economist, priest and theologian, Sergei Bulgakov (1871–1944) was expelled from the USSR in 1922. After a brief stay in Prague, he is said to have moved to Paris. The two essays, which were written during the 1930s and 1940s, centre on the figure of Judas. In them, the author explores the mystery surrounding Judas and seeks to uncover the deeper meaning behind each of his actions, not only through historical reconstruction but also through psychological and theological analysis: he therefore turns his attention both to Judas’s personal story and to the context in which the apostle found himself living. The result of this research is a lucid and detailed examination, which enables Bulgakov to challenge the traditional image of the traitor capable of selling the Master for thirty pieces of silver – in short, that of a greedy and despicable individual. It is worth noting that the Russian theologian sees in Judas the one who, by handing over Christ, contributed to the realisation of that messianic kingdom which Jesus himself – in his view – was delaying in bringing about. His betrayal, in other words, was intended to force Christ to reveal himself for what he truly was: the one who would establish the earthly kingdom whose coming the Scriptures had repeatedly prophesied as the full realisation of God’s plan. Judas therefore expected a completely different Messiah. Bulgakov writes on this subject: “And yet he is not the Messiah whom Judas had imagined and for whom he went so far as to betray him. He does not wish to perform miracles to prevail over his enemies, even though he retained his miraculous power. He does not summon legions of angels to his defence, but resigns himself to the hands of his enemies.” The scholar also does not fail to address another theme of fundamental importance: that relating to the role played by Judas within the context of the providential plan of salvation, a sphere in which his scope for choice, being dependent on the divine plan, appears to be very limited. In other words, it seems difficult to determine to what extent he is merely a pawn or whether he acts of his own free will: a fact which has always made his figure – as the translator and editor Lucio Coco emphasises in his excellent Introduction – “a theological and existential enigma, the point where human freedom and divine necessity clash and come into conflict”. A gnawing and insoluble dilemma that has continued to torment the whole of humanity ever since.

    

Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov
, Judas Iscariot. The traitorous apostle

EDB, 139 pp., €19.50