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 reproached 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.
It was further told that Judas left his wife long ago, and she lives unhappy and hungry, unsuccessfully trying from those three stones that make up the estate of Judas 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 grumbled with restraint, but he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, maybe to them, and maybe 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 everything that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, weeping and a merry 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 Judas came.
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: now courageous and strong, now 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 equally met both light and darkness, but whether it was because he had a living and cunning comrade next to him, one 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 hold himself. from a foolish desire to throw himself down. And many other things he godlessly invented, 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.
The story “Judas Iscariot” by Leonid Andreev was first published under the title “Judas Iscariot and Others” in the almanac “Collection of the Knowledge Association for 1907”, book 16. The main theme of the work was “the psychology of betrayal”. Andreev used in the book the gospel story about the betrayal of Judas by his teacher - Jesus Christ, but he interprets the motives of Judas Iscariot in his own way. The author tries to justify the actions of Judas, to understand his internal contradictions and psychology, he tries to prove that in Judas's betrayal there was more love for Christ than all the rest of his disciples.
Main characters
Judas of Carioth- a red-haired, ugly, vile man, hated by all the disciples of Christ. A thief, a liar and a schemer.
Jesus Christ (Nazarite)- a wandering philosopher-preacher, followed by disciple-apostles. God's Son.
apostles- among the apostles Andreev mentions Peter, John, Thomas, endowing them with very human qualities: they get angry, disdain, condemn, hate, offend.
Other characters
Anna- the high priest, to whom Judas goes with a proposal to condemn Christ.
Caiaphas- high priest, son-in-law of Anna, member of the Sanhedrin.
Chapter I
Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Carioth was a man of notoriety and therefore he should beware.
"He quarrels us all the time!" , - the disciples complained to Jesus, wondering why he was disgusted by the society of Judas.
Neither Peter, nor Thomas, nor John can remember how and when Judas appeared next to them, how he joined the companions of Christ, how one of his disciples began to be called.
Chapter II
Gradually they got used to Judas. Jesus entrusted him with the money box and, at the same time, all the other household chores fell on the shoulders of Judas. Judas bought the necessary clothes and provisions, distributed money to the poor.
The notoriety of Judas follows him. Because people saw Judas with Christ, the villagers accused Jesus and his apostles of stealing the goat. In another village, people even gathered to stone the preachers, but Judas stood up for Christ and his comrades, running forward to the crowd and shouting that Jesus was not possessed by a demon, as people might think, listening to his speeches, but an ordinary swindler, like himself Jude that Christ preaches for the sake of money. And the crowd retreated, deciding that these aliens were not worthy to die at the hands of an honest man.
Yes, but neither Jesus nor his disciples appreciated the act of Judas. The teacher left the village in anger, and his disciples, who followed Christ at a respectful distance, cursed Iscariot. Well, aren't they fools not to appreciate Judas' efforts, not to thank him for saving their lives?
Chapter III
One day, the students decided to have fun and began to measure their strength. They picked up stones and threw them down from the cliff, competing to see who could lift the stones heavier. Judas lifted the largest and heaviest boulder. He triumphed. now everyone will see and appreciate his strength, now everyone will understand for sure that he is the best of all students. However, Peter did not want Judas to win, so he decided to offer up a prayer: “Lord, I do not want Judas to be the strongest! help me defeat him!" Hearing such a prayer, Jesus answered sadly: “And who will help Iscariot?”
Chapter IV
More than once Christ defended Judas. One day, Judas hid some coins from everyone, being the keeper of the money box, and his deed was revealed. The apostles were outraged! They brought the thief to Jesus, rebuking him. Christ, having listened to the accusations of his disciples, answered them that no one dares to count how much money Judas appropriated to himself, because he is the same brother to you as everyone else, and such actions offend him! After that, Judas visibly cheered up. He was pleased not so much with reconciliation with the apostles, but with the fact that Jesus distinguished him from the crowd.
Chapter V
The feast of Easter is approaching, which means that the mournful last days of the life of Christ are approaching. Judas goes to the high priest Anna, offering him to condemn Jesus of Nazareth. Anna, being aware of Judas' reputation, drives him away. This is repeated for several days in a row, but Judas persists and then Anna contemptuously offers the traitor money for the life of Jesus - thirty pieces of silver. Iscariot was very outraged by such a low price! "Thirty pieces of silver! After all, this one obol does not go for a drop of blood! Half of the obol does not go beyond a tear! Anna replies that, in this case, Judas will not receive anything at all, and Iscariot agrees to the price, thinking that among the disciples or residents of Jerusalem there will surely be someone who will appreciate the life of Christ even less.
Chapter VI
In the last hours, Judas surrounds Jesus with caress and attention. He is helpful in relation to the apostles, for no one dares interfere with his plan, no one should suspect Judas of betrayal. Now the name of Judas will forever be associated with the name of Christ, now people will never forget Judas and his name will remain forever.
Chapter VII
In disbelief, Judas goes after Jesus when he is captured by the Roman soldiers. He sees how they beat Christ, how they condemn him, how they lead him to the place of execution - to Golgotha.
Chapter VIII
Judas does not notice either the coming night or the rising sun. His dream comes true, but at the same time - his nightmare. None of the students defend the teacher with weapons, although Judas stole two swords from the Roman soldiers and brought them to the apostles, none of them shouted "Hosanna" to the teacher. Only Judas remained with Jesus until the very end. Even Peter denied Christ three times, saying that he did not know Jesus. Only Judas remained faithful to Christ. He is the only one!
Chapter IX
After the death of Jesus, Judas goes to the Sanhedrin and throws an accusation in the face of the high priests: “I deceived you. He was innocent and pure!” . He tells Anna and the rest of the Sanhedrin that they killed the sinless one, that Judas, in fact, did not betray Jesus, but them, the high priests, from now on they are doomed to eternal shame. On this day, Judas himself becomes a prophet. He says things that the rest of the students don't dare to say. “Today I saw a pale sun. It looked with horror at the ground and said: where is the man?
Judas goes up the mountain alone and tightens the noose around his neck. He alone will follow Christ to the end as his most devoted disciple.
And in the world, meanwhile, the news of the traitor Judas is spreading.
Conclusion
The story of Leonid Andreev "Judas Iscariot" has little in common with the biblical story of Judas. Criticism called the author a realist, a neorealist, a fantastic realist, an avant-garde artist, and a decadent, but time put everything in its place: so Andreev's work had a huge impact on Russian symbolism and ornamental prose, and was also the forerunner of German expressionism.
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Leonid Andreev
Judas Iscariot
L. Andreev. Collected works in 6 volumes. V.2. Stories, plays. 1904-1907 OCR: Lilia Turkina Jesus Christ has been warned many times that Judas of Carioth is a very notorious person 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 reproached him, saying that Judas was greedy, cunning, inclined to 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 have wives to whom they tell the truth, and Judas laughs at thieves, as well as at honest ones, although he steals skillfully, and with his appearance is uglier than all the inhabitants of Judea. the evil ones spoke, surprising the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judah. It was further said that Judas left 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 grumbled with restraint, but he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, maybe to them, and maybe 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 merry 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, lighting up 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: now courageous and strong, now 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 barely is restrained from the foolish desire to throw himself down. And many other things he godlessly invented, 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: - Aren't 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 bent back with his hand and, not looking at the teacher, but feeling his gaze on himself, he resolutely added in his loud voice, displacing all objections, as water displaces air: nets are also 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 embarrassed by its monstrous image, timed by Peter so frivolously for the new disciple. They remembered: huge eyes, dozens of greedy tentacles, feigned calm - and once! - hugged, doused, crushed and sucked, never blinking his huge eyes. What is this? But Jesus is silent, Jesus smiles and looks from under his brows with 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 that 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 kept 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—stopped—resolutely revealed 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, he looked back: John, handsome, pure, without 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. 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 him. Judas. It happened that some people deceived him many times this way and that. So, a certain treasurer of 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, but 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 feet 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 probable and 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 respectable people, some were indignant at the slander, while others jokingly asked: “Well, what about 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, who are you talking about? But here everyone was indignant, because they greatly revered their parents, and Matthew, who was very well-read in Scripture, strictly spoke in the words of Solomon: - Whoever curses his father and his mother, the lamp will go out in the midst of deep darkness. John Zebedee arrogantly threw: - Well, and we? What ill will you say about us, Judas of Carioth? But he waved his hands in mock fear, hunched over and whimpered like a beggar vainly begging for alms from a passerby: “Ah, poor Judas is being tempted! 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? he leaned over and asked in a loud whisper. Judas looked at him angrily: "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 threw abruptly and sharply: "I love you." After this conversation, for two days Peter 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: - This must be proved. Did you hear it yourself? And who else was there besides you? What's his name? Judas was irritated and shrillly shouted that he had seen and heard all this himself, but the stubborn Foma continued to interrogate 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 became silent and, in surprise, from head to toe, 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 said persuasively: "What a fool you are, Foma!" 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? “But does anyone else see dreams, and not he himself?” Thomas sighed softly and thought. And Judas smiled contemptuously, tightly closed his thief's eye and calmly gave himself up to his rebellious dreams, monstrous dreams, crazy visions that tore apart his bumpy skull. When, during the wanderings of Jesus in Judea, travelers approached some village, Iscariot told bad 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 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. Coming up to the teacher, Foma declared resolutely: - 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. “Lord, if you wish, I will return 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 tender 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 over his head threw his words at 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, he understands the beauty of tender and flawless petals. - Foma! Do you like the yellow Lebanese rose, which has a swarthy face and eyes like a chamois? he asked his friend one day, and he replied indifferently: "Rose?" Yes, I love her scent. But I have not heard that roses have swarthy faces and eyes like chamois. -- How? Don't you know that the many-armed cactus that tore your new clothes yesterday has only one red flower and one eye? But Thomas did not know this either, although yesterday the cactus really grabbed hold of his clothes and tore them into miserable pieces. He did not know anything, this Thomas, although he asked about everything, and looked so directly with his transparent and clear eyes, through which, as through Phoenician glass, one could see the wall behind him and the dejected donkey tied to it. Some time later, there was another case in which Judas was again right. In one Jewish village, which he did not praise so much that he even advised to bypass him, they received Christ very hostilely, and after his preaching and denunciation of the hypocrites, they became furious and wanted to stone him and his disciples. There were many enemies, and, undoubtedly, they would have succeeded in carrying out their pernicious intention, if not for Judas from Karyota. Seized with insane fear for Jesus, as if already seeing drops of blood on his white shirt. Judas furiously and blindly rushed at the crowd, threatened, shouted, begged and lied, and thus gave time and opportunity to leave Jesus and the disciples. Strikingly agile, as if he ran on a dozen legs, funny and terrible in his fury and pleas, he rushed wildly in front of the crowd and charmed them with some strange power. He shouted that he was not at all possessed by the demon of the Nazarenes, that he was just a deceiver, a thief who loved money, like all his disciples, like Judas himself - shook the money box, grimaced and begged, falling to the ground. And gradually the anger of the crowd turned into laughter and disgust, and hands raised with stones fell. “These people are not worthy to die at the hands of an honest man,” said some, while others thoughtfully followed Judas as he quickly departed. And again Judas expected congratulations, praises and gratitude, and exposed his tattered clothes, and lied that they beat him - but this time he was incomprehensibly deceived. The angry Jesus walked with long strides and was silent, and even John and Peter did not dare to approach him, and everyone who came across the eyes of Judas in tattered clothes, with his happily excited, but still a little frightened face, drove him away from them with short and angry exclamations. As if he didn't save them all, as if he didn't save their teacher, whom they love so much. Do you want to see fools? he said to Thomas, who was walking thoughtfully behind. And you, smart Thomas, trudge behind, and I, noble, beautiful Judas, trudge behind, like a dirty slave who has no place next to his master. Why do you call yourself beautiful? Thomas was surprised. “Because I am beautiful,” Judas replied with conviction and told, adding much, how he deceived the enemies of Jesus and laughed at them and their stupid stones. "But you lied!" Thomas said. “Well, yes, I lied,” Iscariot agreed calmly. “I gave them what they asked for, and they returned what I needed. And what is a lie, my clever Foma? Would not the death of Jesus be a greater lie? - You did something wrong. Now I believe that your father is the devil. It was he who taught