Why did Judas have no children? The life and death of Judas, the traitor of Jesus Christ

(Suggested answer)

Existentialism– (from the Latin “existentia” - “existence”), a type of philosophical thought, a philosophical movement, claims that the subject of philosophy is a person, who is considered only as a spiritual principle. Each person has an existence, which represents the core of the human “I”, thanks to which a person appears as a specific, unique personality. In everyday life, a person is not always aware of himself as an existence; for this it is necessary that he finds himself in a borderline situation, i.e. in the face of death. Finding himself as existence, a person for the first time gains his freedom. According to existentialism, freedom consists in a person not acting as a thing formed under the influence of natural or social necessity, but “choosing” himself, shaping himself with every action and deed. Thus, a free person bears responsibility for everything he has done, and does not justify himself by “circumstances.” “The feeling of guilt for everything that happens around him is the feeling of a free person” (N. Berdyaev).

Being an existentialist, L.N. Andreev, as an existentialist philosopher, strives to penetrate into the essence of the human “I”, and as a writer he tries to reflect this vision of the essence of human existence in his works. This is where he gets such close attention to the problems of life, such compassion for man and deep suffering for him. The epigraph to many of L. Andreev’s works, and perhaps to all of L. Andreev’s work, could be his words from the novel “Satan’s Diary”: “I don’t love you yet, man, but on these nights I was more than once ready to cry, thinking about your suffering, about your tortured body, about your soul given over to eternal crucifixion.”

L. Andreev draws his main character from the position of an existentialist. At the beginning of the story, a negative characterization of Judas is given, it is stated in particular that “he had no children, and this once again said that Judas is a bad person and God does not want offspring from Judas,” “He himself has been wandering around senselessly among the people for many years , ... and everywhere he lies, makes faces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief’s eye,” etc.

A repulsive portrait of the ugly red-haired Judas is deliberately given at the beginning.

In everything, the writer emphasizes the duality of his hero: in his appearance, in his speeches (arguments with Thomas), in actions (opinions of others about him, actions). Following his great teacher F.M. Dostoevsky, L.N. Andreev emphasizes the idea about the dual nature of man.

Judas claims that he loves Christ more than the other disciples. If the rest are passive in their love for the Teacher, then the love of Judas is active and at the same time silent. He alone knows how to guess the hidden desires of Christ and bring him the greatest joy: Judas himself gets a rare lily in the mountains for Jesus, so that it would remind him of his homeland (but asks Mary not to tell the Teacher who brought it), brings babies in his arms so that Christ could rejoice at them.

Why does Judas still betray the Teacher?

This is the main paradox: the liar, the eternal pretender Judas is at the same time a seeker of truth. He destroys Christ and dies himself for her sake - for the sake of truth. This is exactly how one can interpret the essence of Judas’s drama, the origin of his treacherous plan. The betrayal of Judas is a monstrous, but necessary experiment for him, which should test his suspicions about the disciples of Christ, assumptions about the impotence of human love, about the insignificance of man in general. Judas suspects that “every untruth, abomination and lie” is hidden in the depths of every person. “Are these people?” - he complains about the students. This is his constant motive, which contains the essence of the unspoken disagreement, the implicit dispute between Judas and Christ.

Only an extreme test can resolve this dispute and confirm Judas’ suspicions. If Christ is handed over to death, will people - disciples, believers, people - defend him, protect him, and save him? What will their love, loyalty, and courage turn out to be? This is the core of the work’s problematic: it asks the question about the basic values of human existence, the question of what a person is capable of, what his commitment to ideals, his highest feelings are worth. Judas creates an existential situation - a situation of choice, which should become a moment of psychological, moral revelation for all participants in this great test

Moreover, it is important to note one circumstance. Following the course of Judas's contradictions, we gradually begin to understand that Judas cannot gently prove that the disciples of Christ, like people in general, are bad - he must prove to Christ, all people, and find out for himself what they really are, to find out their real value . Judas must decide the question: is he being deceived or is he right? Judas has a disappointing knowledge of people, terrible suspicions, but he also has hopes for his own delusions regarding human nature. This is his tragic torment, this is the explanation for the duality of his behavior, the fact that “with one hand betraying Jesus, with the other hand Judas was diligently looking for an opportunity to upset his own plans.”

The outcome of the experiment leaves him no hope. People turned out to be powerless, insignificant, their love is helpless, their loyalty is unreliable. Peter abandoned Christ, the other disciples did nothing, and the crowd betrayed Jesus. Judas becomes convinced of the correctness of his contempt for people. He “felt the powerlessness of all the forces operating in the world, and threw them all into the abyss.” Thus, Judas comes to the conclusion that a person in this world is doomed to fatal loneliness, even if Jesus Christ was left without support in difficult times.

Group III: Reasons for the betrayal of Judas from the point of view of early Christian church traditions.

(Suggested answer)

Another explanation can be found for Judas’s action. In the minds of the Christian world, there are two Judas Iscariots: Judas the Traitor, who sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver, a symbol of everything vile, ugly and criminal in man, Judas is a monster in body and spirit. This is the Judas of church tradition, captured in the canonical Gospel.

And a completely different Judas, preserved by Christian heretics of the first centuries. Judas, preserved in these teachings, is the highest, strongest and most dedicated of all the disciples of Christ, because. the sacrifice of Christ requires that the hand of the high priest be firm and pure. Consequently, only the most dedicated of the apostles can take on the burden of slaughter - betrayal. To this apostle he transfers his power - a piece of bread dipped in salt - the Communion of Judas.

This image of a person who has achieved the highest purity and holiness, who voluntarily accepts a shameful crime on his soul as a feat of supreme humility, arose in India.

In Hindu poems dedicated to the life and teachings of Krishna, Judas is Krishna's greatest disciple, Prince Arjuna. Krishna himself puts him through a series of trials, forcing him to fight against friends, mentors and ancestors, forcing him to treacherously kill the divine elder Bhshima - the head of his family - from behind the back of a woman, kill his mentor Drona, etc., and finally demands that Arjuna betrayed himself, Krishna, to the people persecuting him.

