The story "Judas Iscariot", a summary of which is presented in this article, was created on the basis of a biblical story. Nevertheless, even before the publication of the work, Maxim Gorky said that few would understand it and would cause a lot of noise.

Leonid Andreev

This is a rather ambiguous author. Andreev's work in Soviet times was unfamiliar to readers. Before proceeding to a summary of Judas Iscariot - a story that causes both delight and indignation - let's recall the main and most interesting facts from the writer's biography.

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev was an extraordinary and very emotional person. As a law student, he began to abuse alcohol. For some time, the only source of income for Andreev was painting portraits to order: he was not only a writer, but also an artist.

In 1894 Andreev tried to commit suicide. An unsuccessful shot led to the development of heart disease. For five years, Leonid Andreev was engaged in advocacy. Writer's fame came to him in 1901. But even then, he evoked conflicting feelings among readers and critics. Leonid Andreev welcomed the revolution of 1905 with joy, but soon became disillusioned with it. After the secession of Finland, he went into exile. The writer died abroad in 1919 from a heart defect.

The history of the creation of the story "Judas Iscariot"

The work was published in 1907. The plot ideas came to the mind of the writer during his stay in Switzerland. In May 1906, Leonid Andreev informed one of his colleagues that he was going to write a book on the psychology of betrayal. He managed to realize the plan in Capri, where he went after the death of his wife.

"Judas Iscariot", a summary of which is presented below, was written within two weeks. The author showed the first edition to his friend Maxim Gorky. He drew the author's attention to historical and factual errors. Andreev re-read the New Testament more than once and made corrections to the story. Even during the life of the writer, the story "Judas Iscariot" was translated into English, German, French and other languages.

The man of notoriety

None of the apostles noticed the appearance of Judas. How did he manage to gain Master's trust? Jesus Christ was warned many times that he was a very notorious man. He should beware. Judas was condemned not only by “right” people, but also by villains. He was the worst of the worst. When the disciples asked Judas about what motivates him to do terrible things, he answered that every person is a sinner. What he said was in tune with the words of Jesus. Nobody has the right to judge another.

This is the philosophical problem of the story Judas Iscariot. The author, of course, did not make his hero positive. But he put the traitor on a par with the disciples of Jesus Christ. Andreev's idea could not but cause a resonance in society.

The disciples of Christ asked Judas more than once about who his father was. He replied that he did not know, perhaps the devil, a rooster, a goat. How can he know everyone with whom his mother shared a bed? Such answers shocked the apostles. Judas insulted his parents, which means he was doomed to perish.

One day, a crowd attacks Christ and his disciples. They are accused of stealing a kid. But a person who will soon betray his teacher rushes to the crowd with the words that the teacher is not possessed by a demon at all, he just loves money just like everyone else. Jesus leaves the village in anger. His disciples follow him, cursing Judas. But after all, this small, disgusting man, worthy of only contempt, wanted to save them ...

Theft

Christ trusts Judas to keep his savings. But he hides a few coins, which the students, of course, will soon find out. But Jesus does not condemn the unlucky disciple. After all, the apostles should not count the coins that his brother appropriated. Their reproaches only offend him. This evening Judas Iscariot is very cheerful. On his example, the apostle John understood what love for one's neighbor is.

thirty pieces of silver

The last days of his life, Jesus surrounds with affection the one who betrays him. Judas is helpful with his disciples - nothing should interfere with his plan. An event will soon take place, thanks to which his name will forever remain in the memory of people. It will be called almost as often as the name of Jesus.

After the execution

When analyzing Andreev's story "Judas Iscariot", special attention should be paid to the finale of the work. The apostles suddenly appear before the readers as cowardly, cowardly people. After the execution, Judas addresses them with a sermon. Why didn't they save Christ? Why didn't they attack the guards in order to rescue the Teacher?

Judas will forever remain in the memory of people as a traitor. And those who were silent when Jesus was crucified will be venerated. After all, they carry the Word of Christ on earth. This is the summary of Judas Iscariot. In order to make an artistic analysis of the work, you should still read the story in full.

The meaning of the story "Judas Iscariot"

Why did the author depict a negative biblical character in such an unusual perspective? "Judas Iscariot" by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev is, according to many critics, one of the greatest works of Russian classics. The story makes the reader think first of all about what is true love, true faith and fear of death. The author seems to ask what is hidden behind faith, is there a lot of true love in it?

The image of Judas in the story "Judas Iscariot"

The hero of Andreev's book is a traitor. Judas sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He is the worst of all who has ever lived on our planet. Can you feel compassion for him? Of course not. The writer seems to tempt the reader.

But it is worth remembering that Andreev's story is by no means a theological work. The book has nothing to do with the church, faith. The author simply invited readers to look at the well-known story from a different, unusual side.

A person is mistaken, believing that he can always accurately determine the motives of the behavior of another. Judas betrays Christ, which means he is a bad person. This indicates that he does not believe in the Messiah. The apostles give the teacher to the Romans and Pharisees to be torn to pieces. And they do it because they believe in their teacher. Jesus will rise again, they will believe in the Savior. Andreev offered to look at the act of both Judas and the faithful disciples of Christ differently.

Judas is madly in love with Christ. However, it seems to him that those around him do not appreciate Jesus enough. And he provokes the Jews: he betrays the adored teacher in order to test the strength of the people's love for him. Judas is in for a severe disappointment: the disciples fled, and the people demand to kill Jesus. Even Pilate's words that he did not find the guilt of Christ were not heard by anyone. The crowd is out for blood.

