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JUDAS: Why ... didn't you make me good enough ... so that you could've loved me?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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When a man becomes a Christian, he becomes industrious, trustworthy and prosperous. Now, if that man when he gets all he can and saves all he can, does not give all he can, I have more hope for Judas Iscariot than for that man!
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John Wesley
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Yes. THANK YOU. And say hello to Judas Iscariot.
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Suzanne Finnamore (Split: A Memoir of Divorce)
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I understood something else, too - that one kiss didn't change a thing. Anyone can give a kiss, after all; a kiss was how Judas Iscariot showed the Romans which one was Jesus.
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Stephen King (Dolores Claiborne)
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The only person who needs forgiveness is the one who doesn't deserve it.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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If Judas Iscariot were alive, and a woman, and attending formal functions, wearing this dress would still represent a disproportionate punishment for his sins.” “Her
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Daniel O'Malley (Stiletto (The Checquy Files, #2))
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I can't think for you, you'll have to decide, whether Judas Iscariot had god on his side
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Bob Dylan
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I begrudge God none of this. I do not curse him or bemoan my lot. And though my heart keeps beating only to keep breaking- I do not question why.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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J. C. Ryle observed, “A man may preach from false motives. A man may write books, and make fine speeches, and seem diligent in good works, and yet be a Judas Iscariot. But a man seldom goes into his closet, and pours out his soul before God in secret, unless he is serious.
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Kevin DeYoung (Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem)
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Do you know who W.H. Auden was, Mr. Iscariot? W.H. Auden was a poet who once said, “God may reduce you on Judgement Day to tears of shame reciting by heart the poems you would have written had your life been good”…She was my poem, Mr. Iscariot. Her and the kids. But mostly her. You cashed in for silver, Mr. Iscariot. But me? Me…I threw away gold. That’s a fact. That’s a natural fact.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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JESUS: I'm not above it all--I'm right here in it, don't you see that?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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God is fucking stealing souls again!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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When the Italian poet Dante described the center of hell in his poem The Divine Comedy, he got it wrong. The epicenter of Hades isn't Satan trapped in a block of ice munching on Judas Iscariot like an everlasting carrot stick. The center of hell is a restaurant on Mother's Day.
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Steve Dublanica (Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip-Confessions of a Cynical Waiter)
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Nobody wanted to hear about all the Preterite, the many God passes over when he chooses a few for salvation. William argued holiness for these "second Sheep," without whom there'd be no elect. You can bet the Elect in Boston were pissed off about that. And it got worse. William felt that what Jesus was for the elect, Judas Iscariot was for the Preterite. Everything in the Creation has its equal and opposite counterpart. How can Jesus be an exception? could we feel for him anything but horror in the face of the unnatural, the extracreational? Well, if he is the son of man, and if what we feel is not horror but love, then we have to love Judas too. Right? How William avoided being burned for heresy, nobody knows.
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Thomas Pynchon (Gravity’s Rainbow)
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Right now, I am in Fallujah. I am in Darfur. I am on Sixty-third and Park having dinner with Ellen Barkin and Ron Perelman... Right now, I'm on Lafayette and Astor waiting to hit you up for change so I can get high. I'm taking a walk through the Rose Garden with George Bush. I'm helping Donald Rumsfeld get a good night's sleep...I was in that cave with Osama, and on that plane with Mohamed Atta...And what I want you to know is that your work has barely begun. And what I want you to trust is the efficacy of divine love if practiced consciously. And what I need you to believe is that if you hate who I love, you do not know me at all. And make no mistake, "Who I Love" is every last one. I am every last one. People ask of me: Where are you? Where are you?...Verily I ask of you to ask yourself: Where are you? Where are you?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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No parent should have to bury a child ... No mother should have to bury a son. Mothers are not meant to bury sons. It is not in the natural order of things.
I buried my son. In a potter's field. In a field of Blood. In empty, acrid silence. There was no funeral. There were no mourners. His friends all absent. His father dead. His sisters refusing to attend. I discovered his body alone, I dug his grave alone, I placed him in a hole, and covered him with dirt and rock alone. I was not able to finish burying him before sundown, and I'm not sure if that affected his fate ...
I begrudge God none of this. I do not curse him or bemoan my lot. And though my heart keeps beating only to keep breaking--I do not question why.
I remember the morning my son was born as if it was yesterday. The moment the midwife placed him in my arms, I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding. I remember holding my son, and looking over at my own mother and saying, "Now I understand why the sun comes up at day and the stars come out at night. I understand why rain falls gently. Now I understand you, Mother" ...
I loved my son every day of his life, and I will love him ferociously long after I've stopped breathing. I am a simple woman. I am not bright or learn-ed. I do not read. I do not write. My opinions are not solicited. My voice is not important ... On the day of my son's birth I was infused with a love beyond all measure and understanding ... The world tells me that God is in Heaven and that my son is in Hell. I tell the world the one true thing I know: If my son is in Hell, then there is no Heaven--because if my son sits in Hell, there is no God.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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JESUS: Judas! … Judas, don’t you know what would happen the very instant you got down on your knees?
JUDAS: Why on my knees? They shoulda buried me standing up—’cuz I been on my knees my whole life! You left me.
JUDAS is slowly reverting to his frozen catatonic state.
