Any Empathy for a Character of Prime Evil?: Judas Iscariot and a Hermeneutic of Vulnerability
What does one do with a perpetrator in society, especially in the light of the reception of Judas's treason in the New Testament, more specifically, in Matthew and in Acts? The presence of someone who killed for the Apartheid government poses an ethical dilemma that fundamentally challenges one...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
2024
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| In: |
Neotestamentica
Year: 2024, Volume: 58, Issue: 1, Pages: 93-110 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | What does one do with a perpetrator in society, especially in the light of the reception of Judas's treason in the New Testament, more specifically, in Matthew and in Acts? The presence of someone who killed for the Apartheid government poses an ethical dilemma that fundamentally challenges one's way of thinking. This article tries to address this dilemma by bringing into the discourse the issue of vulnerability. It starts with a reference to a recent example in South African discourse about a specific Apartheid perpetrator's presence in public, followed by a brief introduction to the ethics of vulnerability. The article then explores the example of Judas in the four Gospels, Papias and in the Gospel of Judas. The author concludes that Matthew's description of his repentance puts to the reader the question of empathy, whereas the Lukan reception in Acts deals more harshly with Judas without any vulnerability. Subsequently, for a post-Apartheid discourse regarding white complicity in racism, space needs to be created for white embarrassment and subsequent mourning. |
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| ISSN: | 2518-4628 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Neotestamentica
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1353/neo.2024.a947413 |