This book caused indignation among believers. Not surprising. The apostles did not snatch Christ from the clutches of the escorts, not because they believed in him, but because they were afraid - this is perhaps the main idea of ​​Andreev's story. After the execution, Judas turns to the disciples with reproaches, and at this moment he is not at all disgusting. It seems that there is truth in his words.

Judas took upon himself a heavy cross. He became a traitor, thus causing people to wake up. Jesus said that the guilty should not be killed. But wasn't his execution a violation of this postulate? In the mouth of Judas - his hero - Andreev puts words that, perhaps, he wanted to pronounce himself. Did not Christ go to death with the tacit consent of his disciples? Judas asks the apostles how they could allow his death. They have nothing to answer. They are confusedly silent.

Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Carioth is a man of very bad reputation and must be guarded against. Some of the disciples who were in Judea knew him well themselves, others heard a lot about him from people, and there was no one who could say a good word about him. And if the good ones condemned him, saying that Judas was greedy, cunning, inclined towards pretense and lies, then the bad ones, who were asked about Judas, reviled him with the most cruel words. “He quarrels us all the time,” they said, spitting, “he thinks something of his own and climbs into the house quietly, like a scorpion, and leaves it noisily. And thieves have friends, and robbers have comrades, and liars there are wives to whom they tell the truth, and Judas laughs at thieves, as well as at honest ones, although he steals skillfully, and looks uglier than all the inhabitants of Judea. surprising by this the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judah.

It was further told that Judas had abandoned his wife long ago, and she lives unhappy and hungry, unsuccessfully trying from those three stones that make up Judas' estate to squeeze bread for herself. For many years he himself staggers senselessly among the people and even reaches one sea and another sea, which is even further away, and everywhere he lies, grimaces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief's eye, and suddenly leaves suddenly, leaving trouble behind him and quarrel - curious, crafty and evil, like a one-eyed demon. He had no children, and this once again said that Judas is a bad person and God does not want offspring from Judas.

None of the disciples noticed when this red-haired and ugly Jew first appeared near Christ, but for a long time he relentlessly followed their path, intervened in conversations, rendered small services, bowed, smiled and fawned. And then it became completely habitual, deceiving tired eyesight, then it suddenly caught my eye and ears, irritating them, like something unprecedented, ugly, deceitful and disgusting. Then they drove him away with stern words, and for a short time he disappeared somewhere by the road - and then imperceptibly reappeared, helpful, flattering and cunning, like a one-eyed demon. And there was no doubt for some of the disciples that some secret intention was hidden in his desire to get closer to Jesus, there was an evil and insidious calculation.

But Jesus did not listen to their advice, their prophetic voice did not touch his ears. With that spirit of bright contradiction, which irresistibly attracted him to the outcast and unloved, he resolutely accepted Judas and included him in the circle of the elect. The disciples were agitated and murmured with restraint, while he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, perhaps to them, and perhaps to something else. For ten days there had been no wind, and still the same remained, without moving and without changing, the transparent air, attentive and sensitive. And it seemed as if he preserved in his transparent depth all that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, weeping and a cheerful song. prayer and curses, and these glassy, ​​frozen voices made him so heavy, anxious, densely saturated with invisible life. And the sun went down again. It rolled down in a heavily flaming ball, igniting the sky, and everything on earth that was turned towards it: the swarthy face of Jesus, the walls of houses and the leaves of trees - everything dutifully reflected that distant and terribly thoughtful light. The white wall was no longer white now, and the red city on the red mountain did not remain white.

And then came Judas.

He came, bowing low, arching his back, carefully and timidly stretching forward his ugly bumpy head - just the way those who knew him imagined. He was thin, of good height, almost the same as Jesus, who stooped slightly from the habit of thinking while walking and seemed shorter because of this, and he was apparently strong enough in strength, but for some reason he pretended to be frail and sickly and had a voice changeable: sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes loud, like an old woman scolding her husband, annoyingly liquid and unpleasant to hear, and often one wanted to pull the words of Judas out of one's ears like rotten, rough splinters. Short red hair did not hide the strange and unusual shape of his skull: as if cut from the back of the head with a double blow of the sword and recomposed, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety: behind such a skull there can be no silence and harmony, behind such a skull there is always the noise of bloody and merciless battles is heard. The face of Judas also doubled: one side of it, with a black, keenly looking out eye, was lively, mobile, willingly gathering into numerous crooked wrinkles. On the other, there were no wrinkles, and it was deathly smooth, flat and frozen, and although it was equal in size to the first, it seemed huge from the wide-open blind eye. Covered with a whitish haze, not closing either at night or during the day, he met both light and darkness in the same way, but whether it was because there was a living and cunning comrade next to him, he could not believe in his complete blindness. When, in a fit of timidity or excitement, Judas closed his living eye and shook his head, this one shook along with the movements of his head and silently watched. Even people who were completely devoid of insight, clearly understood, looking at Iscariot, that such a person could not bring good, and Jesus brought him closer and even next to him - next to him planted Judas.

John, the beloved disciple, moved away in disgust, and all the rest, loving their teacher, looked down in disapproval. And Judas sat down - and, moving his head to the right and left, in a thin voice began to complain about illnesses, that his chest ached at night, that, ascending the mountains, he was suffocating, and standing at the edge of the abyss, he felt dizzy and could hardly resist from a foolish desire to throw himself down. And many other things he thought up godlessly, as if he did not understand that illnesses do not come to a person by chance, but are born from a discrepancy between his actions and the covenants of the eternal. Rubbing his chest with a broad hand and even coughing feignedly, this Judas from Kariot, in the general silence and downcast eyes.

