Judas Iscariot the Apostle

Drawing of Judas by Lorenzo Ferri based on the indications of Maria Valtorta. Source: documentary collection of the Foundation Heir of Maria Valtorta.

Judas, the apostle who betrayed the Christ, holds a significant place in the work of Maria Valtorta. In one of her dictations, Jesus advises the reader:

"For you too – and this I say especially to those entrusted with the care of hearts – it is necessary to instruct yourselves by studying Judas."

Later, he justifies the importance given to this apostle in the visions and dictations given to Maria Valtorta:

"Why highlight the figure of Judas? Many will ask. I answer them: The figure of Judas has been too distorted over the centuries. And, in recent times, it has been completely denatured. In some schools, he is almost exalted as if he were the secondary and indispensable craftsman of the Redemption. Many then think that he succumbed to an unexpected, fierce assault by the Tempter. No. Every fall has its preparation in time."-

Origin

He is a Judean from Kerioth south of Hebron. He is the only son of Simon and Mary.

Appearance

Judas is "handsome and youthful." He is about 25 years old and about as tall as Jesus, approximately 1.80 m. Dark-haired and dark-skinned, he has black eyes and curly but short hair, according to Judean fashion. Martha describes him without a beard, but Lorenzo Ferri, drawing under Maria Valtorta’s directions, depicts him bearded. He likely followed the fashion of the time. He has a tenor voice, powerful and of uncommon beauty.

He is always elegant, a trait he shares with Matthew, Simon the Zealot and Bartholomew.

Character

He is a "spoiled and capricious" child who became ambitious and greedy under the influence of his father who urged him early on to pursue a career in Jerusalem.

Judas is gifted but cunning:

"You possess intelligence, boldness, education, promptness, stature," Jesus told him. "You have so many assets. But all this is wildly arranged within you and you leave everything in this state".

Much later, when Judas is possessed and near his final betrayal, Jesus says to him:

"You are a demon. You have stolen from the Serpent his prerogative to seduce and deceive to detach from God. Your behavior is neither stone nor stick, but it wounds me more than a stone or stick blow. Oh! In my terrible suffering, nothing will be greater than your behavior to make the Martyr suffer martyrdom."

Judas lies without changing color. Even at his best moments, he is always violent and authoritarian. Under the effect of disturbance, he talks to himself aloud.

He is disdainful:

"Her," he says in a monologue speaking of the Virgin Mary, "I’m sure I can fool her at will. She is slow to understand like a lamb (...) She confuses virtue and foolishness. Like mother, like son..."

Judas is also subject to sudden reversals according to moments of consciousness:

"I am a demon, I am a demon," he says to Jesus. "Save me, Master, as you save so many possessed, save me! Save me!"

Jesus keeps referring him to his will. But his good intentions are short-lived. His temperament, poorly channeled, causes him to succumb to the seductions of the world:

"Gold is your ruin," Jesus says. "Because of gold, you became lustful and traitorous..."

Judas is so special that it is impossible to decipher him, notes Maria Valtorta. Judas' mother had immediately entrusted her pain to Jesus:

"Fear my son, he is greedy, he has a hard heart, he is vicious, proud, unstable".

The Virgin Mary, for her part, had this intuition:

"That one does not please me, Son. His eye is not clear, and his heart even less so. He frightens me. If you disappoint him, he would not hesitate to take Your place or try to do so. He is ambitious, greedy, and vicious. He is meant to be the courtier of a king of the earth rather than your apostle, my Son."

In a dictation to Maria Valtorta, Jesus paints a charged, but nuanced portrait:

"Judas was secretive, cunning, greedy, lustful, thief, but on the other hand intelligent and more cultured than the others, he had imposed himself on all. Bold, he smoothed my path, even when it was difficult. What pleased him more than anything was to stand out and assert his position of trust with Me... This also allowed him to keep the purse and approach women. These were two things he loved frantically along with a third: his privileged charge."

"This serpent could only horrify the pure, humble, detached from earthly wealth woman who was my Mother. I Myself felt disgust. The Father, the Spirit and I alone know how much I had to excel to be able to bear his presence."

Judas is poorly accepted by the other apostles: they mistrust him and poorly tolerate his moods. He would therefore be rejected if Jesus did not personally watch over his constant integration.

Paradoxically, he is, of all the apostles, the one Jesus loved the most, but with a love that is suffering: While Judas sinks into a path of perdition, Jesus, in a pathetic dialogue with his Father, asks to live a second Passion solely to save Judas’s soul. Which God refuses.

