Who Was the Evilest Person Who’s Ever Lived?
If someone asked you that question, I expect you might answer with a dictator with a body count in the millions, like Hitler, Stalin, or Mao. Or you might reply with a serial killer with a much lower body-count, but much more sadistic and agonizing means of execution. (And if you answer with Donald Trump, I really question your priorities and urge you to do a little more reading up on those others and a lot less time listening to propagandists who use those same dictators’ methods to silence dissent).
But, since Halloween is a time for reflection on good versus evil, I will give you what I think the Biblical answer to the evilest person in history was. The choice might surprise you. In fact, in contrast to all the mass-murderers and tyrants in history, this person only has a body count of one. I speak of Judas Iscariot.
The Bible doesn’t spend a whole lot of ink going into Judas and what made him tick. Unlike our modern crime shows and documentaries, we don’t get a psychoanalysis of Judas and why he did what he did. What it does say, however, is chilling enough. Judas was called to be one of Jesus’s Twelve Apostles, a disciple who followed him and attended on him throughout his ministry in return for receiving his teaching. We do know that Judas spent a lot of his time with Jesus pilfering the money box. In the end, he is best known for betraying Jesus and leading the detachment of troops who went to arrest him in a place Judas knew Jesus would be at without a crowd to interfere. The priests intended to get their hands on Jesus to execute him, which they did the following morning. For this, he agreed to receive the measly reward of thirty pieces of silver.
Now, don’t get me wrong. All those dictators and serial-killers are going to suffer unspeakable torments in Hell for all eternity, for they were in fact especially evil. But if we look at Biblical categories of evil, one of the most important factors is how much a sin is a sin against knowledge. Consider what Jesus says to Capernaum in Matthew 11:24, in a statement that should make every Western skeptic tremble, “But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.”
Let that sink in. The Bible pronounces horrible condemnations on Sodom. In Genesis 19, its entire male population comes out to storm Lot’s house and gang-rape his angelic guests. This crime would have struck the Old Testament listeners even more harshly than it does us since the code of hospitality was so much more sacrosanct to them. Sodom is so evil God wipes it off the map with literal fire and brimstone. There is not one hint of such blatant sinning on Capernaum’s part. Indeed, they welcomed Jesus and crowded around to hear his teaching. What was their sin? They heard Jesus, but “they repented not” (Matthew 11:21).
One of the most important factors is how much a sin is a sin against knowledge.
Capernaum had a revelation Sodom did not. Sodom had Abraham’s and Lot’s righteous examples, but here were people listening at the feet of the Son of God, seeing his miracles performed. Sodom never heard the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the Mount, but the people of Capernaum did. They marveled at Jesus, discussed the words and works for a few days amongst themselves, and then went right back to their business. Jesus said this indifference to him was worse than homosexual gang rape.
He states it even more clearly in Luke 12:47-48: “And that servant which knew his Lord’s will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes.” This key component of knowledge is why Paul goes to such great lengths in Romans 1-3 to show that everyone has a knowledge of God and his law written on their hearts and are therefore guilty whenever they sin. That would be the Sodomites. But those who have been exposed to greater degrees of truth than this are even more accountable when they sin. Or, as Uncle Ben might have put it, “With great revelation comes great responsibility.”
Has anyone else sinned against knowledge to the extent of Judas Iscariot? He followed Jesus for three years and heard practically all his teaching. He saw the miracles Jesus wrought and the extent of his compassion towards everyone. He heard the words Jesus spoke that are not recorded in the Gospels and the “many other signs truly [that Jesus did] in the presence of his disciples” that John didn’t have space to record (John 20:30). Jesus gave him power to do miracles in his name. Had he proven faithful, he had held before him the promise of being “appoint[ed] unto a kingdom” with Jesus, sitting on a throne and “judging the Twelve Tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29-30). Judas had greater revelation and privilege than any of us alive today. He admitted that he himself knew Jesus was innocent. Yet, he chose to deliver him over to death. And, not that any price would have justified his actions, but the cheap bribe he took for his betrayal was downright insulting to Jesus.
Has anyone else sinned against knowledge to the extent of Judas Iscariot?
In the end, we don’t know why Judas did what he did. Theories have been set forward, from a generous one saying he wanted to provoke Jesus into acting to assert his messianic power, to the more realistic one saying he really was base and greedy enough to sell out the Son of God for thirty pieces of silver. We don’t really know what got him started down the road in the first place. We do know both that Satan was directly involved and that God had sovereignly ordained that it come to pass this way. Neither excuses Judas.
The Bible doesn’t explicitly state who the evilest person who’s ever lived was, though it does state that Judas would have been better off “if he had not been born” (Matthew 26:24). But if we look at the very Biblical approach to evil that sins against greater knowledge are greater than sins against just the universal knowledge that makes everyone guilty before God, Judas must rank as the most offending soul ever.