Judas May 2026

Judas is not a bug in the system. He is the system.

The early church wrestled with this. Origen suggested that Judas was a tool of divine necessity. Augustine called him a “son of perdition” by his own free will. But the logic is inescapable: If Christ’s death was foretold (Psalm 41:9: “Even my close friend, whom I trusted, who shared my bread, has turned against me”), then the betrayal was scripted. Judas was not a rogue variable. He was a verse. Judas is not a bug in the system

By J.L. Hartwell

For two thousand years, we have reduced him to a single verb: to betray. A hiss of a name. The kiss that became a synonym for treachery. He is the ghost at every feast, the thirteenth chair at a table built for wholeness. But what if we have been reading the story wrong? What if the most hated man in history was not a monster, but the most necessary one? Origen suggested that Judas was a tool of divine necessity

The other disciples call him “Iscariot”—likely from Ish Kerioth , meaning “the man from Kerioth.” He was the only Judean among a band of Galileans. An outsider. Perhaps he always knew he would be the one to leave the circle broken. The scene is Gethsemane. Olive trees. Torches. The sound of sandals on stone. Judas approaches Jesus—not with a sword, not with a shout, but with a kiss. Judas was not a rogue variable