And Arjuna himself ties Krishna to a tree and is the first to shoot an arrow at him.

Then comes Arjuna's final test. The prince is destined for the first place in heaven, which he has earned through his holiness, but if he agrees to go down to hell and stay there until the end of time, then Krishna will take everyone languishing there out of there.

Arjuna descends to hell, frees all sinners, and remains in hell.

Thus, the doctrine of the Lamb taking upon itself the sins of the world (or the “scapegoat”) is transferred to Judas-Arjuna as the true scapegoat of the universal cleansing sacrifice.

If you look at Judas from this point of view, then the traditional view of Judas becomes quite understandable. So, in order for Judas’s sacrifice to be complete, it must be recorded as a crime in the Gospel itself, so that millions of people from generation to generation would curse Judas.

Recently I read the life of Judas Iscariot by Nile the Myrrh-Streaming, how he was born and who he was before meeting Christ. A very interesting life, I have never seen anything like this in other Church Fathers about Judas. Here I decided to place this short life.

Judas came from the village of Iscaria. His father's name is Rovel. Before Judas was conceived, the mother had a terrible dream and woke up screaming. In response to her husband’s question, she said that she saw that she would conceive and give birth to a male, and he would be the destroyer of the Jewish race. Her husband reproached her for believing in dreams. That same night she conceived (without, therefore, heeding this warning from God) and therefore gave birth to a son. Due to the fact that the remembered dream continued to frighten her, she and her husband agreed to throw the child away; They made a box and, having tarred it, put the baby in it and threw it into Lake Gennesaret. Opposite Iscaria there was a small island on which sheep were grazed in winter and shepherds lived; It was to them that the box with the baby was brought; the shepherds took him out of the water, fed the child with sheep's milk and gave him to a certain woman to nurse him; this woman named the child Judas. When he grew up a little, the shepherds took him from his nurse and brought him to Iskaria to give him to someone as a foster child; here Judas’s father, Rovel, met them, and, not knowing that this was his son, took him into his foster home. The father and mother fell in love with Judas, who had a very handsome face, and, grieving over their son thrown into the water, they adopted Judas. After this, a son was born to them, and Judas began to envy him, fearing that he might lose his inheritance because of him, for Judas was by nature angry and money-loving. Judas began to constantly offend his brother and beat him, for which his parents often punished Judas, but Judas became more and more inflamed with envy of his brother, carried away by the passion of the love of money, and finally, once taking advantage of the absence of his parents, he killed his brother. Grabbing a stone, he killed his brother, and then, frightened of the consequences, fled to the island on which he was raised, and here he entered the service of a Hellenic house, in which he eventually entered into an adulterous relationship with the wife of the owner’s son and, having killed him, fled to Jerusalem. In Jerusalem, Judas was accepted into Herod's palace, where Herod fell in love with him for his agility and handsome appearance; Judas became the manager of the palace and bought everything he needed. His parents, not knowing that he had killed their son, and seeing that he was missing, grieved for him. So a lot of time passed; Finally, great unrest occurred in Iscaria, so Rovel and Judas’ mother moved to Jerusalem and bought themselves a house with a beautiful garden, next to Herod’s palace. It was then that Judas killed his father, as will be stated below through the mouth of the saint, married his mother, and they had a son. Therefore, by chance, in a conversation with his wife, it was revealed that they were blood relations - son and mother; Judas, leaving his mother, went to Christ with the intention of repenting, was taken by Christ as a disciple, made a treasurer and manager, but out of his love of money he continued to steal money and secretly send it to his mother, supposedly for the sake of feeding her.
And Judas knew his iniquity, that is, that he took his mother as his wife, killing her husband, who was his father, and, having killed the boy who was his brother, he learned from the words of his mother, since he did not know about this before; and hearing that Jesus was teaching in the outskirts of Jerusalem (that is, calling sinners to repentance), he went, found Him and joined Him to follow Him.
Seeing this Judas, Jesus Christ realized that he was a hateful, malicious and malicious man, but he accepted him with great joy in order to heal the soul of Judas. And Christ raised Judas to be a steward over all the apostles, so that he could manage everything; and Christ commanded the apostles: ask Judas for everything necessary for the flesh, whatever you need.
Having heard this command of Christ, the apostles carried it out with readiness, did not grumble about what Judas did, and never complained to Christ about him, although they saw many of his disobedience or outrages, for they accepted every word of Christ from Him, with the determination to fulfill it in practice.
That is why they did not grumble at all against their brother Judas. Then Judas was the brother of the apostles and the disciple of Christ; Christ washed his feet, like the other apostles; after his betrayal, he became the brother of the devil, a disciple of Dennitsa, and became, like one of the others, a devil. Then he was an apostle, now he is a devil... This (happened to him) because the apostles, fulfilling in practice (the words of Christ), became pillars of paradise, but Judas, although he listened to the words of Christ, did not listen to them willingly, resignedly and did not have the determination to do the job, that is, to carry them out in practice, (listened) with a murmur and obeyed reluctantly. The apostles clung to the words of Christ as if they were unshakable pillars, and they themselves became pillars of paradise; Judas clung to the words of Christ like a rotten pillar, and he himself became a collapse, that is, as if he broke away and fell away from the part of the Lord and the apostles, casting himself into the depths of hell.
He did not limit himself to having the power of external control over everything worldly, we say: over treasures, sales and purchases, but he wanted to take control of internal exchange as well; we say: Judas wanted to forbid people from bringing faith, ointment and divine glory to Christ, that is, he did not want to let people honor Christ as God, glorify Him as God, and pour precious ointment on Him, for which the people of that time spent as Even now people spend money to bring gifts to the church, we say: for the liturgy, which is the imprint of Christ; incense (burned in a censer and offered to the Lord in worship) is a type (or imprint) of the world (liated on the Lord during his lifetime); as the prophet-king David says: “May my prayer be corrected, like incense before You...”. The candle carried before the priest on exits is a type of the honest forerunner of the Baptist and his teaching in the desert before the coming of Christ, as the prophet said: “The voice of one crying in the desert, straighten the path of the Lord...” And again: “Repent, the Kingdom of Heaven has come near.” ..." And again: "Behold, the Lamb of God, take away the sin of the world..." And again: "I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than me is coming, of whom I am not worthy to cut off the thong of His boots, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire ..." (Luke 3:4-6 and John 1:36).
