I have to hold my ground here; most of you are talking as if these people were real. Judas didn’t go bad after he was selected, only his fictional character did because he probably did not exist. He is a made up person. At the time when Paul wrote, Judas had not been thought of yet (like in the oldest stories of Robin Hood, Maid Marion had not yet been invented). This is the nature of folk tales, they gain in intrigue and padding the more they are told and copied. The name Judas Iscariot is a literary invention not an historical person. Probably since the name Judas meant Jew, it was to load the blame for the Jesus-hero’s death on the Jewish nation...a political ploy for the Christ cult to remove themselves from their former connection to Judaism around the end of the first century and gain Roman favour.
The first writings of the death of Jesus were between thirty and seventy years after the supposed events took place. Can anyone remember the talk, words and fine details of ancient events for which they were not even eyewitnesses? As for all those details of Jesus’ death, they so closely resemble the narrative of a play that in fact they were the narrative of a play...A play seen and written down afterwards. All events are so compressed together in a seamless theatrical way. None of these events are historical; they are early Christian cult literature with magical holy spirit thrown in to bolster the credibility. They are no more or less truthful than any fictional tale is.
By believing that these things were true, we are deceiving ourselves and become embroiled in unending and pointless doctrinal squabbles. Logically how could these stories have any imperative meaning today?
The most interesting use of the Bible now is in uncovering the social and political history which forced the propaganda to be written down in the first place.