Judas becomes a disciple

Judas is for a moment engaged to Joanna, a girl from Kerioth. He abandons her to try to marry a rich heiress of Jerusalem. Joanna dies and Judas joins the Temple.

There he witnesses, like Thomas, the expulsion of the merchants by Jesus.- Struck by admiration, they request to follow him. Jesus accepts Thomas, but gives Judas time to reflect:

"You follow me for a human idea, Judas. I must dissuade you. I did not come for this".

After reflecting, Judas confirms his intention to follow Jesus:

"I reject no one, for whoever rejects does not love," said Jesus.

Judas becomes the 10th apostle. Prophetically, his reception takes place at Gethsemane, at the place where, three years later, the Passion of Jesus will begin. But it is in Kerioth, Judas' village, that Jesus officially launches the apostolic ministry: the apostles will henceforth speak in his name.

Judas had prepared the welcome of the Christ by his mother and the inhabitants of Kerioth by speaking of him as the King promised to Israel. This displeases Jesus very much who says to him (in private, so as not to humiliate him): "Judas, what have you done? Have you so little understood me until now? Why do you abase me to make Me a powerful of the earth and even an ambitious man seeking this power? And do you not understand that this lowers my mission and even creates obstacles? Yes, obstacles (...)"

The beginnings of the betrayal

The ambiguity between terrestrial and celestial glory is reflected in Judas’ teaching when he speaks publicly.- His distorted vision of Jesus’ mission causes him to first undermine him with the notables of Nazareth. Then he denounces to the Temple for the "good cause" the presence in his following of an uncircumcised (Hermas), a fugitive slave (Sintica), and a former galley slave (John of Endor).

Judas believes in the imminent earthly kingdom of Jesus when Claudia Procula, wife of Pontius Pilate, promises Jesus her protection. He then multiplies ambiguous remarks. Claudia Procula and Chouza, steward of Herod Antipas, fear sedition, and Jesus must reassure them. Disappointed by Claudia Procula’s protection, Judas reconnects with his Temple acquaintances: Elchias and Simon the Sanhedrist. These Sanhedrists needed no more to annihilate Jesus.

During an initial retreat (EMV 119 to EMV 132), Judas made efforts to conform to Jesus' expectations:

"Gold has always been a serpent to me," he admitted before becoming treasurer of the apostolic group. "I no longer want to feel its fascination. For I feel so good now that I am good. I feel free and I am happy".

But he does not persevere and his inclination prevails. He absents himself from the group on false grounds.-

An illness cured by the holy women gives him the opportunity to question himself: "It is myself that I mistrust," he admits. He also questions about death.

Jesus still hopes

Jesus encourages him:

"It is still time, Judas, to choose between my path and that of the Jews you approve. But think: mine leads to God, the other to the Enemy of God. Reflect and decide, but be honest".

Judas momentarily confesses to Jesus:

- "Master, it is difficult to say: 'I have sinned.'
- "I know it, friend, replies Jesus. Now I forgive you and heal you. What joy you gave me, oh my Judas!"

But it does not last.

The descent into hell

Judas begins to steal from the common purse. He indulges in necromancy.

The spiritual rupture with Jesus grows when he notices the power to perform miracles given to the apostleshas disappeared for himself:

- "It is because of You that I have no more power. For you took it from me to give more to John, Simon, James, all except me. You do not love me, that's it! And I will finally not love you and curse the hour I loved you," he says to Jesus.

Because of necromancy (summoning the dead), which involves dark forces and is firmly condemned by the Bible:

"You smell of hell more than Satan himself!" Jesus tells him.

But Judas no longer believes in Hell or Satan:

"Satan, you neither see nor feel because he is one with you," warns Jesus.

Judas tries to draw John, the youngest of the apostles, whose purity Jesus loves so much, into debauchery. He steals more and more so that the Master praises his false generosity. Magic and necromancy serve him to compensate for the loss of his power to perform miracles. He calls his mother sick, then reconciles with her.

"Judas came to hate God," comments Jesus, "never having truly loved his father and mother, nor anyone else who was his neighbor".

In a monologue, Judas fully realizes the consequences of a betrayal against Jesus. But he makes a definitive choice against which Jesus can no longer act:

"I wish I had not taken a useless Flesh for you," Jesus says to him. "But from now on you belong to another father, another country, you speak another language..."

The possession of Judas becomes evident when Jesus and John catch him stealing: for a moment, Satan speaks through Judas’ mouth.

