«¿Soy yo el hombre»

“Am I the man?” is the question that gives Shmuel Ash’s account of Jesus its central tension: Jesus wonders whether he is truly the figure destined to redeem humanity, while Judas Iscariot treats that identity as certain and presses him toward a public demonstration. The question recurs in Jerusalem and at the crucifixion, where doubt persists to the end and the promised deliverance does not come.

Doubt before Jerusalem

In Shmuel’s reconstruction, Jesus hesitates over Judas’s proposal that he go to Jerusalem. The question is not merely whether he can perform miracles, but whether the voices that have called him are truthful, whether his heavenly father is testing or using him, and whether he can succeed in a city Shmuel describes as worldly and difficult to impress. Jesus appears to wait for a decisive sign from above, but none is given in the passage.

Judas answers the question for him. He tells Jesus that he is the savior and son of God, destined to save all humanity, and promises that in Jerusalem he will perform his greatest miracle: coming down alive from the cross before the assembled people. In Judas’s account, the crucifixion will inaugurate the redemption of the world and the kingdom of heaven. His assurance converts Jesus’s uncertain calling into a specific, public ordeal.

The question returns in Jerusalem

Jesus eventually goes to Jerusalem with his followers, but the journey does not end his doubts. Shmuel’s account presents fear of death as human and immediate; at the Last Supper, Jesus asks God to take the cup from him if possible. Judas continues to strengthen him with the prediction that the man who has walked on water, healed the sick, and raised the dead can also descend from the cross.

Judas then takes practical steps to bring about the crucifixion. Shmuel describes him as working through his influence among Pharisees and priests to arrange Jesus’s trial and execution. In this retelling, Judas’s role is not a simple act of betrayal for money: Shmuel rejects the familiar story of the thirty pieces of silver as a later invention or a possible embellishment by Judas himself. Judas organizes the event because he believes it will force the revelation he expects.

The final recurrence

On the cross, as the crowd calls on Jesus to save himself and come down, the question returns: “Am I the man?” Jesus may still be trying to hold to Judas’s promise, but the promised miracle does not occur. Shmuel’s account depicts Jesus’s final words as a cry of abandonment drawn from the Psalms, and presents his death as the death of a human being rather than the triumphant unveiling Judas anticipated.

The repeated question therefore changes its force across the episode. Before Jerusalem it expresses uncertainty about a calling; in Jerusalem it confronts the fear of death; at the cross it remains unanswered by the deliverance Judas had promised. The gap between Judas’s certainty and Jesus’s unresolved doubt is central to Shmuel’s reinterpretation of the crucifixion and of Judas’s part in it.