The Gospel According to Judas by Benjamin Iscariot by Jeffrey Archer Page B

of Israel by colluding with the pagans to ensure that they remained in office and retained their vested privileges.
    21. The Essenes also disapproved of the Pharisees, who they believed were no longer interpreting the fine traditions of Israel.
    22. In contrast, the Essenes devoted their lives to re-enacting the desert experience of the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.
    23. They awaited the coming of the Messiah, who would surely vanquish all God’s enemies before ascending the throne on that great and terrible day when the kingdom of Israel would be restored to the Jewish people.
    24. Although Judas devoted the rest of his life to working with the Essenes, not a day passed when he did not fall on his knees and mourn the death of Jesus.

Chapter 25
The sins of the father
    1. I had not seen my father since I was a child of eight years, when he left for Jerusalem as a trusted disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
    2. I would never have discovered his fate had not a wandering preacher who was passing through Kerioth told me that he had come across my father while visiting Khirbet Qumran.
    3. Within days, and with the blessing of my family, I left to make the long journey across the Judean desert to the Salt Sea, so that I might be reunited with my father.
    4. The Essenes reluctantly allowed me to enter their gates, but not before I had been able to convince them that I was the first born of Judas Iscariot.
    5. When I first saw my father I did not recognize him, for he had grown old and did not know me.
    6. Once Abba had accepted that I was his son, he warned me that I could only stay for a month and a day, unless I was willing to enrol with the Essenes, and spend the rest of my life in the solitude of the desert preparing for the coming of the Messiah.
    [xxxv]
    7. It was not until the third day that I asked my father to explain why he had not returned to Kerioth to defend his good name.
    8. Abba believed that his very presence would continually remind all around him of the unwitting role he had played in the death of Jesus.
    9. He could also never forget Peter’s parting words: It would be better for you not to have been born .
    Mark 14:21;
Matt 26:24
    10. Once he had told me of that final encounter with Peter, he made no further reference to his days as a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth.
    11. He only seemed interested to talk about our family and what had become of them.
    12. I did not answer all the questions Abba put to me, as I had no desire to acquaint him with the fact that even distant relatives were daily reminded that they shared the same blood as Judas Iscariot, the disciple who had betrayed Jesus.
    13. I did tell him that my mother had given up her spirit at the age of two score years and three, after two of my brothers had fled from Israel to live in far-off lands.
    14. Later, I admitted that none of my sisters was married, and I had yet to produce a son.
    15. Abba’s only response was that the sins of the father would surely be visited on the third and fourth generation .
    Deut 5:9
    16. With each new revelation, Abba became more and more desolate.
    17. For days, no words passed his lips, and I feared for his life.
    18. It was not until the eleventh day that he began to speak again, and then only to acquaint me with his work during those years of self-imposed exile at Khirbet Qumran.
    19. He and his fellow Essenes had laboured night and day to build a library of scrolls that would ensure that the history of the Jewish people would not be lost, however long the pagan invaders inhabited the Holy Land.
    20. Moreover, the Romans had become more and more authoritarian after their informers had warned them of a possibleuprising among the people.
    [xxxvi]
    21. Titus had issued an edict declaring that all establishments that refused to open their gates to the Romans were to be razed to the ground and their inhabitants sentenced to death for defying the authority of Caesar.
    see
Josephus,
Jewish War
VI.