Were There Any Other Betrayers of Jesus Besides Judas?
There were some other people who betrayed Jesus besides Judas, but none as famous as him. Some examples are: 😊
1. Caiphas, the high priest of the Jews, not only wanted to arrest and condemn Jesus, but also wanted to kill Him to stop the spread of faith in Him. Caiphas feared that if Jesus continued His ministry, the Romans would come and take away both their power and their nation.
Caiphas regarded Jesus as a deceiver, a self-proclaimed Son of God and King of the Jews. Caiphas did not believe in the miracles that Jesus performed, but thought that He used the power of the devil to act. Caiphas also hated Jesus because He criticized the hypocrites and the greedy like him.
Caiphas used every means to find a pretext to accuse Jesus, and finally bribed Judas, one of His disciples, to show them where He was. Caiphas organized a mock trial to interrogate Jesus, and when He admitted that He was the Savior, he accused Him of blasphemy and asked the Romans to crucify Him.
2. Pontius Pilate,
was the fifth governor of the Roman province of Judea from 26 to 36 AD under the emperor Tiberius. He was the highest authority in the region and had jurisdiction over criminal cases. He was also responsible for maintaining order and security, and dealing with the rebellions of the Jews against the Roman domination.
According to the Gospels, when Jesus was arrested and brought before Pilate with the accusation of being the king of the Jews, he did not find Him guilty of anything worthy of death. However, he also did not want to provoke the anger of the Jewish crowd, so he tried to avoid making a decision. When he learned that Jesus was from Galilee, he sent Him to King Herod, who ruled that area. But Herod also did not judge Him and sent Him back to Pilate.
Pilate continued to look for a way to release Jesus by taking advantage of a custom of pardoning a prisoner on the occasion of Passover. He let the crowd choose between Jesus and Barabbas, a notorious criminal. He hoped that they would choose to pardon Jesus, but they cried out to kill Him and pardon Barabbas. Pilate washed his hands to indicate that he was not responsible for the death of Jesus, and ordered the Roman soldiers to take Him away and crucify Him.
According to some historical sources, after executing Jesus, Pilate had many difficulties in managing Judea. He was summoned by the Roman emperor to Rome to explain his actions. It is not clear whether he survived or died afterwards.
3. Peter
After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to the apostles and talked to them. Once, when the apostles were fishing on the Sea of Tiberias, He called them to the shore and had breakfast with them.
After the meal, He took Peter aside and asked him three times: “Simon, do you love me?”. Each time Peter answered: “Lord, you know that I love you”, He said: “Feed my lambs”. In this way, He gave Peter the opportunity to repair his three denials of Him before. He also entrusted Peter with the responsibility of taking care of His flock, that is, those who believe in Him.
He also prophesied to Peter that he would suffer for His name. He said: “When you were young, you dressed yourself and went wherever you wanted. But when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go”. This meant that Peter would be martyred for his loyalty to Jesus. Then He said to him: “Follow me”.
And Peter followed Him throughout his life, preaching the Gospel everywhere and finally being crucified upside down in Rome.
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