you, Judas. Iscariot's face turned white and suddenly somehow quickly moved towards Thomas - as if a white cloud had found and blocked the road and Jesus. With a soft movement, Judas just as quickly pressed him to himself, pressed him hard, paralyzing his movements, and whispered in his ear: “So the devil taught me? Yes, yes, Thomas. Did I save Jesus? So the devil loves Jesus, so the devil needs Jesus, right? Yes, yes, Thomas. But my father is not a devil, but a goat. Maybe the goat needs Jesus? Heh? You don't need it, do you? Is it really not necessary? Angry and slightly frightened, Foma with difficulty escaped from the sticky embrace of Judas and quickly walked forward, but soon slowed down his steps, trying to understand what had happened. And Judas quietly trailed behind and gradually lagged behind. Here, in the distance, the walkers mixed up in a motley bunch, and it was already impossible to see which of these small figures was Jesus. So little Foma turned into a gray dot - and suddenly everyone disappeared around the corner. Looking back, Judas left the road and descended in huge leaps into the depths of a rocky ravine. From the fast and impetuous run, his dress swelled and his arms flew up, as if for flight. Here on the cliff he slipped and quickly rolled down in a gray lump, peeling himself against the stones, jumped up and angrily shook his fist at the mountain: - You damned thing! leisurely. He turned as if looking for a comfortable position, put his hands, palm after palm, on the gray stone and leaned his head heavily against them. And so he sat for an hour or two, not moving and deceiving the birds, motionless and gray, like the gray stone itself. And in front of him, and behind him, and on all sides, the walls of the ravine rose, cutting off the edges of the blue sky with a sharp line, and everywhere, digging into the ground, huge gray stones rose - as if stone rain had once passed here and in an endless thought its heavy drops. And this wild desert ravine looked like an overturned, chopped off skull, and every stone in it was like a frozen thought, and there were many of them, and they all thought - hard, boundlessly, stubbornly. Here a deceived scorpion hobbled amiably near Judas on his wobbly legs. Judas glanced at him without taking his head off the stone, and again his eyes rested motionless on something, both motionless, both covered with a strange whitish haze, both as if blind and terribly sighted. Here, from the earth, from the stones, from the clefts, calm night darkness began to rise, enveloped the motionless Judas and quickly crawled up - to the bright, pale sky. The night came with its thoughts and dreams. That night Judas did not return for the night, and the disciples, torn from their thoughts by worries about food and drink, grumbled at his negligence. One day, around noon, Jesus and his disciples were walking along a stony and mountainous road, devoid of shade, and since they had been on the road for more than five hours, Jesus began to complain of fatigue. The disciples stopped, and Peter and his friend John spread their and other disciples' cloaks on the ground, and from above they strengthened them between two high stones, and thus made for Jesus, as it were, a tent. And he lay down in the tent, resting from the heat of the sun, while they entertained him with merry speeches and jokes. But, seeing that speech also tires him, while being themselves little sensitive to fatigue and heat, they retired a certain distance and indulged in various occupations. Who, along the mountainside between the stones, looked for edible roots and, having found them, brought them to Jesus, who, climbing higher and higher, thoughtfully searched for the boundaries of the dove-filled distance and, not finding them, climbed new pointed stones. John found a beautiful, blue lizard between the stones and, in his tender palms, quietly laughing, brought it to Jesus, and the lizard looked with its prominent, mysterious eyes into his eyes, and then quickly slid its cold little body over his warm hand and quickly carried away its tender body somewhere. , trembling tail. Peter, who did not like quiet pleasures, and with him Philip, were engaged in tearing large stones from the mountain and letting them down, competing in strength. And, attracted by their loud laughter, little by little the rest gathered around them and took part in the game. Straining, they tore off an old, overgrown stone from the ground, lifted it high with both hands and let it go down the slope. Heavy, it hit short and dull and thought for a moment, then hesitantly made the first leap - and with each touch to the ground, taking speed and strength from it, it became light, ferocious, all-destroying. He no longer jumped, but he flew with bared teeth, and the air, whistling, passed his dull, round carcass. Here is the edge - with a smooth last movement, the stone soared upwards and calmly, in heavy thoughtfulness, roundly flew down to the bottom of an invisible abyss. - Come on, one more! cried Peter. His white teeth sparkled among his black beard and mustache, his powerful chest and arms were bared, and the angry old stones, stupidly surprised at the strength that lifted them, one after another meekly carried away into the abyss. Even the frail John threw small pebbles and, smiling quietly, looked at their fun Jesus. - What are you. Judas? Why don't you take part in the game - it seems to be so much fun? asked Foma, finding his strange friend motionless, behind a large gray stone. “My chest hurts, and they didn’t call me. - Do you need to call? Well, so I'm calling you, go. Look at the stones Peter is throwing. Judas somehow glanced sideways at him, and then Thomas for the first time vaguely felt that Judas from Carioth had two faces. But before he could understand this, Judas said in his usual tone, flattering and at the same time mocking: “Is there anyone stronger than Peter? When he shouts, all the donkeys in Jerusalem think that their Messiah has come and also raise a shout. Have you ever heard their cry, Thomas? And, smiling affably and bashfully wrapping his clothes around his chest, overgrown with curly red hair. Judas entered the circle of players. And since everyone had a lot of fun, they greeted him with joy and loud jokes, and even John smiled condescendingly when Judas, groaning and feigning groaning, took up the huge stone. But then he easily picked it up and threw it, and his blind, wide-open eye, swaying, fixedly stared at Peter, while the other, sly and cheerful, filled with quiet laughter. - No, you still quit! said Peter offendedly. And one by one they lifted and threw giant stones, and the disciples looked at them in wonder. Peter threw a big stone - Judas even more. Peter, gloomy and concentrated, angrily tossed a piece of rock, staggering, picking it up and dropping it down - Judas, continuing to smile, looked for an even larger piece with his eye, affectionately dug into it with his long fingers, licked it, swayed along with it and, turning pale, sent him into the abyss. Throwing his stone, Peter leaned back and so followed his fall, while Judas leaned forward, arched and stretched out his long moving arms, as if he himself wanted to fly away after the stone. Finally, both of them, first Peter, then Judas, grabbed an old, gray stone - and neither one nor the other could lift it. All red, Peter resolutely approached Jesus and said loudly: “Lord! I don't want Judas to be stronger than me. Help me pick up that rock and throw it. And Jesus quietly answered him something. Peter shrugged his broad shoulders in displeasure, but did not dare to object and went back with the words: - He said: and who will help Iscariot? But then he glanced at Judas, who, panting and tightly clenching his teeth, continued to embrace the stubborn stone, and laughed merrily: Look what our sick, poor Judas is doing! And Judas himself laughed, so unexpectedly caught in his lie, and everyone else laughed - even Foma parted his straight gray mustache hanging over his lips with a smile. And so, chatting amiably and laughing, they all set out on their way, and Peter, completely reconciled with the victor, from time to time nudged him in the side with his fist and laughed loudly: Everyone praised Judas, everyone recognized that he was a winner, everyone chatted with him in a friendly way, but Jesus, but Jesus, this time too, did not want to praise Judas. Silently he walked ahead, nibbling on a plucked blade of grass, and little by little, one by one, the disciples stopped laughing and moved on to Jesus. And soon it turned out again that they all walked in a tight group in front, and Judas - Judas the victorious - Judas the strong one - trudged behind, swallowing dust. So they stopped, and Jesus put his hand on Peter's shoulder, pointing with his other hand into the distance, where Jerusalem had already appeared in the haze. And Peter's broad, powerful back carefully accepted this thin, tanned hand. For the night they stopped in Bethany, in the house of Lazarus. And when everyone gathered for a conversation. Judas thought that now they would remember his victory over Peter, and sat closer. But the disciples were silent and unusually thoughtful. Images of the path traveled: the sun, and the stone, and the grass, and Christ reclining in the tent, floated quietly in my head, evoking soft thoughtfulness, giving rise to vague but sweet dreams of some kind of eternal movement under the sun. The weary body rested sweetly, and all it thought about something mysteriously beautiful and big - and no one remembered Judas. Judas left. Then he returned. Jesus spoke, and the disciples listened in silence to his speech. Motionless, like a statue, Mary sat at his feet and, throwing her head back, looked into his face. John, moving close, tried to make his hand touch the teacher's clothes, but did not bother him. Touched and froze. And Peter breathed loudly and forcefully, echoing the words of Jesus with his breath. Iscariot stopped at the threshold and, contemptuously passing the gaze of those gathered, concentrated all his fire on Jesus. And as he looked, everything around him went out, dressed in darkness and silence, and only Jesus brightened with his raised hand. But now he seemed to have risen into the air, as if melted and became as if he were all made up of overhead fog, pierced by the light of the setting moon, and his soft speech sounded somewhere far, far away and tender. And peering into the wavering ghost, listening to the gentle melody of distant and ghostly words. Judas took his whole soul into his iron fingers and in its immense darkness, silently, began to build something huge. Slowly, in the deep darkness, he lifted up some huge things like mountains, and smoothly put one on top of the other, and lifted it up again, and put it on again, and something grew in the darkness, expanded silently, pushing the boundaries. Here he felt his head like a dome, and in the impenetrable darkness of it, a huge one continued to grow, and someone silently worked: he lifted huge masses like mountains, laid one on top of the other and raised again ... And somewhere distant and ghostly words softly sounded. So he stood, blocking the door, huge and black, and Jesus spoke, and Peter's broken and strong breathing loudly echoed his words. But suddenly Jesus fell silent - with a sharp unfinished sound, and Peter, as if waking up, exclaimed enthusiastically: - Lord! You know the words of eternal life! But Jesus remained silent and gazed intently somewhere. And when they followed his gaze, they saw at the door a petrified Judas with an open mouth and fixed eyes. And, not understanding what was the matter, they laughed. Matthew, who was well-read in the Scriptures, touched Judas on the shoulder and said in the words of Solomon: “The one who looks meekly will have mercy, but the one who meets at the gate will embarrass others.” Judas shuddered and even cried out slightly from fright, and everything in him - eyes, arms and legs - seemed to run in different directions, like an animal that suddenly saw the eyes of a man above it. Jesus walked straight to Judas and carried some word on his lips - and passed Judas through the open and now free door. Already in the middle of the night, a worried Thomas approached Judas' bed, squatted down and asked: - You are crying. Judas? -- No. Go away, Foma. "Why are you moaning and gritting your teeth?" Are you unwell? Judas was silent, and from his mouth, one after another, heavy words began to fall, filled with anguish and anger. Why doesn't he love me? Why does he love those? Am I not prettier, better, stronger than them? Didn't I save his life while they ran, crouching like cowardly dogs? “My poor friend, you are not quite right. You are not at all handsome, and your tongue is as unpleasant as your face. You lie and slander all the time, how do you want Jesus to love you? But Judas didn't exactly hear him and continued, moving heavily in the darkness: "Why isn't he with Judas, but with those who don't love him?" John brought him a lizard - I would have brought him a poisonous snake. Peter threw stones - I would turn a mountain for him! But what is a venomous snake? Here a tooth is pulled out from her, and she lies like a necklace around her neck. But what is a mountain that can be torn down with hands and trampled underfoot? I would give him a Judas, a brave, beautiful Judas! And now he will perish, and Judas will perish with him. “You are saying something strange. Judas! - A dry fig tree that needs to be chopped with an ax - after all, it's me, it's about me he said. Why doesn't he cut? he dare not, Thomas. I know him: he is afraid of Judas! He is hiding from the brave, strong, beautiful Judas! He loves fools, traitors, liars. You're a liar, Thomas, have you heard about it? Foma was very surprised and wanted to object, but he thought that Judas was simply scolding, and only shook his head in the darkness. And Judas became even more melancholy, he groaned, gnashed his teeth, and one could hear how his whole large body moved restlessly under the veil. "What hurts Judas so much?" Who applied fire to his body? He gives his son to the dogs! He gives his daughter to the robbers for reproach, his bride for indecency. But isn't Judas a tender heart? Go away, Thomas, go away, stupid. May one remain strong, brave, beautiful Judas! Judas hid a few denarii, and this was revealed thanks to Thomas, who accidentally saw how much money was given. It could be assumed that this was not the first time Judas committed theft, and everyone was indignant. Enraged, Peter seized Judas by the collar of his dress and almost dragged him to Jesus, and the frightened, pale Judas did not resist. - Teacher, look! Here he is - a joker! Here he is - a thief! You believed him, and he steals our money. Thief! Scoundrel! If you let me, I myself... But Jesus was silent. And, looking at him attentively, Peter quickly blushed and unclenched the hand holding the collar. Judas bashfully recovered, looked askance at Peter and assumed the humbly oppressed air of a repentant criminal. -- So that's how! - Peter said angrily and loudly slammed the door, leaving. And everyone was dissatisfied and said that they would not stay with Judas now for anything, - but John quickly realized something and slipped through the door, behind which was heard the quiet and even kindly voice of Jesus. And when, after a time, he came out of there, he was pale, and his downcast eyes were reddened, as if from recent tears. - The teacher said... The teacher said that Judas can take money as much as he wants. Peter laughed angrily. Quickly, reproachfully, John glanced at him, and suddenly bursting into flames, mixing tears with anger, delight with tears, exclaimed loudly: “And no one should count how much money Judas received. He is our brother, and all his money is like ours, and if he needs a lot, let him take a lot, without telling anyone or consulting with anyone. Judas is our brother, and you seriously offended him - so the teacher said ... Shame on us, brothers! A pale Judas was standing in the doorway, smiling wryly, and with a slight movement John approached him and kissed him three times. Behind him, looking at each other, Jacob, Philip, and others came up in embarrassment - after each kiss, Judas wiped his mouth, but smacked loudly, as if this sound gave him pleasure. Peter came last. We are all stupid here, we are all blind. Judas. One he sees, one he is smart. May I kiss you? -- From what? Kiss! Judas agreed. Pyotr kissed him warmly and said loudly in his ear: “But I almost strangled you!” They even so, and I'm right by the throat! Didn't it hurt you? - A little bit. "I'll go to him and