Judas Iscariot read the full content. Leonid Andreev - Judas Iscariot

Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Kerioth was a man of very bad reputation and should be avoided. 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 selfish, treacherous, prone to pretense and lies, then the bad ones, who were asked about Judas, reviled him with the most cruel words. “He constantly quarrels with us,” they said, spitting, “he thinks of something of his own and gets into the house quietly, like a scorpion, and comes out of 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 himself steals skillfully, and his appearance is uglier than all the inhabitants of Judea. No, he is not ours, this red-haired Judas from Kariot,” said the bad ones, surprising the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judea.

They further said that Judas abandoned his wife a long time ago, and she lives unhappy and hungry, unsuccessfully trying to squeeze out bread for food from the three stones that make up Judas’s estate. He himself has been wandering around senselessly among the people for many years and has even reached one sea and another sea, which is even further away, and everywhere he lies, makes faces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief's eye, and suddenly leaves suddenly, leaving behind troubles and quarrel - curious, crafty and evil, like a one-eyed demon. He had no children, and this once again said that Judas was a bad person and God did not want offspring from Judas.

But Jesus did not listen to their advice, their prophetic voice did not touch his ears. With that spirit of bright contradiction that irresistibly attracted him to the rejected and unloved, he decisively accepted Judas and included him in the circle of the chosen. The disciples were worried and grumbled restrainedly, but he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, maybe to them, or maybe to something else. There had been no wind for ten days, and the same transparent air, attentive and sensitive, remained the same, without moving or changing. And it seemed as if he had preserved in his transparent depths everything that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, crying and a cheerful song. prayer and curses, and these glassy, frozen voices made him so heavy, anxious, thickly saturated with invisible life. And once again the sun set. It rolled down heavily like a flaming ball, lighting up the sky, and everything on earth that was turned towards it: the dark face of Jesus, the walls of houses and the leaves of trees - everything obediently 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 fearfully stretching his ugly, lumpy head forward - just the way those who knew him imagined him. He was thin, of good height, almost the same as Jesus, who stooped slightly from the habit of thinking while walking and this made him seem shorter, and he was quite strong in strength, apparently, but for some reason he pretended to be frail and sickly and had a voice changeable: sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes loud, like an old woman scolding her husband, annoyingly thin and unpleasant to hear, and often I wanted to pull the words of Judas out of my 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 a sword and put back together again, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety: behind such a skull there cannot be silence and harmony, behind such a skull there is always the sound of bloody and merciless battles can be heard. Judas’s face was also double: one side of it, with a black, sharply looking eye, was alive, 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 turbidity, not closing either at night or during the day, he equally met both light and darkness, but whether it was because there was 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 swayed along with the movements of his head and looked silently. Even people completely devoid of insight clearly understood, looking at Iscariot, that such a person could not bring good, but Jesus brought him closer and even sat Judas next to him.

John, his beloved student, moved away with disgust, and everyone else, loving their teacher, looked down disapprovingly. And Judas sat down - and, moving his head to the right and to the left, in a thin voice began to complain about illness, that his chest hurts at night, that, when climbing mountains, he suffocates, and standing at the edge of an abyss, he feels dizzy and can barely hold on from a stupid desire to throw himself down. And he shamelessly invented many other things, as if not understanding that illnesses do not come to a person by chance, but are born from the discrepancy between his actions and the precepts of the Eternal. This Judas from Kariot rubbed his chest with a wide palm and even coughed feignedly in the general silence and downcast gaze.

Leonid ANDREEV

JUDAS ISCARIOT

PUBLISHER'S LIBRARY

Angel de Coitiers

Angel de Coitiers begins each of his books with a prologue. And this is always a story - about the life of the creator and the mystery of his creation. Linked together, they lift the veil that hides the space of truth.

Anyone who is able to write a story can be a writer; only one who opens his soul in this story can be a genius. And no matter what form this revelation takes - in the form of a fairy tale or a philosophical work - it always testifies to the truth. The author is its passionate seeker, passionate about life, merciless to himself and reverently kind in his attitude towards us. He is the one to whom we pay our admiration.

The books of the Library are a true treasury of the spirit. Our usual feelings acquire volume in them, thoughts - severity, and actions - meaning. Each testifies to something personal, intimate, touches the subtlest strings of the soul... These books are intended for sensitive hearts.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

“Judas Iscariot” by Leonid Andreev is one of the greatest works of Russian and world literature. It is addressed to a person. It makes you think about what true love, true faith and fear of death are. Leonid Andreev seems to be asking - aren’t we confusing anything here? Isn't the fear of death hiding behind our faith? And how much faith is there in our love? Think and feel.

“Judas Iscariot” is one of the greatest works of art, which, unfortunately, not many people know about. Why? Most likely there are two reasons...

