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Judas 1988 - Hörspiel

April 3, 2026·1 hr 20 min·5 clips

Judas describes the Last Supper moment when Jesus looked directly at him and confirmed 'yes, you are it' — and Judas felt his heart 'cramp like a stone' before running into the night.

1. Judas 1988 is a German Hörspiel (radio play) presenting the Passion narrative entirely from the perspective of Judas Iscariot, framed through scenes at his father's Judean farmhouse. 2. The cast includes Judas, his father Simon son of Sadok, his mother Rebecca, siblings, neighbor Thaddeus, Roman centurion Marcius, the high priest Caiaphas, and a mysterious unnamed pilgrim who serves as the play's theological conscience. 3. The central dramatic question is whether Judas's betrayal of Jesus was treachery, a divine command, or — most unsettlingly — both simultaneously. 4. The play opens with centurion Marcius arriving at Simon's farm to search for Judas and reveals that the real target is Jesus of Nazareth, accused of revolutionary agitation, temple disturbances, and prophesying the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. 5. Marcius offers Judas a deal through his father: identify where Jesus is hiding, and go free; Simon reluctantly agrees to pass on the message and instructs Judas to go to the palace and ask for 'centurion Marcius.' 6. Judas returns home for Passover, hidden in a pilgrim's hay cart, and the family reunion is warm — his siblings have grown up, Rebecca has been 'crying and working,' and the younger brothers compete over who is the tallest. 7. The family discusses Jesus's teachings: the Beatitudes, love of enemies ('if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the left'), and the paradox that loving those who already love you 'does not count.' 8. Judas defends Jesus against his father and neighbor Thaddeus, citing the healing of Jairus's daughter and the raising of Lazarus, which he says he witnessed and 'even touched.' 9. Simon orders Judas to betray Jesus to Marcius, invoking paternal authority: 'The command of the father is holy.' Judas refuses, saying he would rather die than betray his master. 10. The mysterious pilgrim presents the theological argument from Isaiah and the Abraham-Isaac parallel: if Jesus is the Messiah, he cannot be captured without willing it; the words 'what you must do, do it soon' may have been a divine command, not a prediction. 11. Judas's first-person account of the Last Supper is given to the pilgrim: Jesus announced betrayal mid-meal; each disciple asked 'Master, am I it?'; Jesus looked directly at Judas, confirmed it, and said 'what you must do, do it soon,' sending Judas running into the night. 12. When Caiaphas and the high priests arrive, Judas negotiates the price — insisting against gold and against varying silver amounts until the count reaches exactly thirty coins, citing Jeremiah's prophecy about 'thirty silver coins as the price of the one offered.' 13. His father Simon contributes the final coin to complete the thirty, making the family complicit in the transaction they tried to engineer for different reasons. 14. Judas explains his plan to Caiaphas: he will lead the soldiers to the garden, kneel before Jesus, touch his shoulder to wake him as a signal, then kiss him as 'a sign of love and obedience.' 15. At the crucifixion sequence, Judas watches with his family from a distance as Jesus is beaten, the cross carried by another man, and the nailing carried out. 16. Marcius tells Pilate that from the cross Jesus said 'forgive them, they don't know what they do,' asked for water, smiled at him — and that after throwing his lance, three drops of blood fell on his hand: 'And then I knew he was the Son of God.' 17. Judas returns the thirty silver coins to Caiaphas, saying: 'When I took these coins I believed I was obeying God. I now know I have the blood of the righteous on me.' 18. Caiaphas retorts: 'You only commit the crime if you doubt him. If he was the Messiah, why did he have to suffer?' A soldier answers: 'He had to tear our hearts open to put the good in us.' 19. The tone alternates between domestic realism — the smells of a Judean farm, Rebecca's bread, the youngest brother's growth — and dense theological disputation, without using either to soften the other. 20. Listeners drawn to moral philosophy, religious drama, and the tradition of Passion retellings from unexpected perspectives will find the radio play consistently rigorous; those expecting Biblical straightforwardness will find the ambiguity about Judas's guilt deliberately unresolved.

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