tell him everything." After all, I was angry with him too, ”Pyotr said gloomily, trying quietly, without noise, to open the door. - And what about you, Foma? asked John sternly, observing the actions and words of the disciples. -- I do not know yet. I need to think. And Thomas thought for a long time, almost the whole day. The disciples went about their business, and already somewhere behind the wall Peter was shouting loudly and cheerfully, and he was thinking everything. He would have done it faster, but he was somewhat hindered by Judas, who relentlessly followed him with a mocking look and occasionally asked seriously: "Well, Foma?" How are things going? Then Judas dragged his money box and loudly, jingling coins and pretending not to look at Foma, began to count the money. - Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three ... Look, Thomas, again a counterfeit coin. Oh, what swindlers all people are, they even donate counterfeit money... Twenty-four... And then they will again say that Judas stole it... Twenty-five, twenty-six... was - and said: - He is right, Judas. Let me kiss you. -- Is that how? Twenty nine, thirty. In vain. I will steal again. Thirty-one ... - How can you steal when there is neither one's own nor someone else's. You'll just take what you need, brother. “And it took you so long to repeat only his words?” You don't value your time, smart Foma. "You seem to be laughing at me, brother?" - And think, are you doing well, virtuous Thomas, repeating his words? After all, it was he who said - "his" - and not you. It was he who kissed me - you only defiled my mouth. I still feel your wet lips crawling over me. It's so disgusting, good Foma. Thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty. Forty denarii, Thomas, would you like to check? “He is our teacher, after all. How can we not repeat the words of the teacher? Did Judas' gate fall off? Is he now naked and there is nothing to grab him? When the teacher leaves the house, and again Judas accidentally steals three denarii, and will you not seize him by the same collar? - We now know. Judas. We understood. "Don't all students have bad memories?" And haven't all teachers been deceived by their students? Here the teacher raised the rod - the students shout: we know, teacher! And the teacher went to sleep, and the students say: Isn't this what the teacher taught us? And here. This morning you called me: thief. Tonight you call me: brother. What will you call me tomorrow? Judas laughed and, lightly lifting the heavy, clinking box with his hand, he continued: “When a strong wind blows, it picks up rubbish. And stupid people look at the rubbish and say: here is the wind! And this is only rubbish, my good Thomas, donkey droppings, trampled under foot. So he met a wall and quietly lay down at its foot. and the wind flies on, the wind flies on, my good Thomas! Judas pointed warningly over the wall and laughed again. “I am glad that you are having fun,” said Foma. “But it is a pity that there is so much evil in your gaiety. “How can a man who has been kissed so much and who is so useful not be cheerful? If I hadn't stolen three denarii, would John have known what rapture is? And isn't it nice to be a hook on which to dry: John - his damp virtue, Thomas - his mind, eaten by moths? "I think it's better for me to leave." - But I'm kidding. I'm joking, my good Thomas - I just wanted to know if you really want to kiss the old, nasty Judas, the thief who stole three denarii and gave them to a harlot. - Whore? - Foma was surprised. - And did you tell the teacher about this? “Here you are doubting again, Thomas. Yes, whore. But if you knew, Thomas, what kind of unfortunate woman she was. She hasn't eaten anything for two days... - You probably know that? Thomas was confused. -- Yes, sure. After all, I myself was with her for two days and saw that she was eating nothing and drinking only red wine. She staggered from exhaustion, and I fell along with her... Foma quickly got up and, already moving a few steps away, threw to Judas: “Apparently, Satan has possessed you. Judas. And as he was leaving, he heard in the twilight how the heavy cash box tinkled plaintively in Judas's hands. And Judas seemed to be laughing. But the very next day, Thomas had to admit that he was mistaken in Judas - Iscariot was so simple, gentle and at the same time serious. He did not grimace, did not joke slanderously, did not bow and insult, but quietly and imperceptibly went about his business. He was agile, as before - not exactly two legs, like all people, but a whole dozen of them, but he ran silently, without a squeak, screams and laughter, similar to the laughter of a hyena, with which he used to accompany all his actions. And when Jesus began to speak, he quietly sat down in a corner, folded his arms and legs, and looked so well with his big eyes that many noticed it. And he stopped speaking badly about people, and was more silent, so that the strict Matthew himself found it possible to praise him, saying in the words of Solomon: - A poor-minded person expresses contempt for his neighbor, but a reasonable person is silent. And he raised his finger, hinting at the former slander of Judas. Soon everyone noticed this change in Judas and rejoiced at it, and only Jesus looked at him with the same alien look, although he did not directly express his dislike in any way. And John himself, to whom Judas now showed deep respect, as a beloved disciple of Jesus and his intercessor in the case of three denarii, began to treat him somewhat softer and even sometimes entered into a conversation. -- How do you think. Judas,” he once said condescendingly, “which of us, Peter or I, will be the first near Christ in his heavenly kingdom? Judas thought for a moment and answered: “I suppose you are. “But Peter thinks he is,” John chuckled. -- No. Peter will disperse all the angels with his cry - do you hear how he screams? Of course, he will argue with you and try to take the first place, because he assures that he also loves Jesus - but he is already old, and you are young, he is heavy on his leg, and you run fast, and you will be the first to enter there with Christ. . Is not it? “Yes, I will not leave Jesus,” agreed John. And on the same day, Peter Simonov turned to Judas with the same question. But, fearing that his loud voice would be heard by others, he took Judas to the farthest corner, behind the house. "So what do you think?" he asked anxiously. “Of course you are,” Iscariot answered without hesitation, and Peter exclaimed indignantly: “I told him! “But, of course, even there he will try to take the first place from you. -- Certainly! “But what can he do when the place is already occupied by you?” Are you the first to go there with Jesus? You won't leave him alone? Didn't he call you a stone? Peter put his hand on Judas' shoulder and said fervently: "I'm telling you. Judas, you are the smartest of us. Why are you so mocking and angry? The teacher doesn't like it. Otherwise, you could become a favorite disciple, no worse than John. But only to you,” Peter raised his hand menacingly, “I will not give up my place near Jesus, neither on earth nor there! Do you hear! Judas tried so hard to please everyone, but at the same time he thought something of his own. And, remaining the same modest, restrained and inconspicuous, everyone knew how to say what he especially liked. Thus, he said to Thomas: “A foolish man believes every word, but a prudent man is attentive to his ways. Matthew, who suffered from some excess in food and drink and was ashamed of this, quoted the words of the wise and revered by him Solomon: - The righteous eats to satiety, but the womb of the lawless suffers deprivation. But he rarely spoke pleasant things, thereby giving him a special value, but was more silent, attentively listening to everything that was said, and thinking about something. Meditating Judas, however, had an unpleasant, funny and at the same time fearsome look. While his lively and cunning eye was moving, Judas seemed simple and kind, but when both eyes stopped motionless and the skin on his convex forehead gathered into strange bumps and folds, there was a painful conjecture about some very special thoughts tossing and turning under this skull. . Completely alien, completely special, having no language at all, they surrounded the meditating Iscariot with a dull silence of mystery, and I wanted him to quickly begin to speak, move, even lie. For the lie itself, spoken in human language, seemed truth and light in front of this hopelessly deaf and unresponsive silence. - Again thought. Judas? shouted Peter, with his clear voice and face suddenly breaking the deaf silence of Judas' thoughts, driving them away somewhere into a dark corner. "What are you thinking about?" “About many things,” Iscariot replied with a calm smile. And, probably noticing how badly his silence had an effect on others, he more often began to move away from his students and spent a lot of time in solitary walks or climbed onto a flat roof and sat quietly there. And already several times Foma was a little frightened, suddenly stumbling in the darkness on some kind of gray pile, from which Judas' arms and legs suddenly protruded and his joking voice was heard. Only once Judas somehow especially sharply and strangely reminded the former Judas, and this happened just during the dispute about primacy in the kingdom of heaven. In the presence of the teacher, Peter and John quarreled with each other, ardently contesting their place near Jesus: they listed their merits, measured the degree of their love for Jesus, got excited, shouted, even scolded unrestrainedly, Peter - all red with anger, roaring, John - pale and quiet, with trembling hands and biting speech. Their argument was already becoming obscene and the teacher began to frown, when Peter accidentally looked at Judas and laughed smugly, John looked at Judas and also smiled - each of them remembered what the clever Iscariot had told him. And, already anticipating the joy of the near celebration, they silently and in agreement called Judas to judge, and Peter shouted: “Come on, clever Judas!” Tell us who will be first near Jesus - him or me? But Judas was silent, breathing heavily and with his eyes eagerly asking about something the calmly deep eyes of Jesus. “Yes,” John condescendingly confirmed, “tell him who will be first near Jesus.” Don't take your eyes off Christ. Judas slowly got up and answered quietly and importantly: "Me!" Jesus slowly lowered his eyes. And, quietly beating his chest with a bony finger, Iscariot repeated solemnly and sternly: "Me!" I will be near Jesus! And left. Struck by the impudent outburst, the disciples were silent, and only Peter, suddenly remembering something, whispered to Foma in an unexpectedly quiet voice: “So that’s what he’s thinking about! .. Have you heard? Just at this time, Judas Iscariot took the first, decisive step towards betrayal: he secretly visited the high priest Anna. He was received very harshly, but he was not embarrassed by this and demanded a long conversation in private. And, left alone with a dry and stern old man, who looked contemptuously at him from under hanging, heavy eyelids, he told that he. Judas, a pious man and a disciple of Jesus the Nazarene, entered with the sole purpose of convicting the deceiver and betraying him into the hands of the law. Who is this Nazarene? Anna asked dismissively, pretending to hear the name of Jesus for the first time. Judas also pretended to believe the high priest's strange ignorance, and spoke in detail about Jesus' preaching and miracles, his hatred of the Pharisees and the temple, his constant violations of the law, and, finally, his desire to wrest power from the hands of the churchmen and create his own special kingdom. And he mixed truth with lies so skillfully that Anna looked at him attentively and lazily said: “Are there a lot of deceivers and madmen in Judea? “No, he is a dangerous man,” Judas objected hotly, “he breaks the law. And it's better to have one person die than the whole nation. Anna nodded her head approvingly. “But he seems to have many students?” -- Yes many. "And they must be very fond of him?" Yes, they say they love it. They love them very much, more than themselves. “But if we want to take him, won’t they intervene?” Will they revolt? Judas laughed long and wickedly: “They? These are cowardly dogs that run as soon as a person bends over a stone. They! Are they that stupid? Anna asked coldly. “But do the bad ones run away from the good ones, and not the good ones from the bad ones?” Heh! They are good, and therefore they will run. They are good and therefore they will hide. They are good, and therefore they will only appear when Jesus is to be placed in the tomb. And they will put it themselves, and you only execute! But they love him, don't they? You yourself said. “They always love their teacher, but more dead than alive. When the teacher is alive, he can ask them for a lesson, and then they will feel bad. And when a teacher dies, they become teachers themselves, and it's bad for others! Heh! Anna glanced shrewdly at the traitor, and his dry lips puckered—this meant that Anna was smiling. Are you offended by them? I see it. “Can anything be hidden from your insight, wise Anna?” You penetrated into the very heart of Judas. Yes. They offended poor Judas. They said he stole three denarii from them - as if Judas wasn't the most honest man in Israel! And for a long time they talked about Jesus, about his disciples, about his disastrous influence on the people of Israel - but this time the cautious and cunning Anna did not give a decisive answer. He had been following Jesus for a long time, and in secret meetings with his relatives and friends, his leaders and Sadducees, he had long ago decided the fate of a prophet from Galilee. But he did not trust Judas, whom he had heard about earlier as a bad and deceitful person, did not trust his frivolous hopes of the cowardice of the disciples and the people. Anna believed in her strength, but she was afraid of bloodshed, she was afraid of a formidable rebellion, which the rebellious and angry people of Jerusalem so easily went to, and, finally, she was afraid of the harsh intervention of the authorities from Rome. Inflated by resistance, fertilized by the red blood of the people, giving life to everything on which it falls, heresy will grow even stronger and, in its flexible rings, will strangle Anna, and power, and all his friends. And when Iscariot knocked on his door for the second time, Anna was troubled in spirit and did not receive him. But for the third and fourth time Iscariot came to him, persistent as the wind, which day and night knocks on the locked door and breathes into its wells. “I see that the wise Anna is afraid of something,” said Judas, finally admitted to the high priest. “I am strong enough not to be afraid of anything,” Anna answered arrogantly, and Iscariot bowed servilely, stretching out his arms. “What do you want? “I want to betray the Nazarene to you. We don't need him. Judas bowed and waited, obediently fixing his eyes on the high priest. - Get up. “But I must come again. Isn't that right, venerable Anna? - They won't let you in. Go. But here again, and again, Judas from Cariot knocked and was let in to the elderly Anna. Dry and spiteful, depressed by his thoughts, he silently looked at the traitor and as if he were counting the hairs on his bumpy head. But Judas was also silent, as though he himself were counting the hairs in the sparse gray beard of the high priest. -- Well? Are you here again? - haughtily threw, as if spitting on the head, irritated Anna. “I want to betray the Nazarene to you. Both fell silent, continuing to look at each other with attention. But Iscariot looked on calmly, and Anna was already beginning to tingle with quiet anger, dry and cold, like the pre-morning hoarfrost in winter. How much do you want for your Jesus? - How much will you give? Anna said insultingly with pleasure: “You are all a gang of swindlers. Thirty pieces of silver - that's how much we'll give. And he quietly rejoiced, seeing how Judas was fluttering all over, moving, running around - agile and quick, as if he had not two legs, but a whole dozen of them. - For Jesus? Thirty Silvers? he shouted in a voice of wild astonishment that delighted Anna. “For Jesus the Nazarene!” And you want to buy Jesus for thirty pieces of silver? And you think that Jesus can be sold to you for thirty pieces of silver? Judas quickly turned to the wall and laughed into her flat white face, raising his long arms: “Do you hear? Thirty Silvers! For Jesus! With the same quiet joy, Anna remarked