Firstly, the hero of the book is Judas Iscariot. He's a traitor. He sold Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver. He is the worst of all the worst people who have ever lived on this planet. Is it possible to treat him differently? It is forbidden! Leonid Andreev tempts us. It is not right. And somehow it’s even ashamed to read something else... How is Judas Iscariot good?! Rave! Rave! Can't be!

However, there is a second reason why “Judas Iscariot” by Leonid Andreev is so undeservedly, and perhaps even deliberately, forgotten by everyone. It is hidden deeper, and it is even scarier... Imagine for a second that Judas is a good person. And not just good, but moreover, the first among the best, closest to Christ. Think about it... It's scary. It’s scary because it’s not clear who we are if he’s good?!

Yes, when such questions are raised in a work, it is difficult for it to count on a place in the anthology and at least a couple of hours in the school curriculum. No need.

* * *

Of course, “Judas Iscariot” by Leonid Andreev is not a theological work. Not at all. His book has absolutely nothing to do with faith, or with the church, or with biblical characters as such. The author simply invites us to look at a well-known plot from a different perspective. He makes us see a frightening abyss where everything has already been explained to us, where everything already seemed absolutely clear and definite to us. “You were in a hurry,” Leonid Andreev seems to be saying.

It seems to us that we can always accurately determine a person’s motives. For example, if Judas betrays Christ, then, we reason, he is a bad person, and he does not believe in the Messiah. It's so obvious! And the fact that the apostles give Christ to the Pharisees and Romans to be torn to pieces is because they, on the contrary, believe in Jesus. He will be crucified, and He will rise again. And everyone will believe. It's so obvious!

But what if it's the other way around?... What if the apostles simply chickened out? Are they afraid because, in fact, they do not believe in their Teacher? What if Judas never thought of betraying Christ? But he only fulfilled His request - he took upon himself the heavy cross of a “traitor” in order to make people wake up?

You can’t kill an innocent person, Judas argues, but is Christ guilty of something? No. And when people understand this, they will stand on the side of Good - they will protect Christ from reprisals, but in fact they will protect the Good that is in themselves!

For more than two thousand years, believers have been kissing the cross, saying: “Save and preserve!” We are accustomed to thinking that Christ went to death to atone for our sins. Essentially, he sacrifices himself for us, with our tacit consent. Wait... But if your loved one decided to do such an act, wouldn't you stop him? Would you have allowed him to die? Wouldn't you put your head on the block?

If you were faced with a choice - your life or the life of the person you love, you would, without hesitation, part with yours. If, of course, you truly love... Did the apostles love their Teacher?... Did they believe themselves when they said: “We love You, Teacher!” What did they believe?...

No, this is not a theological book. It's about faith, about love, about fear.

* * *

“Judas Iscariot” was written by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev in 1907. The writer was thirty-six years old, a little more than ten years remained before his death. He had already heard the flattering words of the famous Russian philosopher Vasily Rozanov addressed to him: “Leonid Andreev tore the veil of fantasy from reality and showed it as it is”; to lose his dearly beloved wife who died in childbirth; go to prison for providing his apartment for a meeting of the Central Committee of the RSDLP and, not being a convinced revolutionary, end up in political exile.

In general, the whole life of Leonid Andreev seems to be a strange, absurd accumulation of contradictory facts. He graduated from law school and became a writer. He made several attempts on his life (as a result of which he acquired chronic heart failure, from which he later died); suffered from depression, and became famous for his feuilletons and gave the impression of “a healthy, invariably cheerful person, capable of living, laughing at the hardships of life.” He was persecuted for his connections with the Bolsheviks, but he could not stand Vladimir Lenin. He was highly valued by Maxim Gorky and Alexander Blok, who could not stand each other. Leonid Andreev's paintings were praised by Ilya Repin and Nicholas Roerich, but his artistic gift remained unclaimed.

Korney Chukovsky, who wrote the most subtle and accurate biographical notes about the creators of the Silver Age, said that Leonid Andreev has a “sense of world emptiness.” And when you read “Judas Iscariot,” you begin to understand what this “feeling of world emptiness” means. Leonid Andreev makes you cry. But I think that with these tears a person is born in the emptiness of the world...

Publisher

JUDAS ISCARIOT

None of the disciples noticed when this red-haired and ugly Jew first appeared near Christ, but for a long time he had been relentlessly following their path, interfering in conversations, providing small services, bowing, smiling and ingratiating himself. And then it became completely familiar, deceiving tired vision, then suddenly it caught the eyes and ears, irritating them, like something unprecedentedly ugly, deceitful and disgusting. Then they drove him away with harsh words, and for a short time he disappeared somewhere along the road - and then quietly appeared again, helpful, flattering and cunning, like a one-eyed demon. And there was no doubt for some of the disciples that in his desire to get closer to Jesus there was hidden some secret intention, 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 that irresistibly attracted him to the rejected and unloved, he decisively accepted Judas and included him in the circle of the elect. The disciples were worried and grumbled restrainedly, but he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, maybe to them, or maybe to something else. There had been no wind for ten days, and the same transparent air, attentive and sensitive, remained the same, without moving or changing. And it seemed as if he had preserved in his transparent depths everything that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, crying and a cheerful song, prayer and curses, and from these glassy, frozen voices he was so heavy , alarming, densely saturated with invisible life. And once again the sun set. It rolled down heavily like a flaming ball, lighting up the sky, and everything on earth that was turned towards it: the dark face of Jesus, the walls of houses and the leaves of trees - everything obediently 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.