This (i.e., these sacrifices to Christ as God) was what Judas wanted to forbid, intending to prevent (their offering, i.e., the outpouring of peace on Christ) - but he himself was forbidden and overthrew with his boundless love of money, the insidious one with whom Dennitsa deceived him , to hell as follows.
One soul brought valuable ointment to Christ; Christ commanded that it be preserved for the time of the burial of Him, the Son of Man; Judas sought to sell it, for its value was excessive. Christ said: “Let it be preserved for the day of My burial...”
Something similar happened at the time when Judas trampled his father’s garden, taking the most beautiful flowers, called aromas; his mother was afraid to say anything to him, since he was a royal man; Judas did not ask his mother (for permission to pick flowers); but, being a predator and a ruler, he himself boldly picked the fragrant and precious flowers, left his father’s house and met his father in front of the door, returning from work to his house. The father, seeing the fragrances in Judas’s hands, asked: “Why did you pick these fragrances?” Judas answered with great insolence: “I need them, why are you asking?” The father, when he heard such a word from Judas, became angry and said: “You need it, but I don’t need it?” (That’s why) Christ said to Judas: “Leave it, I need it for the time of My burial...”
Judas said to his father: “How dare you speak to me, don’t you know that I am a royal man?” The father said to him: “Even though you are a royal man, why are you impudently saying this to me? Why should I be afraid of you? How dare you enter my house and take things without asking,” and the father tried to take them away from Judas’s hands. Judas, being arrogant and proud, could not bear the words of his father, did not allow him to hear even a small word, but immediately grabbed a stone in his hands and, hitting him on the head with it, killed his father - parricide Judas!.. With great arrogance he went he then went to his master and showed him the aromas. And the lord said to him: “How did they give them to you?” And Judas said: “I did not seek to be given them to me, but I killed him and took him!” The ruler said to him: “Is it true what you say?” Judas says: “I bear witness with my life that I killed him, my lord, for he reviled your command and insulted me.” The lord said: “Now I will send a man to find out whether what you say is true, and if it is true, then I will expel you from my chambers and punish you properly, for it was not to him that you did such dishonor, but to me.” The lord sent a man, he found him killed; the messenger returned and announced what had happened; The ruler, hearing that this was true, became angry and extremely embarrassed. Judas, being wicked, resorted to the protection of intercessors; and they went with him (the palace people went to the king to intercede for him); The ruler, seeing that the palace people were indignant, was embarrassed, showed him leniency, took pity on him and, according to the law, ordered him to take the wife of the murdered husband as his wife.
Judas, like an evil vessel of evil, accepted this, but the mother did not want it and said that she was taking another, but did not want this, but the ruler threateningly commanded her so that she should not dare to take another, but only this one. In view of such a misfortune, his mother, unwillingly, accepted him - and Judas took his mother as his wife...
That is why Christ said (to remind Judas of all this) that let the myrrh remain for the time of My burial...
And a boil began to boil in the heart of the boiling anger, but Christ, as the Knower of the Heart, understood Judas’s plan...
On that day, after the washing of the feet of the apostles, when everyone had eaten and Judas was present, during the meal Christ sighed and said that of the twelve of you there is one who will deliver Me into the hands of human sinners. And the apostles said to each other: Who is he who will betray Him? Christ, seeing this excitement among the apostles, said that he stretched out his hand in front of Me, and Judas immediately stretched out his hand in front of Christ (towards the solilo).
Christ did not allow turmoil to occur, as is typical of modern people, but gave only one sign and did not say anything more...
Then He offered up the liturgical Sacrifice*, which we still offer today... Then, after the meal, Judas withdrew from the apostolic union, or better yet, from his brethren, and became an ally of Dennitsa and a brother to the devil...
And the insidious one said in his insidious and unclean thought: I will take gifts from those who seek Him, I will ask (more) and whatever I ask, they will give me... Immediately he went to the Jewish synagogue and said with a great voice: whatever you give me, I will give it to you. His? The Jews immediately presented him with thirty pieces of silver. Having received them, Judas said: follow me. Taking lamps, sticks, knives, ropes and other similar whips in their hands, they followed him...
Jesus Christ then prayed, after prayer he came to the apostles and said: “Watch and pray; you know neither the day nor the hour... for the Son of Man is betrayed. pray, for you know neither the day nor the hour, for the Son of Man is betrayed...” Again he went to the place of His prayer, prayed and said: “Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me.” Immediately, at these words, Judas arrived with lamps, from the multitude of lights it became as bright as day, but the hour was night... And Judas said to the Jews: “Whoever I hug and kiss, grab him”... Then many soldiers entered to where the apostles were gathered together. Judas, with pieces of silver in his hand, the predatory unclean One embraced the Pure One, said: “Rejoice, Rabbi,” - he insidiously put his most vile lips to the undefiled Face and, having shown Him this honor before the soldiers, presented Him to them, retiring into the darkness of the love of money (i.e. that is, into darkness with his love of money, from the Light of Christ - to the devil)... And the soldiers seized Christ; The apostles, seeing Him captured by the soldiers, were very embarrassed. Peter grabbed one slave, threw him down, grabbed a short knife that he had and, prompted by jealousy, cut off the slave’s ear. Then Christ exclaimed and said: “Peter! Petre! Put the knife in its sheath, for (if) you give a knife, you also receive a knife...” And they took Christ as a thief to the judgment seat, and “in vain they taught against the Lord and against His Christ” (Ps. 22). Then the reproach surrounded It! tormented!..
Seeing these passions of Christ, Judas, darkened by the love of money, became darkened and greatly repented, but did not fall to repentance, we say: to Christ - and, weeping bitterly, did not mourn his iniquity, like Peter, but went and cast down the pieces of silver where he received them, and said: “I have done evil, take your pieces of silver...” The scribes answered him and said: “You will see...” And they were concerned, saying among themselves that it was not worthy to put them in the corvan; Concernedly they asked what to do with them? Finally, they made a strange burial vault, which is still being found today...
Then Judas, throwing the pieces of silver there, withdrew into a deep place and, moving away, was concerned about what to do there (in the ravine). When he thought about this, a nasty thought came to his mind to commit suicide. The unclean one listened to the unclean one and did the deed in the following way. In the place where he was thinking, there was one tree, as if on purpose for execution. Judas immediately took off his belt, which was made of camel's hair, tied his neck with one end, and tied himself to a tree with the other... the branch bent at the same hour (that is, when he fell over to hang)...

