A free will that won’t

By Mukul Sharma

Even if there’s no doubt that Judas betrayed Jesus with the kiss of Caiaphas and then hung himself, there are some problematic ideological contradictions involved. Today, it may seem easy to understand why his name is synonymous with traitor, but wasn’t the man only fulfilling a prophecy that had been variously foretold — including by Jesus himself? So how guilty was he?

To get around the problem, some theologians have said that he could have exercised his free will and stopped himself from doing what he did. But, then, could the crucifixion have happened? Because if it didn’t, then the greatest symbol the son of God bequeathed to his world would not have been possible. Alternately, it’s been suggested that Satan entered his soul at the last minute to make sure he didn’t back out of doing what he had to.

But, then, the question is that if he had indeed exercised his free will or Satan had not entered his soul, would he have made a more morally significant choice? Because it would have gone against the Scriptures, his God and definitely against the purpose of the Saviour who had been sent to redeem the fall of Man.

Also, ironically, he would have ended up playing God himself — but one with a completely different plan and agenda. In the 1970s, however, a 2nd century codex was discovered in Egypt identifying itself as the Gospel of Judas that purported to describe the story of Jesus’ death from the viewpoint of Judas.

It may solve the problem because it’s said there that the so-called traitor’s actions were done in obedience to instructions given by Christ.