Below is Claude.ai’s summary of Bart Ehrman’s blog post here.
Summary: “Does Paul Ever Refer to (or Even Know About) Judas Iscariot?” (Bart Ehrman, Oct. 4, 2026)
The question. Ehrman asks whether Paul knew of, or alluded to, Judas’s betrayal of Jesus. He used to think so, but changed his mind after reading other scholars.
1 Corinthians 11:23-24. The passage seems to place the Last Supper “on the night when he was betrayed” (NRSV). Ehrman argues that “betrayed” is almost certainly a mistranslation.
- The Greek verb is paradidomi, which literally means “handed over.” Paul uses it 15 times in the undisputed letters, including twice in the same chapter (11:2 and 11:23, “delivered/handed over” traditions), where it plainly does not mean “betray.”
- The only other place Paul uses it with Jesus as the object is Romans 4:25, where God hands Jesus over, so it is not a betrayal there either.
- For “betray,” Ehrman says Paul would more likely have used prodidomi.
- Conclusion: 1 Cor. 11:23 most likely refers to God handing Jesus over to his fate, not to Judas.
1 Corinthians 15:5-8. Paul lists the resurrection appearances: first to Cephas, then to “the twelve,” then to more than 500, and so on. The Gospels say Jesus appeared to only eleven, since Judas had left the group (and in Matthew died by suicide). Ehrman gives two readings:
- “The twelve” is a technical term for the inner circle of disciples, whatever the actual number. This is the more common view. Ehrman compares it to the “Big Ten” football conference, which has eighteen teams.
- Paul means all twelve literally, because he thinks they all remained faithful. In that case Paul would not know about Judas’s betrayal. Ehrman finds this reading possibly the more plausible.
Could Paul really not have known? Many historians find it implausible, since Paul spent two weeks with Peter in Jerusalem three years after his conversion (Galatians 1), and Peter would surely have shared stories about Jesus’s death. Ehrman counters that they may have been preoccupied with other issues, especially the status of Gentile converts and the Jewish law. Even so, he says you would expect Peter to mention the key events of Jesus’s death. “We’ll never know.”
Context. Ehrman notes that Paul says almost nothing about Jesus’s life: no miracles, exorcisms, parables, baptism, transfiguration, trial before Pilate, flogging, and so on. He sets aside the why of this silence (explored elsewhere on his blog) to focus on the what.
Bottom line. If Paul knew about Judas, he never mentions him, and the one passage that seems to refer to him probably does not. Ehrman leaves open whether Paul knew or not, and ends with “I wish I knew!”
Citations in the post:
- 1 Cor. 11:2, 11:23-24; 15:5-8
- Rom. 4:25
- Gal. 1 (Paul’s visit with Peter)
