This song is the story, from Judas’ perspective,
of the betrayal and crucifixion of Jesus – through to Judas’ suicide. It is the
most blatant of U2’s songs regarding the Bible I reckon, but far from the only
to tackle repentance, regret and above all Love. Firstly, in regards the Bible
there’s a lot of talk regarding Judas, however the most simply put verses – and
most certainly linkable to this song can be found in Matthew
27:3-5.

Haven’t seen you in quite a
whileI was down the hold, just passing
time.

The first lines set the scene, many think Judas approaches
Jesus in the after life – the opening of the song – the words Judas speaks to
Jesus. However, this would mean Judas made it to heaven, that’s okay with some -
Judas after all is a character of many facades; but was Judas is a tool of
God’s. His role to betray God’s son? Or was he a tool of evil, the simple way to
go is evil. However, through betrayal comes love. Confirming this; the words of
Jesus “I know so well each one of you I chose” – he knows Judas will betray him,
he’s seen it – or devised it (going too far?). So let’s not pitty Judas,
although his rather blas?? tongue doesn’t aid much “just passing time”,
while Jesus was being crucified Judas was “just passing time” Bono is not upping
the empathy. Of course Judas has been a busy guy – he’s tried to give the 30
pieces of silver back, fought internal strife and committed suicide. Now,
accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven he’s passing time, quite a paradox in
itself.Not to deviate too far, looking
at the first lines, already there’s an interesting use of language. Why is Judas
“down the hold”, I’m lost on this one, Leonard Cohen tells us
“Jesus was a
sailor” and a sailor is no stranger to a ‘hold’ in the sense of the
word, but could Judas (or Judas from Bono’s perspective) be referring to a hold of a different nature? Well,
definitions look good, but
without biblical reference to a very specific hold I can’t satisfactorily work
out what Bono’s saying here. (Ideas?)

Last time we met it was a low-lit
roomWe were as close together
As a bride and groom.

Now, the
last time Jesus would have seen Judas would have been in the Garden of
Gethsemane, where he betrayed Jesus. However, the imagery that first comes to my
mind is always the Leonardo Da Vinci fresco “The
Last Supper“, which would seem to validate “low-lit room”. But there
they we’re not individually close together in this, the most provocative
rendering… Look at the image,
Judas is the pointing fellow with the white beard – Bono may not have been on
the same mindset as I. So, let’s leave that line to poetic-licence or alternate
readings. Bride and Groom fits nicely in a number of ways, most
simplistically the closeness of the apostles to Jesus, and referring to remarks
of Bono in “A Man and Woman” the distance that exists in a relationships
(betrayal being the ultimate
‘distance’).Actually, I started
thinking about this again, after listening to The
Wickedest Man on Radio 4, I think this may have had more to do with
Bono’s reading at the time – Robert Buquanan’s poem The Ballad of
Judas Iscariot tells the story from Judas’ soul – forced to walk the
earth after physical death in search of somewhere to lay peacefully. In his
wanderings he finds Jesus, in the form of a Groom at a wedding. “The supper wine
is poured at last,//The lights burn bright and fair,Iscariot washes the
Bridegroom’s feet,//And dries them with his hair.” is a gorgeous paragraph,
maybe Bono did read this poem, and found it created such a mental image – that
he worked on that within the lyric. Maybe not. (Read
On…)

We ate the food, we drank the
wineEverybody having a good time except
you.

Bono sings “We broke the bread, We drank the Wine” in the
Boston Live DVD. I like this confirmation of the biblical link. Although I’m
quoting lyrics from the Album cover, Bono is trying to create the image of “The
Last Supper” I believe, through these lines. Jesus is not his usual self,
however, he knows the end is near
and…

You were talking about the
end of the world.

Jesus is not – actually talking about the
biblical “End of The World”, which in my reading would be Judgement Day? Jesus
does not raise this at the Last Supper, instead he tells
Judas that he will be the one to betray him. And so – it’s The End of The World
of Judas, Jesus already sees the end for both of them.

I took the
money, I spiked your
drinkYou miss too much these days if you
Stop to think.

The Money = 30 pieces
of silver. Spiking of the drink is a simple enough metaphor – maybe to
obvious, any ideas? One
of Bono’s reoccurring themes- at least the idea of being too far ahead to look
at the now, or too in the now to think ahead. “living next week now” is an
example, I’ll list more later.

You led me on with those innocent
eyesAnd you know I love the element of
surprise.

I think this is either Judas mocking Jesus, in an attempt
to balance out his suicidal mindset – or this is Jesus being witty… no Oscar
Wilde, but – Jesus knows what’s going on. Someone will betray me. and all that.
There is no surprise, the contemporary thinking is of course Judas is a device
of God’s making, without Judas there’d be no resurrection, actually – it’s not
worth thinking about. I won’t not just now.

In the garden I was
playing the tartI kissed your lips and broke
your heart.You, you were acting
like it was the end of the
world.

I always thought this line was “I was playin’ Guitar” and
that made sense kinda. Well, you know the story, boy meets girl- no, I mean
Judas directed the Roman soldiers to Jesus by kissing him on the cheek, although
it’s been suggested bad translation from Aramaic to English caused this
discrepancy. “Broke your heart” might refer to Jesus’ internal “damn I hate when
I’m right”? maybe not.

In my dream, I was
Drowning my
sorrowsBut my sorrows they’d learned to
swimSurrounding me,
Going down on
meSpilling over the brim

You
know what I think… well Judas’ is having trouble sleeping – you don’t betray
the Lord God’s only son every day – he’s having some really late thoughts “oh,
why” etc. Judas believes in heaven, and knows he’s got to beat Jesus to the
gates (this was an established mode of thought in the 18thC) so he’s in deep
dark depression here – he’s made his mind up, Judas knows what he has to do;
kill himself, talk to God, explain himself. This mental realisation is soon to
be made physical… his sorrows will overcome, he’ll actually do something.
Now- I hear you cry, “going down on
me” is best explained through Brendan
Kennelly’s
Book of
Judas which
Interference.com
explains contains references to both
prostitution and oral sex and that’s good
enough for me. There’s a smattering of Poetry from Kennelly’s works on @U2
(Link)
make what you will.

Waves of regret and waves of
joy.I reached out for the one I tried to
destroy.You,
You said you’d wait till the end of the
world.