Book 2, lines 765-796

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Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane with his disciples. Now read on!

Hortator vero, scelerisque inventor Iudas                         [765]
composito interea vocat hostes vertice ab alto,
seque ultro comitem , atque ducem venientibus offert.
Ergo adsunt improvisi illum in vincla petentes:
longius aera micant tremulanti lumine lunae.
Iam clypei resonant, iam ferri stridit acumen;                   [770]
pinguiaque exuperant noctem funalia longo
ordine, multifidaeque faces , quas unguine supra
obduxit manus, et ferro inspicavit acuto.
Fit strepitus: vasto circum mons undique pulsu
armorum sonat, atque virum clamoribus omnis.                [775]
Quos his nil trepidus compellans vocibus Heros,
“Heus,” inquit, “iam state, viri; quem quaeritis, adsum.
Quo ferrum, flammaeque? Palam conspectus in urbe
convectu cecini magno praecepta Parentis.
Cur non una omnes vos tunc tenuistis inermem?               [780]
Ista sub obscurum noctis cur agmina cerno?
Quod si me tamen ad mortem deposcitis armis
insontem, et vobis adeo obstat gloria nostra,
hos sinite illaesos; nihil hi meruere, nec ausi.
Tantum dilecti comitis mandata facessunt.                         [785]
Unus ego vestras explebo deditus iras.”  
Hœc ait, et bis se quœrentibus obtulit ultrô.
Illi autem ad vocem toties (mirabile visu)
procubuere; soloque ingentem fusa dedere
arma sonum; atque oculis subito nox plurima oborta est. [790]
Consurgunt tandem, somno, vinoque gravatis
assimiles, hœrentque obliti, donec Iudas,
qui nusquam somno noctu se straverat illa,
signa dedit manifesta, hostique objecit amie um.
Namque pii scelus id prœtexens nomine amoris
composuit sese, et ficto dédit oscula vultu.                        [795]

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Meanwhile the author of this crime, Judas                          [765]
called down the hero’s enemies to come
offering to direct them to the spot, as agreed,
and so arrest the unsuspecting man—
the moonlight trembling on their gleaming armour,
shields knocking together, the hiss of drawn swords.          [770]
Long rows of greasy torches pierced the night
brands smeared with fat and lit, split and sharpened
with iron knives and grasped in angry hands.
Then noise broke out, echoing off the hillside
the clash of arms and a general clamour.                             [775]
Without trepidation the hero spoke up:
“Hey,” he said, “stop, you men! I’m who you want.
Why these swords and fire? I stood in the city
teaching my Father’s ways before a big crowd
unarmed. Why didn’t you arrest me then?                           [780]
Why all these troops under the cover of night?
If you are coming to use your arms against me
an innocent man, if my fame so provokes you—
leave my followers; they’ve done nothing wrong.
Their only crime has been their love for me.                         [785]
Let it be me, alone, to appease your wrath.”

He spoke, and—twice—surrendered himself to them
willingly; but they (amazing to see it)
responded to his words by throwing their arms
clanging to the ground! Dark night sealed their eyes.           [790]
Then they staggered, sleepy, as if drunk on wine
milling about, their purpose lost, until Judas,
who had not slept at all that night, gave the sign
and so betrayed his friend to the enemy.
He hid his crime under a pretence of love                             [795]
composed his false heart and kissed his master.

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It's a vivid piece of writing, this (the shields knocking together, the hiss of swords being drawn) although Vida does something strange with the chronology of this scene. That Judas betrays Jesus with a kiss is, of course, one of the most famous events in the Gospel story; he kisses him in order to identify him, so that the mob know which of the disciples is the man they want:

And immediately, while [Jesus] yet spake, cometh Judas, one of the twelve, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And he that betrayed him had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and lead him away safely.

And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway to him, and saith, Master, master; and kissed him. [Mark 14:43-45]

Matthew's account is essentially the same as this, although he adds: ‘And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus and took him’ [Matthew 26:50] and Luke 22:48 quotes Jesus saying ‘Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?’

Vida, though, tells us that Jesus didn’t wait to be betrayed, but instead willingly gave himself up to the mob. Since doing so obviates the need for Judas’s secret sign, Vida has to insert this weird episode near the end of this passage, where the crowd, having hotfooted it to the garden to grab Jesus, are presented with him—not once, but twice—only to drop their weapons, fall into a weird stupor and stumble around.