indifferently: "If you don't want to, then go." We will find a person who will sell cheaper. And, like dealers in old clothes, who in a dirty square are throwing worthless rags from hand to hand, shouting, swearing and scolding, they entered into a heated and frenzied bargaining. Reveling in a strange delight, running, turning, shouting, Judas calculated the merits of the one he was selling on his fingers. - And the fact that he is kind and heals the sick is not worth anything, in your opinion? A? No, you tell me how an honest person! - If you ... - tried to insert a pink-faced Anna, whose cold anger quickly heated up on the red-hot words of Judas, but he shamelessly interrupted him: - And the fact that he is handsome and young - like a narcissus of Sharon, like a lily of the valleys ? A? Is it worth nothing? Perhaps you will say that he is old and worthless, that Judas is selling you an old rooster? A? - If you ... - Anna tried to shout, but his aged voice, like fluff in the wind, was carried away by the desperately stormy speech of Judas. - Thirty pieces of silver! After all, this one obol does not go for a drop of blood! Half of the obol does not go beyond a tear! A quarter of an obol for a groan! And the screams! And convulsions! What about making his heart stop? What about closing his eyes? Is it a gift? yelled Iscariot, stepping on the high priest, dressing him all over with the frantic movement of his hands, fingers, spinning words. -- For all! For all! Anna gasped. - And how much will you make on this? Heh? Do you want to rob Judas, snatch a piece of bread from his children? I can't! I'll go to the square, I'll shout: Anna robbed poor Judas! Save! Tired, completely spinning, Anna furiously stomped on the floor with her soft shoes and waved her hands: - Out! .. Out! .. But Judas suddenly humbly bent over and meekly spread his arms: .. Why are you angry with poor Judas, who wants well for his children? You also have children, wonderful young people... - We are different... We are different... Get out! “But did I say that I could not yield? And don't I believe you that another can come and give you Jesus for fifteen obols? For two obols? For one? And, bowing lower and lower, wriggling and flattering. Judas meekly agreed to the money offered to him. With a trembling, dry hand, Anna, who turned pink, gave him the money and, silently, turning away and chewing her lips, waited while Judas tried all the silver coins on his teeth. From time to time Anna looked back and, as if burned, again raised her head to the ceiling and chewed her lips intensely. “Now there is so much counterfeit money,” Judas calmly explained. “This is money donated by pious people for the temple,” Anna said, quickly looking around and even faster exposing her pinkish bald head to Judas’ eyes. “But do pious people know how to distinguish the fake from the real? Only scammers do this. Judas did not take the money he received home, but, going outside the city, he hid it under a stone. And back he returned quietly, with heavy and slow steps, like a wounded animal slowly crawling away into its dark hole after a cruel and mortal battle. But Judas did not have his own hole, but there was a house, and in this house he saw Jesus. Tired, thinner, exhausted by the continuous struggle with the Pharisees, the wall of white, shining scholarly foreheads that surrounded him every day in the temple, he sat with his cheek pressed against the rough wall, and, apparently, was fast asleep. The restless sounds of the city flew in through the open window, Peter pounded behind the wall, knocking down a new table for the meal, and hummed a quiet Galilean song - but he did not hear anything and slept calmly and soundly. And this was the one they bought for thirty pieces of silver. Silently moving forward. Judas, with the gentle care of a mother who is afraid to wake her sick child, with the astonishment of a beast crawling out of the lair, which was suddenly enchanted by a little white flower, quietly touched his soft hair and quickly pulled his hand away. He touched it once more and crept silently out. -- God! he said. And, going out to the place where they went out of need, he cried there for a long time, writhing, writhing, scratching his chest with his nails and biting his shoulders. He caressed the imaginary hair of Jesus, whispered softly something tender and funny, and gritted his teeth. Then suddenly he stopped crying, moaning and grinding his teeth and thought hard, tilting his wet face to the side, like a person who listens. And for so long he stood, heavy, resolute and alien to everything, like fate itself. ... With quiet love, tender attention, kindness, Judas surrounded the unfortunate Jesus in these last days of his short life. Bashful and timid, like a girl in his first love, terribly sensitive and perceptive, like her, he divined the slightest unspoken desires of Jesus, penetrated into the innermost depths of his sensations, fleeting flashes of sadness, heavy moments of fatigue. And wherever Jesus' foot trod, it met the soft, and wherever his gaze turned, he found the pleasant. Previously, Judas did not like Mary Magdalene and other women who were near Jesus, rudely joked with them and caused minor troubles - now he has become their friend, funny and clumsy ally. He talked with them with deep interest about the little, sweet habits of Jesus, asking them for a long time with persistence about the same thing, mysteriously thrust money into his hand, into the very palm of his hand - and they brought ambergris, fragrant expensive myrrh, so loved by Jesus, and wiped his legs. He himself bought, desperately haggling, expensive wine for Jesus and then became very angry when Peter drank almost all of it with the indifference of a man who attaches importance only to quantity, and in rocky Jerusalem, almost completely devoid of trees, flowers and greenery, he got from somewhere young spring flowers, green grass and through the same women passed to Jesus. He himself brought in his arms - for the first time in his life - small children, getting them somewhere in the yards or on the street and forcibly kissing them so that they would not cry, and it often happened that something small suddenly crawled onto his knees while Jesus was thinking. , black, with curly hair and a dirty nose, and demandingly sought affection. And while both of them rejoiced at each other. Judas walked sternly aside, like a stern jailer who himself let a butterfly into the prisoner in the spring and now feignedly grumbles, complaining about the disorder. In the evenings, when, along with the darkness at the windows, anxiety also stood guard. Iscariot skillfully directed the conversation to Galilee, alien to him, but dear to Jesus Galilee, with its still water and green shores. And until then he rocked the heavy Peter, until dried-up memories woke up in him, and in bright pictures, where everything was loud, colorful and thick, the dear Galilean life did not rise before his eyes and ears. With eager attention, with his mouth half open like a child, with eyes laughing in advance, Jesus listened to his impetuous, sonorous, cheerful speech and sometimes laughed so hard at his jokes that he had to stop the story for several minutes. But even better than Peter, John said, he didn’t have anything funny and unexpected, but everything became so thoughtful, unusual and beautiful that tears appeared in Jesus’ eyes, and he sighed softly, and Judas pushed Mary Magdalene in the side and with whispered to her with delight: "How he tells it!" Do you hear? - I hear, of course. - No, you better listen. You women are never good at listening. Then everyone quietly went to bed, and Jesus gently and gratefully kissed John and affectionately stroked tall Peter on the shoulder. And without envy, with condescending contempt, Judas looked at these caresses. What do all these stories, these kisses and sighs mean compared to what he knows. Judas of Carioth, red-haired, ugly Jew, born among stones! With one hand betraying Jesus, with the other hand Judas diligently sought to frustrate his own plans. He did not dissuade Jesus from the last, dangerous journey to Jerusalem, as the women did, he even inclined more towards the side of Jesus' relatives and those of his disciples who considered victory over Jerusalem necessary for the complete triumph of the cause. But he persistently and stubbornly warned of the danger and in vivid colors depicted the formidable hatred of the Pharisees for Jesus, their readiness to commit a crime and secretly or openly kill the prophet from Galilee. Every day and every hour he spoke about this, and there was not a single believer before whom Judas would not stand, raising his threatening finger, and would not say warningly and sternly: “We must protect Jesus!” We need to protect Jesus! We need to intercede for Jesus when that time comes. But whether the boundless faith of the disciples in the miraculous power of their teacher, or the consciousness of their rightness, or simply blindness, the fearful words of Judas met with a smile, and the endless advice even caused grumbling. When Judas obtained from somewhere and brought two swords, only Peter liked it, and only Peter praised the swords and Judas, the rest said displeasedly: - Are we warriors that should be girded with swords? And isn't Jesus a prophet, but a military leader? "But if they want to kill him?" "They won't dare when they see all the people following him." - What if they dare? What then? John spoke disparagingly: “You might think that only you, Judas, love your teacher. And, greedily clinging to these words, not at all offended, Judas began to interrogate hastily, passionately, with stern persistence: "But you love him, don't you?" And there was not one of the believers who came to Jesus, whom he would not ask repeatedly: - Do you love him? Do you love hard? And everyone said they loved it. He often conversed with Foma, and, raising a warning dry, tenacious finger with a long and dirty fingernail, mysteriously warned him: “Look, Foma, a terrible time is approaching. Are you ready for it? Why didn't you take the sword I brought? Foma replied judiciously: “We are people unaccustomed to handling weapons. And if we enter into a fight with the Roman soldiers, they will kill us all. Besides, you only brought two swords—what can two swords do? - You can still get it. They can be taken away from the soldiers,” Judas objected impatiently, and even the serious Thomas smiled through his straight, hanging mustache: “Ah, Judas, Judas! Where did you get these? They look like the swords of Roman soldiers. - These I stole. It was possible to steal more, but they shouted there - and I ran away. Foma thought for a moment and said sadly: “You did wrong again, Judas. Why are you stealing? - But there is no stranger! - Yes, but tomorrow the soldiers will be asked: where are your swords? And, not finding them, they will punish them without guilt. And later, after the death of Jesus, the disciples recalled these conversations of Judas and decided that, together with the teacher, he wanted to destroy them too, calling them to an unequal and murderous struggle. And once again they cursed the hated name of Judas from Carioth, the traitor. And angry Judas, after each such conversation, went to the women and wept in front of them. And women willingly listened to him. That feminine and gentle thing that was in his love for Jesus brought him closer to them, made him simple, understandable and even beautiful in their eyes, although there was still a slight contempt in his treatment of them. - Are they people? - he complained bitterly about the students, trustingly fixing his blind and motionless eye on Mary. - These are not people! They don't even have blood in their veins for an obol! “But you always spoke badly of people,” objected Maria. "Have I ever spoken ill of people?" wondered Judas. “Well, yes, I spoke ill of them, but couldn’t they be a little better? Ah, Maria, stupid Maria, why are you not a man and cannot carry a sword! "It's so heavy, I won't lift it," Maria smiled. - Raise when the men are so bad. Did you give Jesus the lily that I found in the mountains? I got up early in the morning to find her, and today was such a red sun, Maria! Was he happy? Did he smile? Yes, he was glad. He said that the flower smelled of Galilee. “And you didn’t tell him, of course, that it was Judas who got it, Judas from Carioth?” “You asked me not to speak. “No, you shouldn’t, of course you shouldn’t,” Judas sighed. “But you could have let it slip, because women are so talkative. But you didn't spill the beans, did you? Were you firm? Well, well, Maria, you are a good woman. You know, I have a wife somewhere. Now I would like to look at her: perhaps she is also a good woman. Don't know. She said: Judas is a liar. Judas Simonov is evil, and I left her. But maybe she's a good woman, don't you know? “How can I know when I have never seen your wife?” “Yes, yes, Maria. What do you think, thirty pieces of silver is a lot of money? Or not, small? - I think it's small. -- Of course of course. How much did you get when you were a whore? Five Silver pieces or ten? Were you dear? Mary Magdalene blushed and lowered her head, so that the magnificent golden hair completely covered her face: only a round and white chin was visible. - How unkind you are. Judas! I want to forget about it, and you remember. - No, Maria, this should not be forgotten. For what? Let others forget that you were a harlot, but you remember. Others need to forget this as soon as possible, but you don't. For what? - It's a sin. “He is afraid of those who have not yet committed a sin. And whoever has already done it, why should he be afraid? Does the dead fear death, and not the living? And the dead laugh at the living and at his fear. So friendly they sat and chatted for whole hours - he, already old, dry, ugly, with his bumpy head and wildly split face, she - young, bashful, tender, enchanted by life, like a fairy tale, like a dream. And time passed indifferently, and thirty Silver pieces lay under a stone, and the inexorably terrible day of betrayal was approaching. Jesus had already entered Jerusalem on a donkey, and, spreading his clothes along his way, his people greeted him with enthusiastic cries: - Hosanna! Hosanna! Coming in the name of the Lord! And so great was the jubilation, so irresistibly in the cries rushed to him love, that Jesus wept, and his disciples said proudly: - Is not this the son of God with us? And they themselves shouted triumphantly: “Hosanna! Hosanna! Coming in the name of the Lord! That evening they did not go to sleep for a long time, remembering the solemn and joyful meeting, and Peter was like a madman, like a demon possessed by joy and pride. He shouted, drowning out all his speeches with his lion's roar, laughed, throwing his laughter on their heads like big round stones, kissed John, kissed James and even kissed Judas. And he loudly confessed that he was very afraid for Jesus, and now he is not afraid of anything, because he saw the love of the people for Jesus. Surprised, quickly moving his lively and keen eye, Iscariot looked around, pondered and again listened and looked, then took Foma aside and, as if pinning him to the wall with his sharp eyes, asked in bewilderment, fear and some kind of vague hope: - - Foma! What if he's right? If the stones are under his feet, and under my foot there is only sand? What then? - Who are you talking about? Foma inquired. “What about Judas of Carioth then?” Then I myself must strangle him to do the truth. Who is deceiving Judas: you or Judas himself? Who is deceiving Judas? Who? -- I don't understand you. Judas. You speak very incomprehensibly. Who is deceiving Judas? Who is right? And shaking his head. Judas repeated like an echo: "Who deceives Judas?" Who is right? And the next day, in the way Judas raised his hand with his thumb thrown back, as he looked at Thomas, the same strange question sounded: - Who is deceiving Judas? Who is right? And Thomas was even more surprised and even worried when suddenly at night a loud and seemingly joyful voice of Judas sounded: “Then there will be no Judas from Kariot.” Then there will be no Jesus. Then it will be... Thomas, stupid Thomas! Have you ever wished you could take the earth and lift it up? And maybe quit later. -- This is impossible. What are you saying. Judas! “It is possible,” Iscariot said with conviction. “And we will raise it someday, when you are asleep, stupid Thomas. Sleep! I'm having fun, Thomas! When you sleep, a Galilean pipe plays in your nose. Sleep! But the believers had already dispersed throughout Jerusalem and hid in the houses, behind the walls, and the