On Judas and bilingualism
The Weekly Wrap Up (1/8/2021)
Each week, I’m going to be sharing some things I’ve learned from stuff I’ve read. Topics may range from philosophy to sports and anywhere in between.
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Judas
Dante Alighieri saw Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus as the gravest sin committed in the history of humanity. As a result, in the world of Dante’s Inferno, Judas has the privilege of being nestled between the teeth of Lucifer for all eternity. Here’s Lucifer thoughtfully munching on Judas in the 9th circle of Dante’s Hell.
So what could have motivated Judas betrayal? It turns out, the answer may lie in Judas’ last name, Iscariot.
Some have said that Iscariot translates to “Man of Kerioth”, which would mean that Judas came from the village of Kerioth. However, this would put Judas well over 100 miles away from Galilee, where the rest of Jesus’ apostles hailed from.
Given the distance between Kerioth and Galilee, some scholars have proposed a different interpretation of Iscariot.
They have noted that the word Iscariot may merely be a transposition of the Greek word Sicariot, which translates to “assassin.” In those times, the word Sicariot would be very closely associated with the Zealots, the Jewish advocates of military resistance against the Roman Empire. Thus, Judas Iscariot would roughly translate to “Judas the Zealot.”
Now, if we accept Judas’ affiliation to the Zealots, then perhaps his motives for Jesus’ betrayal can be seen in a new light. As a Zealot, Judas would have been hoping for Jesus to be a prophet-king who would lead Jewish armies to military victory against the Roman occupiers. Judas may initially have interpreted Jesus’ references to a “Kingdom of God” in a strictly Jewish nationalist context.
But over time, Judas would have been disappointed.
He certainly couldn’t have been pleased by Jesus’ endorsement of pacifism: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9).
And surely, no Zealot would have been happy about Jesus telling people to pay their taxes: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's” (Matthew 22:21).
Perhaps, as Jesus continued to speak of peace and unconditional love, Judas was in the background with gritted teeth and closed fists, letting his frustration slowly boil into treachery.
Benefits of Bilingualism
In 1926, one educational researcher said, “The use of a foreign language in the home is one of the chief factors in producing mental retardation as measured by intelligence tests.”
A hundred years later, numerous studies have not only refuted this claim but have also demonstrated the positive benefits of being bilingual.
For one, bilingual children tend to be more empathetic than their monolingual counterparts, according to a study from the University of Chicago. The experiment setup is succinctly described by the Atlantic.
There’s also evidence that suggests that bilingualism can slow the onset of dementia. When comparing the ages of 228 dementia patients at a clinic, researchers found that “the bilinguals showed symptoms of dementia 4 years after monolinguals, all other measures being equivalent.”
For a more comprehensive overview of the research on bilingualism, check out this article.