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The Bible says almost nothing about Judas, except that he betrayed Jesus, and was a thief who stole from the poor, and a few other small details.

I think we do know who his father is, and I think knowing this can be helpful to us, by teaching us some important moral lessons.

The only time the father of Judas is mentioned is in the Gospel of John, where he is mentioned three times. Twice John calls him Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, and once John calls him Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.

It’s odd that John is the only one who mentions this.

The gospel authors had a habit of not mentioning the names of anyone who is still alive.

John’s gospel is the only one who names the disciple who cut off the ear of a servant in the Garden of Gethsemane, and says it was Simon Peter. This is because he waited until Peter was dead before writing that down.

John mentions no other Simon, only Simon Peter. And he makes a point of it to call him Simon Peter, and not just Simon or Peter, but always Simon Peter.

He also goes out of his way to introduce the people that he writes about, such as describing who Mary or Martha or Lazarus is, after first mentioning them.

So when he mentions Simon Iscariot with no introduction, it seems it’s because he already did introduce him: it’s the former name of Simon Peter, before Jesus gave him the last name Peter.

This would explain a lot.

We already know that St. Peter had a wife, though the Bible doesn’t mention her at all, only that he had one, and has a mother-in-law.

We also know that Simon was a fisherman, from Bethsaida, partners with Zebedee, who was the father of James and John.

Given the fact that John arrived at the empty tomb sooner than Peter, shows that Peter was older than John, so probably Peter was the same age as Zebedee, and old enough to be the father of James and John, young men who helped their father’s fishing business.

If Simon was married and at least 40 years old, then he probably had a son.

All we know about Judas, besides his betrayal, was that he was one of the twelve Apostles, and that he had a habit of very evil sins, namely, stealing money from the poor’s alms.

That already is no small sin, but he added to it the sin of scandal, since he caused other Apostles to resent Jesus for accepting the expensive perfume annointing, all while lying about his intentions.

One thing to learn from that story is that Jesus did not accuse Judas of lying, but answered him as if he was sincere, even though he knew his secret intentions. We should treat others in the same way.

We also know that when Simon first meets Jesus, when Jesus gave Peter and his fellow fishermen the miraculous catch of fish, the first thing Simon said to Jesus was “depart from me oh Lord, for I am a sinful man.” He acknowledges that Jesus is from God, and honestly acknowledges his own sinfulness.

While this is a good lesson of how to be humble, it also shows the state of Simon Peter’s heart. He shows a kind of sorrow for his sins that usually only comes after we finally see all the problems that our sins bring with them.

This was before Jesus gave him the name Peter, so he was still just Simon. Or Simon Iscariot.

We also know that Simon was from Bethsaida, yet currently lived in Capernaum with Andrew.

The rest of this are my guesses.

My guess is that Simon previously lived in Bethsaida, had the last name Iscariot, got married, and they had Judas.

There, Simon probably fell into many serious sins, and it ruined his reputation and career. His wife probably died, and Simon was heartbroken and probably saw it as a punishment from God for his sins.

So he moved to Capernaum with Judas, met Zebedee, a devout man and father of two Saints, and became a fisherman and partnered up with Zebedee, who did not look at Simon’s past sins with scorn.

Meanwhile, Judas was not mentioned as a fisherman. He likely did not learn the same painful lessons that his father Simon had to learn the hard way. So Judas was still full of sin and love for sin.

Judas was old enough to become an Apostle, so he was at least old enough to fish, but we don’t hear that he did any job at all, only that he used to steal money from the poor.

In other words, Judas was the son of Simon’s former life, the son of Simon Iscariot, the Simon who wasn’t yet sorry, and not the son of Simon Peter, the Simon who Jesus named, the Simon who had learned that sin is never worth it.

It would make sense that Simon tried to correct Judas, and set his morals on the same good path he found, but that he didn’t quite know where that path was, since Simon was not necessarily a religious man. So the best he could do was be a typical father, warning and admonishing Judas as best as he knew how.

Then, Jesus met Simon, gave him a new last name, Peter, to show that he was throwing away Simon’s old life, with all its sins and failures, for a fresh start.

And as Simon learned good morals from Jesus, Simon probably assumed Judas was learning just as much, but Judas, being foolish, loved his sins til the end.

If all of this is true, it teaches us a few things.

First, Jesus overlooks our past mistakes. He overlooked Simon living a sinful life. He overlooked Simon failing to raise a good son. He overlooked Judas being a constant thief. He always gave more chances and new chances. He sees the good in us no matter how evil we’ve been. He wants to bring that good out of us because he loves us.

Second, it shows that parents all make mistakes. The letter of James says, “we all make many mistakes.” If we try to find blame, we will go all the way back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We cannot blame our parents for our mistakes and sins, just as Jesus did not blame Simon for the sins of Judas, but accepted Simon despite raising Judas with bad morals.

Third, it teaches us to learn from our parents, because often times the lessons they are teaching us were learned through lots of pain and loss. If we learn from them, we may avoid the same pain and loss. It’s true that God can turn all pain and loss to spiritual profit, for ourselves and for others, if we bear it patiently. But God is good, and wants good for us. Pain is the exception. It’s true that some souls are meant to take on a lot more pain, copying Jesus in the way of the cross to save many souls, like the martyrs, but that is not the path God has chosen for everyone.

Fourth, it teaches us that we should wait to have children until we are sure that we can raise them to be good. Many of us had children before we knew God or Jesus, and so God forgives us and helps us correct their path, like what happened with St. Augustine and his son. But countless people love sin and live in sin without sorrow, and have children, and raise those children to be very bad. This is very sad and very avoidable.

Also, parents need to make little sacrifices to purchase grace for their children, in the same way they save up money to give their children when they move out. Job did this by offering a sacrifice every morning for each of his adult children, just in case they had sinned in their hearts. Out of all the atheists and non-Catholics I talked to, many said they stopped believing when they were kids, and also that their parents were full of sins at the time. Even if a parent says all the right words to their children, and hides the bad example of their sins from their children, if they sin a lot, or don’t endure any suffering in grace, their children will grow up to be very confused, lost, and sinful. On the other hand, it seems that great suffering in grace can make up for the lack of thorough teaching, and produce very good hearts.

Also, do not let any of this lead you to conspiracy theories, or to think that the Catholic Church is evil, or that the Pope is the antichrist or anything evil like that. No, Judas being the son of Simon by nature has nothing to do with Simon being chosen as Pope. The gospel of John talks very much about parenthood, saying that to be a true child, you must do your parent’s will. Judas did not do Simon Peter’s will. He was Simon Iscariot’s son, not Simon Peter’s son.