Ask any serious Christian about forgiveness, and you are likely to hear what Jesus taught—that we are to forgive others, not once or twice, but countless times; that God only forgives us to the extent that we forgive one another. Yet later, Christians made one famous exception: Judas Iscariot.
For thousands of years, Christians have pictured Judas as unforgivable--the incarnation of evil. Motivated by greed and inspired by Satan, he is the betrayer whom Dante placed in the lowest circle of hell. Only one famous Christian teacher, so far as we know, suggested that Judas could be redeemed and forgiven.
The Egyptian teacher Origen, recognized as the most brilliant and original teacher of his time (c. 240 CE, and, some would say, of all time) offered a vision in which all beings ever created—including Judas and Satan himself—could turn and repent, and eventually be restored to full communion with God. For this teaching above all, Origen himself was condemned as a heretic by Catholic councils—posthumously, fortunately, since over a hundred years earlier, his death had been hastened by torture he suffered for confessing his faith in Christ."