Lady Gaga: Judas Meaning
Song Released: 2011
Judas Lyrics
Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh, I'm in love with Juda-as, Juda-as
Judas, Juda-a-a, Judas, Juda-a-a
Judas, Juda-a-a, Judas, Gaga
Judas, Juda-a-a, Judas, Juda-a-a
Judas, Juda-a-a, Judas, Gaga
When he...
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i think you guys need to stop hating on Lady Gaga!! she is an amazing person and an amazing artist!! everybody judges her on her songs but no one knows her!! she is very intelligent and means no harm by her songs she just wants human equality! lay off! if you dont like the song dont listen to it!!
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I understand that this song is getting a lot of negative attention mainly to some religion groups due to the raw lyrics. All I can say to those who feel this song is sinful or evil is that gaga is metaphorical speaking like most singers and author due. The main message I get out of this song is forgiveness and being love with someone that betrays you. But remember I song can be whatever you want it be that’s the true beauty of music.
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i take it as GaGa expressing human nature to trail after what is familiar and we tend to like the punishment. "bringing down the king with no crown" could mean the extent to which she's willing to go for a man she loves but knows doesn't truly care for her? i do not think this is an attack on christianity only the use of a biblical plot that fits well with her situation (even though christianity, islam, and judaism can get a little too unrealistic and far fetched for my taste, so i wouldn't consider it blasphemy, yet i can see how the devout would interpret it so, but i always considered them more as bed time stories. i only hope the Deity has a humourous side and a little bit of appreciation for creativity..the Creator gaves us our minds we should utilize them to their fullest extent:) )
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The song is about a female lover forgiving a man who has betrayed her thrice in the past, and still accepting him wholeheartedly even though it may feel wrong to do so.
"When he comes to me, I am ready, I'll wish his feet with my hair if he needs" means that the protagonist has made up her mind and is set upon her decision. She is ready to give love and care to the man again, so much to the extent that she will wash his feet with her own hair if he wants to.
"Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain even after three times he betrays me" means that she has forgiven him even though he was previously dishonest with her and betrayed her repeatedly. In the Bible, Judas only betrayed Jesus once. In fact, the truth is, Peter denied Jesus thrice. It wasn't even betrayal to begin with, so it wouldn't make sense that the song is literally about the biblical Judas.
"I'll bring him down, a king with no crown" can be interpreted very interestingly. A king with no crown is a person of royalty who does not have the symbolism of royalty upon him, which is the crown. It would be a shame for a king to be seen not wearing his crown. The protagonist of the song will wait upon a man in shame. I do admit that I struggle with understanding this lyric.
"I'm just a Holy fool, oh, baby, he's so cruel, but I'm still in love with Judas, baby". Many times, we hear people swearing "holy shit". When they say that, they don't actually mean it in a religiously-offensive way. The addition of the word "holy" is actually a metaphor for something extremely huge and major, so "holy shit" would be similar to "deep shit". In that same sense, a "Holy fool" is a major fool. So, the protagonist sings that she's a major fool who is still in love with the man who has hurt her.
"I couldn't love a man so purely. Even prophets forgave his crooked way" means that the protagonist has never felt nothing but love for a person, and reminds herself that it is possible for a man who has made mistakes to be forgiven.
"I've learned love is like a brick. You can build a house or sink a dead body" means that the protagonist acknowledges the responsibility of decisions regarding the provision of love. With love, you can "build a house", which is a metaphor for starting a home with the man you love and want to marry, or "sink a dead body", which is a metaphor for hurting a person so badly that he wants to die.
I consider the bridge of the song as expressing different messages than the entire song. In fact, I don't see it much in relation to romance, but relevant in a sense where it highlights the contrast between the Bible and her own opinions.
"In the most biblical sense, I am beyond repentance. Fame hooker, prostitute, wench, vomits her mind" means that Lady Gaga herself acknowledges her controversial behavior who just "vomits her mind" without being very sensitive about others' opinions, e.g. religion, homosexuality, fame.
"But in the cultural sense, I just speak in future tense" means that Lady Gaga is speaking for the future, and possibly, how it should be. There is a biased tone in this lyric, as it indicates that Lady Gaga's personal opinions are the best for the future.