John, without looking at the teacher, quietly asked Peter Simonov, his friend:

Are you tired of this lie? I can't take it any longer and I'm out of here.

Peter looked at Jesus, met his gaze, and quickly stood up.

Wait! he said to a friend. Once again he looked at Jesus, quickly, like a stone torn from a mountain, moved towards Judas Iscariot and loudly said to him with wide and clear affability:

Here you are with us, Judas.

He affectionately patted his hand on his bent back and, not looking at the teacher, but feeling his gaze on himself, he decisively added in his loud voice, which displaced all objections, as water displaces air:

It's okay that you have such a nasty face: our nets also come across not so ugly, but when eating, they are the most delicious. And it is not for us, the fishermen of our Lord, to throw away the catch just because the fish is prickly and one-eyed. I once saw an octopus in Tyre, caught by the fishermen there, and I was so frightened that I wanted to run. And they laughed at me, a fisherman from Tiberias, and gave it to me to eat, and I asked for more, because it was very tasty. Remember, teacher, I told you about it, and you laughed too. And you. Judas, looks like an octopus - only one half.

And he laughed out loud, pleased with his joke. When Peter spoke, his words sounded so firm, as if he were nailing them. When Peter moved or did something, he made a far audible noise and evoked a response from the most deaf things: the stone floor hummed under his feet, the doors trembled and slammed, and the very air trembled and rustled fearfully. In the gorges of the mountains, his voice woke up an angry echo, and in the mornings on the lake, when they were fishing, he rolled round in a sleepy and shiny water and made the first timid sunbeams smile. And, probably, they loved Peter for this: the night shadow still lay on all the other faces, and his large head, and wide bare chest, and freely thrown arms were already burning in the glow of sunrise.

Peter's words, apparently approved by the teacher, dispelled the painful state of the audience. But some, who were also by the sea and saw the octopus, were confused by its monstrous image, timed by Peter so frivolously for the new disciple. They remembered: huge eyes, dozens of greedy tentacles, feigned calmness - and once! - hugged, doused, crushed and sucked, never blinking his huge eyes. What's this? But Jesus is silent, Jesus smiles and looks with a friendly mockery at Peter, who continues to talk passionately about the octopus, and one after another the embarrassed disciples approached Judas, spoke affectionately, but moved away quickly and awkwardly.

And only John Zebedee was stubbornly silent, and Thomas, apparently, did not dare to say anything, considering what had happened. He attentively looked at Christ and Judas, who were sitting side by side, and this strange closeness of divine beauty and monstrous ugliness, a man with a meek look and an octopus with huge, motionless, dull-greedy eyes oppressed his mind, like an insoluble riddle. He tensely wrinkled his straight, smooth forehead, screwed up his eyes, thinking that he would see better this way, but he only succeeded in making Judas really appear to have eight restlessly moving legs. But this was wrong. Foma understood this and again looked stubbornly.

And Judas, little by little, dared: he straightened his arms, bent at the elbows, loosened the muscles that held his jaw in tension, and carefully began to expose his lumpy head to the light. She had been in full view of everyone before, but it seemed to Judas that she was deeply and impenetrably hidden from the eyes of some kind of invisible, but thick and cunning veil. And now, as if climbing out of a hole, he felt his strange skull in the light, then his eyes - he stopped - resolutely opened his whole face. Nothing happened. Peter went somewhere, Jesus sat thoughtfully, leaning his head on his hand, and quietly shook his tanned leg, the disciples talked among themselves, and only Thomas carefully and seriously examined him like a conscientious tailor taking measurements. Judas smiled - Thomas did not return the smile, but apparently took it into account, like everything else, and continued to look at it. But something unpleasant disturbed the left side of Judas' face, he looked back: John, handsome, clean, not having a single spot on his snow-white conscience, was looking at him from a dark corner with cold and beautiful eyes. And, walking, as everyone else walks, but feeling as if he were dragging along the ground, like a punished dog. Judas approached him and said:

Why are you silent, John? Your words are like golden apples in transparent silver vessels, give one of them to Judas, who is so poor.

John looked intently into the motionless, wide-open eye and was silent. And I saw how Judas crawled away, hesitated hesitantly and disappeared into the dark depths of the open door.

Since the full moon rose, many went for a walk. Jesus also went for a walk, and from the low roof, where Judas made his bed, he saw the departing. In the moonlight, each white figure seemed light and unhurried and did not walk, but seemed to be gliding in front of its black shadow, and suddenly a man disappeared in something black, and then his voice was heard. When people reappeared under the moon, they seemed silent - like white walls, like black shadows, like the whole transparent hazy night. Almost everyone was asleep when Judas heard the quiet voice of the returned Christ. And everything was quiet in the house and around it. A rooster crowed, resentfully and loudly, as during the day, a donkey woke up somewhere, and reluctantly, with interruptions, fell silent. But Judas did not sleep and listened, hiding. The moon illuminated half of his face and, as in a frozen lake, reflected strangely in his huge open eye.

Suddenly he remembered something and hurriedly coughed, rubbing his hairy, healthy chest with his palm: perhaps someone else was awake and listening to what Judas was thinking.

Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Carioth was a very notorious man and should be guarded against. Some of the disciples who were in Judea knew him well themselves, others heard a lot about him from people, and there was no one who could say a good word about him. And if the good ones condemned him, saying that Judas was greedy, cunning, inclined towards pretense and lies, then the bad ones, who were asked about Judas, reviled him with the most cruel words. “He quarrels us all the time,” they said, spitting, “he thinks something of his own and climbs into the house quietly, like a scorpion, and leaves it with noise. And thieves have friends, and robbers have comrades, and liars have wives to whom they tell the truth, and Judas laughs at thieves, as well as at honest ones, although he steals skillfully, and his appearance is uglier than all the inhabitants of Judea. No, he is not ours, this red-haired Judas from Carioth,” the bad people said, surprising the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judea.

It was further told that Judas had abandoned his wife long ago, and she lives unhappy and hungry, unsuccessfully trying from those three stones that make up Judas' estate to squeeze bread for herself. For many years he himself staggers senselessly among the people and even reaches one sea and another sea, which is even further away, and everywhere he lies, grimaces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief's eye, and suddenly leaves suddenly, leaving trouble behind him and quarrel - curious, crafty and evil, like a one-eyed demon. He had no children, and this once again said that Judas is a bad person and God does not want offspring from Judas.

None of the disciples noticed when this red-haired and ugly Jew first appeared near Christ, but for a long time he relentlessly followed their path, intervened in conversations, rendered small services, bowed, smiled and fawned. And then it became completely habitual, deceiving tired eyesight, then it suddenly caught my eye and ears, irritating them, like something unprecedented, ugly, deceitful and disgusting. Then they drove him away with stern words, and for a short time he disappeared somewhere by the road - and then again imperceptibly appeared, helpful, flattering and cunning, like a one-eyed demon. And there was no doubt for some of the disciples that some secret intention was hidden in his desire to get closer to Jesus, there was an evil and insidious calculation.

But Jesus did not listen to their advice, their prophetic voice did not touch his ears. With that spirit of bright contradiction, which irresistibly attracted him to the outcast and unloved, he resolutely accepted Judas and included him in the circle of the elect. The disciples were agitated and murmured with restraint, while he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, perhaps to them, and perhaps to something else. For ten days there had been no wind, and still the same remained, without moving and without changing, the transparent air, attentive and sensitive. And it seemed as if he preserved in his transparent depth all that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, weeping and a cheerful song, prayer and curses, and from these glassy, ​​frozen voices he was so heavy. , disturbing, densely saturated with invisible life. And the sun went down again. It rolled down in a heavily flaming ball, igniting the sky, and everything on earth that was turned towards it: the swarthy face of Jesus, the walls of houses and the leaves of trees - everything dutifully reflected that distant and terribly thoughtful light. The white wall was no longer white now, and the red city on the red mountain did not remain white.

And then came Judas.

He came, bowing low, arching his back, cautiously and timidly stretching forward his ugly bumpy head - just the way those who knew him imagined. He was thin, of good height, almost the same as Jesus, who stooped slightly from the habit of thinking while walking and seemed shorter because of this, and he was apparently strong enough in strength, but for some reason he pretended to be frail and sickly and had a voice changeable: sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes loud, like an old woman scolding her husband, annoyingly liquid and unpleasant to hear, and often one wanted to pull the words of Judas out of one's ears like rotten, rough splinters. Short red hair did not hide the strange and unusual shape of his skull: as if cut from the back of the head with a double blow of the sword and recomposed, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety: behind such a skull there can be no silence and harmony, behind such a skull there is always the noise of bloody and merciless battles is heard. The face of Judas also doubled: one side of it, with a black, keenly looking out eye, was lively, mobile, willingly gathering into numerous crooked wrinkles. On the other, there were no wrinkles, and it was deathly smooth, flat and frozen, and although it was equal in size to the first, it seemed huge from the wide-open blind eye. Covered with a whitish haze, not closing either at night or during the day, he met both light and darkness in the same way, but whether it was because there was a living and cunning comrade next to him, he could not believe in his complete blindness. When, in a fit of timidity or excitement, Judas closed his living eye and shook his head, this one shook along with the movements of his head and silently watched. Even people who were completely devoid of insight, clearly understood, looking at Iscariot, that such a person could not bring good, and Jesus brought him closer and even next to him - next to him planted Judas.

John, the beloved disciple, moved away in disgust, and all the rest, loving their teacher, looked down in disapproval. And Judas sat down - and, moving his head to the right and left, in a thin voice began to complain about illnesses, that his chest ached at night, that, ascending the mountains, he suffocated, and standing at the edge of the abyss, he felt dizzy and could hardly resist from a foolish desire to throw himself down. And many other things he thought up godlessly, as if he did not understand that illnesses do not come to a person by chance, but are born from a discrepancy between his actions and the covenants of the eternal. Rubbing his chest with a broad hand and even coughing feignedly, this Judas from Kariot, in the general silence and downcast eyes.

John, without looking at the teacher, quietly asked Peter Simonov, his friend:

Are you tired of this lie? I can't take it any longer and I'm out of here.

Peter looked at Jesus, met his gaze, and quickly stood up.

- Wait! he said to a friend. Once again he looked at Jesus, quickly, like a stone torn from the mountain, moved towards Judas Iscariot and loudly said to him with wide and clear friendliness: - Here you are with us, Judas.