The story “Judas Iscariot,” a summary of which is presented in this article, is based on a biblical story. Nevertheless, Maxim Gorky, even before the publication of the work, said that it would be understood by few and would cause a lot of noise.

Leonid Andreev

This is a rather controversial author. Andreev’s work was unknown to readers in Soviet times. Before we begin to present a brief summary of “Judas Iscariot” - a story that evokes both admiration and indignation - let us recall the main and most interesting facts from the writer’s biography.

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev was an extraordinary and very emotional person. While a law student, he began to abuse alcohol. For some time, the only source of income for Andreev was painting portraits to order: he was not only a writer, but also an artist.

In 1894, Andreev tried to commit suicide. An unsuccessful shot led to the development of heart disease. For five years, Leonid Andreev was engaged in advocacy. His literary fame came to him in 1901. But even then he evoked conflicting feelings among readers and critics. Leonid Andreev greeted the 1905 revolution with joy, but soon became disillusioned with it. After the separation of Finland, he ended up in exile. The writer died abroad in 1919 from heart disease.

The history of the creation of the story “Judas Iscariot”

The work was published in 1907. The plot ideas came to the writer during his stay in Switzerland. In May 1906, Leonid Andreev told one of his colleagues that he was going to write a book on the psychology of betrayal. He managed to realize his plan in Capri, where he went after the death of his wife.

“Judas Iscariot,” a summary of which is presented below, was written within two weeks. The author demonstrated the first edition to his friend Maxim Gorky. He drew the author's attention to historical and factual errors. Andreev re-read the New Testament more than once and made changes to the story. During the writer’s lifetime, the story “Judas Iscariot” was translated into English, German, French and other languages.

A man of ill repute

None of the apostles noticed the appearance of Judas. How did he manage to gain the trust of the Teacher? Jesus Christ was warned many times that he was a man of very ill repute. You should beware of him. Judas was condemned not only by “right” people, but also by scoundrels. He was the worst of the worst. When the disciples asked Judas what motivated him to do terrible things, he answered that every person is a sinner. What he said was consistent with the words of Jesus. No one has the right to judge another.

This is the philosophical problem of the story “Judas Iscariot”. The author, of course, did not make his hero positive. But he put the traitor on a par with the disciples of Jesus Christ. Andreev’s idea could not but cause a resonance in society.

The disciples of Christ asked Judas more than once about who his father was. He answered that he didn’t know, maybe the devil, a rooster, a goat. How can he know everyone with whom his mother shared a bed? Such answers shocked the apostles. Judas insulted his parents, which meant he was doomed to death.

One day a crowd attacks Christ and his disciples. They are accused of stealing a kid. But a man who will very soon betray his teacher rushes at the crowd with the words that the teacher is not at all possessed by a demon, he just loves money just like everyone else. Jesus leaves the village in anger. His disciples follow him, cursing Judas. But this small, disgusting man, worthy only of contempt, wanted to save them...

Theft

Christ trusts Judas to keep his savings. But he is hiding several coins, which the students, of course, soon find out about. But Jesus does not condemn the unlucky disciple. After all, the apostles should not count the coins that his brother appropriated. Their reproaches only offend him. This evening Judas Iscariot is very cheerful. Using his example, the Apostle John understood what love for one's neighbor is.

Thirty pieces of silver

During the last days of his life, Jesus surrounds with affection the one who betrays him. Judas is helpful with his disciples - nothing should interfere with his plan. An event will soon take place, thanks to which his name will forever remain in the memory of people. It will be called almost as often as the name of Jesus.

After the execution

When analyzing Andreev’s story “Judas Iscariot,” it is worth paying special attention to the ending of the work. The apostles suddenly appear before readers as cowardly and cowardly people. After the execution, Judas addresses them with a sermon. Why didn't they save Christ? Why didn’t they attack the guards in order to rescue the Teacher?

Judas will forever remain in people's memory as a traitor. And those who were silent when Jesus was crucified will be revered. After all, they carry the Word of Christ across the earth. This is the summary of Judas Iscariot. In order to make an artistic analysis of the work, you should still read the story in its entirety.

The meaning of the story "Judas Iscariot"

Why did the author depict a negative biblical character from such an unusual perspective? “Judas Iscariot” by Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev is, according to many critics, one of the greatest works of Russian classics. The story makes the reader think, first of all, about what true love, true faith and fear of death are. The author seems to be asking what is hidden behind faith, is there a lot of true love in it?

