Why did Judas have to betray Jesus? If Jesus wanted to be crucified, couldn't he have just turned himself in to the Roman authorities?
Why did Judas have to betray Jesus?
The shortest answer is: he didn’t.
Judas didn’t betray Jesus. I know that almost all English language translations of the New Testament say that he did, but the writers of the New Testament never wrote that.
The New Testament of the Bible was written in Greek, and the Greek word used to describe what Judas did to Jesus is ‘paradidomi’ (I’ve used the Roman alphabet rather than Greek letters). Very literally, paradidomi means to ‘give across’. It is a morally neutral term, and most of the many times it appears in the New Testament, it is appropriately translated as ‘handed over’. However, whenever Judas is the subject of the sentence, the translators use the word ‘betray’ instead.
If you follow the story of Jesus’ death backwards, this inconsistency becomes quite clear.
Jesus’ death (John 19:30) “With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” - paradidomi
Before that (John 19:16) “Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.” - paradidomi
Before that (Mark 15:1) “So [the chief priests] bound Jesus … and handed him over to Pilate.” - paradidomi
On at least thirteen occasions in that crucial part of Jesus’ story, ‘paradidomi’ is translated as ‘handed over’, or something very similar. But never when Judas is involved.
Matthew 26:48 - “Now the betrayer had arranged a signal with them…” - paradidomi.
Mark 3:19 - “and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.” - paradidomi.
The same Greek word.
If Jesus didn’t betray his own spirit, and if Pilate didn’t betray Jesus to be crucified, and if the chief priests didn’t betray him to Pilate, how come Judas betrayed Jesus?
He didn’t. He handed him over - a morally neutral term. Which leads us to the other part of this question. Why did Judas have to hand Jesus over to the chief priests?
Short answer: because Jesus asked him to. John 13:27 - “Jesus told [Judas], “What you are about to do, do quickly.”
If Jesus told Judas to do it, it makes little sense to suggest that it was an act of betrayal. Also, if you are familiar with the story, you will be aware that Judas’ plan was to hand Jesus over in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus, evidently, knew this. And yet, when the Last Supper was over, Jesus went directly to that very place, the Garden of Gethsemane. It is hardly a betrayal if Jesus was knowingly colluding with the plan. If he had gone anywhere other than the Garden of Gethsemane that night, we would have a different story.
Neither the original text nor the narrative itself speak of betrayal. The ‘betrayal’ narrative is a fable cooked up by later generations, a fable which has become so deeply ingrained in Christian thinking that almost all English translations knowingly mistranslate a very simple Greek word, and thereby continue to pin this prejudice on Judas.
From the original language texts and the narratives it is hard to determine how this pivotal interaction between Jesus and Judas came about. Was it Judas’ initiative, which Jesus chose to go along with? Or was it Jesus’ initiative that Judas agreed to go along with? Either way, the Gospel writers all consistently identify Judas as the one who handed Jesus over. And that handover set off a series of further handovers, which ended with Jesus handing over his own life.
Without Judas, we wouldn’t have the crucifixion.
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