faces of those they met became mysterious. The glee faded. And already vague rumors about the danger crept into some cracks, the gloomy Peter tried the sword given to him by Judas. And the face of the teacher became sadder and stricter. Time passed so quickly and inexorably approached the terrible day of betrayal. And so the last supper passed, full of sorrow and vague fear, and Jesus' vague words about someone who would betray him were already heard. "Do you know who will betray him?" Thomas asked, looking at Judas with his straight and clear, almost transparent eyes. “Yes, I know,” answered Judas, stern and resolute. “You, Thomas, will betray him. But he himself does not believe what he says! It's time! It's time! Why doesn't he invite strong, beautiful Judas to come to him? ... No longer in days, but in short, fast-flying hours, inexorable time was measured. And there was evening, and there was evening silence, and long shadows lay on the ground - the first sharp arrows of the coming night of the great battle, when a sad and stern voice sounded. He said, "Do you know where I'm going, Lord?" I am going to deliver you into the hands of your enemies. And there was a long silence, the silence of the evening and sharp, black shadows. Are you silent, sir? Are you ordering me to go? And again silence. - Let me stay. But you can't? Or don't you dare? Or don't you want to? And again silence, huge as the eyes of eternity. “But you know that I love you. You know everything. Why are you looking at Judas like that? Great is the secret of your beautiful eyes, but is mine less so? Order me to stay!.. But you are silent, are you still silent? Lord, Lord, then, in anguish and torment, I searched for you all my life, searched and found! Set me free Take off the heaviness, it is heavier than mountains and lead. Do you not hear how the breasts of Judas of Carioth are cracking under her? And the last silence, bottomless, like the last look of eternity. - I'm going. The evening stillness did not even wake up, it did not scream and weep, and it did not ring with the quiet ringing of its thin glass - so weak was the sound of receding steps. They murmured and fell silent. And the evening silence fell into thought, stretched out in long shadows, darkened - and suddenly sighed all over with the rustle of sadly tossing leaves, sighed and froze, meeting the night. Other voices jostled, clapped, clattered—it was as if someone had untied a sack of live, sonorous voices, and they fell from there to the ground, one by one, two by two, a whole bunch. This is what the students said. And, covering them all, knocking against the trees, against the walls, falling on himself, Peter's decisive and authoritative voice thundered - he swore that he would never leave his teacher. -- God! - he said with anguish and anger. - Lord! With you I am ready to go to prison and to death. And softly, like a soft echo of someone's receding steps, a merciless answer sounded: - I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today, as you deny me three times. The moon had already risen when Jesus was about to go to the Mount of Olives, where he spent all his last nights. But he hesitated incomprehensibly, and the disciples, ready to set off, hurried him, then he said suddenly: - Whoever has a bag, take it, also a bag, and whoever does not, sell your clothes and buy a sword. For I tell you what is to be fulfilled in me and in this which is written: "And numbered among the wicked." The disciples were surprised and looked at each other with embarrassment. Peter answered: “Lord! here are two swords. He looked inquisitively at their kind faces, lowered his head and said quietly: The steps of those walking resounded loudly in the narrow streets - and the disciples were afraid of the sound of their steps, on the white wall, illuminated by the moon, their black shadows grew - and they were afraid of their own shadows. So silently they passed through the sleeping Jerusalem, and now they went out of the gates of the city, and in a deep hollow, full of mysteriously motionless shadows, the Kedron Stream opened up to them. Everything scared them now. The quiet murmur and splash of water on the stones seemed to them the voices of people creeping up, the ugly shadows of rocks and trees blocking the road disturbed them with their motleyness, and their nocturnal immobility seemed to move. But, as they climbed the mountain and approached the Garden of Gethsemane, where they had already spent so many nights in safety and silence, they became bolder. From time to time looking back at the abandoned Jerusalem, all white under the moon, they talked among themselves about the past fear, and those who walked behind heard the fragmentary quiet words of Jesus. That everyone will leave him, he said. In the garden, at the beginning of it, they stopped. Most of them remained where they were, and with a low voice began to get ready for bed, spreading their cloaks in a transparent lace of shadows and moonlight. Jesus, tormented by anxiety, and four of his closest disciples went further into the depths of the garden. There they sat down on the ground, still warm from the heat of the day, and while Jesus was silent, Peter and John were lazily exchanging words that almost made no sense. Yawning from exhaustion, they talked about how cold the night was, and how expensive meat was in Jerusalem, but fish was not available at all. They tried to determine the exact number of pilgrims who had gathered for the feast in the city, and Peter, drawing out his words with a loud yawn, said that twenty thousand, and John and his brother James assured just as lazily that no more than ten. Suddenly Jesus stood up quickly. “My soul is grieving mortally. Stay here and stay awake,” he said, and with quick steps he retired into the thicket and soon disappeared in the stillness of shadows and light. -- Where is he going? said John, raising himself on his elbow. Peter turned his head after the departed and wearily answered: - I don't know. And with another loud yawn, he rolled over on his back and fell silent. The others also fell silent, and a sound sleep of healthy fatigue seized their motionless bodies. Through a heavy slumber, Peter saw vaguely something white, bending over him, and someone's voice sounded and died out, leaving no trace in his clouded consciousness. Simon, are you sleeping? And again he slept, and again a soft voice touched his ears and died out, leaving no trace: “So you couldn’t stay awake with me even for one hour? "Ah, Lord, if you only knew how sleepy I am," he thought half asleep, but it seemed to him that he said it loudly. And again he fell asleep, and a lot of time seemed to have passed, when the figure of Jesus suddenly appeared near him, and a loud awakening voice instantly sobered him and the others: - Are you still sleeping and resting? It's over, the hour has come - here the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. The disciples quickly jumped to their feet, clutching their cloaks in confusion and shivering from the cold of sudden awakening. Through the thicket of trees, illuminating them with the running fire of torches, with a clatter and noise, in the clang of weapons and the crunch of breaking branches, a crowd of warriors and servants of the temple approached. And on the other hand, the disciples, shaking from the cold, with frightened, sleepy faces, came running, and, not yet understanding what was the matter, hurriedly asked: - What is it? Who are these people with torches? Pale Foma, with a straight mustache strayed to one side, chattered his teeth chillily and said to Peter: “Apparently, they have come for us.” Now a crowd of warriors surrounded them, and the smoky, alarming brilliance of the lights drove away somewhere to the sides and upwards the quiet radiance of the moon. In front of the soldiers, Judas from Cariot moved hurriedly and, sharply turning his living eye, was looking for Jesus. I found him, for a moment he fixed his gaze on his tall, thin figure and quickly whispered to the servants: - Whom I kiss, he is. Take it and drive carefully. But just be careful, you heard? Then he quickly moved closer to Jesus, who was waiting for him in silence, and plunged, like a knife, his direct and sharp gaze into his calm, darkened eyes. - Rejoice, rabbi! he said loudly, putting a strange and formidable meaning into the words of his usual greeting. But Jesus was silent, and the disciples looked with horror at the traitor, not understanding how the human soul could contain so much evil. With a quick glance, Iscariot cast a glance over their confused ranks, noticed a trembling, ready to turn into a loudly caressing trembling of fright, noticed pallor, meaningless smiles, sluggish movements of the hands, as if tightened with iron at the forearm - and mortal sorrow ignited in his heart, similar to the one he experienced before that Christ. Stretching out into a hundred loudly ringing, sobbing strings, he quickly rushed to Jesus and tenderly kissed his cold cheek. So quietly, so gently, with such painful love and longing that if Jesus had been a flower on a thin stalk, he would not have swayed him with this kiss and would not have dropped pearly dew from clean petals. “Judas,” said Jesus, and with the lightning of his gaze he illuminated that monstrous pile of alert shadows that was the soul of Iscariot, “but he could not penetrate into its bottomless depths.” “Judas!” Do you betray the son of man with a kiss? And I saw how all this monstrous chaos trembled and began to move. Silent and strict, like death in its proud majesty, stood Judas from Kariot, and inside him everything groaned, thundered and howled with a thousand violent and fiery voices: “Yes! We betray you with a kiss of love. To death! With the voice of love we call the executioners out of dark holes and put up a cross - and high above the crown of the earth we raise love crucified on the cross with love. Thus Judas stood, silent and cold as death, and the cry of his soul was answered by the cries and noise that rose around Jesus. With the rude indecision of the armed force, with the awkwardness of a vaguely understood goal, the soldiers were already grabbing him by the arms and dragging him somewhere, mistaking their indecision for resistance, their fear for mockery and mockery of them. Like a bunch of frightened lambs, the disciples huddled, obstructing nothing, but hindering everyone - and even themselves, and only a few dared to walk and act separately from the others. Pushed from all sides, Peter Simonov with difficulty, as if having lost all his strength, drew his sword from its scabbard and weakly, with an oblique blow, lowered it on the head of one of the servants - but did no harm. And Jesus, who noticed this, ordered him to throw away the useless sword, and, with a faint clinking, iron fell under his feet, so visibly deprived of its piercing and killing power that it never occurred to anyone to pick it up. So it lay underfoot, and many days later, playing children found it in the same place and made it their fun. The soldiers crammed the students, and they again gathered and stupidly climbed under their feet, and this continued until a contemptuous rage seized the soldiers. Here one of them, raising his eyebrows, moved towards the screaming John, the other rudely pushed the hand of Thomas, who was convincing him of something, from his shoulder, and raised a huge fist to his most direct and transparent eyes - and John ran, and Thomas ran and James, and all the disciples, no matter how many of them were here, leaving Jesus, fled. Losing their cloaks, hitting trees, bumping into stones and falling, they fled to the mountains, driven by fear, and in the silence of the moonlit night the earth hummed loudly under the tramp of numerous feet. Someone unknown, apparently just getting out of bed, for he was covered with only one blanket, excitedly scurried around in the crowd of soldiers and attendants. But when they wanted to detain him and grabbed him by the blanket, he screamed in fright and rushed to run, like the others, leaving his clothes in the hands of the soldiers. Thus, completely naked, he ran with desperate leaps, and his naked body flashed strangely under the moon. When Jesus was taken away, Peter hid from behind the trees and followed the teacher at a distance. And, seeing in front of him another man walking in silence, he thought that it was John, and quietly called out to him: - John, is that you? “Ah, is that you, Peter?” - he answered, stopping, and by his voice Peter recognized him as a traitor. - Why didn’t you, Peter, run away with the others? Peter stopped and said in disgust: “Get away from me, Satan!” Judas laughed and, paying no more attention to Peter, went on, to where the torches sparkled smokyly and the clang of weapons mingled with the distinct sound of footsteps. Peter also moved cautiously behind him, and so, almost simultaneously, they entered the courtyard of the high priest and intervened in the crowd of ministers warming themselves around the fires. Judas warmed his bony hands frowningly over the fire and heard Peter speak loudly somewhere behind him: “No, I don’t know him. But there, apparently, they insisted that he was one of the disciples of Jesus, because Peter repeated even louder: - No, I don’t understand what you are saying! Not looking back and reluctantly smiling. Judas shook his head in the affirmative and muttered: “So, so, Peter! Give no one your place near Jesus! And he did not see how the frightened Peter left the courtyard, so as not to appear again. And from that evening until the very death of Jesus, Judas did not see a single one of his disciples near him, and among this whole crowd there were only the two of them, inseparable until death, wildly connected by a community of suffering - the one who was betrayed to reproach and torment, and the one who betrayed him. From the same goblet of suffering, like brothers, both of them, the betrayer and the devotee, drank, and the fiery moisture equally seared clean and impure lips. Staring intently at the fire of the fire, filling the eyes with a sensation of heat, stretching out to the fire long moving hands, all shapeless in the confusion of arms and legs, trembling shadows and light. Iscariot muttered plaintively and hoarsely: "How cold it is!" My God, how cold! So, probably, when fishermen leave at night, leaving a smoldering fire on the shore, something crawls out of the dark depths of the sea, crawls up to the fire, looks at it intently and wildly, reaches out to it with all its limbs and mutters plaintively and hoarsely: - How cold! My God, how cold! Suddenly, behind him, Judas heard an explosion of loud voices, the cries and laughter of soldiers, full of familiar, sleepily greedy malice, and biting, short blows to a living body. He turned around, pierced by instant pain of the whole body, of all the bones - it was Jesus being beaten. So here it is! I saw how the soldiers took Jesus to their guardhouse. The night passed, the fires were extinguished and covered with ashes, and muffled cries, laughter and curses still rang out from the guardhouse. It was Jesus being beaten. Just lost. Iscariot ran nimbly through the deserted yard, stopped with a run, raised his head and ran again, stumbling in surprise at the fires, at the walls. Then he clung to the wall of the guardhouse and, stretching himself, clung to the window, to the cracks in the doors, and greedily looked at what was going on there. I saw a cramped, stuffy room, dirty, like all the guardhouses in the world, with the floor spat on and the walls so greasy and stained, as if they had been walked on or rolled over. And I saw a man who was being beaten. They beat him in the face, on the head, threw him like a soft bundle from one end to the other, and since he did not shout or resist, for minutes, after intense staring, it really began to seem that this was not a living person, but some kind of it is a soft doll, without bones and blood. And she arched strangely, like a doll, and when, as she fell, she hit her head on the stones of the floor, there was no impression of a blow hard on hard, but all the same soft, painless. And when you stare for a long time, it becomes like some kind of endless, strange game - sometimes to the point of almost complete deception. After one strong push, the person, or doll, knelt down in a smooth motion towards the sitting soldier, who, in turn, pushed it away, and it, turning over, sat down to the next one, and so on and on. A strong laugh arose, and Judas also smiled - as if someone's strong hand tore his mouth with iron fingers. It was the mouth of Judas that was deceived. The night dragged on and