I don’t know how many times I’ve read the Bible, but I don’t remember this about Judas. Therefore, I decided to save the information in my diary.

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Few people know the legend about Judas that exists in the East. And what can we say about that now? The facts of his biography could easily have been hidden. But in order to understand that distant and at the same time eternally close situation that happened in the 33rd year of Christ in Jerusalem, relatively recently, in the 19th century, the story of the Monk Nile the Myrrh-Streaming, who labored on Holy Mount Athos in the 16th century, was revealed. His speeches are called “posthumous broadcasts.” All of them were recorded and compiled a voluminous book of more than five hundred pages, covering the topic of World History from the Creation of the World to the Apocalypse. This book was published on Athos, where it was translated into Russian from a Greek manuscript. The reader is probably interested to know why the Monk Neil is called “Myrrh-Breaking One.” The answer is simple: on Mount Athos there is a custom, three years after the death of a monk, to open his grave and, based on the appearance of the remains, draw conclusions about his posthumous fate, in order, if necessary, to pray intensely for him. The Monk Neil, asceticizing in a hard-to-reach mountain cave, out of his humility, asked not to open his grave after his death. But the Glorifier of His saints glorified the saint by pouring out a whole stream of fragrant holy myrrh from a crevice in the rock where the saint’s cell was located and his remains were buried. Myrrh poured out into the sea so abundantly that ships with pilgrims came from all over the Orthodox East to see the miracle with their own eyes. Well, how could one not call the monk Myrrh-Streaming? After this, judge for yourself whether there are reasons not to trust his testimonies recorded by the Athonite monks.

We open the book and read: “Chapter XI. Judas the traitor, as an example of the unspeakable patience of God. His origin, the mortal sins of his youth, apostleship and economic position with the apostles. His attempt to appropriate spiritual power and limit the mercy of Christ; evil motives that caused betrayal and suicide ". That's the title. The narrative itself briefly covers only the main moments of Judas's life.

“Judas came from the village of Iscaria. His father’s name was Rovel (according to other stories, Reuben-Simon from the tribe of Dan. - Ed.). Before Judas was conceived, his mother had a terrible dream and woke up screaming. When asked by her husband, she said that she had seen as if he would conceive and give birth to a male and he would be the destroyer of the Jewish race. Her husband reproached her for believing in dreams. That same night she conceived."

Oh, if Rovel’s wife, to whom the dream vision was addressed, could have known what awaited her later, she would have run away in horror. But why was the terrible prediction not addressed to the husband? Perhaps it would have worked better. In all likelihood, turning to her husband was as pointless as turning to a stone. If a person is possessed by such passions as love of money and voluptuousness, then they, like a double wall, close off everything spiritual from the soul. But the worst thing is that the states of the souls of the husband and wife at such moments are, as it were, a stencil for the soul of the conceived child. And being raised by parents only reinforces the inherited qualities.

“Due to the fact that the remembered dream continued to frighten her (Rovel’s wife), they agreed with her husband to throw the child away to the will of fate, made a box, put the baby in it and threw it into Lake Genisaret. Opposite Iskaria there was a small island on which sheep were grazed in winter and There lived shepherds, and a box with a baby was brought to them; the shepherds took it out of the water, fed the child with sheep's milk and gave it to a certain woman to suckle; this woman named the child Judas."

The behavior of Judah's parents speaks of their selfishness and lack of fear of God. The nightmare did not prevent them from conceiving a child, but became an obstacle to raising him. What kind of mother would decide to get rid of her baby immediately after birth! The fact that her father did not prevent her from doing this speaks either of her influence on her husband, or of his absolute indifference to his son’s life, or of both. But perhaps Judas was providentially torn away from his parents and raised by a simple woman. After all, it is the first seven years that are of particular importance in a person’s life, their imprints are indelible, they largely influence the soul. The simple character of working people and the beauty of nature could have a positive impact on the character of Judas. And, perhaps, it is precisely these childhood years, the memory of them, that will give Judas the impulse to change himself after realizing in his mature years the whole drama of his life. Although the catastrophe that befell him in the first hours after birth will be reflected in the illogicality of behavior (like that of a parent) and the God-fighting orientation of consciousness.

“When he (Judas) grew up a little, the shepherds took him from his nurse and brought him to Iskaria to give him to someone as a foster child; here Judas’s father, Rovel, met them, not knowing that this was his son, and took him into his home. foster children."

The long absence of children in the family forced Rovel to make this decision. In Judea, childlessness was considered a huge vice and was the subject of poisonous ridicule.

“The father and mother fell in love with Judas, who had a very handsome face, and, grieving over his son who was thrown into the water, they adopted him. After this, a son was born to them, and Judas began to envy him, fearing that he would lose his inheritance because of him , for Judas was by nature angry and love of money. He began to constantly offend his brother and beat him, for this his parents often punished Judas, but he became more and more inflamed by envy of his brother, carried away by the passion of love of money, and finally, taking advantage of one day’s absence of his parents, he killed brother. Grabbing a stone, he killed him, and then, fearing the consequences, fled to the island on which he was raised."

This is how Judas’ stay in his parents’ house ended. It would seem that the behavior of teenage Judas is inappropriate. But this is only from the point of view of a down-to-earth person. What was driving him? Being prudent, he understood that by killing his brother, he himself would lose everything, and that by remaining in his parents’ house, he would not be able to hide his crime. Judas was possessed by a metaphysical malice that defies human explanation. There is a mixture of madness and subtle calculation here. The only way out for him is to run away from himself into a “new” life and begin to adapt to another, “tearing off” the past.

