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The Psychoanalytic Quarterly, 1950, Vol. XIX, No. 3, p. 408.
Jacobus de Voragine, the author of that medieval best-seller, The Golden Legend, briefly resumes there a generally accepted medieval legend: Judas came to Jesus initially to obtain forgiveness for having inadvertently murdered his father and married his mother. The Golden Legend, which appeared in 1260, contained a saint's life for every day in the year. The Judas story occurs under St. Matthias, February 24. Matthias, after the death of Judas, was chosen by the Apostolic college to succeed him.
Judas was supposedly the son of Reuben, of the tribe of Dan, and his wife, Giborea. One night after intercourse the latter dreamed she would bear a son who would be the downfall of her race. Nine months later to the day, a boy was born, and, as his parents did not wish to kill him, he was put into a basket and set on the Jordan river. The childless queen of an island called Iscariot found the baby, adopted him and later bore a son of her own. The foster-brothers were enemies, and Judas, learning of his adoption, killed the true son, fled to Jerusalem, and became the 'boy-friend' of Pontius Pilate. One day Pilate saw some apples from his window that he wanted, and Judas went to steal them for him. When the owner protested Judas killed him—his own father, of course. To quiet the widow, Pilate gave her to Judas for wife, and one night, weeping in her bed, she told Judas his story. Dream, basket, sea, foster brother, perversion, apples, and incest—the story really has everything!
Author's Abstract.