JESUS: I’m right here.
JUDAS: I would have never believed that you could have left me.
JESUS: I never left you.
JUDAS: That you didn’t love me.
JESUS: I do love you.
JUDAS: Why … didn’t you make me good enough … so that you could’ve loved me?
JESUS: … Please take my hands, Judas. Please.
JUDAS: Where are they?
JESUS: Right here.
JUDAS: I can’t see them.
JESUS: They’re right here.
JUDAS: Where are you going?!
JESUS: I’m right here.
JUDAS: Don’t leave me!
JESUS: I’m here.
JUDAS: I can’t hurt …
JESUS: I love you, Judas.
JUDAS: I can’t …
JESUS: Please stay.
JUDAS: I can’t hurt …
JESUS: Please love me, Judas.
JUDAS: I can’t.
JUDAS is frozen again.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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People who chase money without chasing any good reason for it are always brought down by the money they chase. Yes! If God gives you a gift, he adds it's manual that contains how to use it to it. However, if you chase something without receiving any authority from above, you will be tempted to throw it away because you can't find any good manual for it; Go, ask Judas Iscariot. He has more to say!
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Israelmore Ayivor (The Great Hand Book of Quotes)
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And though my heart keeps beating only to keep breaking-- I do not question why.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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Despair … is the ultimate development of a pride so great and so stiff-necked that it selects the absolute misery of damnation rather than accept happiness from the hands of God and thereby acknowledge that He is above us and that we are not capable of fulfilling our destiny by ourselves.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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I remember holding my son, and looking over at my own mother and saying, “Now I understand why the sun comes up at day and the stars come out at night. I understand why rain falls gently. Now I understand you, Mother” …
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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MOTHER TERESA: Boy, one must participate in one’s own salvation. In order to hear, one must be willing to listen.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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When one loves knowingly, when one loves consciously, with full knowledge, with full understanding, the delights of a person in love are nothing in comparison with the delights of love that sprouts only from the spirit.
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Judas Iscariot The Flight of the Feathered Serpent
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I do know that I am in continuous need of the Spiritual and that I usually go to great lengths to avoid it.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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Some people are curious about a writer’s “creative process.” I can’t explain mine except to say that God is the starting point and the finish line. In other words, when all else fails— and it always does— I pray.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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What is it that we need to overcome in order to truly be “Ourselves”?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Good. Now, when I come to court dressed as Ethel Merman in a one-piece bathing suit, that’ll be my signal to you that I want your opinion! BAILIFF: Yes, sir.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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EL-FAYOUMY: Yes. Mother. Is there a Hell?
MOTHER TERESA: I hope not, but I think so.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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Simeon was the ancestor of Judas Iscariot;
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Martin Luther (Luther's Works, Vol. 8: Genesis Chapters 45-50)
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Zitner said hell would freeze over before something like that happened. Harold had a brief image of Adolf Hitler and Judas Iscariot handing out ice-skates and went on heaving sandbags.
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Stephen King (It)
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People today refer to Judas Iscariot in a way as if he was betraying a wonderful, upstanding man in society. They forget that Judas was betraying a wanted criminal branded as a fraud by all of the synagogues in the land. Ask yourself, how many times have you denied another person to save your own skin and to appear upright? How many times have you been a Judas Iscariot?
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C. JoyBell C.
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And what I need you to believe is that if you hate who I love, you do not know me at all. And make no mistake, "Who I Love" is every last one. I am every last one. People ask of me: Where are you? Where are you?...Verily I ask of you to ask yourself: Where are you? Where are you?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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MARY MAGDALENE: I also knew Judas Iscariot very well. SAINT MONICA: Gangsta! MARY MAGDALENE: Out of the Twelve, he was the most moody and the most impetuous, and yet, he was my favorite. SAINT MONICA: Tupac!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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God would even have forgiven Judas Iscariot, had he asked for His forgiveness. Judas wasn’t damned for betraying Christ. He was damned for despairing, for rejecting the possibility that he might be forgiven for what he had done.
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John Connolly (The Black Angel (Charlie Parker, #5))
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But Simeon is the most abject tribe of all, for he is cursed by his father Jacob and is passed over in silence by Moses. Jerome, as I have stated, is of the opinion that no mention is made of Simeon because Judas Iscariot was to be born from that tribe.
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Martin Luther (Luther's Works, Vol. 8: Genesis Chapters 45-50)
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Could he have been the fork in the road American never took, the singular point she jumped the wrong way from? Suppose the Slothropite heresy had had the time to consolidate and prosper? Might there have been fewer crimes in the name of Jesus, and more mercy in the name of Judas Iscariot? It seems to Tyrone Slothrop that there might be a route back--maybe that anarchist he met in Zurich was right, maybe for a little while all the fences are down, one road as good as another, the whole space of the Zone cleared...
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Thomas Pynchon
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I think that when Jesus was put before you, you did not see a God or a prophet, you did not see a lunatic or an innocent, you didn’t even see a human being. I think, Mister Pilate, that what you saw before you that morning was just one more Jew, and you didn’t hesitate. Why would you?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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It is well enough known, that in the early ages of Christianity, many silly and fraudulent persons composed fictitious narratives of the life and actions of Jesus Christ and his Apostles, and gave them out as the writings of Peter, Nicodemus, Thomas, Barnabas, and even Judas Iscariot.