“He fled to the island on which he was raised, and here he entered service in a Hellenic house, in which, in the end, he entered into an adulterous relationship with the wife of the owner’s son.”

As is clear from the narrative, his criminal relationship with this woman lasted during the absence of her husband, who was on a long journey. The returning husband understands without words what happened when he sees his pregnant wife. The mistress's husband was killed by Judas in a very insidious way.

“Judas went to look for him throughout the house, above and below, and finally saw that he was sitting on the top of the roof in thought. Seeing him sitting on high, Judas began to ponder how to bring him down so that he would not tell anyone about his lawlessness ; and, having thought it over, he found a way: there was a pillar on which the roof was supported, where the husband was sitting; Judas dug under the base, tied a thick rope to the pillar and pulled the rope with all his might, and the pillar fell along with the man and the terrace."

What’s interesting here is the attitude of the murdered man’s wife to the current situation. She immediately told Judas that he was now obliged to marry her, otherwise she would publicize his deeds. “If only I had a husband,” she thought. And the fact that this husband was a scoundrel did not matter to her. Is it surprising or rather natural, but the child born from this adulterous relationship became a robber. Thus, crucified on the left hand of the Cross of the Lord, whose words have been recorded for centuries: “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross, save yourself and us...”

Rovel... Judas... The Robber... One and the same thing: love of money and fornication, premature and bad death. It is important to note that love and fornication are not close concepts. And if fornication implies the fulfillment of one’s animal needs without special choice of a partner, then love, on the contrary, is almost equivalent to the concept of “choice,” which also includes self-sacrifice. Of course, Judas had neither love nor any special affection for his mistress, and he did not want to be responsible for the offspring produced. And what attracted him was something completely different: the thirst for power and wealth would not allow him to live a simple, unknown life. And he rushed to where, possessing certain qualities, he hoped to find and actually acquired a high social position.

“In Jerusalem, Judas was accepted into the palace of Herod (according to other sources - Pilate - Ed.), where Herod fell in love with Judas for his dexterity and beautiful appearance; Judas became the manager of the palace and bought everything he needed."

It sounds strange - “for beautiful appearance.” This is why they love women, but not men. The cases in which Judas showed his dexterity are now no longer possible to find out, since the narrative is silent about it. One can only guess how a “man from the street” could end up in the king’s palace, and with such honor at that.

Let's return to Judah's parents. What happened to them after losing their children? “His parents, not knowing that he had killed their son, and seeing that he was missing, grieved for him. So a lot of time passed, and finally great unrest occurred in Iscaria, so that Rovel and Judah’s mother moved to Jerusalem and bought themselves a house with a beautiful garden, next to Herod’s palace.”

And again the fates of the parents and their ill-fated son intersected. A lot of time has passed. Judas became an adult, and they could hardly recognize him. He achieved what he strived for: power and wealth, even in the absence of nobility of the family (as he thought, not knowing the secret of his origin). The tragic meeting took place in his father’s house, in whose garden Judas saw amazing flowers. He set out to appropriate them by entering Rovel’s house without an invitation and picking flowers called “fragrances.” Rovel’s wife did not dare to contradict the royal man, and his father, who encountered Judas at the door, got into an argument with him.

“The father, seeing the aromas in the hands of Judas, asked: “Why did you pluck these fragrances?” Judas answered with great insolence: “Do I need them, why are you asking?” The father, when he heard such a word from Judas, became angry and said: “ You need it, but I don’t need it?” (That’s why) Christ said to Judas: “Leave it, I need it for the time of My burial...” (speaking of the precious world). Judas said to his father: “The way you talk to me, Don’t you know that I am a royal man?” The father said to him: “Even though you are a royal man, why do you impudently say this to me? What should I be afraid of? “How dare you come into my house and take something without asking,” and the father tried to take the flowers from Judas’ hands. Judas, being arrogant and proud, could not bear the words of his father, did not allow him to hear even a small word, and immediately grabbed the hands a stone and, hitting him on the head, killed his father - the parricide Judas!..”

How did King Herod react to what happened when he learned about what had happened? I was extremely dissatisfied and outraged by his action. “Judas, being wicked, resorted to the protection of intercessors; and they went with him (the palace people to the king to intercede for him); the ruler, seeing that the palace people were indignant, was embarrassed, showed him leniency, took pity on him and, according to the law, commanded that he take the wife of the murdered husband as his wife. Judas, like an evil vessel of evil, accepted this; the mother did not want and said that she was taking another, but did not want this, but the ruler threateningly commanded her so that she should not dare take another ", but only this. In view of such a misfortune, his mother, unwillingly, accepted him, and Judas took his mother as his wife."

Why did Judas decide to marry this already middle-aged woman, who, of course, was not loved by him and who, of course, could not love him. After all, he could, citing the hostility of the murdered man’s wife towards him, protest Herod’s decision, using his palace connections. How can you marry a woman who has every reason to hate her husband's killer. It can be concluded that in this case there was a complex psychopathological complex.

"...And they had a son." Now it is clear why the terrible prophetic dream preceding the conception of Judas did not prevent her from conceiving him... “By chance, in a conversation with his wife, it is revealed that they are blood-born - a son and his mother...”

It’s scary to imagine what these two went through when they finally found out everything. “And Judah knew his iniquity, that is, that he had taken his mother to wife, killing her husband, who was his father, and killing the boy who was his brother, he learned from the words of his mother, since he did not know about this before; and heard Jesus teaching in the neighborhood of Jerusalem, calling sinners to repentance, went and found Him and joined Him to follow Him.”

Judas committed all the abominations that could be done during his life. But here it is, the tragic duality that is called “split personality” in psychiatry: an impulse to repentance and again... a return to normal. And what a chance Judas was given!

“When Jesus Christ saw this Judas, he realized that he was a well-hated, malicious and malicious man, but he accepted him with great joy in order to heal the soul of Judas. And Christ elevated Judas to the stewards of all the apostles, so that he would be in charge of everything; and Christ commanded the apostles “Whatever you need for the flesh, whatever you need, ask Judas.”

