Judas Iscariot

A Tradition, in Verse, Touching the Birth, Life, and Perdition of Judas Iscariot, Inspired by the Posthumous Utterances of the Venerable Nilus the Myrrh-Streamer of Mount Athos.

Proem

O Thou who willest not the sinner's death,
But that the sinner turn, and, turning, live,
Breathe on tradition, as on dust Thy breath,
That I may tell it true, and warning give.

Of Judas tell I — of his birth, his crimes,
His kiss, his silver, and his gallows-bough;
Of Mercy, bent to save him, many times,
And scorned; now mark the tale, and mark ye how.

Chapter I. The Warning in a Dream, and the Child Given to the Waves

1.
In Iskaria Rovel took a wife,
Who in her sleep beheld a dreadful sight:
She woke with shrieks, as one that flees for life,
And told her lord the terror of that night.

2.
«I dreamt,» she cried, «I should conceive a son
By whom the house of Judah shall be slain!»
Her husband chid her: «Faith in dreams is none
But folly; drive this phantom from thy brain.»

3.
Yet in that night the seed of woe was sown;
Nor did she heed the warning that God gave,
But bore in season, as the dream had shown,
A man-child, doomed to be his people's grave.

4.
But still the dream, like some ill-omened bird,
Brooded upon her heart both night and day;
Till, vanquished by that dread, the pair concurred
To give their firstborn to the wind's wild way.

5.
They framed a little ark, a cradle-tomb,
And pitched each seam, lest it the lake should drink;
Therein they laid the babe, and, in the gloom,
Cast him on Gennesaret — float or sink.

6.
Across the lake an islet lifted, bare
And wintry, where the shepherds dwelt, and fed
Their flocks; and thither, by an unseen care,
The wind and current bore that pitch-sealed bed.

7.
The shepherds found the ark among the reeds,
And lifted out the babe, alive and warm,
And fed him with the ewes' milk, as one feeds
A weanling lamb, and kept him safe from harm.

8.
Then to a woman's keeping they consigned
The foundling; and she named him by that name
Of Judas — name that all the world should find
A byword and a very sound of shame.

Chapter II. The Foundling and the Fratricide

9.
Years passed; and when the boy was grown, the men
Who reared him brought him to the village gate,
To find some house to foster him; and then
Came Rovel by — nor guessed he met his Fate.

10.
He took him home; for passing fair was he,
And they, who for their cast-out child did grieve,
Adopted him, and loved him tenderly,
Nor guessed whose blood it was they did receive.

11.
Then to those twain a second son was born;
And Judas, covetous and evil-bred,
Feared for his heritage, with envious scorn,
And hated him, the heir who'd take his stead.

12.
He beat the child, and plagued him day by day;
His parents chastened him, and bade him cease;
But every stripe was oil, to feed the fray
Of envy and the lust of gold's increase.

13.
At last, one day, his parents being gone,
He caught a stone, and smote; the boy fell dead.
He looked upon the thing his hand had done,
And, cold with sudden terror, shoreward fled.

14.
The very waters that had borne him, then
A swaddled babe, to refuge and to breath,
Now ferried him, red-handed, back again
To that same isle, to flee the doom of death.

15.
There in a Grecian house he took his place,
And with the young lord's wife in sin combined,
Then slew her lord, and, flying from disgrace,
Fared far abroad, and left his guilt behind.

16.
To Salem next he came; and there, in sooth,
King Herod's house received him; and the King,
Who loved his deftness, and his face of youth,
Made him his steward over everything.

17.
He prospered; yet the blood that he had shed
Cried from the earth, as Abel's cried of old;
Though silk and purple draped him, and he fed
On honour, still his heart lay black and cold.

18.
Meanwhile his parents, knowing not whose hand
Had slain their boy, nor whither Judas went,
Wept for them both, and could not understand,
And mourned the lost one in a long lament.

19.
At length great tumults rent their native town;
To Salem went the sire and wife, and bought
A house, a garden fair, whose boughs hung down
Hard by King Herod's wall — as Fate had wrought.

20.
There nard and saffron, cassia, and the balm
Of Gilead breathed upon the twilight air;
And Rovel's joy, when evening held its calm,
Was in those blooms — his labour and his care.

21.
They never guessed what dreadful doom did wait
Within that quiet house of leaf and flower;
They fled the tumult but to meet their fate
Beside the son, in his accursed hour.

