Judas had already made up His mind to betray Him. Yet He was with Him at the Passover supper. (Alfred Edersheim)

The Bible does not describe why Judas decided to betray Jesus. There has been a great deal of speculation regarding his reasons for doing it. Here is what we know from the scriptures:

• Judas was a thief: John 12:6. When Mary anointed Jesus with costly ointment, Judas objected that the ointment was very valuable and could have been sold for a year's wages. John explains that Judas pilfered money from the money box. He was a thief.


• Judas was respected by the other apostles. It is not clear whether he was appointed by Jesus or the apostles to keep the money box, but there is no mention of anyone objecting to his position of trust.


• Judas appears to have been the only disciple who was not from Galilee. He was an outsider . . . to a certain extent. There is no mention of this in scripture and we have no idea if it was a factor or not.


• Judas may have been surprised that Jesus was condemned. Mat 27:3 "Then when Judas, who had betrayed Him, saw that He had been condemned, he felt remorse and returned the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." He may have thought that Jesus would not allow Himself to be killed or that the rulers would not condemn Him, or that the people would rise up and make Jesus king.
  
  NOTE: I had often wondered whether Judas thought that pushing Jesus into a situation would cause Him to take action or that the people who celebrated His entry into Jerusalem would proclaim Him as their Messiah and make Him king. After feeding the 5,000 the scriptures tell us that they wanted to make Him king then.


• Judas was from the city of Kerioth. There is mention of two cities by this name: One in southern Judah (South of Hebron) and the other in the land east of the Salt Sea (the Dead Sea). Not much is known about either of these cities.


• Satan entered into Judas: Luke 22:3 "And Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot, belonging to the number of the twelve." This is a much stronger expression than we find in this verse: "the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, [the son] of Simon, to betray Him"


• Jesus knew that Judas would betray him and told Judas that he was the traitor. John 13:26-27 "Jesus then answered, "That is the one for whom I shall dip the morsel and give it to him." So when He had dipped the morsel, He took and gave it to Judas, [the son] of Simon Iscariot. After the morsel, Satan then entered into him. Therefore Jesus said to him, "What you do, do quickly."


• Judas pretended that he was not intending to betray Jesus, but Jesus called him out privately: Mat 26:25 "And Judas, who was betraying Him, said, "Surely it is not I, Rabbi?" Jesus said to him, "You have said [it] yourself."


• Did Judas think that the High Priest and the Pharisees would honor Judas for betraying Jesus to them? It is clear that they despised him. As evil as they were, they had no praise for him. To them, he was a vile traitor who turned on his master for money and was not to be trusted or received into their ranks. Instead of paying him richly, they paid him the value of a slave, "thirty pieces of silver." (Mat 26:15 & Mat 27:3)