JUDAS'S SERVICE
Sia,—It is a pity that in his article (March 30) Mr. Hollis used the four Gospels so indis- criminately. is this due to the Encyclical Providentissimus Deus of 1893 in which Pope Leo XIII committed the Roman Church to Fundamentalism?
The first three Gospels are much more valuable as history than the fourth. Their explanation that the High Priest decided to put Jesus to death because of His cleansing of the Temple on Palm Sunday or the day after is the more probable. But Mr. Hollis prefers the reason given in the fourth Gospel, that it was on account of the raising of Lazarus. Mr. Hollis also accepts the very improbable story that when Jesus spoke in the garden to the soldiers who had come to arrest Him, 'they went backward and fell to the ground' (John xviii, 6). He accepts as true three incidents which are only reported in the first Gospel and are all most improbable, Pilatc's wife's dream (Matthew xxvii, 19), Pilate washing his hands (Matthew xxvii, 24) and that the priests and Pharisees got Pilate to set a guard over Jesus's sepulchre lest the disciples should come
and steal his body away (Matthew xxvii, 62 ff.).
Since according to Roman Catholic teach- ings 'there are no errors in Holy Scripture,' Mr. Hollis might have tried to harmonise the con- tradictory stories of Judas's death. Acts i, 17 ff., says that Judas bought a field with the money he received from the priests 'and falling head- long he burst asunder in the midst and all his bowels gushed out' The first Gospel tells the more probable story that Judas 'repented and hanged himself.' Mr. Hollis sensibly accepts this second story. The charming mediaeval legend with which he ends his article agrees with this, for God forgives those who repent.
Why did Judas betray Jesus? We do not know. Judas did not tell the disciples, and therefore the evangelists could not tell us. The service Judas performed for the High Priest was to tell him where he could arrest Jesus secretly, at night, when the people were not by to protect him. See the precautions Jesus took to keep the place of the Last Supper a secret, even from the disciples, until the actual time of the meal (Mark xiv, 12 ff.).—Yours faithfully,
3. K. NETIIEFOLD
The Rectory, Bourton-on-the-Water, Glos
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