He affectionately patted his hand on his bent back and, not looking at the teacher, but feeling his gaze on himself, he decisively added in his loud voice, which displaced all objections, as water displaces air:

- It's okay that you have such a nasty face: our nets also come across not so ugly, but when eating, they are the most delicious. And it is not for us, the fishermen of our Lord, to throw away the catch just because the fish is prickly and one-eyed. I once saw an octopus in Tyre, caught by the fishermen there, and I was so frightened that I wanted to run. And they laughed at me, a fisherman from Tiberias, and gave it to me to eat, and I asked for more, because it was very tasty. Remember, teacher, I told you about it, and you laughed too. And you, Judas, look like an octopus - only one half.

And he laughed out loud, pleased with his joke. When Peter spoke, his words sounded so firm, as if he were nailing them. When Peter moved or did something, he made a far audible noise and evoked a response from the most deaf things: the stone floor hummed under his feet, the doors trembled and slammed, and the very air trembled and rustled fearfully. In the gorges of the mountains, his voice woke up an angry echo, and in the mornings on the lake, when they were fishing, he rolled round in a sleepy and shiny water and made the first timid sunbeams smile. And, probably, they loved Peter for this: the night shadow still lay on all the other faces, and his large head, and wide bare chest, and freely thrown arms were already burning in the glow of sunrise.

Peter's words, apparently approved by the teacher, dispelled the painful state of the audience. But some, who were also by the sea and saw the octopus, were confused by its monstrous image, timed by Peter so frivolously for the new disciple. They remembered: huge eyes, dozens of greedy tentacles, feigned calmness - and once! - hugged, doused, crushed and sucked, never blinking his huge eyes. What's this? But Jesus is silent, Jesus smiles and looks with a friendly mockery at Peter, who continues to talk passionately about the octopus, and one by one the embarrassed disciples approached Judas, spoke affectionately, but moved away quickly and awkwardly.

And only John Zebedee was stubbornly silent, and Thomas, apparently, did not dare to say anything, considering what had happened. He attentively looked at Christ and Judas, who were sitting side by side, and this strange closeness of divine beauty and monstrous ugliness, a man with a meek look and an octopus with huge, motionless, dull-greedy eyes oppressed his mind, like an insoluble riddle. He tensely wrinkled his straight, smooth forehead, screwed up his eyes, thinking that he would see better this way, but he only succeeded in making Judas really appear to have eight restlessly moving legs. But this was wrong. Foma understood this and again looked stubbornly.

And Judas, little by little, dared: he straightened his arms, bent at the elbows, loosened the muscles that held his jaw in tension, and carefully began to expose his lumpy head to the light. She had been in full view of everyone before, but it seemed to Judas that she was deeply and impenetrably hidden from the eyes of some kind of invisible, but thick and cunning veil. And now, as if climbing out of a hole, he felt his strange skull in the light, then his eyes - he stopped - resolutely opened his whole face. Nothing happened. Peter went somewhere, Jesus sat thoughtfully, leaning his head on his hand, and quietly shook his tanned leg, the disciples talked among themselves, and only Thomas carefully and seriously examined him like a conscientious tailor taking measurements. Judas smiled - Thomas did not return the smile, but apparently took it into account, like everything else, and continued to look at it. But something unpleasant troubled the left side of Judas’ face, and he looked back: John was looking at him from a dark corner with cold and beautiful eyes, handsome, clean, not having a single spot on his snow-white conscience. And, walking, as everyone else walks, but feeling as if he were dragging along the ground, like a punished dog, Judas approached him and said:

Why are you silent, John? Your words are like golden apples in transparent silver vessels, give one of them to Judas, who is so poor.

John looked intently into the motionless, wide-open eye and was silent. And I saw how Judas crawled away, hesitated hesitantly and disappeared into the dark depths of the open door.

Since the full moon rose, many went for a walk. Jesus also went for a walk, and from the low roof, where Judas made his bed, he saw the departing. In the moonlight, each white figure seemed light and unhurried and did not walk, but seemed to be gliding in front of its black shadow, and suddenly a man disappeared in something black, and then his voice was heard. When people reappeared under the moon, they seemed silent - like white walls, like black shadows, like the whole transparent hazy night. Almost everyone was asleep when Judas heard the quiet voice of the returned Christ. And everything was quiet in the house and around it. A rooster crowed, resentfully and loudly, as during the day, a donkey woke up somewhere, and reluctantly, with interruptions, fell silent. But Judas did not sleep and listened, hiding. The moon illuminated half of his face and, as in a frozen lake, reflected strangely in his huge open eye.

Suddenly he remembered something and hurriedly coughed, rubbing his hairy, healthy chest with his palm: perhaps someone else was awake and listening to what Judas was thinking.

II

Gradually people got used to Judas and stopped noticing his ugliness. Jesus entrusted him with a cash box, and at the same time all household chores fell on him: he bought the necessary food and clothes, distributed alms, and during his wanderings he looked for a place to stop and spend the night. All this he did very skillfully, so that he soon earned the favor of some of the students who saw his efforts. Judas lied all the time, but they got used to it, because they didn’t see bad deeds behind a lie, and she gave Judas’ conversation and his stories a special interest and made life look like a funny, and sometimes terrible fairy tale.

