The Betrayal Foretold

But if it does not weary you, let me point out, as briefly as I can, particular places where the prophecies match the Gospels, so that those who are being taught the first elements of the faith may have these testimonies written on their hearts, and no doubt about the things they believe may ever take them by surprise. [a]

We are told in the Gospel that Judas, one of Christ’s friends and companions at table, betrayed him. Let me show you how this is foretold in the Psalms: “He who ate my bread has lifted up his heel against me.” And in another place: “My friends and my neighbors drew near and set themselves against me.” And again: “His words were made softer than oil, and yet they are very darts.” What, then, is meant by “his words were made soft”? “Judas came to Jesus and said to him, ‘Greetings, Master,’ and kissed him.” So through the soft flattery of a kiss he drove in the cursed dart of betrayal. That is why the Lord said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” You see that he was valued by the traitor’s greed at thirty pieces of silver. The prophet speaks of this too: “And I said to them, If you think it good, give me my price; and if not, keep it.” And shortly after: “I received from them,” he says, “thirty pieces of silver, and I threw them into the house of the Lord, into the foundry.” Is this not what is written in the Gospels, that Judas, “repenting of what he had done, brought back the money, threw it down in the temple, and went away”? He did well to call it his price, as though blaming and reproaching them. For he had done so many good works among them: he had given sight to the blind, feet to the lame, the power to walk to the paralyzed, and life even to the dead. For all these good works they paid him death as his price, valuing him at thirty pieces of silver. The Gospels also tell that he was bound. This too the word of prophecy had foretold through Isaiah, saying, “Woe to their soul, for they have devised a most evil plan against themselves, saying, Let us bind the righteous one, because he is useless to us.”