Chapter III. The Garden in Bloom, Parricide, and Incest

22.
Entering, Judas trod that garden fair,
Plucked the rare blooms whose sweetness filled the bed;
His mother, since the King's own man stood there,
Durst speak no word, but shook with silent dread.

23.
He asked no leave; he heaped his arms with bloom,
A fragrant sheaf, the old man's joy and pride;
And, striding out, he met, in dusky gloom,
His sire, home-wearied at the eventide.

24.
«Why hast thou stripped my garden?» Rovel cried.
«I need them!» Judas answered, bold and proud.
«Thou needest — and I not?» the sire replied,
And barred the way: his voice was not too loud.

25.
«I am the King's own man — so be thou told!»
«What reck I that?» quoth Rovel, stern and stout;
«Unbidden thou hast plundered what I hold
In mine own house.» And strove to snatch it out.

26.
But Judas, proud, no word of blame would bear;
He snatched a stone, and smote his father's head;
And down he fell among the blossoms rare,
And with their balm his blood ran warm and red.

27.
O Judas, father-slayer! hand accurst,
That felled the sire who cherished thee as son!
Yet proudly to his lord he went, and first
Displayed the flowers, and told what he had done.

28.
«I asked no gift,» quoth he; «I slew the man,
For he reviled thy rule and me beside:
I swear it by my life.» The lord began:
«I'll send, and learn the truth; if thou hast lied,

29.
Thou shalt be driven forth, and pay the shame
Thou didst to me, not him.» A man was sent,
Who found the old man slain, and, swift, he came
To tell the tale; and wrath the lord's heart rent.

30.
But Judas, subtle as the serpent, sought
The palace-folk, and bade them plead his cause;
They went with him; the lord, by stir distraught,
Relented, and referred him to the laws.

31.
«By law,» he said, «the widow of the dead
Shall be his bride.» She, weeping, would not yield,
And sued for any other; but he said
In wrath: «This man alone!» — and so was sealed

32.
The monstrous bond: the vessel full of ill
Did wed his mother, and she, loth, obeyed;
And in that bed, abhorrent to God's will,
A son was born, in shame and sin arrayed.

33.
She bore a child; and, talking in the dark,
She told, as women will, of griefs long past:
A dream, a babe, a pitch-sealed cradle-ark,
A lake at dusk — and how she saw it last.

34.
Thus, in that talk, the awful truth came out:
That she, his wife, was she who gave him birth;
Then Judas knew, beyond the faintest doubt,
The blood and incest that defiled the earth.

35.
Yea, all lay bare, as plains laid waste by fire:
The brother slain by stone; the mother wed;
And Rovel murdered, his own hoary sire;
And, loathing life, he from that bridal fled.

Chapter IV. The Crafty Disciple and the Thief

36.
Then, hearing Jesus teach by Salem's wall
And bid the sinner turn from sin, and live,
He sought Him out, and, yielding to the call,
Besought the pardon that the Lord doth give.

37.
Christ saw him; and the Searcher of the mind
Beheld the venom coiled beneath that face;
Yet took him in with joy, that He might find
A way to heal a soul so far from grace.

38.
He placed the purse in Judas' hand, and bade
The Twelve: «Of Judas ask what ye may lack.»
They kept His word, and, though they oft surveyed
That self-willed Judas, murmur none came back.

39.
Yet in his stewardship, by greed possessed,
He filched the common store, and in the dark
Sent coin to his old mother, and professed
'Twas for her food — a falsehood, foul and stark.

40.
The Twelve, who did Christ's words, became in sooth
The pillars of high Paradise; but he,
Who heard them with a murmur, and no truth
Of deed, clung to a post of rotten tree.

41.
Whoso upon a rotten pillar stays
Shall with it fall; so Judas, torn away
From Heaven's portion and the Twelve's blest ways,
Plunged to the nether pit, and lost the Day.

42.
Christ washed his feet, as all the others' feet;
Apostle was he then, and brother dear;
But now, the Day-star's scholar, did he greet
The devil as his brother, and his peer.

43.
Not satisfied with governing the store,
He sought to bar the gifts of faith and heart:
The myrrh, the praise, the homage men did pour
On Christ as God — he'd stay them ere they start.

44.
At Bethany, while Jesus sat at meat,
A woman brake an alabaster flask,
And poured the spikenard on His head and feet,
And wiped them with her hair, nor stayed to ask.

45.
Then Judas: «Why this waste? It might have sold
For silver — three hundred — to feed the poor.»
'Twas but pretence: the bag was his; and, bold,
He stole what men had put therein — and more.

