His precepts: it is easier to establish our Christianity by cursing the
wretched servant than by following his Master. The heinousness also of
the crime in Gethsemane has been aggravated by the exaltation of Jesus
to the Redeemership of the world. All that can be known of Judas is
soon collected. He was chosen one of the twelve apostles, and received
their high commission to preach the kingdom of heaven, to heal the sick,
raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and cast out devils. He was
appointed treasurer to the community. John in telling the story of the
anointing at Bethany says that he was a thief, but John also makes him
the sole objector to the waste of the ointment. According to the other
evangelists all the disciples objected. Since he remained in office it
could hardly have been known at the time of the visit to Bethany that he
was dishonest, nor could it have been known at any time to Matthew and
Mark, for they would not have lost the opportunity of adding such a
touch to the portrait. The probability, therefore, is that the robbery
of the bag is unhistorical. When the chief priests and scribes sought
how they might apprehend Jesus they made a bargain with Judas to deliver
Him to them for thirty pieces of silver. He was present at the Last
Supper but went and betrayed his Lord. A few hours afterwards, when he
found out that condemnation to death followed, he repented himself and
brought again the thirty pieces of silver to his employers, declared
that he had sinned in betraying innocent blood, cast down the money at
their feet, and went and hanged himself.

This is all that is discoverable about Judas, and it has been considered
sufficient for a damnation deeper than any allotted to the worst of the
sons of Adam. Dante places him in the lowest round of the ninth or last
of the hellish circles, where he is eternally "champed" by Satan,
"bruised as with ponderous engine," his head within the diabolic jaws
and "plying the feet without." In the absence of a biography with