The image of Judas in the story “Judas Iscariot”

The hero of Andreev's book is a traitor. Judas sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver. He is the worst person who has ever lived on our planet. Is it possible to feel compassion for him? Of course not. The writer seems to be tempting the reader.

But it is worth remembering that Andreev’s story is by no means a theological work. The book has nothing to do with the church or faith. The author simply invited readers to look at a well-known plot from a different, unusual side.

A person is mistaken in believing that he can always accurately determine the motives of another’s behavior. Judas betrays Christ, which means he is a bad person. This suggests that he does not believe in the Messiah. The apostles hand over the teacher to the Romans and Pharisees to be torn to pieces. And they do this because they believe in their teacher. Jesus will rise again and people will believe in the Savior. Andreev suggested looking at the actions of both Judas and the faithful disciples of Christ differently.

Judas madly loves Christ. However, he feels that those around him do not value Jesus enough. And he provokes the Jews: he betrays his beloved teacher in order to test the strength of the people's love for him. Judas will be severely disappointed: the disciples have fled, and the people are demanding that Jesus be killed. Even Pilate’s words that he did not find Christ guilty were not heard by anyone. The crowd is out for blood.

This book caused outrage among believers. Not surprising. The apostles did not snatch Christ from the clutches of the guards not because they believed in him, but because they were cowardly - this is, perhaps, the main idea of Andreev’s story. After the execution, Judas turns to his disciples with reproaches, and at this moment he is not at all vile. It seems that there is truth in his words.

Judas took upon himself a heavy cross. He became a traitor, thereby forcing people to wake up. Jesus said that you cannot kill a guilty person. But wasn't his execution a violation of this postulate? Andreev puts words into the mouth of Judas, his hero, that he might have wanted to utter himself. Didn't Christ go to his death with the silent consent of his disciples? Judas asks the apostles how they could allow his death. They have nothing to answer. They are silent in confusion.

Current page: 1 (book has 5 pages in total)

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev
Judas Iscariot

1

Jesus Christ was warned many times that Judas of Kerioth was a man of very bad reputation and should be avoided. Some of the disciples who were in Judea knew him well themselves, many had 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 selfish, treacherous, prone to pretense and lies, then the bad ones, who were asked about Judas, reviled him with the most cruel words. “He constantly quarrels with us,” they said, spitting, “he thinks of something of his own and gets into the house quietly, like a scorpion, and comes out of 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 himself steals skillfully and is uglier in appearance than all the inhabitants of Judea. No, he is not ours, this red-haired Judas from Kariot,” said the bad ones, surprising the good people, for whom there was not much difference between him and all the other vicious people of Judea.

They further said that Judas abandoned his wife a long time ago and she lives unhappy and hungry, unsuccessfully trying to squeeze out bread for food from the three stones that make up Judas’s estate. He himself wandered around senselessly among the people for many years and even reached one sea and another sea, which was even further; and everywhere he lies, grimaces, vigilantly looks out for something with his thief's eye; and suddenly leaves suddenly, leaving behind troubles and quarrels - curious, crafty and evil, like a one-eyed demon. He had no children, and this once again said that Judas was a bad person and God did 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 now he had been relentlessly following their path, interfering in conversations, providing small services, bowing, smiling and ingratiating himself. And then it became completely familiar, deceiving tired vision, then suddenly it caught the eyes and ears, irritating them, like something unprecedentedly ugly, deceitful and disgusting. Then they drove him away with stern words, and for a short time he disappeared somewhere along the road - and then quietly appeared again, helpful, flattering and cunning, like a one-eyed demon. And there was no doubt for some of the disciples that in his desire to get closer to Jesus there was hidden some secret intention, 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 that irresistibly attracted him to the rejected and unloved, he decisively accepted Judas and included him in the circle of the chosen. The disciples were worried and grumbled restrainedly, but he sat quietly, facing the setting sun, and listened thoughtfully, maybe to them, or maybe to something else. There had been no wind for ten days, and the same transparent air, attentive and sensitive, remained the same, without moving or changing. And it seemed as if he had preserved in his transparent depths everything that was shouted and sung these days by people, animals and birds - tears, crying and a cheerful song, prayer and curses; and these glassy, frozen voices made him so heavy, anxious, thickly saturated with invisible life. And once again the sun set. It rolled down like a heavy flaming ball, lighting up the sky; and everything on earth that was turned towards him: the dark face of Jesus, the walls of houses and the leaves of trees - everything obediently 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 his ugly, lumpy head forward - and just as those who knew him imagined him to be. He was thin, of good height, almost the same as Jesus, who was slightly stooped from the habit of thinking while walking and this made him seem shorter; and he was strong enough in strength, apparently, but for some reason he pretended to be frail and sickly and had a changeable voice: sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes loud, like an old woman scolding her husband, annoyingly thin and unpleasant to the ear: and often I wanted to pull the words of Judas out of my 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 a sword and put back together again, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety: behind such a skull there cannot be silence and harmony, behind such a skull there is always the sound of bloody and merciless battles can be heard. Judas’s face was also double: one side of it, with a black, sharply looking eye, was alive, 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 that did not close either night or day, it met both light and darkness equally; but was it because there was a living and cunning comrade next to him that 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 swayed along with the movements of his head and looked silently. Even people completely devoid of insight clearly understood, looking at Iscariot, that such a person could not bring good, but Jesus brought him closer and even sat Judas next to him.