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Robert Taylor (Syntagma of the Evidences of the Christian Religion (annotated))
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16These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), 17James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), 18Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
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Anonymous (Holy Bible: NIV, New International Version)
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The synthesis of Love and Justice can produce only Mercy and Forgiveness, Your Honor! If a just God sits in Heaven, it can fall no other way!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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GLORIA: Between Heaven and Hell—there is another place. This place: Hope. Hope—is located right over here in downtown Purgatory.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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The only thing that really matters is to be. Man is; the rest that he has is by addition.
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Judas Iscariot The Flight of the Feathered Serpent
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Between the sands of time is a multitude of truths untold.
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Jason E. Royle (Judas: Hero Misunderstood)
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Why... didn't you make me good enough... so that you could've loved me?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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Thomas Merton said, “To be a saint means to be myself.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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In biblical times, Hope was an Oasis in the Desert. In medieval days, a shack free of Plague. Today, Hope is no longer a place for contemplation—litigation being the preferred new order of the day.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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I got a calling, y’all—you should try giving me a shout if ya ever need it, ‘cuz my name is Saint Monica, I’m the mother of Saint Augustine, one of the Fathers of the Church, and ya know what? My ass gets results!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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CUNNINGHAM: I had two abortions, Mother Teresa, what do you think about that?
MOTHER TERESA: I will pray for you and your children.
CUNNINGHAM: I don’t have any children.
MOTHER TERESA: Not anymore, and dat’s terrible.
CUNNINGHAM: Mother Teresa, if abortion is so terrible, then how come I’m not in Hell?
MOTHER TERESA: I don’t know. Did anybody tell you you weren’t?
CUNNINGHAM: Must be nice to have all the answers.
MOTHER TERESA: Must be hard to have only questions.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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As another aside, it has occurred to various people, including Robert Graves in his epic novel King Jesus, that poor Judas Iscariot has received a bad deal from history, given that his ‘betrayal’ was a necessary part of the cosmic plan. The same could be said of Jesus’ alleged murderers. If Jesus wanted to be betrayed and then murdered, in order that he could redeem us all, isn’t it rather unfair of those who consider themselves redeemed to take it out on Judas and on Jews down the ages?
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Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion)
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In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of hell, is itself a question: 'What are you asking God to do?' to wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.
One caution, and I have done. In order to rouse modern minds to an understanding of the issues, I ventured to introduce in this chapter a picture of the sort of bad man whom we most easily perceive to be truly bad. But when the picture has done that work, the sooner it is forgotten the better. In all discussions of Hell we should keep steadily before our eyes the possible damnation, not of our enemies nor our friends (since both these disturb the reason) but of ourselves. This chapter is not about your wife or son, nor about Nero or Judas Iscariot; it is about you and me.
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C.S. Lewis
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In oral societies it is recognized that the telling of a story to a different audience or in a different context or for a different reason calls for a different version of the story. Stories are molded to the time and circumstance in which they are told.
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Bart D. Ehrman (The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer & Betrayed)
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Oh, just some crap about the essential paradox of man: How we refuse to juxtapose the absolute to the relative, and some other some-such about paradox as an ontological definition which expresses the relation between an existing cognitive spirit and eternal truth—You know, bullshit.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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I will tell you what Jews are like. Once, in the early months of the war, we were on the march, and we had halted at a village for the night. A horrible old Jew, with a red beard like Judas Iscariot, came sneaking up to my billet. I asked him what he wanted. ‘Your honour,’ he said, ‘I have brought a girl for you, a beautiful young girl only seventeen. It will only be fifty francs.’ ‘Thank you,’ I said, ‘you can take her away again. I don’t want to catch any diseases.’ ‘Diseases!’ cried the Jew, ‘mais, monsieur le capitaine, there’s no fear of that. It’s my own daughter!’ That is the Jewish national character for you.
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George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London)
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I will tell you what Jews are like. Once, in the early months of the war, we were on the march, and we had halted at a village for the night. A horrible old Jew, with a red beard like Judas Iscariot, came sneaking up to my billet. I asked him what he wanted. ‘Your honour,’ he said, ‘I have brought a girl for you, a beautiful young girl only seventeen. It will only be fifty francs.’ ‘Thank you,’ I said, ‘you can take her away again. I don’t want to catch any diseases.’ ‘Diseases!’ cried the Jew, ‘mais, monsieur le capitaine, there’s no fear of that. It’s my own daughter!’ That is the Jewish national character for you. “Have
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George Orwell (Down and Out in Paris and London)
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Judas: I’ll tell you what I know: I watched you trip over your own dusty feet to heal the sick, the blind, the lame, the unclean, any two-bit stranger stubbed their fuckin’ toe! When some lowly distant relative - too cheap to buy enough wine for his own fuckin’ wedding - suddenly runs out of booze - no problem, you just presto change-o and it was fuckin’ Miller time in ol’ Canaan again, wasn’t it, bro? But when I fuckin’ needed you - where the fuck were you, huh?!
