How to interpret Mt. 26:24

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“The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

How to interpret this difficult passage? It would seem to go against God’s desire to save everyone.
 
We all have our free will to do right, and we all have our free will to do wrong.

Sometimes, God can make good come from very, very terrible wrongs, but that doesn’t mean that an initial wrong wasn’t perpetrated in the first place, or that the wrong-ness of that initial action is somehow more forgivable because God made something useful out of it.

So, you see he said “it would be better for him if he had not been born” rather than “it would be better for him if he had never existed.” The point being, if he had died in the innocence of childhood-- even in prenatal infancy-- before he could have chosen to separate himself from God— it would have been better for him, rather than to betray not only his God, but the Master and Teacher whose disciple he had been, and the one at whose feet he had learned, and the one at whose side he had lived for three years.
 
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John10 said:
“The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

How to interpret this difficult passage? It would seem to go against God’s desire to save everyone.
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The desire is to save everyone in general, but specifically God gives free will choice. The Catechism states:
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;618 for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. …
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God desires everyone to be saved by their own free will. He doesn’t force anything on anyone. We have to play our part and cooperate with God’s grace. Unfortunately for Judas, he chose to reject God’s will.

God bless
 
100% agreed. However what puzzles me is the severe reply from Jesus. I’ve never seen any other verse like this one anywhere.
 
The severe language and analogy is necessary to illustrate the severity of the offence. It’s no small thing to betray God, the Creator of the Universe’s only Son. In fact, I would be surprised if this verse was not severe for such a serious offence…
 
God does desire to save everyone.

Somebody who would betray the Son of Man is likely to also be the kind of person who runs away from God’s saving mercy and rejects God, thereby sending himself to hell.
PrisonerOfChrist said:
The severe language and analogy is necessary to illustrate the severity of the offence. It’s no small thing to betray God, the Creator of the Universe’s only Son. In fact, I would be surprised if this verse was not severe for such a serious offence…
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It’s similar to Matthew 12:31 where Jesus talks about the unforgivable sin.

Some offenses are just seriously wrong.
 
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John10 said:
“The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man! It would be better for him if he had not been born.”

How to interpret this difficult passage? It would seem to go against God’s desire to save everyone
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There are a couple of things: The “man” Jesus is referring to here is Judas Iscariot, and Jesus specifically stated, it would have been better for him had he not been born - not conceived. This means had Judas Iscariot died in his mother’s womb, he would have ended up in Heaven, which is definitely “better” than Hell, which is where he ended up for betraying Jesus & not repenting before his death.

However, it was prophesied in the Old Testament that a close friend of the Messiah would betray Him, which was ordained by God from eternity past, based on His sovereign will which worked as part of His divine plan for the salvation of mankind. But Judas was still responsible for his betrayal & refusal to repent. How all that works (God’s sovereignty working together with the free will & personal responsibility) is above my pay grade. 😄
 
I don’t believe that whole logic you present, the one of born vs conceived can be derived from the text, it a little bit too much of an abracadabra moment if you ask me.

If that is what can be implied, then Jesus could have easily as equally said

But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man. It would be better for him if I had never chosen him as a disciple, which would have made Himself responsible.
 
The problem is that Jesus specifically said the word conceived, not born or chosen. To assume He “meant” chosen is using abracadabra, not pointing out the actual work He used.
 
Jesus was talking about Judas Iskariot, who at the time had been following and living with Jesus. Judas listened to every sermon, witnessed all of the numerous miracles and countless wonderful signs from first hand The Messiah Himself.

After all that, Judas still hardened his heart, chose to rely on $ and human power. He was deceived by the world because he refused to believe.
 
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More specifically, God desires all to be saved antecedently, and so offers to all the means of salvation. But then He consequently chooses not to save those that reject those means. “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
 
Genesis315 said:
More specifically, God desires all to be saved antecedently, and so offers to all the means of salvation. But then He consequently chooses not to save those that reject those means. “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
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God provides the wedding garment but those determined not to wear one are not chosen to remain get: “Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 22:13
 
What about

But whosoever shall offend one of these little ones who believe in me, it were profitable for him that a great millstone had been hanged upon his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea.

Here too is a person who is better off with what would seem a severe unrecoverable situation.
 
Isaiah 53, 8-10 is the reference to the first sentence. the next two sentences refer directly to Judas.

Can anything be taken beyond that? Given that the death and resurrection are historical facts, no one is going to betray Christ as Judas did. Are there other betrayals? Certainly; and the last sentence may apply, Or it may not apply, depending on the circumstances.

Not sure why this is such a difficult passage; it is fairly plain on its face, with the exception of the allusion to Isaiah.
 
MATTHEW 26:20-25 20 When it was evening, he sat at table with the twelve disciples; 21 and as they were eating, he said, “Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 And they were very sorrowful, and began to say to him one after another, “Is it I, Lord?” 23 He answered, “He who has dipped his hand in the dish with me, will betray me. 24 The Son of man goes as it is written of him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” 25 Judas, who betrayed him, said, “Is it I, Master?” He said to him, “You have said so.”
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John 10.

I have interpreted this as prophecy from Jesus about Judas CHOOSING to lose both his body and his soul.

Judas is in the process of condemning himself to hell in this betrayal along with his subseqent despair as a result of this.

From the Roman Catechism:
ROMAN CATECHISM Furthermore, no one can deny that it is a virtue to be sorrowful at the time, in the manner, and to the extent which are required. To regulate sorrow in this manner belongs to the virtue of penance. Some conceive a sorrow which bears no proportion to their crimes. Nay, there are some, says Solomon, who are glad when they have done evil. Others, on the contrary, give themselves to such melancholy and grief, as utterly to abandon all hope of salvation.
Such, perhaps, was the condition of Cain when he exclaimed: My iniquity is greater than that I may deserve pardon.
Such CERTAINLY was the condition of Judas ,
who, repenting, hanged himself,
and thus lost soul AND body.
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.

Hope this helps in your interpretation.

God bless.

Cathoholic
 
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Judas was extremely proud. He hung himself instead of repenting. He had no hope, despite witnessing the lame walk, the blind sees. He didn’t believe in God’s mercy despite he listened to all Jesus sermons.

Besides “many are called but few are chosen” refers to doing God’s work, it’s not about salvation. God desires all to be saved. Judas was chosen by Jesus, but he was deceived by his own greed. There are chosen workers like that even now. Their greed betrays Jesus.

Jesus mentioned in John 8:44 that His Fathers enemy was “the father of lies”. Judas was deceived by the father of lies because he just simply hardened his heart having witnessed countless heavenly wonders Jesus showed him.
 
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