John, his beloved student, moved away with disgust, and everyone else, loving their teacher, looked down disapprovingly. And Judas sat down - and, moving his head to the right and left, in a thin voice began to complain about illness, that his chest hurts at night, that, when climbing mountains, he is out of breath, and standing at the edge of an abyss, he feels dizzy and can barely hold on from a stupid desire to throw himself down. And he shamelessly invented many other things, as if not understanding that illnesses do not come to a person by chance, but are born from the discrepancy between his actions and the precepts of the Eternal. This Judas from Kariot rubbed his chest with a wide palm and even coughed feignedly in the general silence and downcast gaze.

John, without looking at the teacher, quietly asked Peter Simonov, his friend:

“Aren’t you tired of this lie?” I can't stand her any longer and I'll leave here.

Peter looked at Jesus, met his gaze and quickly stood up.

- Wait! - he told his friend.

He looked at Jesus again, quickly, like a stone torn from a mountain, moved towards Judas Iscariot and loudly said to him with broad and clear friendliness:

- Here you are with us, Judas.

He affectionately patted his hand on his bent back and, without looking at the teacher, but feeling his gaze on himself, decisively added in his loud voice, displacing all objections, like water displacing air:

“It’s okay that you have such a nasty face: we also get caught in our nets who are not so ugly, and when it comes to food, they are the most delicious.” And it’s not for us, our Lord’s fishermen, to throw away our catch just because the fish is prickly and one-eyed. I once saw an octopus in Tyre, caught by the local fishermen, and I was so scared that I wanted to run away. And they laughed at me, a fisherman from Tiberias, and gave me some to eat, and I asked for more, because it was very tasty. Remember, teacher, I told you about this, and you laughed too. And you, Judas, look like an octopus - only with one half.

And he laughed loudly, pleased with his joke. When Peter said something, his words sounded so firmly, as if he was nailing them down. 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 shuddered and made noise timidly. In the gorges of the mountains, his voice awakened an angry echo, and in the mornings on the lake, when they were fishing, he rolled round and round on the sleepy and shining water and made the first timid rays of the sun smile. And, probably, they loved Peter for this: on all the other faces the shadow of the night still lay, and his large head, and wide naked chest, and freely thrown arms were already burning in the glow of the sunrise.

Peter's words, apparently approved by the teacher, dispelled the painful state of those gathered. But some, who had also been by the sea and seen the octopus, were confused by its monstrous image, which Peter so frivolously dedicated to his new student. They remembered: huge eyes, dozens of greedy tentacles, feigned calm - and time! – hugged, doused, crushed and sucked, without even 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 continued to talk passionately about the octopus - and one after another the embarrassed disciples approached Judas, spoke kindly, but walked away quickly and awkwardly.

And only John Zebedee remained stubbornly silent and Thomas, apparently, did not dare to say anything, pondering what had happened. He carefully examined Christ and Judas, who were sitting next to each other, and this strange proximity of divine beauty and monstrous ugliness, a man with a gentle gaze and an octopus with huge, motionless, dull, greedy eyes oppressed his mind like an unsolvable riddle. He tensely wrinkled his straight, smooth forehead, squinted his eyes, thinking that he would see better this way, but all he achieved was that Judas really seemed to have eight restlessly moving legs. But this was not true. Foma understood this and again looked stubbornly.

And Judas gradually became bolder: he straightened his arms, bent at the elbows, loosened the muscles that kept his jaw tense, and carefully began to expose his brownish head to the light. She had been in plain sight before everyone, but it seemed to Judas that she was deeply and impenetrably hidden from view by some invisible, but thick and cunning veil. And now, as if he was crawling out of a hole, he felt his strange skull in the light, then his eyes - he stopped - he decisively opened his entire face. Nothing happened. Peter went somewhere; Jesus sat thoughtfully, leaning his head on his hand, and quietly shook his tanned leg; The students talked among themselves, and only Thomas looked at him carefully and seriously, 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 was disturbing the left side of Judas’s face - he looked back: John was looking at him from a dark corner with cold and beautiful eyes, handsome, pure, not having a single spot on his snow-white conscience. And, walking like everyone else, but feeling as if he was 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 he 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 had made his bed, he saw those leaving. In the moonlight, each white figure seemed light and leisurely and did not walk, but as if glided in front of its black shadow; and suddenly the man disappeared into 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 entire transparent, hazy night. Almost everyone was already asleep when Judas heard the quiet voice of the returning Christ. And everything became quiet in the house and around it. The rooster crowed; A donkey who had woken up somewhere screamed offendedly and loudly, as if during the day, and reluctantly, intermittently, fell silent. But Judas still did not sleep and listened, hiding. The moon illuminated half of his face and, as in a frozen lake, was reflected strangely in his huge open eye.