Jesus: Judas-
Judas: You forgave Peter and bullshit Thomas - you knocked Paul of Tarsus off a horse - you raised Lazarus from the fuckin’ dead- but me? Me? Your ‘heart’? What about me? What about me, Jesus? Huh? You just, you just - I made a mistake! And if that was wrong, then you should have told me! And if a broken heart wasn’t sufficient reason to hang, THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME THAT, TOO!
Jesus: Don’t you think that if I knew that it would have changed your mind… That I would have?
Judas: All I know is that you broke me unfixable […]
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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And Satan spoke unto a certain prince, saying: 'Fear not to use the sword, for the wise men have deceived you in saying that the world would be destroyed thereby. Listen not to the counsel of weaklings, for they fear you exceedingly, and they serve your enemies by staying your hand against them. Strike, and know that you shall be king over all.'
"And the prince did heed the word of Satan, and he summoned all of the wise men of that realm and called upon them to give him counsel as to the ways in which the enemy might be destroyed without bringing down the wrath upon his own kingdom. But most of the wise men said, 'Lord, it is not possible, for your enemies also have the sword which we have given you, and the fieriness of it is as the flame of Hell and as the fury of the sun-star from whence it was kindled.'
" 'Then thou shalt make me yet another which is yet seven times hotter than Hell itself,' commanded the prince, whose arrogance had come to surpass that of Pharaoh.
"And many of them said: 'Nay, Lord, ask not this thing of us; for even the smoke of such a fire, if we were to kindle it for thee, would cause many to perish.'
"Now the prince was angry because of their answer, and he suspected them of betraying him, and he sent his spies among them to tempt them and to challenge them; whereupon the wise men became afraid. Some among them changed their answers, that his wrath be not invoked against them. Three times he asked them, and three times they answered: 'Nay, Lord, even your own people will perish if you do this thing.' But one of the magi was like unto Judas Iscariot, and his testimony was crafty, and having betrayed his brothers, he lied to all the people, advising them not to fear the demon Fallout. The prince heeded this false wise man, whose name was Blackeneth, and he caused spies to accuse many of the magi before the people. Being afraid, the less wise among the magi counseled the prince according t pleasure, saying: "The weapons may be used, only do not
exceed such-and-such a limit, or all will surely perish.
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Walter M. Miller Jr. (A Canticle for Leibowitz (St. Leibowitz, #1))
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CUNNINGHAM: Defense calls Sigmund Freud, Your Honor. BAILIFF: Name! SIGMUND FREUD: Doctor Sigmund Shlomo Freud. CUNNINGHAM: Doctor Freud, would it be accurate to say you qualify as an expert in the field of modern psychiatry? SIGMUND FREUD: Fräulein—I AM modern psychiatry. EL-FAYOUMY: Objection, Your Honor!—the witness is boasting! JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Overruled!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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Judas Iscariot. Without attempting to gaze into the mysterious abyss of the Satanic element in his apostasy, we may trace his course in its psychological development. We must not regard Judas as a monster, but as one with passions like ourselves. True, there was one terrible master-passion in his soul, covetousness; but that was only the downward, lower aspect of what seems, and to many really is, that which leads to the higher and better, ambition. It had been thoughts of Israel's King which had first set his imagination on fire, and brought him to follow the Messiah. Gradually, increasingly, came the disenchantment. It was quite another Kingdom, that of Christ; quite another Kingship than what had set Judas aglow. This feeling was deepened as events proceeded.
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Alfred Edersheim (Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah)
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This brings us to the crux moment in the supposed 'Show Trial' melodrama. Employing the confusing and confused testimony of Jude Wanniski (who he also describes as a political nut-case, if not a nut-case flat-out, and to whom he introduced me in the first place) Blumenthal suggests that I concerted my testimony in advance with the House Republicans, notably James Rogan and Lindsey Graham. Feebly bridging the gap between sheer conjecture and outright conspiracy, Rogan is quoted as saying: 'Hitchens may well have called Lindsey..' I did not in fact do any such thing. Why should my denial be believed? It's not as if I care. I probably should have colluded with them, if my intention was to land a blow on Clinton (which it was) let alone to plant a Judas kiss on Blumenthal (which it was not). But every other fragment of Blumenthal's evidence and description shows—even boasts—that Congressman Graham was essentially punching air until the last day of the trial. That could not possibly have been true, especially in his cross-examination of Blumenthal, if he knew he had an ace in his vest-pocket all along. Only a tendency to paranoia or to all-explaining theories could suggest the contrary. I'd even be able to claim for myself, I hope, that if I'd truly wanted to gouge a deep or vengeful wound I could or would have made a better job of it.
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Christopher Hitchens
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The New Testament writers, even while writing the texts on love and forbearance that we are trying to understand and obey, condemn false prophets, expel the man who is sleeping with his step-mother, declare that it would be better for Judas Iscariot if he had not been born, assure readers that the evil of Alexander the metal-worker will be required of him, and solemnly warn of eternal judgement to come. Sometimes, of course, churches with right-wing passions use these same texts to bully their members unto unflagging submission to the local dictator. The threat of church discipline can degenerate into a form of manipulation, of spiritual abuse. Where, then, is the line to be drawn? To a postmodern relativist, any form of confessional discipline will seem nothing more than intolerant, manipulative abuse. From a Christian perspective, what lines must be drawn and why? How does Christian love work itself out in such cases? (p. 149).
