Judas Iscariot not so Judas after all?
April 7, 2006The news will be met with relief by some, the epitome Judas being thrown around so often. But a “Gospel of Judas” has been found, putting into new light the man and his deeds. According to this gospel, Judas was only following Jesus desire when he betrayed him to the authorities. As with any document found centuries after being written, many experts are bound to doubt it’s veracity, but it will still create quite a stir within the religious communities.

We, common folks, shouldn’t worry though. Even if the word Judas stops having the same unambiguity and we can’t use it anymore to name the guilty of betraying with kisses in our midst, there are other candidates.
Mind the last canto of Dante’s The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, canto 34. Dante and Virgil meet Lucifer, the great Satan himself. In the mouths of his three monstrous heads lie three people, three souls:
“That soul up there which has the greatest pain,”
The Master said, ” is Judas Iscariot;
With head inside, he plies his legs without.
Of the two others, who head downward are,
The one who hangs from the black jowl is Brutus;
See how he writhes himself, and speaks no word.
And the other, who so stalwart seems, is Cassius.
But night is reascending, and ’tis time
That we depart, for we have seen the whole.”
So, we can still count with good ol’ Brutus and Cassius, two of the most influential sinners in the history of man. Not bad. Not bad at all.













