A selected Apostle, one of the Twelve, he betrayed 
	Christ to the Jewish Sanhedrin - the supreme council 
	and highest court of justice in Jerusalem - and kissed 
	the Lord at the time of the arrest. He later committed 
	suicide. The title "Iscariot",meaning in the Hebrew "man 
	of Kerioth", a place in South Palestine, implies that 
	Judas was from Judea. He was the only one from there, 
	whereas the other Apostles were from Galilee. After his 
	suicide the Apostles elected Matthias to replace him as 
	one of the Twelve Apostles. 
	

	

	Judas was the betraying disciple and one of the twelve. 
	Not much is know of Judas before Jesus called him. 
	"Iscariot" is generally thought to be taken from the 
	Hebrew Ish Kerioth, which means "a man from Kerioth." 
	Qeriyyoth was a town in southern Judah, close to Hebron. 
	His father's name was Simon, who was also surnamed 
	Iscariot and the name suggests an ancestral line to this 
	city. It has also been suggested that his name comes from 
	the revolutionary band of Zealots called the Sicarri. 
	They were the dagger men that would slip into crowds and 
	assassinate those who opposed their bloody revolt against 
	Rome. Either way, this would make Judas the only Jew in 
	the company of the disciples, the rest being from Galilee 
	in the north. The name Judas is a form of Judah and would 
	be a fitting representation of Judah or the Jews as the 
	nation called that betrayed Jesus in the rejection of the 
	Messiah. 
	
	Jesus could see through the traitor Judas from the start. 
	He was a thief and a liar and followed Jesus for the money. 
	Judas was the steward of the resources for Jesus' ministry 
	and had been consumed with avarice from the beginning. 
	Looking forward to Jesus sitting on the throne of David, 
	Judas expected a rich reward from an exalted position in 
	the Kingdom. When the Kingdom turned out to be a spiritual
	one, disappointment turned to bitterness and Judas sold 
	Jesus out. 
	
	The triumphal entry into Jerusalem only days before saw 
	the crowd greeting Jesus with jubilation. But Jesus was a 
	revolutionary now, an outlaw and wanted by the Jewish 
	authorities. The Jews would try to arrest Him but He would 
	always slip away under their very noses. Judas is forcing 
	Jesus' hand. The betrayal of Jesus into the hands of the 
	Jews would put the Master into an impossible position; 
	only a demonstration of His awesome power could overcome 
	the threat on His life and He would be compelled to act 
	against the Romans and the Herodians. While the power was 
	there to do that, Jesus is setting up a Kingdom that was 
	not of this world. 
	
	Satan entered into the heart of Judas Iscariot and he went 
	his way and counseled with the chief priests and captains 
	how he might betray Jesus unto them. Judas said to them, 
	"What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you?" 
	They were glad, and contracted with Judas for thirty pieces 
	of silver. Judas promised and sought opportunity to betray
	Jesus to them away from the crowds. As Jesus and the twelve 
	began to eat at the last supper, Jesus said "You are not all 
	clean, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray 
	me." They all looked around but it was Judas who replied, 
	"Lord is it I?" Jesus came back with what amounted to "You 
	said it! What you do, do quickly" Judas went immediately 
	out into the night. 
	
	The Romans did not want to get involved in religious matters 
	and uphold the religious freedom of the Jews to preserve 
	order but would get involved if civil power was at stake. 
	From the mind of the Jew, Jesus had disrupted the established 
	order and twice attacked the Temple market place. Our Lord
	and the disciples were now treated as a clandestine, 
	subversive group. A member of the inner circle would guide
	the Jewish and Roman authorities to the leader of the circle 
	by night and surprise a band of outlaws. By using the stealth 
	of Judas in this way, the Jews were able to convince the Roman 
	authorities that Jesus was a subversive, a revolutionary and a 
	rebel that deserved to be executed under Roman law. 
	
	The dirty deed was accomplished when Judas led a multitude 
	of soldiers and officers of the chief priests and Pharisees
	scribes and elders carrying torches, lanterns and weapons 
	to the garden of Gethsemane, near the brook Cedron. Judas 
	walked up to Jesus and betrayed Him with a prearranged 
	signal, a kiss. Ever since Judas "betrayed, innocent blood"
	by selling Jesus to the highest bidder, his name has been 
	symbolic of the worst crime known to man. We all need to 
	be aware that his sin is still among us in the presence of
	those that expect a reward in this life for following 
	Jesus, especially those who take advantage of the poor. 
	Those that will deliver us into the hands of the enemy are
	the same type of hypocrites and fleshly leadership clalled
	religious that plotted against Jesus. When we are killed, 
	it will be for the same reason, money. 
	
	Zechariah writes of hearing the voice of the howling of the
	shepherds whose glory is spoiled. "Feed the flock of the 
	slaughter," saith the Lord. The flocks of the slaughter are
	the poor slain by their possessors but those that sell them 
	are rich and praise the Lord for their prosperity. The 
	shepherds that are over them are unable to recognize their 
	pitiful state. "Thirty pieces of silver was weighed for my 
	price and cast to the potter in the house of the Lord." The
	field of blood will be given over to poor of the flock in 
	this generation and the idle shepherds that left them will 
	be cut off. The poor that wait upon the Lord will see that 
	this is true. Look into the face of the poor and you will 
	see the eyes of Jesus. Look around them and you will see 
	Judas in the eyes of the shepherds who sell them for a 
	price. The sin of filthy lucre is now known innocently as 
	lucrative endeavor and prospering in the Lord. Foolish 
	greedy shepherds have crept into the flock and disguised 
	themselves as sheep. 
	
	After Jesus was crucified, Judas found out that his plan 
	had backfired and Jesus had been condemned innocently. Not 
	willing to keep blood money he repented of his evil. "I 
	have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood," to 
	which they replied, "What's that to us, see to it yourself." 
	Judas threw the silver back to the chief priests and elders 
	in the Temple. The priests did not want blood money either 
	and later used the price to buy the potter's field to bury
	foreigners in, fulfilling in part, the prophecy of 
	Zechariah. The field was named Aceldama, which means the 
	"field of blood." Judas had just betrayed the Messiah, the
	Son of God. Not willing to live with the guilt of what he 
	had done, Judas went and hanged himself at which point his 
	midsection burst open and his guts poured out. Matthias was
	chosen by lot to replace him as one of the twelve. 
	
	[324, 334, 338, 309, 23, 400, Zechariah 11, Matthew 26, 
	Mark 14, Luke 22, John 13, 18, Acts 1:18]