Judas the Cat (Nikos Kazantzakis’ Marxist-ish Tempter)

In this paper I analyze the character of Judas in the famous novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. In The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus is weak and full of doubt, whereas Judas is a volcano of energy. Furthermore, the Greek writer of makes his Judas a superman. Only through his help does Jesus fulfil the mission. In the novel Judas is a realist, while Jesus lives in a dream world. Finally, Judas wins, and he is true to himself. Kazantzakis’ creation of Judas is different both from what we know from the Gospel of John, as well as the version of the apocryphal Gospel of Judas. Kazantzakis, however, does not tell the history of Judas as another version of the fall of the traitor apostle, but announces an original version of Judas which stands in opposition to that of ecclesiastical orthodoxy. It is a story of – a man who struggles with God (and even against God) for his own immortality.