To attribute his crime to greed (as some have done, citing John 12:6) is to resign oneself to
                the basest motive.  Nils Runeberg proposes the opposite motive: a hyperbolic and even
                unlimited asceticism.  The ascetic, for the greater glory of God, vilifies and mortifies his flesh;
                Judas did the same with his spirit.  He renounced honor, morality, peace and the kingdom
                of heaven, just as others, less heroically, renounce pleasure.  With terrible lucidity he
                premeditated his sins.  In adultery there is usually tenderness and abnegation; in homicide,
                courage; in profity and blasphemy, a certain satanic luster.  Judas chose those sins untouched
                by any virtue: violation of trust (John 12:6) and betrayal.  He acted with enormous humility,
                he believed himself unworth of good. 





                                                                                     Excerpt from "Three Versions of Judas"
                                                                                                                by Jorge Luis Borges