One of the first connections I made while I watched was the similarities with the Gospel of Mary. Judas doesn’t think that Mary is good enough to be this touchy with Jesus. There are also references to her “reputation” of being a prostitute.
Similar to the Gospel of Judas, Jesus can be portrayed as angry and not nice all the time. A primary example is shown early in the movie when Jesus is yelling at Judas for talking about Mary in a rude way and Jesus knocking over all the tables set up in the market because it was supposed to be used as a place of worship.
Another aspect similar to the Gospel of Judas is portrayed as not wanting to kill Jesus and having remorse for his actions. Making him have more character and getting to learn more about what led up to Jesus’ killing humanizes Judas more. This makes him have more nuance and leads away from the narrative that Judas wanted to kill just because.
Judas is also shown to be critical of Jesus because of his focus of the people liking him instead of helping them. As someone who is often portrayed as being selfless and gives everything to help the people, being shown as only caring about his legacy shows Jesus in a light not many people are going to be willing to accept. Especially since Jesus is also shown whining about how no one is going to remember him.
There are also moments where Jesus seems to go against his morals by saying that there is nothing they can do to help the poor. He views his followers as being mindless because no matter what he says, they will follow him. This only lasts until the people decide they will follow the parts they think are acceptable.