46.
And oft he did it, at each chance that came,
With caution, lest his thieving should be known;
But Christ, unseen, was witness to the shame,
Forbearing, if he'd turn, repent, and own.

47.
His murmur passed; and some, in turn, deceived,
Took up his words, as zeal for those in need;
But Jesus, seeing all, and undeceived,
Took up the woman's cause, and pled her deed.

48.
«Let her alone,» said Christ. «The poor, alway,
Ye have; but Me ye have not. She hath wrought
What she could do: she poured this for the day
Of My burying; her deed shall be taught.»

49.
«I need it,» added Christ; and Judas heard
The slain man's voice, out of the garden-bed:
«Thou needest — and I not?» He spake no word:
The stone, the balm, the blood, his father dead.

50.
But in his heart a boiling malice stirred;
And Christ, who knows each secret of the breast,
Discerned his plot — nor spake a hasty word,
But bore it, patient, as He bears the rest.

Chapter V. The Betrayal of Christ

51.
Judas went to the priests: «What will ye give,
And I will yield Him to you?» So they weighed
Thirty pieces of silver; and, to live
By that one purpose, sought his hour, and stayed.

52.
The woman spread her hair; Judas, his hands:
She, for forgiveness; he, to take his pay.
She went away set free; he, bound in bands;
Unseen among them stood the Lord that day.

53.
When evening fell, He sat, the Twelve beside,
And said: «With longing have I longed to eat
This Passover with you, ere I be tried:
Nor shall it be again, till all complete.»

54.
He rose from supper, laid His robe aside,
And girt Him with a towel; and, kneeling there,
He poured the water in a bason, plied
His hands to every foot, and dried with care.

55.
The rest were lit; but Judas, ill with greed,
Grew dark, though at his feet the Lord knelt low:
«Ye are clean,» He said, «but not all,» — to plead
With one who would not hear, and would not know.

56.
«One of you twelve,» said Christ, «shall Me betray.»
Exceeding sorrowful, they each began
To ask: «Lord, is it I?» And, as they lay
At meat, they eyed each other, man by man.

57.
«He that doth dip his hand with Me,» said He,
«Within the dish, shall yield Me, as 'tis writ.
The Son of Man goes forth; but woe to be
The man by whom He's sold — who here doth sit!»

58.
«Good were it for that man he ne'er were born.»
And Judas, too, said: «Master, is it I?»
He said unto him: «Thou hast said.» No scorn,
No wrath; and none heard it, who sat close by.

59.
«Who may it be?» the troubled Twelve did say;
And He: «The man who stretcheth forth his arm
Before Me.» Judas, with no shame or stay,
Reached to the salt-dish, feeling no alarm.

60.
Then he that leaned on Jesus' breast: «Lord, who?»
«He,» said the Lord, «to whom I give the bread
When I have dipped it.» And He dipped it, too,
And gave to Judas. Nothing more was said.

61.
After the morsel, Satan entered in.
«That thou doest,» said Jesus, «do with speed.»
No man at table knew the thing, or sin,
Or meaning; and none marked it, or gave heed.

62.
Some thought, since Judas had the bag, that He
Had bid him buy for the feast, or feed the poor:
They looked on him, and saw no enemy,
But him who bare their bread, as heretofore.

63.
He then, the morsel taken, straight went out
Into the dark, and shut the door behind;
And all the town was quiet round about:
For it was night; and night was in his mind.

64.
Thus Judas left his brethren's company,
Allied to Lucifer, the Fiend of old,
And mused: «Who seek Him gifts bring; so will I
Ask more of them» — and thirsted still for gold.

65.
When he was gone, the Lord said: «Now is shown
The glory of the Son of Man; and God
Is glorified in Him.» The deed, unknown
To them, was done; the way of death was trod.

66.
For the Eleven He changed bread and wine:
«My Body and My Blood.» The mystery
Was told not to His foes; no kiss, no sign
Like Judas'; but the thief's: «Remember me.»

67.
He prayed: «Of those Thou gavest Me, not one
Is lost, but the son of perdition; so
The Scripture is fulfilled.» That prayer was done;
And, having sung a hymn, they rose to go.

Chapter VI. The Prayer of the Cup, and the Kiss of Judas

68.
Beyond the brook of Cedron lay a close
Of olive-trees, where Jesus oft had gone
With His disciples; Judas knew it. Those
Were sacred hours in which he, too, was one.

69.
«Sit here,» He told the eight, «while I go pray.»
He took the three, and, sorrowful and sore,
Said: «To the death My soul is sad: here stay,
And watch with Me.» He went a stone's cast more.