Suddenly he remembered something and hastily coughed, rubbing his hairy, healthy chest with his palm: perhaps someone was still awake and listening to what Judas was thinking.

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Gradually they got used to Judas and stopped noticing his ugliness. Jesus entrusted him with the money box, and at the same time all household worries fell on him: he bought the necessary food and clothing, distributed alms, and during his wanderings he looked for a place to stop and spend the night. He did all this very skillfully, so that he soon earned the favor of some students who saw his efforts. Judas lied constantly, but they got used to it, because they did not see bad deeds behind the lie, and it gave special interest to Judas’ conversation and his stories and made life look like a funny and sometimes scary fairy tale.

According to Judas' stories, it seemed as if he knew all people and every person he knew had committed some bad act 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 you hug such a person, caress him and question him thoroughly, then all untruths, abominations and lies will flow out of him, like pus from a punctured wound. He readily admitted that sometimes he himself lies, but he assured with an oath that others lie even more, and if there is anyone deceived in the world, it is he, Judas. It happened that some people deceived him many times in this way and that. Thus, a certain treasure keeper 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 conscience. And Judas believed him - and he suddenly stole and deceived Judas. But even then Judas believed him - and he suddenly returned the stolen goods to the nobleman and again deceived Judas. And everyone deceives him, even animals; when he caresses the dog, she bites his fingers, and when he hits 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 buried it with a large stone, but who knows? Perhaps because he killed her, she became even more alive and now does not lie in a hole, but runs happily with other dogs.

Everyone laughed merrily at Judas’ story, and he himself smiled pleasantly, narrowing his lively and mocking eye, and then, with the same smile, he admitted 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 these words of Judas made them laugh even more.

But sometimes in his stories he crossed the boundaries of the probable and plausible and attributed to people such inclinations that even an animal does not have, accused them of crimes that never happened and never will happen. And since 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 narrowed his eyes, smiled and spread his arms. And along with the shaking of his head, his frozen, wide-open eye swayed and looked silently.

-Who was my father? Maybe the man who beat me with a rod, or maybe the devil, the goat, or the rooster. How can Judas know everyone with whom his mother shared a bed? Judas has many fathers: which one are you talking about?

But here everyone was indignant, since they greatly revered their parents, and Matthew, very well read in the Scriptures, sternly spoke in the words of Solomon:

“Whoever curses his father and mother, his lamp will go out in the midst of deep darkness.”

John Zebedee arrogantly said:

- Well, what about us? What bad thing can you say about us, Judas of Kariot?

But he waved his hands in feigned fear, hunched over and whined, like a beggar vainly begging for alms from a passerby:

- Oh, they are tempting poor Judas! They are laughing at Judas, they want to deceive poor, gullible Judas!

And while one side of his face writhed in buffoonish grimaces, the other swayed seriously and sternly, and his never-closing eye looked wide. Peter Simonov laughed the loudest and loudest at Iscariot’s jokes. But one day it happened that he suddenly frowned, became silent and sad, and hastily took Judas aside, dragging him by the sleeve.

- And Jesus? What do you think about Jesus? – he leaned over and asked in a loud whisper. - Just don't joke, please.

Judas looked at him angrily:

- And what do you think?

Peter whispered fearfully and joyfully:

“I think he is the son of the living god.”

- Why are you asking? What can Judas, whose father is a goat, tell you?

- But do you love him? It's like you don't love anyone, Judas.

With the same strange malice, Iscariot said abruptly and sharply:

After this conversation, Peter loudly called Judas his octopus friend for two days, and he clumsily and still angrily tried to slip away from him somewhere into a dark corner and sat there gloomily, his white, unclosed eye brightening. Only Thomas listened to Judas quite seriously: he did not understand jokes, pretense and lies, playing with words and thoughts, and looked for the fundamental and positive in everything. And he often interrupted all Iscariot’s stories about bad people and actions with short businesslike remarks:

- This needs to be proven. Have you heard this yourself? Who else was there besides you? What's his name?

Judas became irritated and shrilly shouted that he had seen and heard it all himself, but stubborn Thomas continued to interrogate unobtrusively and calmly, until Judas admitted that he had lied, or invented a new plausible lie, which he thought about for a long time. And, having found a mistake, he immediately came and indifferently caught the liar. In general, Judas aroused strong curiosity in him, and this created something like a friendship between them, 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 gaze, 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 persistence and waited for an answer.

It happened that after one of these questions, Judas suddenly fell silent and in surprise examined him from head to toe with his eye: he saw a long, straight figure, a gray face, straight transparent-light eyes, two thick folds running from his nose and disappearing into a tight, evenly trimmed hair. beard, and said convincingly:

- How stupid you are, Foma! What do you see in your dream: a tree, a wall, a donkey?

