Why Are Judas and Judah So Similar?

We explore the literary artistry of the Bible, and today we are looking at how Judas functions as a counterfeit Judah.

Today we normally name our children for aesthetic reasons—simply because we like the sound of the name. In the Bible, however, characters’ names reveal something essential about their character, and they almost always serve a deliberate plot function. This is especially true when a name is repeated far more than is strictly necessary for concise storytelling, as is the case with Judas in the Gospels.

First, a linguistic note: Judas is the exact same name as Judah. When names are brought across languages, they undergo changes. In transliteration—where you bring the sounds of a word into another language, like Juan in Spanish becoming John in English, as opposed to translation, where you carry across the meaning, like perro becoming dog—proper nouns shift their endings. For instance, the Hebrew name Isaiah becomes Esaias in Greek, Elijah becomes Elias, and the Hebrew name Judah becomes Judas in Greek. It is the very same name.

If Judas is Judah, what is the literary significance? It is such a famous Old Testament name that its presence here is hardly mere happenstance.

Consider Judah in the Old Testament. Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob who sold his brother Joseph into slavery for silver. Later, he is transformed when he sees an innocent person, Tamar, suffer because of his own wrongdoing after sleeping with her. His transformation is then proven by his willingness to take the place of his youngest brother Benjamin in prison, entirely reversing his original act of selling Joseph into servitude.

Notice the remarkable parallels to Judas. Like Judah, Judas is one of the twelve disciples who sells his brother, Jesus, for silver. When he sees an innocent person suffer—Jesus condemned—he regrets his choice and returns the money.

Even the first recorded words of each character are strikingly similar. The first words of Judah in Genesis are:

What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

The first recorded words of Judas are:

What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?

Both spoken lines are questions, and both are schemes against a brother concerning how they can profit financially from his betrayal.

With all these parallels, you might think Judas is meant to be a positive image of Judah. In reality, he is a false image—a parody. Judas’s repentance is a counterfeit repentance, and you can judge the genuine nature of an action by its fruits: what actions follow from it?

Judah’s action following his repentance was self-sacrifice for his brother, willingly offering to remain in prison in Benjamin’s place. Judas’s action following his remorse is self-murder—suicide. Like most evil, it mimics goodness; it is deceptive, appearing to be one thing when it is the exact opposite. Judas appears like Judah, but he is the inverse. He displays a specious repentance that issues in death, whereas Judah’s true repentance results in the preservation and giving of life to his brother.

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