70.
He fell upon His face, and prayed: «Let pass,
If it be possible, this cup;» and then:
«Yet not My will, but Thine!» As bends the grass
Beneath the wind, He bent His will again.

71.
An angel from the heaven strengthened Him;
And, in His agony, He prayed the more;
And, like great drops of blood, in the night dim,
His sweat ran down and fell upon the floor.

72.
He came; they slept. «Could ye not watch,» said He,
«With Me one hour? Watch, and pray, lest ye fall:
The spirit's willing; but the flesh, ye see,
Is weak.» And, turning, He withdrew from all.

73.
Eleven slept; but Judas did not sleep:
He went, and brought the lawless, and he led
Them through the night — the garden, in the deep
Of Olivet; himself, ahead, he sped.

74.
Thrice prayed the self-same words, Christ came, and said:
«Sleep on now, and take rest: the hour is here;
The Son of Man, betrayed, to sinners led:
Rise, let us go: the traitor draweth near.»

75.
While yet He spake, lo, Judas, he, the one
Of the Twelve, came — and with him torch and brand,
A band with swords and staves; he who had done
The sale of Light came, lanterns in his hand.

76.
He, knowing all that should come on Him, went
Forth, and said: «Whom seek ye?» They answered: «He
Of Nazareth.» «I am.» And, as though spent
By that one word, they fell back, suddenly.

77.
«If Me ye seek,» said He, «let these go free.»
So was the word fulfilled: «I lost not one
Of those Thou gavest» — save, in company
Of those who came, the lost, perdition's son.

78.
He that betrayed Him gave them, for a sign:
«Whom I shall kiss, the same is He: hold fast.»
He hid his guile in custom's old design —
The kiss of use, the kiss of days long past.

79.
Straightway he came to Jesus, and said: «Hail,
Rabbi!» and kissed Him. On that Face, whereon
The angels dare not look, his lips, so pale
With guile, were laid; and the old kiss was done.

80.
Then, «Friend,» said Jesus, «wherefore art thou come?»
And, «Judas, with a kiss, the Son of Man
Betrayest thou?» — and Judas, standing dumb,
Gave back no word; for none he had, nor can.

81.
Thus did he honour Him in all men's sight,
Then gave Him to the soldiers, slunk away
Into the dark of greed — from Christ, the Light,
To the dark Prince — and left Him to the fray.

Chapter VII. The Denial of Peter, and the Accursed Silver

82.
They seized the Lord, and bound Him; and, by night,
Led Him to Annas first, and Caiaphas;
And Peter followed, far; and, in the light
Of the court-fire, what happened came to pass.

83.
Thrice, in the firelight, in the high priest's hall,
Did Peter say he knew not whom they meant:
To maid, and man — with oath, and curse, and all:
«I know not the man!» The cock crew. He went

84.
Out. For the Lord had turned, and looked on him;
And Peter now remembered what He said:
And wept — and wept — the night was cold and dim —
Yea, bitterly, and bowed his bitter head.

85.
When morning came, the chiefs of priests, and all
The elders, took their counsel for His death;
And, having bound Him, brought Him to the hall
Of Pilate, governor, with bated breath.

86.
What made thee, Judas, traitor? Did He thrust
Thee from the Twelve? Or take thy gift away?
Or from the table drive thee? Or, the dust
Washed from the others' feet, pass thine that day?

87.
When Judas saw that He was doomed to die,
The mist of greed fled from his mind, and he
Repented; but, to Christ, no word, no cry
Of penitence he brought, nor bent his knee.

88.
He wept not, as the weeping Peter wept;
But brought the silver back: «I sinned,» said he,
«Betraying guiltless blood.» Their scorn was kept:
«What's that to us? See thou to that.» And he

89.
Cast down the silver, where the priests might see,
And went away. The chiefs took up the pay:
«It is not lawful, in the treasury,
To lay it: 'tis the price of blood,» said they.

90.
And, doubtful what to do with price of blood —
For in the treasury it might not lie —
They made a strangers' burial-ground, which stood,
And stands today beneath the open sky.

91.
Then Judas, like a hunted beast, did flee
Into a ravine's gloom, and there he thought
What yet remained; and nothing could he see
But one thing, which the dark within him brought.

92.
An unclean counsel came: «Make end of all!»
And he, unclean, gave ear, as to a friend,
And bade the dark guest welcome in his hall —
Self-slaughter, and of woes the final end.

