Jeffrey Archer writes his own gospel

That fellow Judas? He’s a nice guy really.

Jeffrey Archer is taking aim at the traditional understanding of Judas Iscariot. He has co-written a book which paints Judas as someone who wanted Jesus to overthrow the politcal power of the Romans.

He believes that Judas was someone who misunderstood what Jesus was trying to achieve on earth. “Unquestionably he wanted the Messiah to ride into Jerusalem in front of a triumphant army and defeat the Romans. But that was never Christ’s purpose as he kept telling his disciples. When he arrives on a donkey, that for Judas is the proof that he isn’t the Messiah.”

His book, The Gospel According to Judas, will be released in March this year and will challenge the idea that Judas betrayed Jesus simply for the 30 pieces of silver he was payed.

Archer says that the book has come out of his own interest in the character of Judas. “I’m a life-long Church of England Christian, but in more recent years I’ve been puzzled about Judas and wanted to find out more about whether the traditional version is the correct one. Of course, the right wing of the church and evangelicals will say you must never tinker with the gospels. But I think you have got to reassess.”

So is he trying to re-write history or is there some validity to his writings?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

This morning we took another look at Judas to discover what we do and don’t know about this man who seems to be so central to the gospel story. If you’d like to hear what we discussed and come to your own conclusions you can click here.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He previously worked in radio for about 25 years but these days he spends his time at Compassion Australia, working towards releasing children from poverty in Jesus' name.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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2 Comments

  • I’m not sure how anything the short snippet above says is inconsistent with scripture. It’s not clear in the gospels exactly what Judas’ motivations were, although I suspect the most prominent one was just self-preservation. Maybe he had stopped believing Jesus was the Messiah, but is that a good reason to turn Jesus in? Could he have been doing this because he thought Jesus deserved to die? I doubt it. So I think something else is necessary to explain Judas’ motivations.

    If Jesus was able to predict things, then he was going to die. Perhaps Judas did accept that Jesus was able to predict the future. Or maybe he just saw the writing on the wall. Eventually Jesus would get caught and killed. Peter was in denial that Jesus would die, but Jesus himself was going around talking about it. Thomas said he’d die with him, but perhaps Judas just wasn’t willing to do that. So the only way out was to turn Jesus in and get on the good side of those who would kill him.

  • The scriptures do give us a picture of Judas and his motivations.

    In John 12 it says, “But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples – the one who would betray him said, ?That perfume was worth a small fortune. It should have been sold and the money given to the poor.? Not that he cared for the poor – he was a thief who was in charge of the disciples? funds, and he often took some for his own use.”

    That gives us a fair indication of his character.

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