Why Did Judas Betray Jesus? What the Gospels Say, and How He Did It

Summary

Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, betrayed Jesus by handing him over to the chief priests.
The Gospels give three reasons side by side: money (Matthew 26:14–15; John 12:6), Satan entering into him (Luke 22:3; John 13:2, 27) and the fulfilling of Scripture, “He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18; Psalm 41:9; Acts 1:16).
Judas agreed the price with the chief priests before the Last Supper, then led the arresting crowd to the garden that night; in Matthew, Mark and Luke he points Jesus out with a kiss, and John tells the arrest without one (Matthew 26:14–17, 47–50; John 18:2–5).
The Orthodox Church remembers the bargain on the Wednesday of Holy Week, and for that reason fasts on most Wednesdays.
Later theories, that Judas was disappointed or wanted to force Jesus to act, and the Gospel of Judas’s picture of him as obedient, do not come from the Gospels.
Matthew says Judas repented and returned the money (Matthew 27:3–4); Peter, who denied Jesus the same night, was restored with the words “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15–17).

Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve apostles, betrayed Jesus by handing him over to the chief priests. The Gospels give three reasons side by side: money, Satan entering into him, and the fulfilling of Scripture. Later readers added theories of their own, about disappointment or a plan to force Jesus to act, but none of those comes from the Gospels.

The betrayal came in two steps. In the days before the Passover, Judas went to the chief priests and agreed on a price. Then, on the night of the Last Supper, he led an armed crowd to the garden where Jesus prayed and pointed him out with a kiss. The Gospels never pretend this was a stranger. It was a man who had eaten Jesus’ bread.

Why did Judas betray Jesus, according to the Gospels?

The four Gospels give three reasons, and they never set one against another.

Money

In Matthew, Judas himself raises the matter of payment. “Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, And said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver” (Matthew 26:14–15). Mark says the priests “were glad, and promised to give him money” (Mark 14:11). John tells us what kind of man had been keeping the apostles’ money. When Mary anointed Jesus at Bethany and Judas complained that the ointment could have been sold for the poor, John says plainly: “This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein” (John 12:6).

Satan

Luke and John both say that the devil was at work in him. “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him unto them” (Luke 22:3–4). John writes that at supper “the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him” (John 13:2), and that when Jesus handed him the dipped bread, “after the sop Satan entered into him” (John 13:27). Pope Benedict XVI, speaking about Judas in 2006, described him as one “who shamefully ceded to a temptation of the Evil One.”

Scripture fulfilled

The Gospels also show the betrayal as foreseen. John says that “Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him” (John 6:64). At the Last Supper Jesus said, “I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me” (John 13:18). He was quoting a psalm of David’s grief: “Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me” (Psalm 41:9). In his prayer that night Jesus said of the Twelve, “none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12). After the resurrection Peter told the believers, “this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus” (Acts 1:16).

Knowing it beforehand does not excuse Judas. In the same sentence in which Jesus says that the Son of man goes “as it is written of him”, he says, “woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed!” (Matthew 26:24). The Gospels hold the three reasons together and do not rank them. Greed, the devil and God’s purpose all met in one man’s choice.

How did Judas betray Jesus?

The story runs over several days, and each Gospel tells part of it. Here it is in order, with the passages to read:

The anointing at Bethany. A woman pours costly ointment on Jesus. Someone objects that it could have been sold for the poor, and John names Judas as the one who said it (John 12:1–8; Matthew 26:6–13; Mark 14:3–9).
The bargain with the chief priests. Judas goes to them, they agree on a price, and “from that time he sought opportunity to betray him” (Matthew 26:14–16; Mark 14:10–11; Luke 22:3–6).
The Last Supper. Jesus says, “one of you shall betray me”; he gives the dipped bread to Judas, who goes out, “and it was night” (John 13:21–30; Matthew 26:20–25; Mark 14:18–21).
The arrest in the garden. Judas arrives with a crowd from the chief priests and elders and kisses Jesus as the agreed sign (Matthew 26:47–50; Mark 14:43–46; Luke 22:47–48).
John’s account of the arrest. Judas “knew the place”, brings soldiers and officers, and stands with them while Jesus says, “I am he”; John mentions no kiss (John 18:2–5).

