Amos Oz' "Judas"

[question everything]

The Israeli author was interviewed on PBS NewsHour

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/prominent-israeli-author-reflects-countrys-founding-future/

So I was curious about that book and found these interesting comments

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/19/books/amos-oz-on-his-novel-judas-which-challenges-views-of-a-traitor.html?_r=0

He fell “in love” with Jesus, he said: “I disagreed with him on many things, but I liked him, his poetry, his warmth, his wonderful sense of humor.” At the same time, he became “infuriated” with the Judas story, and not for the usual reasons a Jew might find it disturbing.

It was because he saw some glaring inconsistencies. Judas was a wealthy landowner, so why did he need those 30 pieces of silver, equivalent, Mr. Oz said, to no more than $600 today? And what of that infamous kiss? Jesus was well known in Jerusalem. He was not disguised or hidden. Why pay Judas to identify him with a kiss? None of this added up for Mr. Oz.

“A good editor should have edited this story out and saved the world a lot of trouble,” he said. “It’s not an innocent story. It is responsible for more bloodshed than any single story in history. This story is the Chernobyl of European anti-Semitism: pogroms, persecutions, inquisitions, massacres, Holocaust.”

[MrPurple]

1. New Testament was written to get Roman approval

I'm not religious, but my understanding is that the parts of the New Testament that were written later in time blame the Jews more for rejecting Jesus than the gospels that were written earlier do. As Christianity gained more of a foothold, they were concerned with getting Roman supporters and acceptance from the Roman government. Blaming the Jews (who were in rebellion against Rome) for the death of Jesus, rather than the Romans, was likely influenced by wanting Roman approval.

[MosheFeingold]

2. Wiki

Says it's probably 4 months wages:

The 5th century BC Athenian tetradrachm ("four drachmae&quot coin was perhaps the most widely used coin in the Greek world prior to the time of Alexander the Great (along with the Corinthian stater). It featured the helmeted profile bust of Athena on the obverse (front) and an owl on the reverse (back). In daily use they were called ???ῦ??? glaukes (owls),[15] hence the proverb ???ῦ?’ Ἀ?ή????, 'an owl to Athens', referring to something that was in plentiful supply, like 'coals to Newcastle'. The reverse is featured on the national side of the modern Greek 1 euro coin. Drachmae were minted on different weight standards at different Greek mints. The standard that came to be most commonly used was the Athenian or Attic one, which weighed a little over 4.3 grams. A drachma was approximately a day's pay for a skilled laborer.[16] So 30 pieces of silver (30 tetradrachm), at four drachmas each, would roughly be comparable to four months' (120 days) wages.

I also couldn't find where he was a rich guy. Not that I would know where to look. I thought they were all fishermen.