a time of bustle and excitement, it was
resolved to anticipate it. Jesus being popular,[2] they feared an
outbreak; the arrest was therefore fixed for the next day, Thursday.
It was resolved, also, not to seize him in the temple, where he came
every day,[3] but to observe his habits, in order to seize him in some
retired place. The agents of the priests sounded his disciples, hoping
to obtain useful information from their weakness or their simplicity.
They found what they sought in Judas of Kerioth. This wretch, actuated
by motives impossible to explain, betrayed his Master, gave all the
necessary information, and even undertook himself (although such an
excess of vileness is scarcely credible) to guide the troop which was
to effect his arrest. The remembrance of horror which the folly or the
wickedness of this man has left in the Christian tradition has
doubtless given rise to some exaggeration on this point. Judas, until
then, had been a disciple like the others; he had even the title of
apostle; and he had performed miracles and driven out demons. Legend,
which always uses strong and decisive language, describes the
occupants of the little supper-room as eleven saints and one
reprobate. Reality does not proceed by such absolute categories.
Avarice, which the synoptics give as the motive of the crime in
question, does not suffice to explain it. It would be very singular if
a man who kept the purse, and who knew what he would lose by the death
of his chief, were to abandon the profits of his occupation[4] in
exchange for a very small sum of money.[5] Had the self-love of Judas
been wounded by the rebuff which he had received at the dinner at
Bethany? Even that would not explain his conduct. John would have us
regard him as a thief, an unbeliever from the beginning,[6] for which,
however, there is no probability. We would rather ascribe it to some
feeling of jealousy or to some dissension amongst the disciples. The
peculiar hatred John manifests toward Judas[7] confirms this
hypothesis. Less pure in heart than the others, Judas had, from the
very nature of his office, become unconsciously narrow-minded. By a
caprice very common to men engaged in active duties, he had come to
regard the interests of the treasury as superior even to those of the
work for which it was intended. The treasurer had overcome the
apostle. The murmurings which escaped him at Bethany seem to indicate
that sometimes he thought the Master cost his