I’m honestly not sure why Vida has done this. I suppose it could be argued that the story of Judas speaks to a poverty of judgement on Jesus’s part—that he would choose so treacherous a fellow as one of his twelve in the first place, and that he was so unprepared for his betrayal that he could express surprise when it happens. But the alternative interpretation of these events is, in its way, just as problematic: that Jesus knew in advance that Judas would betray him, but chose him as a disciple anyway, not despite but because of his treachery, because the betrayal was a necessary part of the process of sacrifice and therefore of atonement. But although this is evidently Vida’s view, and is implied by the foreknowledge Jesus displays at the Last Supper, it entails problems of its own; for a Jesus who knows but won’t tell anyone starts to seem secretive, even devious. Why not just say? It’s a small version of the bigger issue Milton’s Paradise Lost puts front and centre in its heaven scenes: God telling his son—I know everything that’s going to happen and it all will happen but that fact somehow doesn’t negate individual free will or indeed relieve us of the need to go through the charade of (say) the drawn-out three day Battle in Heaven.

During the Last Supper Jesus reveals that one of the disciples will betray him. They, naturally enough, and distressed at this news, want to know who. Vida says:

But though the leader clearly signalled who the
enemy was, he also veiled their minds
until the deed was done: and so he said:
“On the contrary, there’s not a one of you
but will betray me.” [2:711-715]

How can this not appear as if he is simply toying with them? Friends deserve honesty, surely. It reaches a queasy culmination in the odd little scene here:

He spoke, and—twice—surrendered himself to them
willingly; but they (amazing to see it)
responded to his words by throwing their arms
clanging to the ground! Dark night sealed their eyes.
Then they staggered, sleepy, as if drunk on wine
milling about, their purpose lost, until Judas,
who had not slept at all that night, gave the sign
and so betrayed his friend to the enemy. [2: 787-94]

It seems from this that (as Vida conceives it) the purpose of Judas’s kiss was less to identify Jesus to the mob, and more to break the strange spell that Jesus’s self-identification had cast upon them. It’s as if Vida is saying: Jesus tried to do something impossible, which is to say: he tried to betray himself. That cannot be. But still he tries, not once but twice, but all that happens is a sort of narrative short-circuit, a hiatus, one only resolved when the ‘proper’ traitor steps up to the task. Frank Kermode is right, I think, when he observes that ‘Judas’ kiss of recognition is a narrative as well as a symbolic act’; and at this point in Vida’s narrative it is a necessary step in order to restart the story. Here, incidentally, is the passage in which Kermode says that:

Judas Iscariot is in some ways an odd presence both in the Bible story and the Apocrypha. The earliest New Testament reference to the betrayal of Christ was the work of Paul in 1 Corinthians [11.23-26], a letter written a generation or so before Mark and Matthew (‘On the same night in which he was betrayed took bread ...’). Paul deals rather abstractly with ‘betrayal’, naming no names. The gospel references to Judas at the scene of the Last Supper and the arrest make him seem rather like a character, new to the reader, brought in specially to do the one necessary thing – to identify Jesus and point him out. Mark and Matthew both announce him as ‘Judas, one of the Twelve’. John is more definite: ‘Judas, the one betraying him’. At the time of the arrest the action is rapid: a detachment of soldiers is moving up from the city, looking for the man they want to arrest. Judas’ kiss of recognition is a narrative as well as a symbolic act. After he has decided to commit it much more will inescapably happen and Judas will be compelled into further action and suffering. Much more will then be said to have happened to him, whether it did or not.

Vida has et dedit oscula, the same word as used in the Vulgate (‘ait: Ave Rabbi: et osculatus est eum’). This Latin for kiss, osculum (from ōs “mouth”) means ‘making a little mouth’. There are more lascivious Latin words for kissing (suavium, basium) but Jerome goes for the chaster version. In this, as Wikipedia notes, he is rather bowlderising the original:

The gospels of Matthew (26:47–50) and Mark (14:43–45) both use the Greek verb καταφιλέω (kataphileó), which means to ‘kiss, caress; distinct from φιλεῖν (philein); especially of an amorous kiss’. It is the same verb that Plutarch uses to describe a famous kiss that Alexander the Great gave [his favoured eunuch] Bagoas. The compound verb (κατα-) ‘has the force of an emphatic, ostentatious salute’. Lutheran theologian Johann Bengel suggests that Judas kissed Him repeatedly: ‘he kissed Him more than once in opposition to what he had said in the preceding verse: Greek: φιλήσω, philēsō, a single kiss (Matthew 26:48), and did so as if from kindly feeling’.

The image at the top of the post is one of Dürer’s ‘Small Passion’ series: #11. ‘Christ Taken Captive’ (1511). At the top of the image: Judas kissing Jesus. At the bottom, Peter cutting off the ear of one of the soldiers. We'll come to that episode next.

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