According to Judas' stories, it seemed as if he knew all people, and every person he knew had committed some bad deed or even a crime in his life. Good people, in his opinion, are those who know how to hide their deeds and thoughts, but if such a person is hugged, caressed and questioned well, then all untruth, abomination and lies will flow from him like pus from a punctured wound. He readily admitted that sometimes he himself lied, but assured with an oath that others lied even more, and if there was anyone in the world who was deceived, it was he, Judas. It happened that some people deceived him many times this way and that. So, a certain keeper of treasures from a rich nobleman once confessed to him that for ten years he had been constantly wanting to steal the property entrusted to him, but he could not, because he was afraid of the nobleman and his own conscience. And Judas believed him, and he suddenly stole and deceived Judas. But even here Judas believed him, and he suddenly returned the stolen nobleman and again deceived Judas. And everyone deceives him, even animals: when he caresses the dog, she bites his fingers, and when he beats her with a stick, she licks his legs and looks into his eyes like a daughter. He killed this dog, buried it deep and even laid it with a big stone, but who knows? Perhaps because he killed her, she became even more alive and now does not lie in the pit, but runs merrily with other dogs.

Everyone laughed merrily at Judas' story, and he himself smiled pleasantly, screwing up his lively and mocking eye, and immediately, with the same smile, confessed that he had lied a little: he did not kill this dog. But he will certainly find her and will certainly kill her, because he does not want to be deceived. And from these words Judas laughed even more.

But sometimes in his stories he crossed the boundaries of the probable and the plausible and attributed to people such inclinations that even an animal does not have, accused of such crimes that never happened and never happens. And since at the same time he named the names of the most respected people, some were indignant at the slander, while others jokingly asked:

- Well, and your father and mother, Judas, weren't they good people?

Judas screwed up his eyes, smiled and spread his arms. And along with the shaking of his head, his frozen, wide-open eye swayed and looked silently.

- And who was my father? Maybe the person who beat me with a rod, or maybe the devil, and the goat, and the rooster. How can Judas know everyone with whom his mother shared a bed? Judas has many fathers; which are you talking about?

But here everyone was indignant, since they greatly revered their parents, and Matthew, who was very well-read in Scripture, strictly spoke in the words of Solomon:

Whoever speaks evil of his father and his mother, the lamp will go out in the midst of deep darkness.

John Zebedee arrogantly threw:

- Well, what about us? What ill will you say about us, Judas of Carioth?

But the latter waved his arms with feigned fear, hunched over and whimpered like a beggar vainly begging for alms from a passerby:

“Ah, they are tempting poor Judas!” They laugh at Judas, they want to deceive poor, gullible Judas!

And while one side of his face writhed in clownish grimaces, the other swayed seriously and sternly, and his never closing eye stared wide. Pyotr Simonov laughed the loudest and most at Iscariot's jokes. But one day it happened that he suddenly frowned, became silent and sad, and hurriedly took Judas aside, pulling him by the sleeve.

– And Jesus? What do you think about Jesus? Leaning down, he asked in a loud whisper. “Don’t joke, please.

Judas looked at him angrily.

- And what do you think?

Peter whispered in fear and joy:

“I think he is the son of the living God.”

– Why do you ask? What can Judas tell you, whose father is a goat!

But do you love him? It's like you don't love anyone, Judas.

With the same strange malice, Iscariot said curtly and abruptly:

After this conversation, Peter for two days loudly called Judas his friend the octopus, and he clumsily and just as viciously tried to slip away from him somewhere in a dark corner and there he sat sullenly, brightening up with his white unblinking eye.

Only Thomas listened to Judas quite seriously: he did not understand jokes, pretense and lies, games with words and thoughts, and in everything he sought out the solid and positive. And all the stories of Iscariot about bad people and deeds, he often interrupted with short businesslike remarks:

- It needs to be proven. Did you hear it yourself? And who else was there besides you? What's his name?

Judas was irritated and shrillly shouted that he himself had seen and heard all this, but the stubborn Thomas continued to interrogate him persistently and calmly, until Judas confessed that he had lied, or composed a new plausible lie, over which he pondered for a long time. And, having found a mistake, he immediately came and indifferently convicted the liar. In general, Judas aroused in him a strong curiosity, and this created between them something like a friendship, full of shouting, laughter and curses on the one hand, and calm, persistent questions on the other. At times Judas felt an unbearable disgust for his strange friend and, piercing him with a sharp look, said irritably, almost with a plea:

"But what do you want?" I told you everything, everything.

“I want you to prove how a goat can be your father?” Foma interrogated with indifferent insistence and waited for an answer.

It happened that after one of these questions, Judas suddenly fell silent and, in surprise, from head to foot, probed him with his eye: he saw a long, straight waist, a gray face, straight, transparent-light eyes, two thick folds running from the nose and disappearing into a stiff, evenly cut hair. beard, and convincingly said:

- What a fool you are, Thomas! What do you see in a dream: a tree, a wall, a donkey?

And Foma was somehow strangely embarrassed and made no objection. And at night, when Judas was already clouding his lively and restless eye for sleep, he suddenly said loudly from his bed - they were both now sleeping together on the roof:

“You are wrong, Judas. I have very bad dreams. What do you think: a person should also be responsible for his dreams?

“Is it possible that someone else sees dreams, and not he himself?”

Thomas sighed softly and thought. And Judas smiled contemptuously, tightly closed his thief's eye and calmly surrendered to his rebellious dreams, monstrous dreams, insane visions that tore apart his bumpy skull.

