JUDAS

Traditionalists often cite Matthew 26:24 as a proof text: "...woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed: it had been good for that man if he had not been born." Surely this verse is suggesting eternal torment, right? Well...maybe yes and maybe no. What if this verse could be interpreted in a way that's more consistent with extinction? Matthew 27:5-8 reads:

"And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself. And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood. And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter's field, to bury strangers in. Wherefore that field was called, The Field of Blood, unto this day."

Now, let's look at Ecclesiastes 6:3: "If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years...and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he." Judas had a burial, but a disgraceful one. The disgrace is emphasized in Acts 1:18-20:

"Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity...And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem; insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Aceldama, that is to say, The field of blood. For it is written in the book of psalms, Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein: and his bishoprick let another take."

Let his habitation be desolate! No fate could be worse for a Jew of that day! Genesis 49:29-33 underscores how important it was for the Jews of that time to have a decent burial with their own people:

"And he (Jacob) charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite...There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife; and there I buried Leah...And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."

As if that weren't enough, there's another reason why it would have been better for Judas if he had never been born--a bad name! Proverbs 22:1 states: "A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches." Ecc. 7:1 declares "A good name is better than precious ointment."

Judas has quite possibly the worse name in all of history.

But even having said all that, there's another way to look at the issue, and that way also squares better with extinction. If Judas's fate was eternal torment, then it didn't differ from the vast majority of mankind. It would be better for any unsaved person to never be born than to go to hell. Why single Judas out?

But suppose that there is no burning hell of conscious torment, just the grave. In that case it makes sense to single Judas out. What if all that unsaved man had was this life? Whose life would be a greater tragedy--that of ordinary John Q. Sinner, who by all appearances seemed like a pretty good fellow, who lived and died in the usual way, and was properly eulogized and fondly remembered by friends and family, or Judas Iscariot, who lived torn between good and evil, vacillating, double-minded, then finally was swayed by Satan into betraying his master, then felt so crushed by guilt that he changed his mind--again--returned the money, and hanged himself. And then is forever remembered as a traitor whose very name is a slur? How many of us leave behind a legacy like that? When we look at the story of Judas Iscariot, his fate, as described by Christ, seems to stand out as a prime example for the extinction of the wicked.