Why was this done? One must think that in order to atone for sins, so that what one was especially sinful about would be corrected by the corresponding virtue: greed - by generosity, vanity - by obscurity, lust for power - by humiliation, intemperance - by chastity, etc. And this could be accomplished, but, as it turned out, not for Judas.

“Judas, leaving his mother, went to Christ with the intention of repenting, was taken by Christ as a disciple, made treasurer and manager, but out of his love of money he continued to steal money and secretly send it to his mother, supposedly for the sake of feeding her.”

What is this - tender care for the mother or a backup option? It must be recalled that the Jews of that time, who knew perfectly well the prophecy of Daniel, lived in anticipation of the coming of the Messiah, but in the form of a warrior-ruler who should bring independence to Judea and make it a strong state. Such a crudely materialistic approach to the kingdom of the Messiah is noticeable even in the speeches of the apostles before the descent of the Holy Spirit on them. It must be assumed that Judas was not distinguished by high spirituality and, of course, he again began to be attracted by the thought of the role of an important courtier, which he could become in the future kingdom of the Messiah. Habits took over. An interesting psychological point: when a voluptuous person is forced to lead an abstinent life, his thirst for power and ambition come to the fore.

“He did not limit himself to the fact that he had the power of external control over everything worldly - we say: over treasures, sales and purchases, but he wanted to take over internal exchange at his disposal; we say: Judas wanted to forbid people from bringing faith, ointment and Divine glory to Christ, that is, he did not want to let people honor Christ as God, glorify Him as God, and pour precious myrrh on Him..."

Judas's hostility towards Christ began to grow day by day when he realized that Christ would not be the ruler of the earthly kingdom. That those in power have conspired and Christ, and perhaps the apostles, are threatened with execution, exile, and imprisonment. The carnal life set its mark on Judas, and he did not use the opportunity given to him to erase it. He has already made his choice. Betrayal was closer to him than self-sacrifice. Did Judas need thirty pieces of silver? Of course not. But habit is second nature. The habit of selling everything and everyone.

Only God can forgive sins if they turn to Him with a humble request for their forgiveness, since only He works miracles. What is a miracle? This is a phenomenon that goes beyond the natural laws of both the physical and spiritual worlds. Only with the special favor of God is it possible to come out of the fire alive, to walk on water as if on dry land, to fall from a height without breaking or, having violated the laws of the spiritual world, not to suffer the natural punishment for this. Otherwise, retribution for sin is inevitable.

Just listen: “Whoever I hug and kiss, grab him.” That says it all. Perhaps what followed these words was what Judas’ mother dreamed about on that fateful night?

Judas did not believe that Jesus is the Christ due to the coarsening of his soul. The walls erected from the love of money and voluptuousness did not allow anything spiritual to penetrate his soul. He could not even repent. Already on the Cross, the Lord waited and longed for Judas to come to Him. But Judas did not come because he did not believe.

Even the tree, obedient to the will of the Lord, did not allow Judas to hang himself. Twice its branches bent to the ground, interfering with the fulfillment of the plan. Only the third time was Judas allowed to carry out his sentence.

“Tell me now, why did Judas come to Christ to see Him? For the sake of his death or salvation? If for salvation, then why did the unfortunate one die? Because the most unstable (most unstable) did not have firm faith.”

With these words, the Monk Nile the Myrrh-Streaming ended his story about the Gospel Judas.

"Science and Religion"

Lesson summary based on the story by L. Andreev

"Judas Iscariot"

Goals:

educational: comprehending the idea of a work through revealing the images of the characters, their and the author’s worldview; observation of the language of a work of art as a means of characterizing the characters and implementing the writer’s plan; consolidation of the distinctive features of expressionism as a literary movement; improving text analysis skills;
developing: development of logical thinking (the ability to analyze actions, draw conclusions, explain, prove one’s point of view); development of monologue speech of students; development of students’ creative abilities, their ability to self-learn (group tasks of a creative nature);
educational: education of moral values and a critical attitude towards evil in working on the text;
Equipment: multimedia system
Preliminary homework:1. Compare the text of any Gospel with the text of L. Andreev. 2. Prepare an artistic retelling of the episode “Jesus at Pontius Pilate.” 3. Individual tasks.

Lesson epigraph:

Go alone and heal the blind,
To find out in a difficult hour of doubt
Pupils' malicious mockery
And the indifference of the crowd.

A. Akhmatova. 1915

During the classes.

Announcing the topic of the lesson.
Teacher's opening speech

There comes a time in every person’s life when he wants to understand what is happening in the world and with people... Today our culture is developing in a new intellectual space, when myths disappear and forgotten names return, when dogmas are destroyed and the concepts of Good return to people’s consciousness , Mercy, Humanity and Repentance. We are increasingly talking about spirituality, about the spiritual renewal of man. And in today’s lesson we will talk about very important things: about Good and Evil, about Conscience and Faith, - and I really want a miracle to knock on your every heart and make you even kinder and purer...

The theme of gospel motifs appears in Russian literature from time to time as a kind of sign of the times. And today, turning to the work of Leonid Andreev, we will try to understand the universal, philosophical, moral problems of his work. The struggle between good and evil is the most difficult moral problem of humanity. Rooted in the distant past, it has attracted the attention of philosophers, poets, and prose writers for a number of centuries. The primary source, of course, is the Bible. But this problem was raised in ancient Russian hagiographic literature, in the works of Pushkin and Lermontov, L. Tolstoy and F. M. Dostoevsky, M. Bulgakov and L. Andreev.

A word about L.N. Andreev

(Slide 1. Portrait of L. Andreev)A message from a student who independently prepared a story about the life and work of the writer.

Exchange of impressions among students regarding the comparison of the Gospel text with the story of L. Andreev.