the fires were still smoldering. Judas fell off the wall and slowly walked to one of the fires, unearthed the coal, adjusted it, and although he no longer felt the cold, he stretched his slightly trembling hands over the fire. And he muttered sadly: “Ah, it hurts, it hurts a lot, my son, son, son. It hurts, it hurts a lot. Then he again went to the window, turning yellow with a dull fire in the slot of the black lattice, and again began to watch how Jesus was being beaten. Once, right before Judas' eyes, his swarthy, now disfigured face flashed in front of his very eyes, in a thicket of tangled hair. Someone's hand dug into this hair, knocked the man down and, evenly turning his head from one side to the other, began to wipe the spit on the floor with his face. A soldier was sleeping right under the window, his mouth open with white shining teeth, now someone's broad back with a thick, bare neck blocked the window, and nothing else was visible. And suddenly it became quiet. What is this? Why are they silent? Did they suddenly figure it out? Instantly, the whole head of Judas, in all its parts, is filled with a rumble, a cry, a roar of thousands of enraged thoughts. Did they guess? Did they understand that this is the best person? -- it's so simple, so clear. What is there now? They kneel before him and weep quietly, kissing his feet. Here he comes out here, and they dutifully crawl after him - he comes out here, to Judas, comes out a winner, a husband, a ruler of truth, a god ... - Who deceives Judas? Who is right? But no. Again screaming and noise. They beat again. They didn’t understand, they didn’t guess, and they hit even harder, hit even harder. And the fires burn down, covered with ashes, and the smoke above them is as transparently blue as the air, and the sky is as bright as the moon. This day is coming. - What is a day? Judas asks. Now everything caught fire, sparkled, rejuvenated, and the smoke at the top is no longer blue, but pink. It's the rising sun. - What is the sun? Judas asks. They pointed fingers at Judas, and some contemptuously, others with hatred and fear said: “Look: this is Judas the Betrayer!” This was already the beginning of his shameful glory, to which he doomed himself forever. Thousands of years will pass, peoples will be replaced by peoples, and the words will still be heard in the air, uttered with contempt and fear by good and evil: - Judas the Betrayer ... Judas the Betrayer! But he listened indifferently to what was said about him, absorbed in a feeling of all-conquering burning curiosity. From the very morning, when the beaten Jesus was taken out of the guardhouse, Judas followed him and somehow strangely felt neither anguish, nor pain, nor joy - only an invincible desire to see everything and hear everything. Although he did not sleep all night, he felt light in his body when they did not let him go forward, they pushed him, he pushed the people aside with jerks and quickly climbed out to the first place, and his lively and quick eye did not remain at rest for a minute. During the interrogation of Jesus by Caiaphas, in order not to miss a single word, he stuck out his ear with his hand and shook his head in the affirmative, muttering: - So! So! Do you hear, Jesus! But he was not free - like a fly tied to a thread: it flies buzzing here and there, but the obedient and stubborn thread does not leave it for a single minute. Some stone thoughts lay in the back of Judas' head, and he was firmly attached to them, he did not seem to know what those thoughts were, did not want to touch them, but felt them all the time. And for minutes they suddenly advanced on him, pressed down, began to crush him with all their unimaginable weight - as if the vault of a stone cave was slowly and terribly lowering on his head. Then he clutched at his heart with his hand, tried to move all over, as if he were frozen, and hastened to shift his eyes to a new place, still to a new place. When Jesus was led away from Caiaphas, he met his weary gaze very close and, somehow not giving an account, nodded his head amiably several times. - I'm here, son, here! he muttered hurriedly, and angrily pushed in the back some rotozee who was standing in his way. Now, in a huge, noisy crowd, everyone was moving towards Pilate, for the last interrogation and trial, and with the same unbearable curiosity, Judas quickly and eagerly examined the faces of all the arriving people. Many were complete strangers; Judas had never seen them, but there were also those who shouted to Jesus: “Hosanna! "- and with each step their number seemed to increase. "So, so! thought Judas quickly, and his head began to spin like a drunkard's. "It's all over." Now they will scream: this is ours, this is Jesus, what are you doing? And everyone will understand and…” But the believers walked in silence. voices. And again it became easy. Suddenly, Judas noticed Thomas cautiously making his way and, having quickly thought of something, wanted to approach him. At the sight of the traitor, Thomas was frightened and wanted to hide, but in a narrow, dirty street, between two walls, Judas overtook him "Foma! Wait a minute!" Thomas stopped and, stretching out both hands forward, solemnly said: "Get away from me, Satan." Iscariot waved his hand impatiently. "What a fool you are, Thomas, I thought you were smarter than the others. Satan! Satan! After all, this must be proved. Lowering his hands, Thomas asked in surprise: "But didn't you betray the teacher? I myself saw how you brought the soldiers and pointed them to Jesus. If this is not a betrayal, then what is a betrayal?" “Other, different,” said Judas hastily. “Listen, there are many of you here. It is necessary that you all come together and loudly demand: give Jesus, he is ours. They will not refuse you, they will not dare. They themselves will understand... - What are you! What are you, - Foma resolutely waved his hands, - haven't you seen how many armed soldiers and servants of the temple are here. And then there was no trial yet, and we must not interfere with the trial. Wouldn't he realize that Jesus was innocent and order him to be released immediately. - Do you think so too? Judas asked thoughtfully. “Thomas, Thomas, but if this is true? What then? Who is right? Who deceived Judas? “Today we talked all night and decided: a court cannot condemn an innocent. If he condemns... - Well! ' hurried Iscariot. - ...then this is not a court. And it will be bad for them when they have to answer before the real Judge. - Before the present! There is also a real one! Judas laughed. “And all our people cursed you, but since you say that you are not a traitor, then, I think, you should be judged ... Not listening to it, Judas turned sharply and quickly rushed down the street, following the retreating crowd. But soon he slowed down his steps and walked slowly, thinking that when a lot of people walk, they always walk slowly, and a lone walker will certainly catch up with them. When Pilate brought Jesus out of his palace and stood him before the people. Judas, pressed against the column by the heavy backs of a soldier, furiously tossing his head in order to examine something between two shining helmets, suddenly clearly felt that now it was all over. Under the sun, high above the heads of the crowd, he saw Jesus, bloody, pale, in a crown of thorns, with his points stuck into his forehead, he stood at the edge of the dais, visible from his head to his small tanned legs, and so calmly waited, was so clear in its purity and purity, which only the blind, who does not see the sun itself, would not see it, only the fool would not understand. And the people were silent - it was so quiet that Judas heard the breathing of the soldier standing in front, and with every breath somewhere the belt on his body creaked. "So. It's all over. Now they'll understand," thought Judas, and suddenly something strange, like the dazzling joy of falling from an infinitely high mountain into a blue radiant abyss, stopped his heart. Contemptuously pulling his lips down to his round, shaved chin, Pilate hurls dry, short words into the crowd, just as bones are thrown into a pack of hungry dogs, thinking to deceive their thirst for fresh blood and live, trembling meat: people, and so I investigated in your presence and did not find this man guilty of anything that you accuse him of ... Judas closed his eyes. Waiting. And all the people shouted, yelled, howled in a thousand animal and human voices: "Death to him!" Crucify him! Crucify him! And now, as if mocking at themselves, as if in one moment wanting to experience all the boundlessness of fall, madness and disgrace, the same people shout, yell, demand with a thousand bestial and human voices: - Release Barrabas to us! Crucify him! Crucify! But after all, the Roman has not yet said his decisive word: convulsions of disgust and anger run through his shaved haughty face. He understands, he understands! Here he speaks quietly to his servants, but his voice is not heard in the roar of the crowd. What he says? Tells them to take swords and strike at these madmen? - Bring some water. Water? What kind of water? For what? Here he washes his hands - for some reason he washes his white, clean, ringed hands - and angrily shouts, raising them, to the surprised silent people: - I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man. See you! Water still rolls from his fingers onto the marble slabs, when something softly spreads out at Pilate's feet, and hot, sharp lips kiss his helplessly resisting hand - they stick to it like tentacles, draw blood, almost bite. With disgust and fear, he looks down - he sees a large writhing body, a wildly doubling face and two huge eyes, so strangely dissimilar to each other, as if not one creature, but a multitude of them, clings to his legs and arms. And he hears a poisonous whisper, intermittent, hot: - You are wise! .. You are noble! .. You are wise, wise! . And, lying on the stone slabs, looking like an overturned devil, he still stretches out his hand to the departing Pilate and shouts, as if passionately in love: “You are wise! You wise! You are noble! Then he quickly rises and runs, accompanied by the laughter of soldiers. After all, it's not over yet. When they see the cross, when they see the nails, they can understand, and then... What then? He catches a glimpse of the dumbfounded, pale Thomas, and for some reason, nodding his head reassuringly to him, catches up with Jesus, who is being led to execution. It is hard to walk, small stones roll underfoot, and suddenly Judas feels that he is tired. The whole goes to the concern of putting the foot better, looks dimly around and sees the weeping Mary Magdalene, sees a lot of weeping women - loose hair, red eyes, twisted lips - all the immeasurable sadness of the tender female soul, given up for mockery. He suddenly revives and, seizing the moment, runs up to Jesus: “I am with you,” he whispers hurriedly. The soldiers drive him away with whips, and, writhing to elude the blows, showing the soldiers bared teeth, he explains hastily: - I'm with you. There. You understand, go there! He wipes the blood from his face and shakes his fist at the soldier, who turns around, laughing, and points at him to the others. For some reason, he is looking for Thomas - but neither he nor any of the students are in the crowd of people seeing him off. He feels tired again and moves his legs heavily, carefully examining the sharp, white, crumbling pebbles. ...When the hammer was raised to nail the left hand of Jesus to the tree, Judas closed his eyes and for an eternity did not breathe, did not see, did not live, but only listened. But now, with a creak, iron hit iron, and time after time dull, short, low blows - one can hear how a sharp nail enters soft wood, pushing its particles apart ... One hand. Not too late. Another hand. Not too late. Leg, other leg - is it all over? Hesitantly opens his eyes and sees how the cross rises, swaying, and is installed in the pit. He sees how, trembling tensely, the painful arms of Jesus stretch out, widen the wounds - and suddenly the fallen stomach goes under the ribs. Stretching, stretching, arms become thin, turn white, twist in the shoulders, and the wounds under the nails turn red, crawl - they will break off now ... No, it has stopped. Everything stopped. Only the ribs move, raised by a short, deep breath. On the very crown of the earth, a cross rises - and on it is the crucified Jesus. The horror and dreams of Iscariot have come true - he rises from his knees, on which he stood for some reason, and coldly looks around. This is how a stern conqueror looks, who has already decided in his heart to betray everything to destruction and death, and for the last time looks around a foreign and rich city, still alive and noisy, but already ghostly under the cold hand of death. And suddenly, as clearly as his terrible victory, Iscariot sees its ominous precariousness. What if they understand? Not too late. Jesus is still alive. There he looks with inviting, longing eyes ... What can keep from tearing a thin film covering people's eyes, so thin that it seems to be completely gone? Will they suddenly understand? Suddenly, with all their formidable mass of men, women and children, they will move forward, silently, without a cry, they will wipe out the soldiers, fill them up to their ears with their blood, tear out the damned cross from the ground and with the hands of the survivors, high above the crown of the earth, they will raise the free Jesus! Hosanna! Hosanna! Hosanna? No, it would be better for Judas to lie down on the ground. No, better, lying on the ground and chattering his teeth like a dog, he will look out and wait until all those rise. But what happened to time? Either it almost stops, so that you want to shove it with your hands, beat it with your feet, with a whip, like a lazy donkey - then it rushes madly from some mountain and takes your breath away, and your hands are looking for support in vain. There weeping Mary Magdalene. The mother of Jesus is crying. Let them cry. Do her tears mean anything now, the tears of all mothers, all women in the world! - What are tears? asks Judas, and furiously pushes motionless time, beats him with his fists, curses him like a slave. It is alien and therefore so naughty. Oh, if it belonged to Judas - but it belongs to all those weeping, laughing, chatting like in the market, it belongs to the sun, it belongs to the cross and the heart of Jesus, dying so slowly. What a mean heart Judas has! He holds it with his hand, and it shouts "Hosanna!" so loud that everyone can hear it. He presses it to the ground, and it screams: "Hosanna, hosanna!" - like a talker who scatters holy secrets in the street ... Be quiet! Be quiet! Suddenly there is a loud, broken cry, muffled cries, a hasty movement towards the cross. What is this? Got it? No, Jesus dies. And can it be? Yes, Jesus dies. Pale hands are motionless, but short convulsions run through the face, chest and legs. And can it be? Yes, he is dying. Breathing less. Stopped... No, sigh more, Jesus is still on earth. And further? No... No... No... Jesus died. It's done. Hosanna! Hosanna! Fear and dreams come true. Who will now wrest victory from the hands of Iscariot? It's done. Let all the peoples that are on earth flock to Golgotha and cry out with millions of their throats: "Hosanna, Hosanna!" - and seas of blood and tears will shed at its foot - they will find only the shameful cross and the dead Jesus. Calmly and coldly, Iscariot looks at the deceased, stops for a moment with his eyes on the cheek, which only yesterday he kissed with a farewell kiss, and slowly moves away. Now all the time belongs to him, and he walks slowly, now the whole earth belongs to him, and he steps firmly, like a ruler, like a king, like one who is infinitely and joyfully alone in this world. He notices the mother of Jesus and says to her sternly: - Are you crying, mother? Weep, weep, and for a long time all the mothers of the earth will weep with you. Until then, until we come with Jesus and destroy death. Is he insane or is he mocking, this traitor? But he is serious, and his face is stern, and his eyes do not move in insane haste, as before. Here he stops and with cold attention examines the new, small land. She has become small, and he feels all of her under his feet, looks at the small mountains, quietly reddening in the last rays of the sun, and feels the mountains under his feet, looks at the sky, which has opened its blue mouth wide, looks at the round sun, unsuccessfully trying to burn and blind - and the sky and the sun feels under his feet. Infinitely and joyfully alone, he proudly felt the impotence of