The final possession

A few days before the Passion, Jesus wants to prevent Judas from entering Jerusalem. The dialogue is harsh. Judas no longer hears anything, he thinks of himself as the eternal persecuted, has neither remorse nor regret. Jesus collapses:

"Oh! my Father! And can you perhaps accuse me of having left something capable of saving him? You know that it is for his soul, not for my life, that I struggle to prevent his crime... Father! My Father! I beg you! Hurry the hour of darkness, the hour of darkness, the hour of the Sacrifice, for it is too atrocious for Me to live near the friend who does not want to be redeemed."

Soon after, Jesus updates for his apostles the prophecy of Genesis 3:15:

"The most cunning demon merged with the most corrupt man who can approach the Woman (Mary) and thus, treacherously, bite her. Cursed be the monstrous hybrid that is Satan and man! Do I curse him? No. That word is not from the Redeemer".

But he leaves unsaid the name of the man so corrupt he just evoked.
Judas only witnesses one great event: the Last Supper. This "communion" with the body and blood of Christ accelerates in him his satanic possession. In a dictation, Jesus comments:

"If Judas had thrown himself at the feet of the Mother saying: 'Pity', the Mother of Pity would have taken him in as a wounded one".

While the body of the Christ resurrects in glory, that of Judas, who committed suicide by hanging, undergoes accelerated decay. His decomposing body is thrown into the Temple, probably by pagans. Likewise, his entrails are thrown against the house of High Priest Anna. Following this, the Sanhedrin decides to bury his remains at the foot of the olive tree where he hanged himself.
Maria Valtorta interprets Peter's words as follows:

"Judas acquired a field with the wages of crime and, being swollen, he burst open in the middle, and all his entrails spilled out".

An atrocious, eternal suffering

There was no predestination of Judas’ soul:

"Between the soul of John the Baptist, and yours," Jesus tells him, "there was no difference when they were infused into the flesh. You were placed before Good and Evil. You chose Evil".

"(...) I could do nothing with Judas because his soul was possessed; I could not even penetrate it because he forbade me access. If he followed me, it was because a very human hope pushed him. He betrayed me for human greed. He sold the Christ to his executioners and his soul to Satan, at whose instigation he had been acting for years; for Satan is not like God, who gives even if you do not give to win you to Him. Satan wants a hundredfold. He wants you for eternity, in exchange for an hour of false triumph. Remember this.

If I tolerated this viper in the group, it was to teach men to endure and persist to save. No thought of Judas was unknown to me. His presence by my side was a pre-emptive passion, a torment you do not contemplate, but which was no less bitter than the others. I taught you to endure unpleasant things and persons, because who inspires more revulsion than a traitor?"

On Mount Tabor, where he appeared to five hundred disciples, the resurrected Jesus still suffers from Judas’ damnation. He confides:

"Judas was and is the greatest pain in the ocean of my pains. The other pains ended with the Sacrifice. But that one remains. I loved him. I consumed Myself in my effort to save him... I could open the doors of Limbo and take out the righteous, I could open the doors of Purgatory and take out those purifying themselves. But the place of horror had closed over him. For him, my death was useless."

Judas is damned, specifies Jesus:

"He is the damned God-killer, infinitely guilty as Israelite and as disciple, as suicide and as God-killer, besides his seven capital vices and all his other faults".

He is in hell for eternity:

"Truly," says Jesus, "I tell you that if Hell had not already existed, and existed perfectly in its torments, it would have been created for Judas even more horrible and eternal, because of all sinners and all damned, he is the most damned and the greatest sinner, and for him eternally there shall be no relief from his condemnation".

Jesus had revealed to Judas the terrifying fate of the God-killer:

"The Blood will have the power to damn him and he will eternally endure another fire in which he will burn, vomiting blood and swallowing blood, because he will see blood everywhere he casts his mortal or spiritual gaze, since he betrayed the Blood of a God."

His name

Judas יהודה (Yehouda) or Jude, like its feminine Judith, comes from the Hebrew “yehoudi” meaning Judean, Jew. Historical reference: Judah, son of Jacob. Judas Maccabeus, the liberator of the Jewish people.

Where is he mentioned in the work?