Students note differences in content:

Judas in the story looks more monstrous than in the Bible, but the work itself shocks and outrages;
in L. Andreev, Judas betrays Christ of his own free will, in the Bible - “but the devil seduced him, and he began to hate the savior”;
in the Bible, the disciples intercede for Christ: “And those who were with Him, seeing where things were going, said to Him: “Lord! Should we strike with a sword?” And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. Then Jesus said: Leave it, enough. And touching his ear, he healed him”... Peter denies Jesus 3 times... The disciples run away, but this act is a momentary weakness, since later they preached the teachings of Christ, for many of them they paid with their lives. So it is in the Bible. Andreev’s students are traitors;
both in the Bible and in the story, Judas performed the duties of treasurer in the community of Christ, but “he did not care so much about the poor, but ... was a thief”;
in L. Andreev, Jesus Christ is mostly silent and always in the background, the main character is Judas;

common in the language of the works:

parables, Christian instructions;
quotes from the Bible in the story: “And numbered with the evildoers” (chap. 7), “Hosanna! Hosanna! He who comes in the name of the Lord” (chap. 6);
often sentences both in the Bible and in the story begin with conjunctions and, a, which gives the texts a conversational character: “And Judas believed him - and he suddenly stole and deceived Judas... And everyone deceives him”; “And they laughed at me... and gave me some to eat, and I asked for more...”;
in the Bible and in the story there is a stylistic device - inversion: “they spread their cloaks on the ground,” “the people greeted him.” But unlike the Bible, Andreev has many unusual figurative comparisons;
L. Andreev uses outdated forms of the word in the story: “And quietly Biya himself in the chest”, “And, suddenly changing the speed of movements slowness..."

Statement of the problematic question:

Why does the writer do this? What is the idea of the work? We will try to answer these questions in our lesson.

V. Analysis of the story “Judas Iscariot”.

L. Andreev was not the first to address the topic of Judas’ betrayal. So, for example, there is Judas the hero and great martyr in M. Voloshin:

God, I deeply believe

That Judas is Your oldest and most faithful

Student, what he took upon himself

The burden of all the sins and shame of the world,

That when You return to judge the earth,

And the sun will be darkened by Your wrath,

And the stars will fall from the sky in horror,

He will rise like a smoky coal from the abyss,

Scorched by all the leprosy of the world,

And he will sit next to You!..

And in the “Biography of Judas” by Susan Gubar, which appeared in the middle twentieth century, he is “a complete villain in everything.” In the story by H.L. Borges’s “Three Versions of the Betrayal of Judas” proved, and quite ingeniously, that Judas is Jesus Christ. There are many other reconstructions of the image of Judas and the motives for his betrayal, but their number and diversity only confirms the fact that Judas has long ceased to be only a character in the Holy Scriptures, turning into an eternal image of world artistic culture.

What kind of Judas does L. Andreev have?Let's turn to the story.

Acquaintance with Judas begins even before his appearance on the pages of the work.

How and what do we learn about him?

We learn about Judas from stories about him among the people: he is “a man of very bad reputation,” “self-seeking,” “he steals skillfully,” therefore “one must beware of him.” That is, the peaceful life of the city and the Christian community was disrupted by frightening rumors. So from the first lines in the work the motif of anxiety begins to sound.

How does nature react to the appearance of Judas? (Read out)
What feelings does the description of nature evoke?(Anxiety again.)
How does the author convey this feeling?(Lexical repetitions - “heavy”, “hard”; antithesis: white - red; alliteration: hissing, hardness [t]).

At this time, Judas appears: the end of the day - night, as if hiding from people. The timing of the hero’s appearance is also alarming.

What does Judas look like? (Read out). Slide No. 2 “Judas”
What can you tell about the hero from his physical description?

Contradictory appearance - contradictory behavior, two-faced. The hero's contradictions are presented through a poetic device - opposition, antithesis.

What feeling does the description of appearance evoke?

What is this artistic technique called by L. Andreev?(Expressive imagery.)

Judas has not yet committed anything, but the atmosphere of the story is increasingly tense.

What is the name of the hero in the work? Who?

Students often call him Judas, and “ugly,” “punished dog,” “insect,” “monstrous fruit,” “stern jailer,” “old deceiver,” “gray stone,” “traitor” - this is what the author calls him. It is characteristic of L. Andreev that he often calls the hero not by name, but by metaphors, concepts that have a generalized meaning.

Tell me why? (In the spirit of expressionism. This is how he expresses his feelings.
What is the author's attitude towards Judas?(Negative.)

But we must not forget that the work is based on a biblical story.What does the name mean in the Bible?Let's try to understand some biblical concepts:

Pupil: in religion there is a cult of the name. There is even a religious direction - name-glorification, the name and essence of a person coincide. For example, Christ is both a name and a divine essence. Evil will never be in the name of something. That's why criminals usually have nicknames. A name is a value. Judas did not have a home, family, or children, because... “Judas is a bad person and God does not want offspring from Judas.” Often he is called offensively rather than by name.

Why did Jesus bring such a terrible man closer to himself?

“The spirit of bright contradiction attracted him to the rejected and unloved.” Those. Jesus' actions are guided by love for people. (A table is drawn up on the board).

How does Judas feel about Jesus?(Loves.)
Why does Jesus' attitude towards him change? (Read out).
What event preceded this?(Judas was right when he said bad things about people. This was confirmed: a woman accused Jesus of stealing a kid, which she later found entangled in the bushes.)
Does this fact mean that Judas understands people? What does he say about people? (Read out).

We write it down in the table: he doesn’t like people, because... in them he sees the source of evil.

What next event increased the rift between Judas and Jesus?Saves Jesus' life.
What does Judas expect for his action?Praise, gratitude.
What did you get? Even greater anger of Jesus.
Why? Lied.
What is Christ's position?To tell the truth. (We fill out table No. 1 and draw a conclusion: two worldviews collide, this is the conflict of the work, and it is of an anti-God character.)

