Pertanyaan: 136. Dalam pengertian apa Yudas adalah setan?
Tidak banyak yang diketahui tentang kehidupan Yudas sebelum muncul di antara para rasul. Dia mungkin tertarik oleh khotbah Yohanes Pembaptis, atau oleh harapan ambisiusnya akan kedatangan kerajaan Mesias, di mana dia bisa memainkan peran penting dan menguntungkan. Dia tampaknya menyatakan dirinya sebagai murid Yesus, seperti yang dilakukan yang lain, dan karena dia dipercayakan dengan keuangan kelompok kecil ini, kita dapat menilai bahwa dia menikmati sejumlah kepercayaan, meskipun tampaknya tidak pantas. (Lihat Yohanes 12:6.) Bahwa Yesus sendiri mengetahui hati Yudas sejak awal jelas dari teks. (Lihat juga Yohanes 6:64-71.) Tuhan kita mengetahui pikiran terdalamnya. Dia tahu bahwa Yudas adalah seorang yang licik dan pengkhianat. Dia mengetahui tentang kepercayaan kriminalnya dengan para imam, yang berakhir dengan pengkhianatan. (Lihat Yohanes 18:3-5.) Tindakan pengkhianatan bukanlah hasil dari dorongan tiba-tiba saat Perjamuan Terakhir, tetapi merupakan adegan penutup dalam karir panjang kebohongan dan pengkhianatan. Yudas mungkin ambisius, dan seperti beberapa rasul lainnya, ia percaya bahwa Yesus akan mendirikan kerajaan duniawi di mana dia sendiri bisa memiliki peran berpengaruh. Dari sejarah awalnya sebelum namanya muncul dalam daftar rasul, tidak ada yang diketahui. Nama Iscariot dijelaskan dengan berbagai cara, beberapa penulis berpendapat bahwa dia dipanggil demikian karena berasal dari Keriot di suku Yehuda.
Question: 136. In What Sense Was Judas a Devil?
Little is known of the life of Judas before his appearance among the apostles. He was probably drawn by the Baptist's preaching, or by his own ambitious hopes of the coming of a Messianic kingdom, in which he might play an important and lucrative part. He seems to have declared himself a disciple of Jesus, as the others did, and as he was entrusted with the finances of the little company, we may judge that he enjoyed a measure of confidence, although this seems to have been undeserved. (See John 12:6.) That Jesus himself knew the heart of Judas from the beginning is made clear from the text. (See also John 6:64-71.) Our Lord knew his inmost thoughts. He knew Judas to be deceitful and treacherous. He knew of his criminal confidences with the priests, which culminated in the betrayal. (See John 18:3-5.) The act of betrayal was not the outcome of a sudden impulse at the Last Supper, but was the closing scene in a long career of deceit and treachery. Judas was probably ambitious, and like several other apostles believed that Jesus would set up an earthly kingdom in which he himself might have an influential part Of his early history before his name appears in the. list of the apostles, nothing is known. The name "Iscariot" is variously explained, some writers holding that he was so called because he belonged to Kerioth in the tribe of Judah.