EMV 35

Calling of the first apostles: EMV 53 EMV 54 EMV 66 EMV 67 EMV 68 EMV 69 EMV 70 EMV 70 EMV 71 EMV 72 EMV 73 EMV 74 EMV 75 EMV 76 EMV 77 EMV 78 EMV 79 EMV 80 EMV 81 EMV 82 EMV 83 EMV 83 EMV 85 EMV 86

Calling of the last apostles: EMV 87 EMV 88 EMV 89 EMV 90 EMV 91 EMV 92 EMV 93 EMV 94 EMV 95 EMV 96 EMV 97 EMV 98 EMV 99 EMV 100 EMV 101 EMV 106 EMV 102 EMV 104 EMV 112 EMV 115 EMV 116 EMV 117 EMV 118

Beginning of communal life: EMV 119 EMV 120 EMV 121 EMV 122 EMV 123 EMV 124 EMV 125 EMV 126 EMV 127 EMV 128 EMV 132 EMV 133 EMV 134 EMV 135 EMV 136 EMV 137 EMV 138 EMV 139 EMV 140 EMV 141 EMV 142 EMV 143 EMV 144 EMV 145 EMV 146 EMV 147 EMV 149 EMV 152 EMV 153 EMV 154 EMV 155 EMV 157 EMV 158

The election of the apostles: EMV 160 EMV 161 EMV 162 EMV 163 EMV 164 EMV 165 EMV 166

The Sermon on the Mount: EMV 169 EMV 170 EMV 171 EMV 172 EMV 173 EMV 174 EMV 176 EMV 177 EMV 178 EMV 179 EMV 180 EMV 181 EMV 182 EMV 183 EMV 184 EMV 186

The second Easter journey: EMV 187 EMV 188 EMV 189 EMV 190 EMV 191 EMV 192 EMV 193 EMV 194 EMV 195 EMV 196 EMV 197 EMV 198 EMV 199 EMV 200 EMV 201 EMV 202 EMV 203 EMV 205 EMV 206 EMV 206 EMV 207 EMV 208 EMV 210 EMV 211 EMV 212 EMV 212 EMV 214 EMV 215 EMV 216 EMV 217 EMV 218 EMV 219 EMV 220 EMV 221 EMV 222 EMV 223 EMV 224 EMV 225 EMV 226 EMV 228 EMV 230 EMV 232 EMV 233 EMV 235 EMV 237 EMV 238 EMV 239 EMV 240 EMV 241 EMV 242 EMV 243 EMV 244 EMV 247 EMV 248 EMV 249 EMV 250 EMV 251 EMV 252 EMV 253 EMV 254 EMV 255

Sending the apostles and disciples on missions: EMV 256 EMV 257 EMV 260 EMV 261 EMV 262 EMV 264 EMV 265 EMV 268 EMV 269 EMV 271 EMV 272 EMV 273 EMV 274 EMV 275 EMV 276 EMV 277 EMV 278 EMV 279 EMV 280 EMV 281 EMV 282 EMV 283 EMV 284 4.149 - EMV 294 EMV 296 EMV 297 EMV 298 EMV 299 EMV 300 EMV 301 EMV 302 EMV 303 EMV 309 EMV 310.

EMV 313 EMV 317 EMV 333 EMV 334 EMV 335 EMV 336 EMV 338 EMV 339 EMV 340 EMV 341 EMV 342 EMV 343 EMV 344 EMV 345 EMV 346 EMV 347

The Transfiguration and the Bread of Heaven: EMV 348 EMV 349 EMV 350 EMV 351 EMV 352 EMV 353 EMV 354 EMV 355 EMV 356 EMV 357 EMV 358 EMV 359 EMV 360 EMV 361 EMV 362 EMV 363

The penultimate Passover: EMV 364 EMV 365 EMV 366 EMV 367 EMV 368 EMV 369 EMV 370 EMV 371 EMV 372 EMV 374 EMV 375 EMV 376 EMV 377 EMV 378 EMV 379 EMV 380 EMV 381 EMV 382 EMV 383 EMV 384 EMV 385 EMV 386 EMV 387 EMV 388 EMV 393 EMV 394 EMV 395 EMV 398 EMV 399 EMV 400 EMV 401 EMV 402 EMV 403 EMV 404 EMV 405 EMV 406 EMV 407 EMV 408 EMV 410 EMV 411 EMV 412

Pentecost: EMV 413 EMV 414 EMV 415 EMV 416 EMV 417 EMV 418 EMV 419 EMV 420 EMV 421 EMV 422 EMV 423 EMV 426 EMV 427 EMV 428 EMV 429 EMV 430 EMV 430 EMV 431 EMV 432 EMV 435 EMV 437 EMV 438 EMV 439 EMV 440 EMV 441 EMV 442 EMV 445 EMV 446 EMV 447 EMV 448 EMV 449 EMV 450 EMV 451 EMV 452 EMV 453 EMV 454 EMV 455 EMV 456 EMV 457 EMV 458 EMV 459 EMV 460 EMV 461 EMV 465 –EMV 466 EMV 467 EMV 468 EMV 468 EMV 469 EMV 470 EMV 471 EMV 475 EMV 473 EMV 473 EMV 474 EMV 475 EMV 481 EMV 482 EMV 483

