Snape in the role of Judas

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 150794

Geoff:

> I did say in message 150769 which I posted yesterday 
> that I had come across ideas about Judas' role in the 
> events leading up to the crucifixion many years ago so 
> although the news about the supposed gospel is very 
> topical, the idea that Judas may have played a hidden 
> part in this is not new.

houyhnhnm:

In "Tres versiones de Judas", published in 1944, Jorge Luis Borges
wrote a story about a fictional scholar whose premise was that the 
"betrayal" by Judas was actually a sacrifice of Judas, one equivalent
to the sacrifice of Jesus.

>From an English translation published in 1964:
*********************
He then refuted those who maintain we know nothing of the inexplicable
traitor; we know, he said, that he was one of the apostles, one of
those chosen to announce the kingdom of heaven, to cure the sick, to
clean lepers, to raise the dead and cast out demons (Matthew 10: 7-8;
Luke 9:1).  A man whom the Redeemer has thus distinguished merits the
best interpretation we can give of his acts.  To attribute his crime
to greed (as some have done citing John 12:6) is to resign oneself to
the basest motive.  Nils Runeberg proposes the opposite motive: a
hyperbolic and even unlimited asceticism.  The ascetic, for the
greater glory of God, vilifies and mortifies his flesh; Judas did the
same with his spirit.  He renounced honor, morality, peace and the
kingsom of heaven, just as others, less heroically, renounce pleasure.
. . Judas sought Hell because the happiness of the Lord was enough for
him.
*********************

Before Dan Brown there was Eco, and before Eco there was Borges.