The Name That Contains the Wound

Part 4 of 8

 

He Was Not Named Judas

The one who handed Yeshua over to those who would kill him was not named Judas.

His name was Yehudah.

That single act of translation, Yehudah into Judas, is one of the most consequential name-changes in the history of Western civilization. Because Judas is a villain. Judas is a byword for treachery in virtually every language that received the Greek New Testament. The name itself became the accusation. To call someone a Judas is to call them a betrayer. The name was so thoroughly identified with treachery that it disappeared from use as a given name in European Christian culture for centuries.

Yehudah is something else entirely.

 

What Yehudah Means

Yehudah is one of the twelve sons of Jacob, the fourth son, born to Leah. His name in Hebrew means: YHWH is praised. It is a name of worship. A name of covenant. A name that carries the divine name within it.

It is also the name of the tribe. The tribe of Yehudah became the royal tribe, the tribe of David, the tribe of the kings, the tribe from which the promise of an eternal ruler descended. The scepter would not depart from Yehudah. The lawgiver would not leave from between his feet until Shiloh came. From Yehudah’s line came the promise of a ruler whose reign would not end.

And it is from that promise, through that tribe, that Yeshua himself descended according to the flesh. The Lion of the tribe of Yehudah. That is the title. That is the lineage. That is the name.

Yehudah means: YHWH is praised. It is the name of the tribe. The name of the royal line. The name of the Lion.

And the name of the one who handed him over.

 

The Unbearable Tension

Read this slowly. The one who handed the Lion of the tribe of Yehudah over to death bore the name of that very tribe. In Hebrew, these are not two separate words with a historical connection. They are the same word. The betrayer and the bloodline carry identical names.

The Lion of Yehudah was handed over by Yehudah. The tribe whose name means YHWH is praised produced both the Messiah and the man who made the arrangement that led to his death. The promise and the betrayal share a name. The covenant and the crisis share a root.

This is not a contradiction to be resolved. It is a theological tension to be inhabited. It is the entire story of institutional Judaism’s relationship to Yeshua compressed into one man’s name.

 

The Gospel Revolution  •  Mike Williams Ministries

William Ethan Massengill  •  Michael Lilborn Williams  •  Daniel Thomas Rouse

Published by Audrey Williams