<pre>The "twinning" in question is not physical but symbolic: Judas and Jesus 
(and God the Father for that matter) both handed over Jesus' body for 
crucifixion. Jeffrey Burton Russell (The Devil: Perceptions of Evil from 
Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Cornell UP, 1977) says this:
"Judas is such a close counterpart of Jesus that one senses an analogy between 
their relationship and that of the doublets so often found in mythology...The 
analogy may be even closer: in the great scheme of salvation the [sic] God knew 
from all time that Jesus would be the savior and Judas the betrayer; and as the 
betrayer of Jesus was necessary for the Passion of Christ, the God might be said 
to have chosen Judas for his part in the act of salvation as well as Jesus for 
his." (pp. 239-40
This comes very close to Abelard's thinking. He puts the apostle Thomas in 
(almost) the same boat as Judas for his doubt.
Elasticus mentioned Luscombe's work; here is what Luscombe says:
"Abelard distinguished the various gifts which Christ gave to his Apostles and 
suggested, not without hesitation, that the gift of the Spirit to remit or 
retain sins (Jn20:22.3) was specially reserved to the worthy Apostles, excluding 
the traitor Judas and the unbelieving Thomas..." (Abelard would have had to rely 
solely on John's Gospel for such an argument.)
In a word, the "twinning" is moral or symbolic, not physical. 
Kathryn Wildgen
If someone else has covered this, forgive me. I just returned from a two
week tour of early Jewish and early Christian sites in western Turkey, and
am frantically playing catch up.

Judas as twin of Jesus is an important theme in some early Christian
circles, but the Judas in question is not the betrayer, but Judas Didymus
Thomas (Didymus [Greek] = "twin" = Thomas [Aramaic]). The apostle/disciple
popularly known as Thomas seems to have been named Judah/Judas (one of
several by that name), and the tradition about him makes him a "twin" in
some sense of Jesus. See especially the "Acts of Thomas," and discussions
of the opening lines of the Nag Hammadi Coptic "Gospel of Thomas." In the
Acts of Thomas, there is even a passage that says something like "we both
nursed at the same breast."

Bob Kraft, UPenn

> 
> >One more thing - the notion of Christ and Judas as twinsor necessary to each 
> other was a commonplace and is brilliantly imaged in the scene of the Betrayal 
> at Pamplona.  Christ's and Judas' faces are so close together, their mouths 
seem 
> to form but one.
> K 
> 
> Dear List members
> >  I realize that this is an old thread however, after going through all the 
> pictures we took in Paris, I re discovered several *blurry* ones we had taken 
of 
> a painting of the Virgin mary breast feeding the Christ Child. Interestingly, 
> she is holding her breast and offering it to the mouth of Christ Child but the 
> breast itself seems almost as if it is not attached to her body.  Also there 
is 
> a bird with outspread wings in the Christ Child's hand - perhaps smbolizing 
the 
> Holy Spirit , or God, the Father at the same time.
> > 
> >  The title of the painting is** _ Scenes de la Vie de la Vierge_ Angleterre 
 
> vers 1325**. One panel is the lactating, breast feeding Mary, the other panel 
> seems to be Christ appearing to her when she is on her deathbed. There are 
more 
> panels I believe but i was unable to develop the film on those.
> > 
> > Does anyone know of this particular painting? If you wish the several views 
I 
> have of it,. please email me privately. Unfortunately, as I say, the pictures 
> are blurry. If any of you who live in Paris have a chance to go to Musee de 
> Cluny , it is a lovely picture.
> > 
> > Another interesting piece we saw, was an altar wood carving depicting _ The 
> LAst Supper _ . However, on the plate in Front of Christ was  the body of a 
dog. 
>  Now, this is interesting to me. I know the French love their dogs. They take 
> them everywhere with them, into cafe;s restaurants, shops.  And medieval 
things 
> we ahve seen depict a large number of dogs. However, to find a carcass of a 
dog 
> on the plate at _The LAst Supper_ seems very very odd. I would like to have 
your 
> input on this phenomenon.
> > 
> > If we hadnt seen it with our own eyes, I wouldnt have believe dit.
> > 
> > Of course I have thought of the old adage - Dog backwards spells GOD. 
However, 
> I'm not sure this fits here in this place. A Medieval picture depicting such a 
 
> "pun" seems  somehow irreverent to me.
> > 
> >  Any input , please???
> > 
> > i was also able to get fairly good pictures of the tapestries of  the Lady 
and 
> The Unicorn. one of my favourites.
> > 
> > And to finish up this section, as I am full of the  re-membering of what we 
> saw, through the pictures - there was a wonderful wood carved picture of the 
> Crucified Christ adn the hanging Judas in one small rendition. Very 
interesting. 
> it got me to thinking  that Judas was fulfilling god's will by betraying 
Jesus.
> > 
> > This leads me to  ask for input on Judas, his role, and his destiny.  What 
> lies after death for Judas, who, if he is fulfilling God's will by his 
betrayal, 
> is actually serving God??? I hope I offend no one with these questions. they 
> have been questions I have pondered over for sometime.
> > 
> > Thank you for anticipated input.
> > 
> > Aslo if anyone wants pictures of these  I am happy to send them
> > 
> > regards
> > 
> > 
> > Carol Anne Fountain
> > University of WEstern Ontario
> >  London Ontario
> > Canada
> > 
> 
> 



-- 
Robert A. Kraft, Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania
227 Logan Hall (Philadelphia PA 19104-6304); tel. 215 898-5827
[log in to unmask]
<a 
href="http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/rak/kraft.html">http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/rs/
rak/kraft.html</a>

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