Judas Iscariot

Also known as: Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son / Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon / Judas surnamed Iscariot / Simon’s son · Family: Jesus's disciples · Role: apostle · First appears: Matthew 10

Judas Iscariot was among the twelve disciples whom Jesus ordained as apostles. In Matthew 10, Jesus gave the apostles power to cast out unclean spirits, heal sickness and disease, and sent them to Israel to preach, heal, cleanse, raise the dead, and cast out devils: “These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:” Judas’s relationship with Jesus was also that of disciple and master, while God was named as Father in the teaching given to the twelve.

Mark 3 and Luke 6 likewise place Judas among the twelve chosen and named apostles, and identify him as the one who betrayed Jesus. In John 6 and John 12, he is named as the disciple who would betray Jesus. At supper in John 13, Jesus identified him by giving him the dipped sop; afterward Satan entered him, and Judas immediately left into the night. “He then having received the sop went immediately out: and it was night.”

In Luke 22 and Mark 14, Satan entered Judas, and he agreed with the chief priests to betray Jesus for money. At Gethsemane, Judas identified Jesus to the approaching multitude with a kiss, enabling them to seize him; Matthew records the payment as thirty pieces of silver.