"Judas Kiss me if offensed of wear ear condom next time" is a line with a metaphor. The Kiss of Judas is a metaphor for a disguised act of betrayal. The lyric and also be translated to "if you don't like it, don't listen to what I have to say, or do something about it."
"I wanna love you, but something's pulling me away from you. Jesus is my virtue and Judas is the demon I cling to" means that she still feels the wrong in wanting to continue loving the man who has hurt her, yet she cannot deny that she clings on to him. -
"It was about being in love with the worst guy you've ever met, but as you might expect there's more to it than that. It's about leaving your darkness behind in order to come into the light. I have a lot of things that have haunted me from my past - choices, men, drug abuse, being afraid to go back to New York, confronting old romances - and Judas represents, for me, something that is bad for me that I can't escape. I keep going back and forth between the darkness and the light in order to understand who I am."
-Gaga
"I'm just a holy fool
Oh baby, he's so cruel
But I'm still in love with Judas, baby"
-means she's a fool, she knows he's bad but he's the one she loves anyway.
"I'll bring him down
Bring him down, down
A king with no crown
King with no crown"
-'king with no crown' refers to Jesus, 'bring him down' I assume is disappoint. She'll be disappointing him because she's still clinging to the wrong guy.
It's just a metaphor of sorts. Picking Judas over Jesus means picking the bad guy over the good guy. -
Ok, obviously we know that she is not "talking literally" about worshiping Satan. Then it would go something like this, "ummm I worship Satan a king with no crown God will bring him down", or something like that. Some of you who want to bash christians should also know that demons or people possessed by them may also have the knowledge of the bible as well. The thing with Satan is he was cast from heaven so why wouldn't he know just as much as any other angel. Therefore, he is able to manipulate his followers to use symbolic literature to brain-wash people to believe it is ok to listen to this kind of music. In the bible it mentions that anti-crist will not be known to all men because it will come in the form of someone who is well liked someone that ppl listen to or look up to. So, why wouldn't someone start planting the seed in ppls heads that it is ok to do the things that they are and live in the wages of sin bc 90 percent of sinners believe that they are BEYOND repentance. Only Satan is beyond repentance. Not that I am saying that lady gaga is the anti-crist but I do believe that those lyrics, which probably weren't even written by her, is something that has been put into action to deprive the minds of many ppl all over the world to shun christianity and continue in their ways of 'contemporary sinning'. Things that ppl tend to think of as not so bad, porn, sex, drinking, & smoking. Its all legal right? The Lord says to obey the laws of the land, not to do anything that is legal. Jesus was a king with a crown and those that didn't believe in him were the ones to give it to him. Jesus, Lord, God, my savior wore a crown of thorns not of gold or silver but merely thorn brush FOR ME AND YOU! Was beaten and NAILED to a cross FOR ME AND YOU! Died and rose again FOR ME AND YOU! So that you (and even lady gaga) can/could be saved! Every knee shall bow and every tounge confess that he is Lord. I will not listen to a song about someone who SOLD OUT Jesus whether figuratively or literally!
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This song is basically explaining that the bible is contradictory. And since religion is based off the bible people worship it. But half the stuff in the bible is ridiculous. She's not saying she loves judas because she's a satanist. If you listen to born this way she clearly isn't. HOWEVER, she is stating she doesn't believe in the bible and people follow it to closely. (you can see by looking at all the people who are saying she's a satanist's comments) When she states "I'm just a Holy fooll, oh baby he's so cruel But I'm still in love with Judas, baby" I personally believe shes talking about how everyone will be judging her for writing this song, saying things like SHE'S A SATANIST. It's probably sarcastic in some sense. Like if you were to say to someone "I believe in equality" and they Rolled your eyes at you, you might respond sarcastically "yeah, okay, guess I'm a fool" That's just an example.
Then she says "I wanna love you, But something's pulling me away from you Jesus is my virtue" I believe she's referring to loving someone of the same gender. Because the bible (where Jesus comes from) says it's wrong. Which is pulling them away from their lover. Because they feel like they HAVE to obey the bible (which I think is another reason why she wrote this song)
"But in the cultural sense I just speak in future tense" In this lyric I think she's stating that the bible was written thousands of years ago, the world as changed so why are we still worshiping a past that we aren't even sure is real? We should be looking forward to the future.
