Why did Judas betray Jesus?

The Pope recently referred to the continuing ‘mystery of Judas’. This intriguing book – the result of an intense collaboration between one of the world’s most popularstorytellers and one of the world’s leading biblical scholars – throws a new light on the events leading up to the great betrayal.

This audio edition of the fifth gospel ostensibly written by the son of Judas, has been described by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu as “riveting and plausible” and is an account of the stories of Jesus and Judas which will open a whole new debate among secular and religious readers.

The unlikely partnership of Jeffrey Archer and Francis J.Moloney was formed after Archer had sought advice from Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini on who should guide him through this demanding project. Among his many past students of the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Cardinal Martini singled out Professor Moloney, a graduate of that institute in 1972, who had completed his doctoral studies at Oxford University in 1975.

The project was as bold as it was simple: Archer would write a story for twenty-first-century readers, while Moloney would ensure that the result would be credible to a first-century Christian or Jew.

Story-telling and scholarship have come together to create what will be one of the year’s most intriguing and controversial books.