Chapter 14 Three myths about Judas

The fall seemed doomed. T． E．Lawrence: The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 103 When Basilides declared in Asia Minor or Alexandria in the second century AD that the universe was the reckless or sinister improvisation of flawed angels, Nils Rüneberg was already leading a Gnostic Small denominations.Dante may have cast him into purgatory in the Divine Comedy; his name has been added to the list of pagan founders like Satonillos and Capocrates; some fragments of his invective sermons Perhaps it will remain in the forged "Criticism of Heresy and Heresy", and perhaps it will be destroyed when a fire in a monastery library destroys the last copy of Quotations.Instead, God gave him a chance to make a comeback in the university city of Lund in the 20th century. In 1904, the first version of "Christ and Judas" was published there; in 1909, his main work "Mysterious Savior" was published. (The latter is available in a German translation by Emil Schelling, published in 1912, under the title Der heimliche Heiland.)

Before examining the sloppy writings, it must be said again that Niels Rüneberg was a very religious member of the National Evangelical Association.In Paris, or even in gatherings of men of letters in Buenos Aires, it is easy to re-encounter Rüneberg's arguments;For Rüneberg it is the key to deciphering a great theological mystery; material for reflection and analysis, historical and linguistic polemics, enough to be proud, delightful and terrifying.Those arguments both proved his worth and disrupted his life.The reader should keep in mind that this article is not concerned with Rüneberg's arguments and evidence, only his conclusions.One will note that conclusions are drawn long before the "evidence".But who has the patience to find something he doesn't believe in, or a teaching that doesn't concern him?

The title of the first edition of "Christ and Judas" is clear, and Niels Rüneberg himself absurdly stretched its meaning a few years later: Everything that tradition has said about Judas Israiot is false, None of it is true. (De Quincey, 1857) A similar opinion had previously been expressed by a German; De Quincey surmised that Judas betrayed Jesus Christ in order to compel him to declare his divinity and to provoke a widespread uprising against Roman oppression ; Rüneberg offers a metaphysical defense.He begins by subtly emphasizing the sheer superfluity of Judas' actions.He pointed out (like Robertson) that Jesus preached daily in Jewish assemblies, performed miracles in front of a few thousand people, and did not need to be identified by a disciple who betrayed him.However, what was identified still happened.It is intolerable to think that the Bible is in error; it is equally intolerable to think that chance occurred in the greatest event in the history of the world.Therefore, Judas' betrayal was no accident, but a prearranged event that occupied a mysterious place in the process of Jesus' sacrifice to save the world.Rüneberg went on to point out: After the Son became flesh, he went from omnipresent to tangible space, from eternity to history, from infinite happiness to life, old age, sickness and death; in order to be worthy of such a sacrifice, a person representing all mankind must Make the sacrifices you deserve.Judas Iscariot alone among all the disciples perceived the secret divinity and purpose of Jesus.Since the Son can condescend to become a mortal; of course Judas, the disciple of the Son, can also be degraded to become an informer (the most despicable sin), and be wronged in the eternal hell fire.The inferior is the mirror of the superior; the earthly image corresponds to the heavenly image; the spots on the skin are the ever-new constellation images; Judas somehow reflects Jesus.From this came the thirty silver coins and the treacherous kiss; from this came suicide in order to be cast more willingly into hell.Niels Rüneberg illuminates the Judas riddle in this way.