Song meanings are interpreted differently for everyone however, if you think lady gaga is a satanist just because of the lyrics to this song you know nothing about her. Just because someone doesn't believe in the bible or religion doesn't mean they worship satan. Life would be a lot less hateful if religion didn't exist and wars wouldn't have happened and the holocaust wouldn't have happened. Just think about all the terrible things that have happened because religion. That's what this song is trying to make you understand and think about. ITS MEANT TO GET YOU UPSET. That means you'll sit and listen to it over and over again thinking about the song, wondering about it and telling people about it whether it's good or bad. Then more people will listen. This is why lady gaga is a very smart girl. With each one of these responses you're only making her more popular.
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Lady Gaga is all about making people talk. She knew using Judas would be controversial and she probably expected people to make the ridiculous "Satan worshiper" assumptions that a number of you are making.
Her message is anything but literal. So perhaps listening to the song again and utilizing critical thinking will give you a better understanding. -
Lady Gaga writes in metaphors frequently and basically never means what she is literally saying. ie. poker face wasn't about a card game, it was a song about faking orgasms and thinking about women when she was with her boyfriend. (it's okay, you can call that a sin. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to save judgments for your god, but christians love to play the judgmental god anyway - which is a sin, by the way)
Anyway here, she is using biblical stories and images to reference her past relationships. That's all. The whole point of this song is she knows she should stop having this awful relationship, but she's still in love with her 'bad' guy. People who take her music THIS seriously and call her the anti-christ are attributing her more power than her fans are. Which is rather ironic, no?
And by the way... Crossified is not a word, it's crucified. You should probably spell check before you embarrass yourself with an ignorant answer with made up words. Next year, you should give up stupidity for lent. Just a thought. -
Conclusion and the Contribution of Christianity by Dr. James Hannam
Christianity had an important impact on every step of the road to modern science. Let me now summarise exactly what they were:
The preservation of literacy in the Dark Ages
Because it is a literary religion based on sacred texts and informed by the writings of the early church fathers, Christianity was exclusively responsible for the preservation of literacy and learning after the fall of the Western Empire. This meant not only that the Latin classics were preserved but also that their were sufficient men of learning to take Greek thought forward when it was rediscovered.
The doctrine of the lawfulness of of nature
As they believed in a law abiding creator God, even before the rediscovery of Greek thought, twelfth century Christians felt they could investigate the natural world for secondary causes rather than put everything down to fate (like the ancients) or the will of Allah (like Moslems). Although we see a respect for the powers of reason by Arab scholars they did not seem to make the step of looking for universal laws of nature.
The need to examine the real world rather than rely on pure reason
Christians insisted that God could have created the world any way he like and so Aristotle's insistence that the world was the way it was because it had to be was successfully challenged. This meant that his ideas started to be tested and abandoned if they did not measure up.
The belief that science was a sacred duty
This is not so much covered in this essay, but features again and again in scientific writing. The early modern scientists were inspired by their faith to make their discoveries and saw studying the creation of God as a form of worship. This led to a respect for nature and the attempt to find simple, economical solutions to problems. Hence Copernicus felt he could propose a heliocentric model for no better reason that it seemed more elegant.
Not all these factors were unique to Christianity but they all came together in Western Europe to give the world its only case of scientific take off which has since seen its ideas spread to the rest of the world. An learned examination of why other civilisations failed to make the leap forward can be found here.