The bargain came before the Last Supper, not during it. Matthew tells of Judas’s visit to the priests and then begins the next scene: “Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we prepare for thee to eat the passover?” (Matthew 26:16–17). So Judas sat at that table already paid. Luke says the same: Judas “promised, and sought opportunity to betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude” (Luke 22:6), because the priests “feared the people” (Luke 22:2).

The kiss was a signal. “Now he that betrayed him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he: hold him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, master; and kissed him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come?” (Matthew 26:48–50). Mark records Judas’s instruction to “lead him away safely” (Mark 14:44). In Luke, Jesus asks, “Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:48). John says the crowd came “with lanterns and torches and weapons” (John 18:3), which suggests why they needed a sign to pick out one man among the disciples at night. The sign Judas chose was the greeting of a friend.

When did Judas betray Jesus?

He agreed the price with the chief priests shortly before the Passover and handed Jesus over on the night of the Last Supper. Matthew and Mark say the chief priests plotted two days before the Passover (Matthew 26:2; Mark 14:1). The arrest followed the supper, on the night before the crucifixion.

The Orthodox Church still remembers the bargain on the Wednesday of Holy Week. On that day, in the words of the Orthodox Church in America, “Judas agreed to betray the Lord for thirty pieces of silver”, and “Because the betrayal took place on Wednesday, Orthodox Christians fast on most Wednesdays during the year.”

How much did the chief priests pay Judas?

Thirty pieces of silver, a sum only Matthew names (Matthew 26:15). The coins were most likely shekels of Tyre, and the sum came to about four months’ wages for a labourer. How that is worked out, and why Matthew links the price to Zechariah, is the subject of what Judas was paid and what it was worth.

What later theories try to explain Judas’s betrayal?

Some readers have found greed too small a reason for so great a betrayal, and they have offered others. None of them comes from the Gospels, and each is a theory.

Disappointment. Benedict summed it up: some think “Judas would have been disappointed at seeing that Jesus did not fit into his programme for the political-militaristic liberation of his own nation.” Then he added that “the Gospel texts insist on another aspect”, the work of the devil, and said: “The betrayal of Judas remains, in any case, a mystery.”

Forcing Jesus to act. A related theory, which the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910 calls the modern version of an older idea, holds that Judas “wished to precipitate a crisis and hasten the hour of triumph, thinking that the arrest would provoke a rising of the people”. Thomas De Quincey argued it in his essay “Judas Iscariot”, dated 1852 in his collected essays: Judas hoped that Jesus, once arrested, “would be forced into giving the signal to the populace of Jerusalem”. Those who hold it point to his remorse once Jesus was condemned (Matthew 27:3). The encyclopedia’s reply was that “this repentance does not prove that the result had not been foreseen.”

Obedience to a secret command. A second-century sect described by Irenaeus, and the text called the Gospel of Judas, made Judas a hero who did what Jesus wanted; that story is told in who Judas Iscariot was.

Did Judas regret betraying Jesus?

Matthew says he did. When Judas “saw that he was condemned”, he “repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood” (Matthew 27:3–4). Then, Matthew says, he took his own life (Matthew 27:5). It is one of the saddest verses in the Gospels. What became of him the Bible does not plainly say; the question is taken up in whether Judas went to heaven or hell.

If you fear that your own failures make you another Judas, look at the apostle who failed Jesus that same night. Peter denied him three times and “went out, and wept bitterly” (Matthew 26:75). Benedict set the two stories side by side: “After his fall Peter repented and found pardon and grace.” Peter’s night is told in why Peter denied Jesus. After the resurrection Jesus asked him three times, “lovest thou me?”, and three times he gave him work to do: “Feed my sheep” (John 21:15–17).