Opening Letter from the Author


Friend,

If you picked up  this book    hoping to find page after page of exhaustive critical analysis and scriptural interpretation on Judas Iscariot, I have a confession to make―that is not how this short story goes. For something like that I would recommend the Anchor or Word Biblical Commentary series.

 What you have in your hands is historical fiction with a splash of possibility, a reframing, a different flavor, an imaginative retelling from the perspective of one of the most notorious characters in the Bible―Judas. Moving forward, I am going to ask you to do something you may have never done before. I would like you to pull away from every judgment about Judas you might have and turn your attention instead to a different set of thoughts:

Have you said or ever heard someone say, “Everything has a purpose,” or, “All of us have a purpose in life”? These statements inspired the questions being asked in this book about Judas: “Did Judas have a purpose? If so, what was it?” Have you ever stepped back far enough to consider the “big” picture beyond the evil legend? What he did, was it really a villainous act?

Now before you leap to your feet and scream “Heresy!” I ask you politely to refrain and carefully consider the dishonest things we all do: the thoughtless telling of a secret that betrays a friend, the slight twisting of the truth to keep your job, the tiny lies we tell our children to get them to do what we want. Take a second and think about a few dark secrets in your life that, were they to ever come out, would test the very fabric of the relationships you treasure most. We all fall short of perfection.

Against all adversity: reintroducing Judas.
 
With all due respect,
Jason E. Royle 
Judas Iscariot, the man we love to hate. But who would Jesus have been without him?
In this  fictional short story we journey with the man who Jesus chose to be one of the
original twelve disciples, who was with Jesus throughout his entire three-year ministry.

Going beyond his worth, which always seems to start at thirty pieces of silver and suicide,
dare to step outside the boundaries of one-dimensional thinking and tradition and
​ask yourself: “In the grand scheme of things, did Judas have a purpose?”