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D.A. Carson (Love in Hard Places)
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Had God kept from being made those who through His goodness were to have existence, but who by their own choice were to become evil, then evil would have prevailed over the goodness of God. Thus, all things which God makes He makes good, but each one becomes good or evil by his own choice. So, even if the Lord did say: 'It were better for him if that man had not been born,' He did not say so in deprecation of His own creature, but in deprecation of that creature's choice and rashness.
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John of Damascus
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The publication of the Gospel of Judas within Codex Tchacos represents a significant moment for the study of religion and culture. It is a rare occurrence that a previously unknown gospel manuscript is discovered, particularly one that was mentioned in early Christian sources, and that is precisely what is the case with the Gospel of Judas. The Gospel of Judas can be dated, with some certainty, to around the middle of the second century, or perhaps even a bit before, and the materials included within it are even older. The gospel is thus an early source for our knowledge of an important mystical movement within early Christianity and Judaism, namely the Sethian gnostic school of religious thought. Further, the text provides the opportunity to evaluate, and perhaps reevaluate, the historical role of a figure—Judas Iscariot—who has been much maligned within Christianity and has been a prominent figure in the development of anti-Semitism. All in all, the Gospel of Judas sheds important light on the character of developing Christianity, and reminds us again of the rich diversity of the early church.
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Marvin W. Meyer (The Gospel of Judas)
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Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt. 13:24–30) they must grow together, Jesus said, until the harvest. We cannot remove the tares without destroying the wheat. Evil, like the tares, is part of the Ground of Being, the nature of reality, the meaning of God. My being is always light and darkness, love and hate, God and Satan, life and death, being and nonbeing—all in dynamic tension. I cannot split off part of who I am, confess it, be absolved of it, and seek to try again. I cannot pretend that I am made in God’s image until I own as part of my being the shadow side of my life, which reflects the shadow side of God. That is why evil is always present in the holy; that is why evil is perceived as relentless and inescapable; that is why Jesus and Judas have been symbolically bound together since the dawn of time. The Johannine myth was not wrong in suggesting that Jesus was the preexisting word of God who was enfleshed into human history. That is a very accurate conception of an ultimate truth. But it is not complete. Judas Iscariot was also mythically present in God at the dawn of creation, and he too was enfleshed in the drama played out in Judea in the first century. The mythical themes are woven together time after time. God and Satan, life and death, good and evil, sacrifice and freedom, light and darkness, Jesus and Judas—are all inextricably bound up with one another. I cannot finally step into the new being without bringing my own dark shadow with me.
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John Shelby Spong (A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born)
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Biblia pamoja na historia vinatwambia kuwa mitume kumi na wawili wa Yesu Kristo waliamua kufa kinyama kama mfalme wao alivyokufa, kwa sababu walikataa kukana imani yao juu ya Yesu Kristo.
Mathayo alikufa kwa ajili ya Ukristo nchini Ethiopia kwa jeraha lililotokana na kisu kikali, Marko akavutwa na farasi katika mitaa ya Alexandria nchini Misri mpaka akafa, kwa sababu alikataa kukana jina la Yesu Kristo.
Luka alinyongwa nchini Ugiriki kwa sababu ya kuhubiri Injili ya Yesu Kristo katika nchi ambapo watu hawakumtambua Yesu.
Yohana alichemshwa katika pipa la mafuta ya moto katika kipindi cha mateso makubwa ya Wakristo nchini Roma, lakini kimiujiza akaponea chupuchupu, kabla ya kufungwa katika gereza la kisiwa cha Patmo (Ugiriki) ambapo ndipo alipoandika kitabu cha Ufunuo. Mtume Yohana baadaye aliachiwa huru na kurudi Uturuki, ambapo alimtumikia Bwana kama Askofu wa Edessa. Alikufa kwa uzee, akiwa mtume pekee aliyekufa kwa amani.
Petro alisulubiwa kichwa chini miguu juu katika msalaba wa umbo la X kulingana na desturi za kikanisa za kipindi hicho, kwa sababu aliwaambia maadui zake ya kuwa alijisikia vibaya kufa kama alivyokufa mfalme wake Yesu Kristo.
Yakobo ndugu yake na Yesu (Yakobo Mkubwa), kiongozi wa kanisa mjini Yerusalemu, alirushwa kutoka juu ya mnara wa kusini-mashariki wa hekalu aliloliongoza la Hekalu Takatifu (zaidi ya futi mia moja kwenda chini) na baadaye kupigwa kwa virungu mpaka akafa, alipokataa kukana imani yake juu ya Yesu Kristo.
Yakobo mwana wa Zebedayo (Yakobo Mdogo) alikuwa mvuvi kabla Yesu Kristo hajamwita kuwa mchungaji wa Injili yake. Kama kiongozi wa kanisa hatimaye, Yakobo aliuwawa kwa kukatwa kichwa mjini Yerusalemu. Afisa wa Kirumi aliyemlinda Yakobo alishangaa sana jinsi Yakobo alivyolinda imani yake siku kesi yake iliposomwa. Baadaye afisa huyo alimsogelea Yakobo katika eneo la mauti. Nafsi yake ilipomsuta, alijitoa hatiani mbele ya hakimu kwa kumkubali Yesu Kristo kama kiongozi wa maisha yake; halafu akapiga magoti pembeni kwa Yakobo, ili na yeye akatwe kichwa kama mfuasi wa Yesu Kristo.