all the forces acting in the world, and he threw them all into the abyss. And then he goes with calm and imperious steps. And time does not go either in front or behind, submissive, it moves along with it with all its invisible bulk. It's done. An old deceiver, coughing, smiling flatteringly, bowing endlessly, appeared before the Sanhedrin Judas from Karyota - Traitor. It was the day after the murder of Jesus, around noon. There were all of them, his judges and murderers: the aged Anna with his sons, fat and disgusting images of his father, and Caiaphas, his son-in-law, consumed by ambition, and all the other members of the Sanhedrin, who stole their names from human memory - rich and noble Sadducees, proud in their power and knowledge of the law. They met the Traitor in silence, and their arrogant faces remained motionless: as if nothing had entered. And even the smallest and most insignificant of them, to whom others did not pay attention, raised his bird-like face upwards and looked as if nothing had entered. Judas bowed, bowed, bowed, but they looked and were silent: as if not a man had entered, but only an unclean insect crawled in, which was not visible. But the man Judas from Carioth was not such a person as to be embarrassed: they were silent, but he bowed to himself and thought that if it had to be done before evening, then he would bow until evening. Finally, the impatient Caiaphas asked: "What do you need?" Judas bowed once more and said loudly: “It is I, Judas of Carioth, who betrayed Jesus of Nazareth to you.” - So what? You got yours. Go! Anna ordered, but Judas did not seem to hear the order and continued bowing. And, looking at him, Caiaphas asked Anna: - How much did they give him? - Thirty pieces of silver. Caiaphas chuckled, the gray-haired Anna himself chuckled, and a merry smile slipped over all the arrogant faces, and the one who had a bird's face even laughed. And, visibly growing pale, Judas quickly picked up: “So, so. Of course, very little, but is Judas dissatisfied, does Judas scream that he was robbed? He is pleased. Didn't he serve a holy cause? Holy. Aren't the wisest people now listening to Judas and thinking: he is ours, Judas from Carioth, he is our brother, our friend. Judas of Carioth, Traitor? Doesn't Anna want to kneel down and kiss Judas' hand? But only Judas will not give it, he is a coward, he is afraid that he will be bitten. Caiaphas said, "Keep that dog out." What is he barking? - Get out of here. We don’t have time to listen to your chatter,” Anna said indifferently. Judas straightened up and closed his eyes. That pretense, which he had so easily carried all his life, suddenly became an unbearable burden, and with one movement of his eyelashes he threw it off. And when he looked at Anna again, his gaze was simple and direct, and terrible in its naked truthfulness. But they didn't pay attention to that either. “Do you want to be kicked out with sticks?” shouted Caiaphas. Choking under the weight of the terrible words, which he lifted higher and higher to throw them from there on the heads of the judges, Judas asked hoarsely: "Do you know... you know... who he was - the one you condemned yesterday?" and crucified? - We know. Go! With a single word, he will now break through that thin film that obscures their eyes - and the whole earth will tremble under the weight of merciless truth! They had a soul - they will lose it, they had life - they will lose their life, they had a light before their eyes - eternal darkness and horror will cover them. Hosanna! Hosanna! And here they are, these terrible words, tearing the throat: - He was not a deceiver. He was innocent and pure. You hear? Judas deceived you. He betrayed you an innocent. Waiting. And he hears Anna's indifferent, senile voice: - And that's all you wanted to say? “You don’t seem to understand me,” Judas says with dignity, turning pale. “Judas deceived you. He was innocent. You killed an innocent. The one with the bird face smiles, but Anna is indifferent, Anna is bored, Anna yawns. And Caiaphas yawns after him and says wearily: - What did they tell me about the mind of Judas from Carioth? It's just a fool, a very boring fool. -- What! shouts Judas, filling himself with dark fury. “And who are you, clever ones! Judas deceived you - you hear! He did not betray him, but you, the wise, you, the strong, he betrayed a shameful death that will never end. Thirty Silvers! So-so. But this is the price of your blood, dirty, like the slop that women pour out of the gates of their houses. Ah, Anna, old, gray-haired, stupid Anna, who has swallowed the law—why didn't you give me one piece of silver, one more obol! After all, at this price you will go forever! -- Out! shouted the reddened Caiaphas. But Anna stopped him with a wave of her hand, and still indifferently asked Judas: "Is that all now?" “After all, if I go into the wilderness and shout to the beasts: beasts, have you heard how much people valued their Jesus, what will the beasts do? They will crawl out of their lairs, they will howl with anger, they will forget their fear of man and everyone will come here to devour you! If I say to the sea: the sea, do you know how much people valued their Jesus? If I say to the mountains: mountains, do you know how much people valued Jesus? And the sea and the mountains will leave their places, determined from time immemorial, and come here and fall on your heads! Doesn't Judas want to become a prophet? He speaks so loud! - the one who had a bird's face mockingly remarked, and looked ingratiatingly at Caiaphas. “Today I saw a pale sun. It looked with horror at the ground and said: where is the man? Today I saw a scorpion. He sat on a stone and laughed and said: where is the man? I got close and looked into his eyes. And he laughed and said: where is the man, tell me, I don't see! Or Judas went blind, poor Judas of Carioth! And Iscariot wept loudly. At that moment he looked like a madman, and Caiaphas, turning away, waved his hand contemptuously. Anna thought a little and said: - I see, Judas, that you really received little, and this worries you. Here's some more money, take it and give it to your children. He threw something that clinked sharply. And this sound had not yet ceased, when another, similar, strangely continued it: it was Judas throwing a handful of pieces of silver and obols into the faces of the high priest and judges, returning the payment for Jesus. Coins flew crookedly in a slanting rain, hitting faces, on the table, rolling across the floor. Some of the judges covered themselves with their hands, palms out, others, jumping up from their seats, shouted and scolded. Judas, trying to hit Anna, threw the last coin, for which his trembling hand fumbled for a long time in the bag, spat angrily and went out. -- So-so! - he muttered, quickly passing through the streets and scaring the children. - You seem to be crying. Judas? Is Caiaphas really right when he says that Judas of Carioth is stupid? He who cries on the day of great revenge is not worthy of it - do you know that. Judas? Don't let your eyes deceive you, don't let your heart lie, don't flood the fire with tears, Judas of Carioth! The disciples of Jesus sat in sad silence and listened to what was happening outside the house. There was still a danger that the revenge of the enemies of Jesus would not be limited to them alone, and everyone was waiting for the invasion of the guard and, perhaps, new executions. Near John, who, as a beloved disciple of Jesus, his death was especially hard, sat Mary Magdalene and Matthew and comforted him in an undertone. Mary, whose face was swollen with tears, quietly stroked his magnificent wavy hair with her hand, while Matthew didactically spoke in the words of Solomon: “The patient is better than the brave, and the one who controls himself is better than the conqueror of the city. At that moment, slamming the door loudly, Judas Iscariot entered. Everyone jumped up in fright and at first did not even understand who it was, but when they saw the hated face and red bumpy head, they raised a cry. Peter raised both hands and shouted: “Get out of here!” Traitor! Go away or I'll kill you! But they peered better into the face and eyes of the Traitor and fell silent, whispering in fright: Leave it! Satan got into him. After waiting for silence, Judas exclaimed loudly: "Rejoice, eyes of Judas from Carioth!" You have seen cold killers just now - and now cowardly traitors are before you! Where is Jesus? I ask you: where is Jesus? There was something authoritative in Iscariot's hoarse voice, and Foma answered meekly: "You know yourself." Judas, that our teacher was crucified last night. How did you allow this? Where was your love? You, beloved disciple, you are a stone, where were you when your friend was crucified on a tree? “What could we do, judge for yourself,” Foma spread his hands. - Is that what you're asking, Thomas? So-so! - Judas from Carioth tilted his head to one side and suddenly fell angrily: - He who loves does not ask what to do! He goes and does everything. He cries, he bites, he strangles the enemy and breaks his bones! Who loves! When your son is drowning, do you go into the city and ask passers-by: "What should I do? my son is drowning!”—and you don’t throw yourself into the water and drown next to your son. Who loves! "And you obeyed?" laughed Iscariot. "Peter, Peter, how can one listen to him! Does he understand anything in people, in struggle!" why didn't you go, Peter? Hellfire - what is hell? Well, let you go - why do you need a soul if you don't dare to throw it into the fire whenever you want! John, rising.—He himself wanted this sacrifice. And his sacrifice is beautiful!—Is there a beautiful sacrifice, what do you say, beloved disciple? Where there is a victim, there is an executioner, and there are traitors! shame on everyone. Traitors, traitors, what have you done to the earth? Now they look at it from above and below and laugh and shout: look at this earth, Jesus was crucified on it! And they spit on it - like me! Judas spat angrily on the ground . “He took all the sin of the people upon himself. His sacrifice is wonderful! John insisted. - No, you took all the sin upon yourself. Beloved student! Is it not from you that the race of traitors, the breed of cowards and liars, will begin? Blind, what have you done to the earth? You wanted to destroy her, you will soon be kissing the cross on which you crucified Jesus! So, so - Judas promises you to kiss the cross! "Judas, don't insult me!" - growled Peter, turning purple. - How could we kill all his enemies? There are so many! “And you, Peter!” exclaimed John angrily. “Don't you see that Satan has taken possession of him? Get away from us, tempter. You are full of lies! The teacher did not order to kill. “But did he forbid you to die, too?” Why are you alive when he is dead? Why do your legs walk, your tongue babble, your eyes blink when he is dead, motionless, mute? How dare your cheeks be red, John, when his are pale? How dare you shout, Peter, when he is silent? What to do, you ask Judas? And Judas answers you, beautiful, brave Judas from Carioth: to die. You had to fall on the road, by the swords, by the hands to grab the soldiers. Drown them in the sea of your blood - die, die! Let his Father himself cry out in terror when all of you enter there! Judas fell silent, raising his hand, and suddenly noticed the remnants of the meal on the table. And with a strange astonishment, curiously, as if for the first time in his life he saw food, looked at it and slowly asked: - What is it? Did you eat? Perhaps you slept too? “I was sleeping,” Peter answered meekly, lowering his head, already sensing in Judas someone who could give orders, “I slept and ate. Foma said resolutely and firmly: “That’s all wrong. Judas. Think about it: if everyone died, who would tell about Jesus? Who would carry his teaching to people if everyone died: Peter, and John, and me? - And what is the truth itself in the mouths of traitors? Doesn't she become a lie? Thomas, Thomas, don't you understand that you are now only a watchman at the tomb of dead truth. The watchman falls asleep, and the thief comes, and takes the truth with him - tell me, where is the truth? Damn you Thomas! Barren and poor you will be forever, and you are with him, damned! "Damn yourself, Satan!" shouted John, and James and Matthew and all the other disciples repeated it. Only Peter remained silent. - I'm going to him! - said Judas, stretching up his imperious hand. - Who is behind Iscariot to Jesus? -- I! I'm with you! cried Peter, getting up. But John and the others stopped him in horror, saying, “You fool! You forgot that he betrayed the teacher into the hands of enemies! Peter hit his chest with his fist and wept bitterly: “Where can I go? God! Where should I go! Judas had long ago, during his solitary walks, outlined the place where he would kill himself after the death of Jesus. It was on a mountain, high above Jerusalem, and there was only one tree standing there, crooked, tormented by the wind tearing it from all sides, half-withered. It stretched one of its broken crooked branches towards Jerusalem, as if blessing it or threatening it with something, and Judas chose it in order to make a noose on it. But it was far and difficult to go to the tree, and Judas from Carioth was very tired. All the same small sharp pebbles crumbled under his feet and seemed to be pulling him back, and the mountain was high, blown by the wind, gloomy and evil. And already several times Judas sat down to rest, and he breathed heavily, and behind him, through the clefts of the stones, the mountain breathed cold into his back. "You're still cursed!" said Judas contemptuously, and he breathed heavily, shaking his heavy head, in which all thoughts were now petrified. Then suddenly he lifted it up, opened his frozen eyes wide and muttered angrily: “No, they are too bad for Judas. Do you hear Jesus? Now will you believe me? I am going to you. Meet me kindly, I'm tired. I am very tired. Then together with you, embracing like brothers, we will return to earth. Fine? Again he shook his stony head, and again opened his eyes wide, muttering: "But perhaps you will be angry with Judas of Carioth even there?" And you won't believe? And send me to hell? Well then! I'm going to hell! And on the fire of your hell I will forge iron and destroy your sky. Fine? Then will you believe me? Then will you come back to earth with me, Jesus? Finally, Judas reached the top and the crooked tree, and then the wind began to torment him. But when Judas scolded him, he began to sing softly and quietly - the wind flew away somewhere and said goodbye. -- Good good! And they are dogs! Judas answered him, making a noose. And since the rope could deceive him and break, he hung it over the cliff - if it breaks, he will still find death on the stones. And before pushing off with his foot from the edge and hanging, Judas of Cariot warned Jesus once more with care: “So welcome me kindly, I am very tired, Jesus. And jumped. The rope was taut, but withstood: Judas's neck became thin, and his arms and legs folded and sagged, as if wet. Died. So in two days, one after another, Jesus of Nazareth and Judas from Kariot, the Betrayer, left the earth. All night long, like some kind of monstrous fruit, Judas swayed over Jerusalem, and the wind turned him now to face the city, then to the desert - as if he wanted to show both the city and the desert Judas. But, wherever the face, disfigured by death, turned, red eyes, bloodshot and now identical, like brothers, relentlessly looked into the sky. And in the morning, someone with a keen eye saw Judas hanging over the city and screamed in fright. People came and took him down, and, having found out who it was, they threw him into a deaf ravine, where they threw dead horses, cats and other carrion. And that evening, all the believers already learned about the terrible death of the Traitor, and the next day all Jerusalem learned about it. Stony Judea learned about it, and green Galilee learned about it, and to one sea and to another, which is even further away, the news of the death of the Betrayer flew. Neither faster nor quieter, but it went along with time, and just as time has no end, so there will be no end to the stories of Judas' betrayal and his terrible death. And all - good and evil - will equally curse his shameful memory, and among all the peoples, what they were, what they are, he will remain alone in his cruel fate - Judas from Carioth, the Traitor. February 24, 1907 Capri
Difficult, hard and maybe ungrateful
to approach the mystery of Judas, easier and calmer
not notice her, covering her with roses of church beauty.