And Foma was somehow strangely embarrassed and did not object. And at night, when Judas was already covering his lively and restless eye for sleep, he suddenly said loudly from his bed - they were both now sleeping together on the roof:

-You're wrong, Judas. I have very bad dreams. What do you think: a person should also be responsible for his dreams?

- Does anyone else see dreams, and not himself?

Foma sighed quietly and thought. And Judas smiled contemptuously, tightly closed his thief's eye and calmly surrendered to his rebellious dreams, monstrous dreams, insane visions that tore his lumpy skull to pieces.

When, during Jesus’ wanderings through 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 ill greeted Christ and his friends with joy, surrounded them with attention and love and became believers, and Judas’s money box became so full that it was difficult to carry it. And then they laughed at his mistake, and he meekly threw up his hands and said:

- So! So! Judas thought that they were bad, but they were good: they believed quickly and gave money. Again, it means they deceived Judas, poor, gullible Judas from Kariot!

But one day, having already moved far from the village that greeted them cordially, Thomas and Judas argued heatedly and returned back to resolve the dispute. Only the next day they caught up with Jesus and his disciples, and Thomas looked embarrassed and sad, and Judas looked so proudly, as if he expected that now everyone would begin to congratulate and thank him. Approaching the teacher, Thomas decisively declared:

- Judas is right, Lord. These were evil and stupid people, and the seed of your words fell on the stone.

And he told what happened in the village. After Jesus and his disciples left, one old woman began to shout that her young white goat had been stolen from her, and accused those who had left of the theft. At first they argued with her, and when she stubbornly proved that there was no one else to steal like Jesus, many believed and even wanted to go in pursuit. And although they soon found the kid entangled in the bushes, they still decided that Jesus was a deceiver and, perhaps, even a thief.

- So that’s how it is! – Peter cried, flaring his nostrils. - Lord, do you want me to go back to these fools, and...

But Jesus, who had been silent all the time, looked at him sternly, and Peter fell silent and disappeared behind him, behind the backs of the others. And no one spoke about what had happened anymore, as if nothing had happened at all and as if Judas had been wrong. In vain he showed himself from all sides, trying to make his bifurcated, predatory face with a hooked nose appear modest - no one looked at him, and if anyone did, it was very unfriendly, even seemingly with contempt.

And from that same day, Jesus’ attitude towards him changed somehow strangely. And before, for some reason, it was the case that Judas never spoke directly to Jesus, and he never directly addressed him, but he often looked at him with gentle eyes, smiled at some of his jokes, and if he did not see him for a long time, he asked: where is Judas? And now he looked at him, as if not seeing him, although as before - and even more persistently than before - he looked for him with his eyes every time he began to speak to his disciples or to the people, but either sat down with his back to him and threw his words over his head at Judas, or pretended not to notice him at all. And no matter what he said, even if it was one thing today and something completely different tomorrow, even if it was the same thing that Judas was thinking, it seemed, however, that he was always speaking against Judas. And for everyone he was a tender and beautiful flower, fragrant with the rose of Lebanon, but 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 else, he understood the beauty of tender and immaculate petals.

- Foma! Do you love the yellow Lebanese rose, which has a dark face and eyes like a chamois? – he asked his friend one day, and he answered indifferently:

- Rose? Yes, I like its smell. But I have never heard of roses having dark faces and eyes like chamois.

- How? Don’t you also know that the multi-armed cactus that tore your new clothes yesterday has only one red flower and only one eye?

But Foma didn’t know this either, although yesterday the cactus really grabbed his clothes and tore them into pitiful shreds. He knew nothing, 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, another incident occurred in which Judas again turned out to be right. In one Jewish village, which he did not praise so much that he even advised to bypass it, Christ was received very hostilely, and after preaching him and denouncing the hypocrites, they became furious and wanted to stone him and his disciples. There were many enemies, and, undoubtedly, they would have been able to carry out their destructive intentions if not for Judas of Kariot. 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 thereby gave time and opportunity for Jesus and the disciples to leave. Amazingly agile, as if he was running on ten legs, funny and scary in his rage and pleas, he rushed madly 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 Nazarene, that he was just a deceiver, a thief who loved money, like all his disciples, like Judas himself - he shook the money box, grimaced and begged, crouching to the ground. And gradually the anger of the crowd turned into laughter and disgust, and the hands raised with stones dropped.

“These people are unworthy to die at the hands of an honest man,” said some, while others thoughtfully watched the quickly retreating Judas with their eyes.

And again Judas expected congratulations, praise and gratitude, and showed off his tattered clothes, and lied that they beat him - but this time he was incomprehensibly deceived. The angry Jesus walked with long steps and was silent, and even John and Peter did not dare to approach him: and everyone who caught the eye 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 Foma, who was walking thoughtfully behind. - Look: here they are walking along the road, in a group, like a herd of sheep, and raising dust. And you, smart one, Thomas, trail behind, and I, noble, beautiful Judas, trail behind, like a dirty slave who has no place next to his master.