Bartholomayo, ambaye pia alijulikana kama Nathanali, alikuwa mmisionari huko Asia. Alimshuhudia Yesu mfalme wa wafalme katika Uturuki ya leo.
Bartholomayo aliteswa kwa sababu ya mahubiri yake huko Armenia, ambako inasemekana aliuwawa kwa kuchapwa bakora mbele ya halaiki ya watu iliyomdhihaki.
Andrea alisulubiwa katika msalaba wa X huko Patras nchini Ugiriki. Baada ya kuchapwa bakora kinyama na walinzi saba, alifungwa mwili mzima kwenye msalaba ili ateseke zaidi. Wafuasi wake waliokuwepo katika eneo la tukio waliripoti ya kuwa, alipokuwa akipelekwa msalabani, Andrea aliusalimia msalaba huo kwa maneno yafuatayo: "Nimekuwa nikitamani sana na nimekuwa nikiitegemea sana saa hii ya furaha. Msalaba uliwekwa wakfu na Mwenyezi Mungu baada ya mwili wa Yesu Kristo kuning’inizwa juu yake." Aliendelea kuwahubiria maadui zake kwa siku mbili zaidi, akiwa msalabani, mpaka akaishiwa na nguvu na kuaga dunia.
Tomaso alichomwa mkuki nchini India katika mojawapo ya safari zake za kimisionari akiwa na lengo la kuanzisha kanisa la Yesu Kristo katika bara la India.
Mathiya alichaguliwa na mitume kuchukua nafasi ya Yuda Iskarioti, baada ya kifo cha Yuda katika dimbwi la damu nchini India. Taarifa kuhusiana na maisha na kifo cha Mathiya zinachanganya na hazijulikani sawasawa. Lakini ipo imani kwamba Mathiya alipigwa mawe na Wayahudi huko Yerusalemu, kisha akauwawa kwa kukatwa kichwa.
Yuda Tadei, ndugu yake na Yesu, aliuwawa kwa mishale alipokataa kukana imani yake juu ya Yesu Kristo.
Mitume walikuwa na imani kubwa kwa sababu walishuhudia ufufuo wa Yesu Kristo, na miujiza mingine. Biblia ni kiwanda cha imani. Tunapaswa kuiamini Biblia kama mitume walivyomwamini Yesu Kristo, kwa sababu Biblia iliandikwa na mitume.
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Enock Maregesi
“
And Judas Iscariot’s name continues in the twenty-first century to represent a crushing rebuke, a despicable traitor, as in the controversialist Lady Gaga’s 2011 single, ‘Judas’, about being in love with a bad ’un. ‘Jesus is my virtue’, she sings in a promotional video bursting with religious imagery, ‘and Judas is the demon I cling to’.
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Peter Stanford (Judas: The troubling history of the renegade apostle)
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Because Judas is the only one of the twelve with two names, Judas and Iscariot, and that second name most obviously suggests he had come from afar to the Galilean hills, he is implicitly being cast from the very start as the outsider. That
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Peter Stanford (Judas: The troubling history of the renegade apostle)
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MARY MAGDALENE: I also knew Judas Iscariot very well. SAINT MONICA: Gangsta!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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EL-FAYOUMY: Do not bait this great man, lady! He presided over the appeal of Attila the Hun when you were nothing more than a cheap shot of whiskey on your great-great-grandfather’s first unpaid bar tab! JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Well said!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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CUNNINGHAM: Your Honor, this petition is signed by God! JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Yeah, but it ain’t signed by your client, now, is it? CUNNINGHAM: My client is catatonic, he’s incapable of signing. JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: If he’s catatonic, then how do you know he wants an appeal in the first place?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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At night, I fly down to Earth, and I watch my littlest Babyboy sleep. He’s seven, and he’s got a picture of me on his wall—right in between Shaquille O’Neal and the Incredible Hulk.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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CUNNINGHAM:—Your Honor, I cite the Beatitudes, and Kierkegaard. I cite Christ on the Cross! JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: I cite my foot in your ass, Cunningham!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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My name is MONICA—better known to you mere mortals as SAINT Monica. Yeah, dass right, SAINT—as in “better not don’t get up in my grill ‘cuz I’ll mess your shit up, ’cuz I’m a Saint and I got mad saintly connects,” okay?
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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CAIAPHAS THE ELDER: Hello. EL-FAYOUMY: “Shalom”—as it were. CAIAPHAS THE ELDER: Shalom. EL-FAYOUMY: Caiaphas the Elder: Perhaps you can clear this up—is there a Caiaphas the Younger? CAIAPHAS THE ELDER: No. EL-FAYOUMY: And yet, you are the Elder? CAIAPHAS THE ELDER: Yes.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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EL-FAYOUMY: May I approach you? JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: The bench, not me!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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BAILIFF (cautiously): Sir, his name’s El-Fayoumy. JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: What? BAILIFF: You called him El-Fajita. JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Just gimme my glasses! BAILIFF: You’re wearing them, sir.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
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JUDGE LITTLEFIELD: Your client is Judas Iscariot! Your client sold out the son of God, for Chrissakes!