When, during the wanderings of Jesus in Judea, travelers approached a village, Iscariot told evil things about its inhabitants and foreshadowed trouble. But it almost always happened that the people about whom he spoke badly met Christ and his friends with joy, surrounded them with attention and love, and became believers, and Judas' money box became so full that it was difficult to carry it. And then they laughed at his mistake, and he meekly shrugged his hands and said:

- So! So! Judas thought they were bad, but they were good: they believed quickly and gave money. Again, that means they have deceived Judas, poor, gullible Judas from Carioth!

But once, already far away from the village, which greeted them cordially, Thomas and Judas argued passionately and, in order to resolve the dispute, returned back. Only the next day did they catch up with Jesus and his disciples, and Thomas looked embarrassed and sad, while Judas looked so proudly, as if he expected that right now everyone would begin to congratulate him and thank him. Approaching the teacher, Foma declared decisively:

“Judas is right, Lord. They were evil and stupid people, and the seed of your words fell on the stone.

And he told what happened in the village. Already after the departure of Jesus and his disciples, one old woman began to scream that a young white kid had been stolen from her, and accused the departed of stealing. At first they argued with her, and when she stubbornly argued that there was no one else to steal like Jesus, many believed and even wanted to set off in pursuit. And although they soon found the kid entangled in the bushes, they nevertheless decided that Jesus was a deceiver and, perhaps, even a thief.

- So that's how! cried Peter, flaring his nostrils. “God, if you want me to go back to these fools, and…

But Jesus, who was silent all the time, looked sternly at him, and Peter fell silent and disappeared behind, behind the backs of others. And no one was talking about what had happened anymore, as if nothing had happened at all, and as if Judas had been wrong. In vain did he show himself from all sides, trying to make modest his forked, predatory, hook-nosed face - no one looked at him, and if anyone did, it was very unfriendly, even with contempt.

And from that day on, the attitude of Jesus towards him changed in a strange way. And before, for some reason, it happened that Judas never spoke directly to Jesus, and he never directly addressed him, but on the other hand he often looked at him with kind eyes, smiled at some of his jokes, and if he had not seen him for a long time, he would ask: where is Judas? And now he looked at him, as if not seeing him, although as before, and even more stubbornly than before, he looked for him with his eyes every time he began to speak to his students or to the people, but either sat with his back to him and threw words over his head. his own against Judas, or pretended not to notice him at all. And no matter what he said, even if today it’s one thing, and tomorrow it’s completely different, even if it’s the same thing that Judas thinks, it seemed, however, that he always speaks against Judas. And for everyone he was a delicate and beautiful flower, a fragrant Lebanese rose, and for Judas he left only sharp thorns - as if Judas had no heart, as if he had no eyes and nose and no better than everyone else, he understands the beauty of tender and flawless petals.

Leonid ANDREEV

JUDAS ISCARIOT

PUBLISHER'S LIBRARY

Angel de Coitet

Angel de Couatié begins each of his books with a prologue. And it is always a story - about the life of the creator and the mystery of his creation. Linked together, they open the veil that hides the space of truth.

Anyone who is able to lead a story can be a writer, only one who discovers his soul in this story can be a genius. And no matter what form this revelation takes - in the form of a fairy tale or a philosophical work - it always testifies to the truth. The author is her passionate seeker, passionate about life, merciless to himself and reverently kind in his attitude towards us. He is the one we pay with our admiration.

The books of the Library are a true treasury of the spirit. Our habitual feelings acquire volume in them, thoughts - severity, and actions - meaning. Each testifies to something personal, intimate, touches the finest strings of the soul ... These books are intended for sensitive hearts.

Judas Iscariot by Leonid Andreev is one of the greatest works of Russian and world literature. It is addressed to the person. It makes you think - about what true love is, true faith and fear of death. Leonid Andreev seems to be asking - are we not confusing anything here? Is the fear of death hiding behind our faith? And how much faith in our love? Think and feel.

"Judas Iscariot" is one of the greatest works of art, which, unfortunately, not many people know about. Why? Most likely there are two reasons...

First, the hero of the book is Judas Iscariot. He is a traitor. He sold Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. He is the worst of all the worst people that ever lived on this planet. Can it be treated differently? It is forbidden! Leonid Andreev tempts us. It is not right. And somehow it’s even ashamed to read something else ... How - Judas Iscariot - good ?! Rave! Rave! Can not be!

However, there is a second reason why Leonid Andreev's "Judas Iscariot" is so undeservedly, and perhaps even deliberately forgotten by everyone. She is hidden deeper, and she is even more terrible ... Imagine for a second that Judas is a good person. And not just good, but moreover - the first among the best, closest to Christ. Think about it... it's scary. Scary, because it is not clear who we are then, if he is good?!

Yes, when such questions are raised in a work, it is difficult for him to count on a place in the reader and at least for a couple of hours of the school curriculum. No need.

Of course, Judas Iscariot by Leonid Andreev is not a theological work. Not at all. His book has absolutely nothing to do with faith, or with the church, or with biblical characters as such. The author simply invites us to look at the well-known story from the other side. He makes us see a frightening abyss where everything has already been explained to us, where everything already seemed to us absolutely understandable and definite. “You were in a hurry,” Leonid Andreev seems to be saying.

It seems to us that we can always accurately determine the motives of a person. For example, if Judas betrays Christ, then, we argue, he is a bad person, and he does not believe in the Messiah. It's so obvious! And the fact that the apostles give Christ to the Pharisees and Romans to be torn apart is because, on the contrary, they believe in Jesus. He will be crucified and He will rise again. And everyone will believe. It's so obvious!

