Judas Iscariot has etched himself deeply into the collective memory of Christianity and Western culture through a single act. He has become the epitome of betrayal and treachery, of greed and deceit. Judas represents the other - and at the same time a part of me, the danger from outside - and also what I am capable of myself. This volume places Judas in the context of what we can historically know about Jesus of Nazareth and his circle of disciples, and then traces the history of the interpretation of the figure of Judas up to the present day, which begins with the New Testament texts and also contains problematic anti-Jewish elements.