Judas Iscariot

Mwana wa Simoni (Yn. 6:71; 13:2, 26), aliyeitwa Iskariote, yaani, mtu wa Kerioth (Yos. 15:25). Jina lake huwa daima la mwisho katika orodha ya mitume, kama ilivyotolewa katika Injili za sinoptiki (yaani, tatu za kwanza). Uovu wa tabia yake yaelekea ulijifunua taratibu hata “Shetani alipomwingia” (Yn. 13:27), naye akamsaliti Bwana wetu (18:3). Baadaye alikiri dhambi yake kwa “kilio kichungu mno,” akatupa fedha alizozipokea kama ujira wa uovu wake sakafuni pa patakatifu, na “akaenda zake, akajinyonga” (Mt. 27:5). Aliangamia katika hatia yake, na “akaenda mahali pake mwenyewe” (Mdo. 1:25). Maneno yaliyo katika Mdo. 1:18 kwamba “alianguka kichwa kwanza, akapasuka katikati, na matumbo yake yote yakamwagika,” hayapingani hata kidogo na yale ya Mt. 27:5. Yule aliyejiua kwanza alijinyonga, labda juu ya bonde la Hinomu, “na kamba ilipokatika, au tawi alilotundikwa juu yake likavunjika, akaanguka kichwa kwanza kifudifudi, akapondwa na kuchanwa juu ya mawe ya chini.”

Why such a man was chosen to be an apostle we know not, but it is written that “Jesus knew from the beginning who should betray him” (John 6:64). Nor can any answer be satisfactorily given to the question as to the motives that led Judas to betray his Master. “Of the motives that have been assigned we need not care to fix on any one as that which simply led him on. Crime is, for the most part, the result of a hundred motives rushing with bewildering fury through the mind of the criminal.”

Maelezo haya yako kwa Kiingereza.