A Story Before Its Time?
Kazantzakis's novel was written as fiction. As such, it included Judas's relationship with Jesus as an amicable one. Judas did not betray Jesus, rather Jesus asked Judas to turn him in, because he knew that he should have been crucified.
Jesus: Judas, my brother, I have something to tell you. I have a terrible secret from God. You know why I came to Jerusalem?
Judas: Yes. This is where the revolution is going to begin. Jesus: Last night, Isaiah came to me. He had a prophecy, I saw it written. It said, "He has borne our faults; he was wounded for our transgressions, yet he opened now his mouth. Despised and rejected by all, he went forward without resisting, like a lamb led to the slaughter."
Judas: I don't understand.
Jesus: Judas, I am the lamb. I'm the one who's going to do.
Judas: Die? You mean you're not the Messiah?
Jesus: I Am.
Judas: That can't be. If you're the Messiah, why do you have to die?
Jesus: Listen, at first, I didn't understand myself...
Judas: No, *you* listen. Every day, you have a different plan. First it's love, then the ax, and now you have to die. What good could that do?
Jesus: God only talks to me a little at a time and tells me as much as I need to know.
Judas: We need you alive!
Jesus: Now I finally understand! All my life-all my life, I've been followed by voices, by footsteps, by shadows. And do you know what that shadow is? The cross. I have to die on the cross, and I have to die willingly. We have to go back to the temple.
Judas: And after you die on the cross, what happens then?
Jesus: I come back to judge the living and the dead.
Jesus: I wish there was another way, but there isn't. I have to die on the cross.
Judas: I won't let you die.
Jesus: You don't have a choice. Neither do I. Remember, we're bringing God and man together. They'll never be together unless I die. I'm the sacrifice... Forget everything else, understand that.
The reason why this is so ahead of its time is because of the discovery of the Gospel of Judas. The novel was published in 1960, the film in 1988, while the Gospel of Judas was partially released in 2006. This Gnostic text reveals a very similar relationship between Jesus and Judas. Judas is not regarded as a traitor, but as the best student of Jesus who carried out His will.