Ideological conflict

God-fighting character

What is the lexical meaning of the word “god-fighting”? (Fight with God)
Who fights with God? (Judas)
How? (Tries to prove to Jesus that only he is right)
Why does Judas need this? (Wants to be understood and appreciated by a person, a person who is loved)
What is your opinion, which is better: the truth that kills, or the lie that saves? (Students’ reasoned opinions are listened to)
What is the author's position on this philosophical issue? (the author’s position coincides with the views of Judas. Students prove this statement by quoting the text)
Guys, which of Christ’s disciples is given a significant place in the story? Why? (John, Peter, Thomas. The guys prove this using examples from the text)
Where do the events described in the story take place?
(Slide 3. Palestine in the era of Christ. Slide 4. Jerusalem in the era of Christ)

Teacher. These maps depict the events of the last days of Jesus' earthly life. The path that began with the triumphal entry into Jerusalem is a sorrowful path. It ended with Golgotha.

(Slide 5. Last Supper)

What do you guys know about this picture? How is it related to the story? (Selective retelling based on the transfer of the content of the fragment)

Let's consider how the disciples relate to Jesus and Judas. Let's compare their words and actions and fill out table No. 2

God-fighting motives

Who fights with God? (Author)

Tell the parable of the fig tree. Why does Jesus tell it to Judas?

The parable points to how God deals with sinners. He is not in a hurry to cut from the shoulder, but gives us a chance to improve, “desires the repentance of sinners.”

But does Judas consider himself a sinner?

No. And he is not going to change his views. However, he understands that Jesus will never agree with him. It was then that Judas decided to take the last step: “And now he will perish, and Judas will perish with him.”

How does he behave after visiting Anna?(Ambiguous: he does not dissuade Jesus from traveling to Jerusalem and betrays him).
How does he betray? (Kissing). Slide 6
Why does he kiss? (Loves).
Let us prove that his actions are motivated by love for Jesus. (He surrounded the teacher with tenderness and attention, warned of danger, brought 2 swords, and called on him to take care of Jesus.)
On the way to Calvary, Jesus appears before the Sanhedrin.
From here, in a huge and noisy crowd, everyone moved to Pontius Pilate for the final interrogation and trial.(Slide 7. Pontius Pilate)
What does Judas experience during the interrogation of Jesus? The shameful glory of Judas began. He was hated and feared. But he was indifferent.

VI. Artistic retelling of the episode. (Individual homework).

– Guys, one of the most terrible pictures in the story is, in my opinion, the beating of Jesus Christ.

VII. An expressive reading of the episode “Jesus Goes to Execution.”

(Slide 8-9. Crucifixion)

Why does Judas betray? Wants Jesus dead? ( No).
What does he want? ( Judas, like Raskolnikov, created his own theory, according to which all people are bad, and wants to test the theory in practice. He hopes to the last that people will intercede for Christ. (Read the passages that confirm this.)
How does the author reveal the psychology of the hero in this episode? (Repetition of events and lexical repetitions increase tension. The antithesis of Judas' expectations to what the people are doing is alarming. The painful feeling of anticipation is conveyed by ellipses. Again the duality of Judas: he expects the people to save Christ, and everything in him sings: “Hosanna!” - and rejoices when his theory is confirmed: “Hosanna!” Shouts of joy in exclamation marks, in the oxymoron “joyfully alone”)
Judas proved the theory. Why did he hang himself? (He loved Christ and wanted to be with him).
True love is sacrificial. What does Judas sacrifice? (Dooms himself to eternal shame).
Why else did he hang himself? 9I saw the inevitability of evil on earth, the lack of love, betrayal. (Refer to the epigraph of the lesson.)
The psychologism of the last pages of the story reaches its highest intensity. How does the author convey this?In the author’s words: “Judas asked hoarsely...”, “And Iscariot cried loudly,” “terrible words, tearing out the throat.”Judas's excitement is conveyed through punctuation (ellipses, exclamation marks, rhetorical questions); through actions - throwing pieces of silver into the faces of the high priest and judges; in antithesis: the excitement of Judas is contrasted with the indifference of Anna, the calmness of the disciples. Lexical repetitions make you indignant.
How is Judas externally transformed?“...his gaze was simple, and direct, and terrible in its naked truthfulness.” Duplicity disappears - there is nothing to hide. The author emphasizes his directness and truth with alliteration: [pr], [p].
Who is Judas: the winner or the vanquished?He is the winner, because... his theory was confirmed. He is also defeated, because... his victory came at the cost of death.
This is the contradiction of L. Andreev: evil is ugly, therefore his Judas is terrible, and the author is hostile to him, but agrees with his judgments. The name Judas became a household name. Means “traitor.” The story ends with the word “traitor,” symbolizing the collapse of human relationships.
What is your attitude towards Judas?There is something to respect for: he is smart, understands people, sincerely loves, is able to give his life. You feel sorry for him, but at the same time you despise him. He was two-faced, and feelings towards him were ambivalent.

In 2006, the partially reconstructed Gospel of Judas was published for the first time - a gospel in. Unlike canonical gospels , in this gospelJudas Iscariot shown as the only genuine onestudent who committed treason by the will of HimselfJesus Christ . (Slide 10)

The main plot difference between this gospel and the canonical ones is the statement that Judas was not a traitor, and handed Christ over to the Romans at His request. Judas, on the contrary, was the most successful disciple and the only one who fully and completely understood the plan of Christ, and that is why he agreed to play this important role in it, giving up everything - the glory of the ages, the recognition of his gospel and even life itself. I would also like to note, in order to leave the right mark on history, Judas planned to kiss Christ at the moment when he brought the soldiers to him, but we know that it was this kiss that played a negative role in relation to Judas.

Now let's try to answer the question posed at the beginning of the lesson: why does the author present us with the image of Judas, which is traditionally interpreted as negative, in a different way? What idea does he want to convey to us?

The image of Judas, created by L. Andreev, is the only one in world art with an equally unique extravagant interpretation of the plot. And very convincing. During his lifetime, L. Andreev called the Kingdom of Heaven “nonsense.” The author boldly recasts two-thousand-year-old images to make the reader outraged by the revealed nonsense. The story reflected the contradictions of the era in which L. Andreev lived. He is concerned with eternal questions: what rules the world: good or evil, truth or lies, is it possible to live righteously in an unrighteous world. And what do you think?

IV. Homework:answer this question in writing.

Dvurechenskaya Yulia Viktorovna

MBOU "Secondary school No. 1 named after. Y.Vasilenko" p.Purpe