The Last Christians and the Jewish Scapegoat

Judas

This thread examines how the Judas legend makes one imagined disciple and an entire people bear the blame for Jesus’s death.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

The Disciples Scatter The Disciples Scatter from "Judas". Fear at the Arrest Flight Shmuel notes that the other disciples flee when Jesus is arrested.

The Disciples Scatter from "Judas". Fear at the Arrest Flight Shmuel notes that the other disciples flee when Jesus is arrested.

Fear at the Arrest Flight Shmuel notes that the other disciples flee when Jesus is arrested. Judas Remains Judas alone stays near the teacher and does not deny him in the way Peter does. The contrast destabilizes the conventional moral ranking of the disciples.

A Collective Burden A Collective Burden from "Judas". One Figure Made to Represent Many Popular Memory Christian tradition casts Judas as the unmistakable Jewish figure among Jesus’s followers.

A Collective Burden from "Judas". One Figure Made to Represent Many Popular Memory Christian tradition casts Judas as the unmistakable Jewish figure among Jesus’s followers.

One Figure Made to Represent Many Popular Memory Christian tradition casts Judas as the unmistakable Jewish figure among Jesus’s followers. Accumulated Blame The image connects Judas with broader accusations that Jews killed God and inherited a tendency to betray. The novel identifies a mechanism by which theological blame becomes antisemitic stereotype.

The Unanswered Question The Unanswered Question from "Judas". Why Does Judas Die? A Problem of Motive Shmuel asks why a man who supposedly sold his teacher for money would immediately take his own life from grief.

The Unanswered Question from "Judas". Why Does Judas Die? A Problem of Motive Shmuel asks why a man who supposedly sold his teacher for money would immediately take his own life from grief.

Why Does Judas Die? A Problem of Motive Shmuel asks why a man who supposedly sold his teacher for money would immediately take his own life from grief. Narrative Silence He finds little effort in the sources he knows to defend Judas or explain the depth of his attachment. The question makes psychological consistency a challenge to inherited condemnation.

The Alternative Disciple The Alternative Disciple from "Judas". Loyalty Misread Devotion Judas believes Jesus is divine and wants the world to witness his power.

Loyalty Misread Devotion Judas believes Jesus is divine and wants the world to witness his power. Fatal Intervention His attempt to bring about revelation helps produce the crucifixion instead. The reinterpretation makes culpability inseparable from love, faith, and presumption.

No Escape from Blame No Escape from Blame from "Judas". The Hatred Would Remain Counterfactual Wald suggests that even if Judas had been honored as a saint, hostility toward Jews would not have disappeared.

No Escape from Blame from "Judas". The Hatred Would Remain Counterfactual Wald suggests that even if Judas had been honored as a saint, hostility toward Jews would not have disappeared.

The Hatred Would Remain Counterfactual Wald suggests that even if Judas had been honored as a saint, hostility toward Jews would not have disappeared. Historical Warning The accusation rests on a broader inherited story of deicide, not on Judas alone. The novel challenges the hope that correcting one symbol can erase a culture of blame.

In Shmuel’s reflection on the Passion

During Shmuel’s late winter notes

During Shmuel’s research into Judas

In Shmuel’s imagined Gospel

During Wald and Shmuel’s discussion