The Feast of Tabernacles: EMV 485 EMV 492 EMV 493 EMV 495 –EMV 496 EMV 497 EMV 498 EMV 499 EMV 500 EMV 501 EMV 502 EMV 503 EMV 504 EMV 505 EMV 507 EMV 509 EMV 510 EMV 511 EMV 514 EMV 515 EMV 517 EMV 518 EMV 519 EMV 520

The Feast of Dedication: EMV 527 EMV 528 EMV 529 EMV 530 EMV 531 EMV 532 EMV 533 EMV 535 EMV 536 EMV 537 EMV 538

The Resurrection of Lazarus: EMV 547 EMV 550

The exile in Samaria: EMV 551 EMV 552 EMV 553 EMV 554 EMV 555 EMV 556 EMV 557 EMV 559 EMV 560 EMV 561 EMV 564 EMV 565 EMV 566 EMV 567 EMV 568 EMV 571 EMV 573 EMV 574 EMV 575

The return to Jerusalem: EMV 576 EMV 577 EMV 579 EMV 580 EMV 582 EMV 584 EMV 586 EMV 601 EMV 106 EMV 477 EMV 587 EMV 588

Holy Week: EMV 589 EMV 590 EMV 591 EMV 592 EMV 593 EMV 594 EMV 595 EMV 596 EMV 597 EMV 598

The Passion: EMV 600 9.20 EMV 602 EMV 604 EMV 605 EMV 605 EMV 609 EMV 611 EMV 612 EMV 614 EMV 615

Resurrection Sunday: EMV 616 EMV 628 EMV 630 10.18/2 EMV 634 EMV 635 EMV 647 EMV 648 EMV 649 EMV 652

Learn more about this character

In other works by Maria Valtorta

Catechesis of January 2, 1944 – 11 p.m. :

"John was the youngest of the group of apostles. It was Judas Iscariot who came after him in age. And, because of his age, he could have been like John too. But he was not. And if he was not virgin he did not become chaste, not even after knowing me. He was impure. Impurity prevents the action of God in Hearts and favors that of Satan more than any other passion.

His face is known to you. This is it. He appeared to you as the Seductor. Indeed, by his beauty, he resembled the Most Beautiful who rebelled against God and who is the father of all the enemies of God.

Beauty itself is a weapon in the hand of Satan, and he does not hesitate to imprint his seductive character on his instruments. He thus draws them towards his abyss and there he can reach their heart by inoculating the triple sin. And Judas had in his heart the concupiscences for money, flesh, and power..." Read more

Catechesis of January 15, 1944 :

"(The man instructed by Satan) believes in a sacrilegious way that the greatest sinner of humanity, the beloved son of Satan, the one who was a thief as the Gospel says, lustful and greedy for human glory as I say, Judas Iscariot, could have been saved and reached me through successive phases, whereas, driven by triple concupiscence, he became a merchant of the Son of God and, for thirty coins and a kiss as a sign — a derisory monetary value and an infinite affective value —, he handed me over to the executioners. No. If he was the ultimate sacrilege, I am not. If he was the ultimate unjust, I am not. If he was the one who disdainfully shed my Blood, I am not. Forgiving Judas would be a sacrilege against my divinity which he betrayed, it would be an injustice toward all other men, always less guilty than him and yet punished for their sins, it would despise my blood, finally it would be disregarding my laws." Read more

In other sources

Extracts from the Dictionary of Gospel characters, according to Maria Valtorta (Mgr René Laurentin, François-Michel Debroise, Jean-François Lavère), Salvator Editions, 2012:

In the Gospel of Judas, an apocryphal 2nd-century narrative, the apostle is presented as an initiate who devotes himself to denouncing Jesus by his order, in order to fulfill Scripture.

According to Irenaeus of Lyon, 2nd century and Epiphanius of Salamis, 4th century, this text was part of the Cainite writings, a community which revered Cain and the sodomites. It stemmed from the Ophites who found in the words of the serpent of Genesis the invitation to gnosis (esoteric knowledge).

The damnation of Judas was considered obvious until the early 20th century. Since then, Judas has sometimes been presented as an excusable victim of his tendencies or saved by divine Mercy due to his role in Redemption, which Maria Valtorta denies, as we have read: Judas is damned for eternity.