Was Judas a NT character?
From A collection of short essays. Project references reflect the source essay; see our current status.
Judas Iscariot was one of Jesus’ twelve inner disciples mentioned in the New Testament so obviously that makes him a New Testament character, right? Wrong!
This disconnect comes from the fact that we no longer use the word ‘testament’ in regular English. (Well, maybe lawyers do, I’m not sure, but legalese isn’t ‘regular English’.) Most people outside of church only vaguely know the word as something to do with writing a will.
However, in regular Christian conversations, the terms ‘Old Testament’ and ‘New Testament’ have come to mean the two divisions in the Christian Bible:
Genesis to Malachi comprising about 75% of the Bible, and
Matthew to Revelation, the last quarter of the Bible.
So under that definition, Judas Iscariot is not mentioned by name in the Old Testament, so he’s definitely a New Testament character.
Unfortunately though that’s not the original meaning of the terms. In English Bibles, the term ‘Old Testament’ comes from the covenant or agreement between God and the Hebrew people as given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. ‘New Testament’ comes from the new covenant connected with Jesus’ blood. It’s foreseen in Jeremiah 31:31-32 and Ezekiel 36:26-27 but better known from Jesus’ speech at ‘The Last Supper’:
Similarly with the cup that comes after they’ve eaten, he said, “This cup is the new agreement in my blood which will be poured out for you all. (Luke 22:20 OET-RV)
Note that the new covenant/agreement is still future at that point, because Jesus had not yet died and come back to life from the dead. So most of the four gospel accounts in what we call ‘The New Testament’ are still set in the period of the ‘Old Covenant/Agreement’. This is also the period in which Judas Iscariot lives and dies, so although he’s described in what we call ‘The New Testament’ of the Bible, he lived in the period of ‘The Old Covenant/Agreement’.
Yes, it’s complicated, but that’s what happens when words and phrases change their meanings over hundreds of years. In order to provoke more thought, the OET won’t be using the terms New and Old Testament.
Robert Hunt, January 2024