Theologians of various schools have refuted it.Lars Peter Engstrom accuses him of being completely ignorant or ignoring the unity of man and God; Axel Borelius accuses him of reviving those who deny the humanity of Jesus and claim that Christ is a phantom , Heresy without flesh; Bishop Lund sharply accused him of being contrary to the teaching of Luke 22:3. These reprimands worked on Rüneberg, who partially rewrote the condemned book and revised his doctrine.He ceded the theological domain to his opponents, making moral arguments in a roundabout way.He acknowledged that Jesus "did have everything that the Almighty can provide" and that no sacrifice was required to save all mankind.Then he hit back at those who claim we know nothing about that inexplicable traitor; he says we know that he was one of the Twelve, chosen to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, to heal the sick and call leprosy cleansed, raised the dead, and cast out demons (Matthew 10:7-8; Luke 9:1).Since the Savior has placed such a responsibility on such a man, what he did deserves our best explanation.To attribute his sins to covetousness (as some do, quoting John twelfth verse 6), is content to find the basest motive.Niels Rüneberg proposes an opposite motive: exaggerated and even infinite asceticism.The ascetic demeaned and tortured his body in order to give greater glory to God; Judas demeaned and tortured his spirit.He had renounced honor, happiness, peace, Heaven, as others did, only joy not so valiantly.With terrible sobriety he planned his crimes in advance.Adultery is often laced with tenderness and self-sacrifice; murder is often tinged with courage; blasphemy is often laced with the light of Satan.Judas chose those sins that do not contain any virtue: betraying another's trust (John 12:6) and snitching.He acts so vilely because he doesn't think he deserves to be a good person.Paul wrote: As it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord. ("1 Corinthians" Chapter 31) Judas asked for hell, because God's happiness has satisfied him.He believed that happiness was an attribute of God and that people should not usurp it.

Many people later found that Rüneberg's original unsatisfactory arguments already contained bizarre conclusions, and "The Mysterious Redeemer" was nothing more than a distortion and enhancement of "Christ and Judas". At the end of 1907, Rüneberg completed and revised the manuscript; it took almost two years before it was handed over to the printing house.That book was published in October 1909, with a bland and incomprehensible preface by the Danish Hebrew linguist Erik Elfjord and the following disingenuous inscription: He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. ("John 1:10") Generally speaking, the content of the book is not complicated, but the conclusion is shocking.Niels Rüneberg asserts that Jesus condescended to come to earth in order to save mankind; it is conceivable that his sacrifice should be perfect, not invalidated or inferior by some oversight.It would be sacrilegious for him to confine his suffering to the dying pangs of an afternoon at the crucifixion.It is contradictory to say that he is human and incapable of error; perfection and human attributes are incompatible.Kempis admits that the Savior was also tired, cold, confused, hungry; it should also be admitted that he, too, could make mistakes and lose his way.He grew up before the Lord like a shoot, like a root out of the earth.He has no form or beauty, and when we see him, we have no beauty to envy him.He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isaiah 53:2-3) This famous quote is seen by many as a foreshadowing of the crucifixion; to some (eg Hans Larsen Martensen), It was a refutation of the secular belief that Christ was handsome; for Rüneberg it was the incarnation of the Son who foretold exactly his doom, not for a time, but for the whole of his sinister future.Jesus became fully mortal, not just mortal, but notorious, condemned, eternally mortal.In order to save us, he could have chosen any fate that history has woven; he could have been Alexander, Pythagoras, Lunik, or Jesus; he had chosen the worst fate: he had become Judas.

Bookstores in Stockholm and Lund couldn't carry the book.Unbelievers have the prejudice that it is a dull theological game; theologians dismiss it.Zinenberg sees an almost miraculous proof in the general indifference.God bids men be indifferent; he does not want His terrible secret to be spread among the world.Rüneberg knew it was not yet time.He felt the curse of the ancient gods pouring down on him; he thought of Elijah and Moses who covered their faces with their hands on the top of Mount Sinai and did not look at God; Isaiah; think of Saul who suddenly went blind on the way to Damascus; think of the Jewish doctor Simeon ben Azai who died after seeing the kingdom of heaven; think of the famous wizard Viterbo who went mad after seeing the Holy Trinity. Juan; think of the rabbi who hated the godless and pronounced the secret name of God.Had he not committed that crime himself?Is that not the unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (Matthew 12:31)?Valerio Solano died for spreading the secret name of Rome; what infinite punishment should he have for discovering and spreading the terrible name of God?

Sleepless all night, dazed by arguments, Nils Rüneberg ran about the streets of Malmö, begging aloud to share the grace of hell with the Saviour. On March 1, 1912, he died of a ruptured aneurysm.Students of paganism may remember this man; he added a complexity of evil and misfortune to the already sound conception of the Son. 1944