An angel visits Judas Iscariot in the hours after his betrayal-not to condemn him, but to save him.

But Judas cannot distinguish divine mercy from demonic accusation. He mistakes the offer of salvation for a spiritual attack. And in the terrible hours between betrayal and death, he must choose: accept a grace he cannot believe he deserves, or flee into the darkness he understands.

THE TEMPTATION OF SAINT JUDAS ISCARIOT reimagines the most infamous moment in biblical history as an allegory of shame, repentance, and the unbearable weight of forgiveness.

Judas Iscariot-scholar, cynic, keeper of the purse-has spent years following Jesus, waiting for the Messiah to claim earthly power and overthrow Rome. When it becomes clear that Jesus intends to die rather than reign, Judas makes a choice: thirty pieces of silver, a kiss in a garden, an arrest that will force the Messiah's hand.

But in the hours that follow, an angel appears. Not with a flaming sword. Not with proclamations of damnation. With a plea: Turn back. The door is still open. Speak the Name you cannot bring yourself to say.

Night after night, the angel returns. Showing Judas the path of repentance. Revealing the wounds he has carried in secret-the spiritual abuses he inflicted, the betrayals that led to this betrayal. Offering him something more terrifying than judgment: the possibility of being forgiven.

But how does a man accept mercy when he has spent a lifetime believing he is unworthy of it?

This is not a story of temptation toward sin. It is a story of temptation toward grace-and the soul-deep terror of being truly seen, truly known, and somehow still loved.

A Contemporary Allegory in the Tradition of:

• O'Connor's violent grace and Southern Gothic sensibility

• Shusaku Endo's Silence-faith under unbearable pressure
• Graham Greene's Catholic moral complexity
• Dostoyevsky's psychological crises of conscience

• Marilynne Robinson's theological literary fiction

Perfect for Readers Who Want:

Literary craft that takes faith seriously

Theological depth rendered as narrative, not sermon

Allegory that illuminates rather than preaches

Psychological horror grounded in spiritual realism

Biblical reimagining that asks hard questions about grace, shame, and redemption