S. Bulgakov 1
The story appeared in 1907, but L. Andreev mentions its idea as early as 1902. Therefore, not only the events of Russian history - the defeat of the first Russian revolution and the rejection of revolutionary ideas by many - caused the appearance of this work, but also the internal impulses of L. Andreev himself. From a historical point of view, the theme of apostasy from past revolutionary hobbies is present in the story. L. Andreev also wrote about this. However, the content of the story, especially over time, goes far beyond the specific socio-political situation. The author himself wrote about the concept of his work: "Something on the psychology, ethics and practice of betrayal", "A completely free fantasy on the theme of betrayal, good and evil, Christ and so on." The story of Leonid Andreev is an artistic philosophical and ethical study of human vice, and the main conflict is philosophical and ethical.
We must pay tribute to the artistic courage of the writer, who ventured to turn to the image of Judas, all the more so to try to understand this image. Indeed, from a psychological point of view understand means in some way to accept (in accordance with the paradoxical statement of M. Tsvetaeva understand sorry, nothing else). Leonid Andreev, of course, foresaw this danger. He wrote: the story "will be scolded both from the right and from the left, from above and from below." And he turned out to be right: the accents that were placed in his version of the gospel story ("The Gospel According to Andreev") turned out to be unacceptable for many contemporaries, among whom was L. Tolstoy: "Terrible disgusting, falsehood and lack of a sign of talent. The main thing is why ?" At the same time, the story was highly appreciated by M. Gorky, A. Blok, K. Chukovsky and many others.
Jesus as a character in the story also evoked a sharp rejection ("Jesus composed by Andreev, in general the Jesus of Renan's rationalism, the artist Polenov, but not the Gospel, a very mediocre, colorless, small person," - A. Bugrov 2), and the images of the apostles ("From the Apostles approximately nothing should remain. Just wet, "- V.V. Rozanov), and, of course, the image of the central character of "Judas Iscariot" ("... L. Andreev's attempt to present Judas as an extraordinary person, to give his actions a high motivation was doomed to failure "The result was a disgusting mixture of sadistic cruelty, cynicism and love with anguish. The work of L. Andreev, written at the time of the defeat of the revolution, at the time of black reaction, is essentially an apology for betrayal ... This is one of the most shameful pages in the history of Russian and European decadence," I.E. Zhuravskaya). There were so many derogatory reviews about the scandalous work in the critics of that time that K. Chukovsky was forced to declare: "In Russia it is better to be a counterfeiter than a famous Russian writer" 3 .
The polarity of assessments of the work of L. Andreev and his central character in literary criticism has not disappeared even today, and it is caused by the dual nature of the image of Andreev's Judas.
An unconditionally negative assessment of the image of Judas is given, for example, by L.A. Zapadova, who, having analyzed the biblical sources of the story "Judas Iscariot", warns: "Knowledge of the Bible for a full perception of the story-story and comprehending the "mysteries" of "Judas Iscariot" is necessary in different aspects. at least not to succumb to the charm of the serpentine-satanic logic of the character whose name the work is named" 4 ; M. A. Brodsky: "The rightness of Iscariot is not absolute. Moreover, by declaring the shameful natural, and conscientiousness superfluous, cynicism destroys the system of moral guidelines, without which it is difficult for a person to live. That is why the position of Andreev's Judas is devilishly dangerous." 5
Another point of view is no less widespread. For example, B.S. Bugrov claims: “The deep source of provocation [of Judas. — V.K.] is not the innate moral depravity of a person, but an inalienable property of his nature — the ability to think. Jude" 6; P. Basinsky writes in the comments to the story: “This is not an apology for betrayal (as the story was understood by some critics), but an original interpretation of the theme of love and fidelity and an attempt to present the theme of revolution and revolutionaries in an unexpected light: Judas is, as it were, the“ last ”revolutionary, blowing up the most false meaning of the universe and thus clearing the way for Christ" 7 ; R.S. Spivak states: "The semantics of the image of Judas in Andreev's story is fundamentally different from the semantics of the gospel prototype. The betrayal of Andreev's Judas is a betrayal only in fact, not in essence" 8 . And in the interpretation of Yu. Nagibin, one of the contemporary writers, Judas Iscariot is the "beloved disciple" of Jesus (see Yu. Nagibin's story "The Beloved Disciple" below).
The problem of the Gospel Judas and its interpretation in literature and art has two facets: ethical and aesthetic, and they are inextricably linked.
L. Tolstoy had in mind the ethical line when he asked the question: "the main thing is why" to turn to the image of Judas and try to understand him, to delve into his psychology? What is the moral meaning of this in the first place? The appearance in the Gospel of not only a positively beautiful personality - Jesus, the God-man, but also his antipode - Judas with his satanic beginning, who personified the universal vice of betrayal, was deeply natural. Mankind also needed this symbol for the formation of a moral coordinate system. To try to somehow look at the image of Judas differently means to attempt to revise it, and, consequently, to encroach on the system of values that has been formed over two millennia, which threatens with a moral catastrophe. Indeed, one of the definitions of culture is the following: culture is a system of restrictions, self-restraints that prohibit killing, stealing, betraying, etc. In Dante's Divine Comedy, as is known, the ethical and aesthetic coincide: Lucifer and Judas are equally ugly both ethically and aesthetically - they are anti-ethical and anti-aesthetic. Any innovations in this area can have serious not only ethical, but also socio-psychological consequences. All this gives an answer to the question why the image of Judas was banned for a long time, as if a taboo (ban) was imposed on it.
On the other hand, to abandon attempts to understand the motives of Judas' act means to agree that a person is a kind of puppet, only the forces of others act in him ("Satan entered" Judas), in this case the person and the responsibility for his actions does not carry. Leonid Andreev had the courage to think about these difficult questions, offer his own answers, knowing in advance that criticism would be harsh.
Starting to analyze the story of L. Andreev "Judas Iscariot", it is necessary to emphasize once again: a positive assessment of Judas - the gospel character - of course, is impossible. Here, the subject of analysis is the text of a work of art, and the goal is to reveal its meaning on the basis of establishing the relationships of various levels of elements of the text, or, most likely, to determine the boundaries of interpretation, in other words, the spectrum of adequacy.
This work, of course, cannot be fully experienced by reading only its summary. "Judas Iscariot" is an artistic presentation of one of the most famous biblical traditions, created by the talented writer Leonid Andreev.
The image of Judas as a key one in the work of L. Andreev
Bad rumors almost constantly hover around the personality of Judas from Carioth, he is considered one of those people from whom it is best to stay away. Followers of Jesus Christ constantly warn the Messiah about this. Judas left his wife in poverty, this man never had children - God, they said, saw his dark soul and did not want such a person to leave heirs in the world.
The picture is complemented by the appearance of Judas. Unpleasant, "annoyingly liquid" voice; a face, as if sewn from two halves. One is in constant motion, dotted with many wrinkles, with a sharp black eye, and the second, distinguished by a deadly smoothness and frightening the gaze with a wide, open, eye-covered eye. Even the appearance of this man instilled distrust and a sense of anxiety in those around him.
Relationship between Judas and other disciples of Christ
The story continues, which means that our summary also moves forward. "Judas Iscariot" is a story that cannot be imagined without describing the attitude of other disciples of Christ towards the protagonist. A certain squeamishness dominates in their attitude. Peter equates him with an octopus, and the disposition of the disciples towards Judas is purely feigned. Judas himself is constantly slandering. He claims that absolutely every person commits a crime or at least one bad deed in his life, and people who are called good simply skillfully hide their thoughts and actions. When Judas is asked about his parents, he replies that his father is a goat or Satan. Nevertheless, Jude claims that he sincerely, with all his heart, loves Christ. Over time, something remotely resembling friendship appears between him and Thomas. In the latter, the personality of Judas arouses the strongest curiosity.
Some important episodes
More and more new events show the reader how different the characters of the characters are. You can see this even after reading the summary. "Judas Iscariot" brings us to the moment when Jesus trusts Judas to manage household affairs, collect donations, and so on. Every time Jesus and his disciples go to another village, Judas slanders the locals and assures them that trouble will happen, that after Christ's departure people will misinterpret all his words. Once, for the sake of interest, Thomas decides to check the veracity of the prediction of Judas. He returns to the settlement and is convinced that Iscariot is right. The next time, the inhabitants of the village met Christ with hostility, even set out to stone the disciples. Judas saved Jesus by drawing the attention of the crowd to himself with clownish cries, entreaties and threats. However, the Messiah never praises his disciple.
There are a few more points that should be included in the summary. "Judas Iscariot" is a work that becomes truly alive and allows you to fully plunge into the atmosphere of events. For example, Andreev very vividly portrays the competition in strength, which the disciples of Christ staged during one of the stops. The essence of the competition was to throw heavy stones down the mountain. Peter is recognized as the strongest, but then Judas appears and takes the laurels of the winner for himself.
While the conversation is going on in the house of Lazarus, Judas stands at the door and gazes fixedly at Jesus. Matthew speaks words from Scripture and demands that he step aside. Jesus gets up from his seat and goes straight to Judas, as if wanting to say something to him, but walks past through the wide open door.
Judah steals some denarii. Thomas tells the others about this, and the disciples reproach Iscariot for the theft. Jesus, on the contrary, says that there is neither one's own nor someone else's, and therefore Judas can not be embarrassed in the means, if there is a need for it. Later, Judas tells Thomas that he gave the stolen money to a harlot, for two days, since he was with him.
Judas decides to betray his teacher
John and Peter take turns asking Judas which of them, in his opinion, will be the first in the Kingdom of Heaven next to Jesus. Separately, Iscariot flatters both, however, when the disciples ask him the same question at the same time, Judas replies that the first near Jesus will be none other than himself.
Many other moments were colorfully and emotionally richly described by "Judas Iscariot", a summary of which is the topic of our conversation today, is gradually approaching the climax. The protagonist goes to the high priest Anna. Anna meets the guest harshly, refuses to take Jesus, fearing the intercession of believers and disciples. Iscariot is forced to visit the high priest several times to convince him of the need to betray Christ. When it comes to the price, Judas bargains long and petty, and finally agrees to the amount of thirty pieces of silver.
During the last days of Jesus' life, the traitor surrounds Christ with touching caress and care. He foresees any wishes of the teacher, brings beautiful flowers to him and passes them through women, puts little children on Jesus' knees, buys expensive wine, starts a conversation about Galilee, dear to the heart of Christ. In addition, Judas warns other students about the need to protect the teacher and obtains two swords for this purpose.
How the Disciples Behave When the Guards Catch Jesus
Finally, Jesus enters Jerusalem. He already anticipates trouble and speaks of betrayal. At night, Judas asks Jesus to order him to stay, not to go and not to betray him. In response, the teacher is silent. The guards appear. Judas betrays Christ with a kiss. The students stand like “a bunch of frightened lambs”, they run in fear, not even trying to stand up for the teacher. Peter, a few hours later, denies Christ three times. Judas follows on the heels of Jesus, but until the very moment of execution he does not see any of the disciples nearby. With contempt, fear and hatred, everyone calls Iscariot a traitor. Judas appears at Pilate's trial and meets Thomas there. Iscariot asks to repel Jesus, but Thomas is so frightened that he is not able to act decisively, he trusts too much the "righteous court". Judas realizes that the only person who understood Christ is Pilate, but he is powerless against the crowd insisting on the crucifixion and publicly washes his hands.
Judas follows Jesus all the way to Golgotha. Until the very last moment, he believes that people will come to their senses, and the teacher will not be crucified.
After crucifixion
After the execution, Judas appeared before the Sanhedrin. Caiaphas and Anna give him more money and try to push him away. Jude says that he betrayed the innocent, and therefore betrayed the entire Sanhedrin "to a shameful death that will never end." Iscariot throws handfuls of money in the faces of the judges. The disciples of Christ at this moment are in sad silence and fear that the guards will come for them. Judas comes to them and reproaches the followers of Jesus for betrayal. Those, in turn, curse him.
Jude tells the disciples that he is going to follow Jesus and invites them to join. Peter tries to follow Iscariot, but the others hold him back. Peter cries in confusion, not knowing where to go after all.
High above Jerusalem, standing on a mountain, Judas stops and turns to Christ with a speech in which he asks the teacher not to be angry and notes that he is terribly tired. Iscariot says that for the sake of his love for Christ, he is ready to go even to hell. He hangs a rope over a cliff, so that if it fails, it will break on the stones below. In the morning, people appear, pull Judas out of the noose and throw the body into the ravine.
Results
"Judas Iscariot", the content of which was presented in this article, is a bold and unconventional interpretation of the gospel story. Andreev's negative attitude towards Christianity left its mark on the work as a whole, but this is what allowed him to make his creation so powerful psychologically. In the work, the love and faith of the eleven disciples are just a price to pay for the right to enter the kingdom of heaven after death and for a place near Christ. The apostles concentrate on self-contemplation and self-improvement, while Judas himself is presented as a kind of mediator between Jesus and humanity. His betrayal is an experiment. Judas wants to find out if any of the students can sacrifice their lives to save the teacher's life. This is confirmed by the fact that it was Judas who brought the weapon, warned of the danger threatening Christ, and after death invited all the disciples to follow Jesus.
There is much in common between the images of Christ and Judas in Andreev's work. Jude believes that any person, even such as Jesus, is alone in this world.
