Glorification

By Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton
1941

Part V
THE LAST STATES

IV. THE BETRAYAL

"Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said, What will ye give me, and I will deliver Him unto you?  And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver.  And from that time he sought opportunity to betray Him." (Matthew 26: 14 - 16)

The betrayal of the Lord by Judas Iscariot stands as the supreme type of the most repellant form of evil.  A world of contempt finds expression in the name of the unfaithful disciple.  One who betrays a friend, and therein seeks material gain, is, in customary thought and feeling, beyond the pale.  Yet, the evil in question, in some phase, is a common failing.  The Lord gave warning of this when He said, "The foes of a man are they of his own household." (Matt. 10: 36)

In the betrayal of the Lord, this weakness of humanity was summed in all its appalling implications.  To Judas, as one of the twelve, one of the Lord's own household, fell this portion - this representation of an underlying, racial evil which may hardly be forgiven.  To this end, it is recorded that Satan entered into him, just after he had put his hand into the dish with his Lord.  Then it was that he went out into the night and covenanted with the high priest.  His approach to the conspirators appears as voluntary, for the palace conspiracy was one thing, and the betrayal another.  The two stand as if from separate origins; yet they came together, to one end.  It was through the betrayal that the conspiracy entered the Lord's household and became effective.  It was so, of need.  No evil can reach man destructively save through some traitorous weakness in the man, through some favoring inclination which advances to meet, and opens itself to receive the influx from the hells.  As it is with man in the affairs of his own household, in his own mental states, so it was with the Son of man, who had taken upon Himself, and into Himself, through His racial inheritance, the totality of human heredity.  His body, of maternal derivation, enclosed within itself all that was represented by Judas, even to the act of betrayal.  "The hand of him that betrayeth Me is with Me on the table." (Luke 22: 21)

The disciples who partook of the passover with the Lord were intimately His own.  Judas was no exception.  The disciples represented the Lord, and the things that were in Him.  They were of His body.  They signified the church He was establishing, and its goods and truths, in one complex.  These were His, and therefore of Divine origin, as well as of human conditionment.  The disciples also represented the things of His human derivation, which were in process of glorification.  In this respect, also, Judas was not an exception.  Because of this, the disciples, at the time, represented, or were capable of representing, the derived perversions of His human heredity, which in the end betrayed Him to His death.  This last was notably Judas' portion.  Hence the record that "Satan entered into him."  But in this evil significance Judas does not stand alone among the disciples.  The Lord said to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offence to me."  Through Peter, or through that which, on the occasion, he represented, an evil temptation came upon the Lord, and this also, touching the matter of His death and resurrection.  "He began to show unto His disciples how He must go unto I Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again on the third day. Then Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him, saying, be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall not be unto Thee.  But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me; for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (Matt. 16: 21 - 23)

In this temptation, Peter stands for the faith which failed to the point of perversion, - and in the crisis which came later Peter denied Him thrice.  But it was through Judas that the actual betrayal was accomplished.  It is only in connection with the betrayal that the words and deeds of Judas are recorded.  This would appear to give him no other than an evil significance; yet the Writings tell us that some form of truth from good is represented by each of the apostles (A. R 348:2), and therefore also some essential of the church. (E. 430:14)  It is also noted in the Writings that the disciples are now angels (T. C. R. 4), and that at the time of the Second Coming they were sent throughout the spiritual world on a Divine mission of evangelization. (T. C. R. 4)  Their place of abode is given as one of the interior heavens. (S. D. 1330)

Furthermore, it is of record that the twelve apostles have a like significance as that of the twelve tribes of Israel, and that each disciple represents that which was represented by a corresponding tribe.  But concerning the disciples, the statement is made that those were chosen who were like the things represented. (S.D. 12.7)  It appears that in their case, representation was something more than a mere symbol.  In the matter of this representation, the Writings, in part, identify the signification of some of the disciples with that of certain of the sons of Jacob, who gave their names to the several tribes.  It may be difficult to draw a strict parallel in each case, but the mutual significance of one of the disciples with a corresponding tribe is at times made clear; as, for instance, in the case of Judas and Judah.  In this case the names are the same, Judas being but the Greek form of the Hebrew word, Judah.  Moreover, it is notable that in the ancient forecast of the conspiracy against the Lord, given by the sons of Jacob in their conspiracy against Joseph, it was Judah who proposed the sale of Joseph for twenty pieces of silver.  The Writings note this in the following words: "By him, (Judas), in that he sold the Lord, the like was represented as here by Judah, who said, "Come, let us sell Joseph." (A. C. 4751)  Moreover, the frequent teaching of the Writings is that Judas, in his relation to the Lord, represented the Jewish nation.  This points directly to the likeness between Judas and Judah, since the latter was not only the father of his tribe of that name, but that tribe became the kingdom of Judah, and so derivatively, the Jewish nation as it was at the time of the Lord.