- Why do you call yourself beautiful? – Foma was surprised.

“Because I am beautiful,” Judas answered with conviction and told, adding a lot, how he deceived the enemies of Jesus and laughed at them and their stupid stones.

- But you lied! - said Thomas.

“Well, yes, I lied,” Iscariot agreed calmly. “I gave them what they asked for, and they gave me back what I needed.” And what is a lie, my smart Thomas? Wouldn't the death of Jesus be a greater lie?

-You did 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 Jesus’ path. With a soft movement, Judas just as quickly pressed him to himself, pressed him tightly, 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 really needs Jesus? Yes, yes, Thomas. But my father is not the devil, but a goat. Maybe the goat needs Jesus too? Heh? You don't need it, do you? Is it really not necessary?

Angry and slightly frightened, Thomas with difficulty escaped from Judas’ sticky embrace and quickly walked forward, but soon slowed down, trying to understand what had happened.

And Judas quietly trudged behind and gradually fell behind. In the distance, the people walking mixed up in a motley heap, and it was no longer possible to see which of these small figures was Jesus. So little Foma turned into a gray dot - and suddenly everyone disappeared around the bend. Looking around, Judas left the road and descended with huge leaps into the depths of the rocky ravine. His fast and impetuous running caused his dress to swell and his arms to fly upward, as if to fly. Here on a cliff he slipped and rolled down in a quick gray lump, scraping against the stones, jumped up and angrily shook his fist at the mountain:

- You're still damned!..

And, suddenly replacing the speed of his movements with gloomy and concentrated slowness, he chose a place near a large stone and sat down leisurely. He turned, as if looking for a comfortable position, pressed his hands, palm to palm, to 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 a stone rain had once passed here and its heavy drops froze in endless thought. And this wild desert ravine looked like an overturned, severed skull, and every stone in it was like a frozen thought, and there were many of them, and they all thought - hard, boundless, stubbornly.

Here the deceived scorpion hobbled amicably near Judas on his shaky legs. Judas looked at him, without taking his head away from the stone, and again his eyes fixed motionless on something, both motionless, both covered with a strange whitish haze, both as if blind and terribly sighted. Now, from the ground, from the stones, from the crevices, the calm darkness of the night began to rise, enveloped the motionless Judas and quickly crawled upward - towards the bright, pale sky. Night came with its thoughts and dreams.

That night Judas did not return to spend the night, and the disciples, torn from their thoughts by worries about food and drink, grumbled at his negligence.

Leonid Andreev

Judas Iscariot

And then Judas came.

He came, bowing low, arching his back, carefully and timidly stretching his ugly, lumpy head forward - just as those who knew him imagined him to be. He was thin, of good height, almost the same as Jesus, who stooped slightly from the habit of thinking while walking and this made him seem shorter, and he was quite strong in strength, apparently, but for some reason he pretended to be frail and sickly and had a voice changeable: sometimes courageous and strong, sometimes loud, like an old woman scolding her husband, annoyingly thin and unpleasant to hear, and often I wanted to pull the words of Judas out of my 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 a sword and put back together again, it was clearly divided into four parts and inspired distrust, even anxiety: behind such a skull there cannot be silence and harmony, behind such a skull there is always the sound of bloody and merciless battles can be heard. Judas’s face was also double: one side of it, with a black, sharply looking eye, was alive, 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 turbidity, not closing either at night or during the day, he met both light and darkness equally, but whether 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 swayed along with the movements of his head and looked silently. Even people completely devoid of insight clearly understood, looking at Iscariot, that such a person could not bring good, but Jesus brought him closer and even sat Judas next to him.

John, without looking at the teacher, quietly asked Peter Simonov, his friend:

“Aren’t you tired of this lie?” I can't stand her any longer and I'll leave here.

Peter looked at Jesus, met his gaze and quickly stood up.

- Wait! - he told his friend. He looked at Jesus again, quickly, like a stone torn from a mountain, moved towards Judas Iscariot and loudly said to him with broad and clear friendliness:

- Here you are with us, Judas.

He affectionately patted his hand on his bent back and, without looking at the teacher, but feeling his gaze on himself, decisively added in his loud voice, which crowded out all objections, like water crowds out air:

Peter's words, apparently approved by the teacher, dispelled the painful state of those gathered. But

Judas Iscariot read the full content. Leonid Andreev - Judas Iscariot

Leonid Andreev

The history of the creation of the story “Judas Iscariot”

A man of ill repute

Theft

Thirty pieces of silver

After the execution

The meaning of the story "Judas Iscariot"

The image of Judas in the story “Judas Iscariot”

Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev Judas Iscariot

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Leonid Nikolaevich Andreev
Judas Iscariot