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot: A Play)
“
Dante Alighieri described the ninth and deepest pit of hell as an almost gaping void, locked in a perpetual state of suspended animation. It was reserved, in his interpretation, for the great traitors of history who were encapsulated in a lake of ice and contorted in all manner of unnatural positions. Joining them was Satan himself, waist-deep in the lake and beating his six wings in a foolhardy attempt at escape. And in Satan’s three mouths, condemned to an eternity of being slowly chewed to bits, were the most treacherous souls imaginable: Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot. But hell was a very real place on earth, as Ryan Freeman understood, and at the moment, he was convinced it sat on the top floor of the United States Capitol. There, he was trapped in the icy grips of four blue-faced beasts, his words contorted within their minds in all manner of unnatural positions as he was slowly chewed to bits, deep in the confines of a vaulted room where no one could hear him scream. Dante was wrong. The deepest pit of hell was reserved for the spymasters.
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Matt Fulton
“
May Jules de Grandin stew everlastingly in hell with Judas Iscariot on his left hand and he who first invented Prohibition on his right if it be so!" the Frenchman cried.
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Seabury Quinn (The Skeleton Closet of Jules De Grandin)
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Living is for now.
Eternity is forever.
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B.C. Crothers (Judas Iscariot, His Life and Times: The Most Hated Man in All of Christendom (Book 1))
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When someone you TRUST is revealed as your SABOTAGE, you can then understand the purpose of JUDAS ISCARIOT in the company of the 12 and the Kingdom of the Master.
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Dr Ikoghene S Aashikpelokhai
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Take heed, above all things, that your repentance is closely bound up with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Make sure that your convictions are convictions that never rest except at the foot of the cross on which Jesus Christ died. Judas Iscariot could say, I have sinned (Matthew 27:4), but he never turned to Jesus. Judas never looked by faith to Jesus, and therefore Judas died in his sins.
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J.C. Ryle (Repentance: What it Means to Repent and Why We Must Do So)
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For Irenaeus, salvation came by having faith in the death and bodily resurrection of Jesus; according to the Gnostics, salvation came by learning the secret truths that Christ taught concerning how to escape this world of the body.
I should stress that these truths were not available to just anybody. Only those who had the spark of the divine within could receive them. Others—those without the spark—belonged to the god of this world, the creator who made matter and all the misery and suffering connected with it. These others could not know the truth because they were not from above. This made it exceedingly difficult to argue with Gnostics. If you claimed they were wrong, they could simply point out that you didn’t “know.” If you interpreted a passage of Scripture to counter their claims, they could smugly assure you that you misunderstood the passage. If you claimed that their interpretation violated that natural meaning of the text, they could say that the real meaning lies beneath the surface, there only for those with eyes to see.
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Bart D. Ehrman (The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed)
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In all of the Gospels of the New Testament, Mary Magdalene is mentioned only one time during Jesus’ entire public ministry prior to his crucifixion, and in that one reference we are simply told that she was one of three women who accompanied Jesus and his disciples during his itinerant preaching ministry and who gave them the funds they needed to survive (the other two were Joanna and Susanna). That’s it! There are no references to her being a prostitute, having anointed Jesus (that was a different, unnamed woman), or having been the woman caught in adultery (that was yet a different unnamed woman)—let alone having been Jesus’ wife and lover. Where, then, do people get their ideas about the Magdalene from? From legends told about her many decades or even centuries after her death. These are stories that are made up—sometimes (for example, in the case of her having Jesus’ baby) made up in modern times by novelists or “independent researchers” who want to sell books.
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Bart D. Ehrman (The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at the Betrayer and Betrayed)
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In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul is upset for a number of reasons, mainly because the Corinthian Christians were misbehaving in lots of ways: he indicates that they formed cliques that contended with one another over which of their leaders was spiritually superior; their worship services had grown chaotic; there was rampant immorality, with some men visiting prostitutes and bragging about it in church (they were saved already, so why did it matter how they behaved?), and one fellow was living in sin with his stepmother.
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Bart D. Ehrman (The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed)
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The widespread notion that stories never should be changed but should be repeated without alteration every time is an innovation of modern written cultures. Before the creation of the printing press, this was not a widely shared view.
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Bart D. Ehrman (The Lost Gospel of Judas Iscariot: A New Look at Betrayer and Betrayed)
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If money is what you protect the most, then it is what you value the most. Jesus put Judas Iscariot in charge of His purse, but Peter in charge of His sheep.
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Dami Olu (When God Speaks in Parables (Volume 2): Understanding Jesus’ Parables on Stewardship, Humility, and Prayer (When God Speaks in Parables (Understanding the Powerful Stories Jesus Told)))
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I determined that it were better to have one man dead than a thousand.
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Stephen Adly Guirgis (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot)
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As C. S. Lewis reminds us: In all our discussions of Hell we should keep steadily before our eyes the possible damnation, not of our enemies nor of our friends (since both these disturb the reason) but of ourselves. This [doctrine] is not about your wife or son, nor about Nero or Judas Iscariot; it is about you and me.
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Iain M. Duguid (Ezekiel (The NIV Application Commentary))
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This same boy who struck Jesus, and out of whom Satan went in the form of a dog, was Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him to the Jews. 10 And that same side, on which Judas: struck him, the Jews pierced with a spear.