Since all the sons of Jacob, and their tribes, represent like things with reference to the Lord's life, as those signified by the twelve disciples, and as Judas stands as a later counterpart of Judah, of which tribe the Lord was born, we may, with propriety, at least in general, transfer the things revealed concerning the representation of Judah to that of Judas.  These things are both good and evil.  But as to the noble predicates of Judah, nothing of a like nature is specifically stated concerning Judas, this doubtless for the reason that Judas outstandingly represented the Jewish nation.  This representation was immediate and pressing, and the church, with that nation, was at the time doomed.  Yet there can be little doubt but that Judas, as a disciple of the Lord, and one of the twelve, carried over in general that which is said in the Arcana of the high, celestial signification of Judah.

That Judas was acknowledged as one of the twelve is not only certain from the Gospel record, but it was later testified to by Peter, after the Lord's betrayal and death.  We read in the first chapter of the Acts, that "Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said. . . . Men and brethren, this Scripture must needs be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of David, spake before concerning Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus.  For he was numbered with us, and had obtained part of this ministry (Acts 1: 15 - 17)  That which the Holy Spirit spake by the mouth of David, to which Peter referred, is as follows: "Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me." (Psalm 41: 9)

If, then, we may interpret the representation of Judas in the light of what is said in the Arcana concerning the significance of Judah, we may note in the first place that the word, Judah, signifies confession of the Lord.  Confession is just the opposite of betrayal.  In the supreme sense, Judah signifies the Lord as to Divine Love, and therefore, the Lord's celestial kingdom.  Of Judah, with this meaning, it is said that his brethren praised him, and that his father's sons should bow down unto him.  (A. C. 3881)  Those who are in this celestial love are most closely conjoined with the Lord. They are in the inmost heaven, and are there in a state of innocence, like little children.  Others are not able to go near them, and when they are sent to others, they are surrounded by intermediate angels, in order that the sphere of their love may be tempered.  Their sphere is inmostly penetrating; so much so that if it is not mediated, it causes others to swoon.

On the other hand, by Judah is also signified the depraved of the church, and that kind of depravity which results from a fall from celestial love.  This is, indeed, the depravity of betrayal.  It arises from an intensified love of self, which burns with hatred, but which is guided in its manifestation by a cunning which looks to gain.  "Judah said to his brethren, What gain is it if we slay our brother, and cover up; Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites." (A. C. 4750)

Note this quotation from A. C. 4751, "The Lord said of the Jews, Ye are of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning."  And of Judas Iscariot He said, "Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil."

The question arises as to whether there is anything recorded of the life of Judas which may be taken as representing that higher good which his name, like that of Judah, should signify.  It appears that his repentance after the betrayal, looks in that direction.  When he saw that the Lord was condemned, "he repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. . . . And he cast down the silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself." (Matt. 27: 3 - 5)  Here is pictured the anguish of remorse so great as to lead to a self-imposed death.  If, like the other disciples, he represented some quality of good and truth in the Lord's Human, then his repentance, even unto voluntary death, would signify not only a spiritual resurrection of that good, but also its glorification.

From the beginning of the church the thought of the traitor's repentance has challenged attention.  Some have held that he died by his own hand with intent to meet the Lord in the after life, and seek His forgiveness.  Our interest is that his repentance and death signified something high and holy - something in the Lord, of earliest glorification, which stands at the other extreme from the debased and traitorous evil with which the name of Judas is most commonly associated; something which would, indeed, "sit to eternity" in accord with the prophecy concerning Judah; something which would fulfill the words, "mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted;" something which would impart a deep meaning to the fact that Judas betrayed his Lord with a kiss.  A kiss signifies an interior conjunction or union.  This expresses the high significance of Judah, and also of Judas, in his relation to the Lord, namely, that celestial which is the supreme gift of God to man, but which, if it falls, becomes utterly debased.  The inter-play between these two states was enacted within the Lord in the process of His glorification, and in this there were two Judas's the one was glorified, and the other eternally condemned; the one was a high and holy state, which by glorification was early raised to Divinity, and the other condemned to the lowest hells.

There is no evil which may not be reconverted by repentance, save only the sin of non-repentance, which is the sin against the Holy Spirit, which consists in the total denial of the Lord's saving Divinity.   This sin can not be forgiven, because the man will not allow of it.  Concerning Judas, the record stands that he "repented himself."