93.
There stood a tree, as if for gallows planned;
He loosed his girdle, made of camel's hair;
One end he knotted round his throat; his hand
Made fast the other, and he leapt in air.

94.
The bough bent low, as bends a mother's arm
To catch a falling child; for God would save,
Not slay, the sinner; lest he come to harm,
All means His mercy tried, and time He gave.

Chapter VIII. Christ on the Cross, and the Unrepentant Self-Slayer

95.
While Judas lay, still noosed, in that ravine,
The Lord, thorn-crowned, was led to Skull-hill's brow,
And nailed there, with two thieves; and, high, was seen
The title: «King of Jews» — above Him, now.

96.
«Father, forgive them,» prayed He, nailed and bare,
«For they know not what they do.» — And the three
Crosses stood on the hill, against the air:
The thief, the Lord, the thief — in company.

97.
He hangs upon the Tree who hung the earth
Upon the waters; Angels' King is crowned
With thorns; the Bridegroom, who gave Zion birth,
Is nailed; the Virgin's Son, the spear shall wound.

98.
One thief reviled; the other said: «We bear
Our due; this Man did nothing wrong. O Lord,
Remember me, when in Thy kingdom there.»
«Today,» said Christ, «in Paradise, My word.»

99.
Judas might still have wept, and loosed, and said
Before the Cross: «'Twas I that nailed Thee there!
Forgive me! 'Twas my evil thought that sped
Thee to the tree — have mercy, hear my prayer!»

100.
Had he but said it, Christ would have received
Him, as Manasseh once; as, at His side,
The thief; the harlot; every soul that grieved
And turned. The door stood open, and stood wide.

101.
But no. He cast himself to earth — to hang,
Not kneel. And Christ, His arms nailed wide, looked right,
And left, along them both; and, in the pang
Of thirst, searched for one face, far out of sight.

102.
«I thirst,» He said — and thirsted for a soul.
One ran, and filled a sponge, and, on a reed,
Held up the vinegar: the gall, the bowl,
For manna and for water, were His meed.

103.
«'Tis finished,» said the Lord; and, with a cry,
«Into Thy hands, O Father, I commend
My spirit.» Then He bowed His head, to die,
And gave the ghost; and thus the work did end.

104.
But Judas, giddy-pated, turned again
To ill, and fled the mercy proffered him;
The bough had bent, the bough had bent in vain:
He plighted troth with woe; his heart was grim.

105.
A higher place he built, and climbed, and drew
The noose still shorter, and leapt from the height;
Again God bowed the bough, as mothers do,
But he, unsated, deaf to Mercy's light,

106.
Built yet a third degree, and climbed it, where
He knotted fast the noose; and from the third
Stair hurled himself, without a cry, a prayer,
A sign of penitence, a single word.

107.
Defiled by father's blood, and by the bed
Of her who bore him, and his brother's gore,
Down plunged that thrice-polluted flesh — and dead
The traitor hung. The bough bent down no more.

108.
Now, since the Lord had died, as prophets told,
The earth should tremble at her Maker's cry;
The veil — the Holy's bar — foreshowed of old
His Flesh, through which man's way to God should lie.

109.
The veil was rent in twain, from top to base;
The earth did quake; the rocks were cleft; the graves
Were opened, one by one; and, in that place,
Death looked, and trembled, for its sleeping slaves.

110.
The quake broke the bough; Judas fell, and burst
Asunder, headlong, in the midst; and they
Of Salem named the field, in tongue accurst,
Aceldama, the Field of Blood, that day.

111.
Then Joseph begged the Body; and, with him,
Came Nicodemus: myrrh and aloes, brought
A hundred pound; and, in the linen's trim,
With spices wound Him, as the custom taught.

112.
A garden, near where He was crucified;
And in it a new tomb, wherein none lay
Before. They laid Him there, at eventide;
And a great stone was set to shut the way.

113.
Judas grudged the spikenard's fortune; and, lo,
A hundred pound of myrrh, with aloes, lay
Upon the Body, wrapped in linen; so
Was it fulfilled — against the burial-day.

The Conclusion

Two trees stood in one hour. On one, arms wide,
The Life-giver was nailed, whom Judas sold;
The other, in the dark, bore him who tied
His own last knot, and fell, and lay there cold.

Not with the kiss alone was He betrayed:
The kiss began it; and the noose made whole
The work, and closed the silver's bitter trade:
He sold his Lord, and then he sold his soul.
    

© Sergey Dobrenkov, 2026

All rights reserved