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John Volz (Buried Books of the Bible)
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Irish scribes had a way of gossiping and complaining in the margins: ‘I am very cold’ or ‘That’s a hard page and a weary work to read it’ or ‘Oh that a glass of good old wine were at my side.’ Their notes may have been for people working alongside them, because sometimes a team of four or more would work together on a single manuscript;19 but some were entirely personal, as when a scribe writes out the scene of Judas Iscariot betraying Christ with a kiss and adds in the margin: ‘Wretch!
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Michael Pye (The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are)
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Unless the grace of God prevents, that which is best rots into that which is worst. You could not make a devil except with an angel for the raw material—a Judas Iscariot could only be produced out of an Apostle of Jesus Christ.”–1895, Sermon 2412
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Spurgeon Gems)
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Cristo y su misterio nunca podrán ser explicados en clave política. «Jesús decepcionó estas expectativas», prosigue Benedicto XVI, «por lo que algunos discípulos lo abandonaron, y Judas Iscariote incluso lo traicionó. En realidad, es imposible interpretar a Jesús como violento: la violencia es contraria al reino de Dios, es un instrumento del anticristo. La violencia nunca sirve a la humanidad, más aún, la deshumaniza».
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Fulgencio Espa (Noviembre 2015, con Él: 30 meditaciones con el Evangelio)
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with more malice than that of Judas Iscariot. Once a proud name, now it is spit upon, said with hatred and venom. Judas is gone, but Lilith roams the earth, and she builds her army of vampires. She intends to rule the world; her strength is always our weakness. It is our task, our legacy, to keep Lilith and her minions at bay.
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Colleen Gleason (The Rest Falls Away (The Gardella Vampire Hunters: Victoria, #1))
“
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.
Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!
Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion of the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.
That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."
- Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
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Joseph M. Luguya
“
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.
Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!
Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion of the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.
That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."
_Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
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Joseph M. Luguya
“
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.
Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!
Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion of the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.
That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."
- Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
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Joseph M. Luguya
“
To be sure, Judas Iscariot was not exactly the sort of character that Christian Mjomba - or anyone else at St. Augustine’s Seminary for that matter - would have wanted to be nicknamed after. But the fact was that Mjomba had never made a secret of his views on the world. Everyone in the seminary brotherhood knew his stand on apartheid and things like that; and they were considered very liberal. In the conservative environment that prevailed at St. Augustine’s Seminary, they were also tantamount to betrayal! It was about the most unsavory that anyone could have wished to be associated with. But that was the label he had got stuck with.
"Everybody knew, besides, that it wasn’t some uninformed gentile or misguided unbeliever who had betrayed the Deliverer and handed Him to His killers. And Judas Iscariot wasn’t just anybody either. Judas was one of the twelve who had been handpicked by the Deliverer to form the core of the convocation that would become the Sancta Ecclesia. In addition to being the Deliverer’s purse bearer, Judas Iscariot also drank wine from the same cup as his Master! The man who would betray the Deliverer with a kiss was a member of the inner circle of the burgeoning Christ Fellowship; and, before long, his name had become so repulsive even among Romans, it had replaced that of Brutus, the friend of Cæsar who had conspired with others and stabbed the emperor in the back, as a symbol of betrayal. A traitor par excellence!
"Whenever Mjomba thought about Judas’ betrayal of the Messiah of the world with a kiss, it was not the act of betrayal itself that came to mind. It was not even the chilling words “Would’st thou betray thy Master with a kiss, Judas?” that were addressed to the betrayer by the Deliverer in the moment when Judas, no doubt representing all humanity, embraced the Nazarene and kissed him on the cheek so the temple’s constabulary wouldn’t grab and take into custody the wrong person! It was the Deliverer’s address to Peter a little earlier on in the Upper House as the fisherman, who himself would swear that he did not know the Nazarene, not once but three times, in front of a shivering crowd not long afterward, balked at the notion that the miracle worker and Son of Man could stoop to wash his (the fisherman’s) dirty feet, namely “Not all are clean, Peter!” And that was, in all probability, after Judas’s feet had already been washed by the Nazarene.
"That, in any event, was the character after whom Christian Mjomba had been nicknamed by his buddies in what he initially regarded as something that was itself an act of betrayal. The traitors! He could not understand how people could be so insensitive about the feelings of others! And even though he had never said it, he had never liked it a bit - until he started work on his theological thesis."
― Joseph M. Luguya, Humans: The Untold Story of Adam and Eve and their Descendants
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Joseph M. Luguya
Peter S. Ruckman (Revelation Commentary (The Bible Believer's Commentary Series))
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devil? JOH6.71 He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the
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Anonymous (KING JAMES BIBLE with VerseSearch)
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Peter (according to John) attacks the posse with a sword and even cuts off a man’s ear; why isn’t he arrested? (Mark 14:47; John 18:10) In fact, if Jesus’ teachings were so dangerous, why didn’t all the disciples get rounded up as well? The evangelists all give different versions of the story of Judas Iscariot, and yet his “betrayal” makes no sense in any of them. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The
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David Fitzgerald (Jesus: Mything in Action, Vol. I (The Complete Heretic's Guide to Western Religion, #2))