The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #11295   Message #1280593
Posted By: Nerd
25-Sep-04 - 03:44 AM
Thread Name: Child Ballads: Anyone recorded the lot?
Subject: RE: Child Ballads: Anyone recorded the lot?
In Judas, Christ commands Judas to beg for money and buy the apostles food with it. He goes out collecting, but is led astray by his sister, an unbeliever, who tells him the food can wait, he should go have a nap. When he awakens, the money is missing. It was thirty pieces of silver. On returning to the town he encounters the rich Jew (!) Pilatus, who asks him what price he would sell Jesus out for. He insists on the thirty pieces that were stolen from him. The scene shifts to the Apostles at supper. Jesus knows he is betrayed, "sold for our meat." It is hard to tell if Judas confesses or denies, because part of a line is missing. Peter says he would fight for Jesus, Jesus says that Peter too will forsake him.

It's an odd little ballad, essentially a legend explaining the thirty pieces of silver...