Judas: A Biography
by Susan Gubar. New York:  W & W Norton and Company, 2009.  Pp. 453

Reviewed by Dr. Susan K. Hedahl

Susan Gubar is Distinguished Professor of English at Indiana University, yet is possessed of all the necessary theological tools to combine the literary, artistic, historical and theological into a work which probes the universal memory of Judas in truly superlative fashion.

The work’s purpose is stated as “a book written for readers interested in interreligious contacts and exchanges, especially Jewish-Christian relations….I seek [instead] to trace the literary and visual implications of works that held sway over many people’s imaginations over many periods of time.” (45).

Gubar probes the character and tradition of Judas from many perspectives.   She addresses the Gospel accounts, which describe in various ways the ‘handing over’ of Jesus.  Out of the accumulated historical evidence, she highlights the particularly neuralgic issue of how Judas came to stand for the Jews and the way that worked itself out in all forms of anti-Semitism over the ages.  This makes for uncomfortable reading when she raises examples from the works of Augustine, Luther, Barth, Bonhoeffer.  Augustine is quoted on the profound mystery of the Jesus-Judas relationship in this way:  “Delivering up was done by the Father, delivering up was done by the Son, delivering up was done by Judas; one thing was done (Tractates 222-23).” (4)

One of the best summaries of the book’s contents is:  “Whereas a biting and excreting Judas horrified pre-modern thinkers, Renaissance painters presented a tender Judas engaged in a brotherly embrace with his beloved mate; whereas a politically ambitious Judas heroically struggles to advance his teacher’s mission during the Enlightenment, a contemporary Judas doubts the efficacy of that mission.” (38)

Gubar masterfully explores a variety of poems and novels about Judas and various film representations, several accompanied by archive photographs.  Altar and woodcut representations of Judas are also found in this work. Albert Tucker’s Judas, done in 1955 and on display in Australia is a particularly ugly and horrific view of Judas belching money.

The book’s final chapter, ”Jesus, According to Judas’s Bad News; He Who is Praised,” is a brilliant summary of all the strands of work represented in Gubar’s volume. The title of the chapter reflects the ambiguity of just who is praised – Jesus or Judas?