A:
John Shelby Spong points out that Judas is a variant of Judah. He says there were 12 disciples. In the Genesis account, when the twelve sons of Jacob sold Joseph into slavery, it was Judah who sought money and received 20 pieces of silver (Gen 37:26-7).
The king was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver (Zech 11:14), which he hurled back into the temple, just as Judas did in Matthew's Gospel. The fact that there is a different version of the story of Judas Iscariot in Acts of the Apostles indicates that this was not a prophecy but came from the author of Matthewhaving a good knowledge of the Old Testament.
Bishop Spong believes Judas Iscariot is probably a literary creation that was based on fragments from the Old Testament, rather than a real person prophesied in the Old Testament.
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