But what if it's the other way around?… What if the apostles just chickened out? Were scared because, in fact, they do not believe in their Teacher? But what if Judas did not even think of betraying Christ? But he only fulfilled His request - he took on the heavy cross of a "traitor" in order to make people wake up?

You can not kill the innocent, Judas argues, but is Christ guilty of something? No. And when people understand this, they will take the side of the Good - they will protect Christ from reprisal, but in fact they will protect the Good that is in themselves!

For more than two thousand years, believers have been kissing the cross, saying: “Save and save!” We tend to think that Christ went to death to atone for our sins. In fact, he sacrifices himself for us, with our tacit consent. Wait... But if your loved one decided on such an act, wouldn't you stop him? Would you let him die? Wouldn't you put your head on the chopping block?

If you had a choice - your life or the life of your loved one, you would, without hesitation, parted with yours. Unless, of course, you truly love… Did the apostles love their Teacher?… Did they believe themselves when they said: “We love You, Teacher!” What did they believe?...

No, this is not a theological book. It is about faith, love, fear.

"Judas Iscariot" Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev wrote in 1907. The writer was thirty-six years old, a little more than ten remained before his death. He had already managed to hear the flattering words of the famous Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov addressed to him: “Leonid Andreev tore the cover of fantasy from reality and showed it as it is”; to lose a wife dearly loved by him who died in childbirth; to go to prison for providing his apartment for a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and, not being a convinced revolutionary, end up in political exile.

In general, the whole life of Leonid Andreev seems to be a strange, absurd heap of contradictory facts. He graduated from law school and became a writer. Several times he attempted on his life (as a result of which he acquired chronic heart failure, from which he later died); suffered from depression, and became famous for feuilletons and gave the impression of "a healthy, invariably cheerful person, able to live, laughing at the hardships of life." He was persecuted for his links with the Bolsheviks, but he could not stand Vladimir Lenin. He was highly valued by Maxim Gorky and Alexander Blok, who couldn't stand each other. The paintings of Leonid Andreev were praised by Ilya Repin and Nicholas Roerich, but his artistic gift remained unclaimed.

Korney Chukovsky, who owns the most subtle and accurate biographical notes about the creators of the Silver Age, said that Leonid Andreev has a "sense of the world's emptiness." And when you read "Judas Iscariot", you begin to understand what this "feeling of the world's emptiness" means. Leonid Andreev makes you cry. But I think that a person is born with these tears in the emptiness of the world...

Publisher

JUDAS ISCARIOT

Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Carioth is a man of very bad reputation and must be guarded against. Some of the disciples who were in Judea knew him well themselves, others heard a lot about him from people, and there was no one who could say a good word about him. And if the good ones condemned him, saying that Judas was greedy, cunning, inclined towards pretense and lies, then the bad ones, who were asked about Judas, reviled him with the most cruel words. “He quarrels us all the time,” they said, spitting, “he thinks something of his own and climbs into the house quietly, like a scorpion, and leaves it with noise. And thieves have friends, and robbers have comrades, and liars have wives to whom they tell the truth, and Judas laughs at thieves, as well as at honest ones, although he steals skillfully, and his appearance is uglier than all the inhabitants of Judea. No, he is not ours, this red-haired Judas from Kariot, ”the bad people said, surprising the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judea.

Having happened to be here by chance and seeing what a burning topic is being discussed, I cannot but mention one interesting book in which, it seems to me, the historical existence of Jesus is proved - the book "Jesus Party" (available on Ozone and on LitRes). Here is a quote from the book explaining all the difficulties with the interpretation of the Gospels:

“We know from the Gospels that Jesus was, in modern terms, the head of a fairly well-known public organization at that time, was persecuted and led a tense life full of dangers. And now imagine that people who have never participated in any in any public organizations, not seen at any crowded rallies and demonstrations, in general, a kind of quiet inhabitants, accustomed to spending evenings in front of the TV wearing slippers. of them, which relate to the activities of the organization he created? since we have taken up this matter, and our pseudo-researchers are beginning to compare by the first thing that comes to their mind, and anything can come: the impressions of the books they once read, and the lectures they listened to at the university, and the plots of TV shows, and even grandmother’s favorite fairy tales heard in childhood ... In a word If a biblical scholar has no experience of social activity, at least to some extent similar to the experience of Jesus, then any associations can arise, even the most ridiculous and wild ones. And then Jesus may appear to one researcher as an extremist rebel, to another as a wandering teacher of sophistry, to a third as the leader of a gang of homosexuals,3 a fourth is sure that the Gospels contain not the true thoughts and deeds of Christ, but only those invented by the later Christian community, and a fifth will declare that Jesus never existed and therefore there is nothing to talk about at all ... "

Grade 4 out of 5 stars from Nikita 01/13/2017 18:18

The so-called "genre" Inferno, spread from Europe around the world, contains two directions to destroy the perception of everything bright and pure in a person. The first is the demonization of content. And, the second - the satanization of characters. Both of these directions awaken in the Soul - the desire for eternal death, and not the acquisition of Eternal Life, right? The consequences are gloomy and bleak. Life becomes animal-vegetable, and. . . aimless. The classics are also black books, which are promoted with the aim of burning the conscience and soul. Today, a modern person has practically no skills left, no ways to protect his Soul, in the Ocean of "information" overproduction. Yes, information is overproduction, but meaning. . . no. Let's ask ourselves why?

Grade 1 out of 5 stars by aleut777