For the anti Christians desperate not to give credit for their own faith of scientism to the religion they hate, two questions must be answered. First, if the dominant world view of medieval Europe was as hostile to reason as they would like to suppose, why was it here rather than anywhere else that science arose? And secondly, given that nearly every one of the founders and pre founders of science were unusually devout (although not always entirely orthodox) even by the standards of their own time, why did they make the scientific breakthroughs rather than their less religiously minded contemporaries? I wonder if I will receive any answers. -
Listen guys.. Even though this song seems to be about religion it kindof isn't.. Its more of an internal struggle with herself really,..I've hear that she's antichrist and blah blah blah.. But she's not.. She loves all people.. No matter what.. Have you not heard her song born this way??? But I've heard the real reason behind this song is that it's about her battle with her own demons.. Or that shes in love with a sinner and can't let him go..even though she knows it'd
Be the better thing to do.. I've also heard the judas she's talkig about is actually one of her ex boyfriends.. Not the actual biblical character... It's called a metaphor! English reading 101?!? But anyhow.. I know all the religious groups are all hung up on it.. But Whatever.. This song really doesn't refer to any biblical sense.. Just bc it says Jesus doesn't automatically make it a religious song! Think about dance in the dark... "find your freedom in the music..find your Jesus, find your Cupid.." that doesnt make it a religion based song now does it? Nope.. It's just saying find yur happy place! But thanks for reading :) I hope you see the song more for what it really is! not anti- anything.. -
In the end all will use religion in their art because it totally encompasses our every being whether you believe in God or not!
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Honestly I felt it was a great song. From 10 seconds in I knew it was awesome. But like many others I wanted to know what was the real story behind the lyrics. As many people have already noticed, there are always a bigger story behind her songs which many people can relate to.
"When he comes to me, I am ready
I'll wash his feet with my hair if he needs
Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain
Even after three times, he betrays me"
-Like people have already said, it seems she is relating this to a prior/current relationship. Everyone knows of someone in a relationship that is treated badly to the point of being degraded and belittled. Hence the "wash his feet with my hair if he needs."
Telling lies, which the person always forgives and forgets, "Forgive him when his tongue lies through his brain."
And after putting up with lies, and for example, being cheated on, continues to do so. "even after three times, he betrays me"
"I'm just a Holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel
But I'm still in love with Judas, baby
I'm just a Holy fool, oh baby he's so cruel
But I'm still in love with Judas, baby"
For example, just take out the word "Holy" and replace the Word Judas with a popular guy's name and it sounds like any other love/hate song.
Still it seems to point to the notion that even though she is treated so bad, she still loves him.
Which leads to the next part:
"I'll bring him down, bring him down, down
A king with no crown, king with no crown"
This is good imagery of someone who thinks they are better than someone else, especially in a relationship sense. Relationship wise, the person telling the story behind this song is pretty much saying that they don't want to put up with it anymore, that they are not above them, nor as high and mighty as they think.
"I wanna love you,
But something's pulling me away from you
Jesus is my virtue,
Judas is the demon I cling to
I cling to "
This kinda can be seen as her saying that she is still in love with the person who treats her horribly, and she knows she is being driven away and that there is (also) someone out there who will treat her better, but even though she is mistreated, she still stays with them.
yet there are still some other parts of the song that are hard to describe. But this is just one way of looking at it. There could even be a whole other interpretation about gays and not following their religious beliefs about homosexuality. Someone else can do one about that.
I think the song was just a creative way of using a memorable/sacred story to describe something else.
Oh, and to the person who has the number 1 rated comment on here:
If you are a christian and are so pushing your beliefs on others, you must be so blind to see that you in fact are one of the sheep. You are a follower. If indeed you are a god-fearing person who is devoted to your righteous religion, you are nothing but a sheep to your church and what is fed to you.
"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye." Matthew 7:5"
Taste of your own medicine :D -
WOW. All the people telling religion to die. Yes there are some bad Christians, and bad churches, but there are bad atheist and etc too. So don't be so hypocritical, anyone can be a bad person. Christ is about love, forgiveness, and hope. But there are alot of people using Christ and church for hate and discrimination, like all the hate against gay people, God says being gay is sinning, but so is lying, stealing, etc. And you can't go to hell for that, he says to hate the sin not the person. Which means God loves you, and no one should hate you b/c of that, and you will go to heaven. idk anything about the pope or about a priest raping a kid? And i'm pretty sure anyone can do that. There's plenty of nonreligious rapist out there, so idk where that came from? I'm pretty sure lady gaga is catholic, and this is about her past boyfriends and decisions. So alot of you are blowing this way out of proportion. I know what I said is not about the song really, but there were alot of stupid comments, and whoever posted the comment at April 17 13:24 has no absolutely NO idea what he/she is talking about! Some of you people who are christian on here sound crazy! If you played anything backwards it sounds evil, yeah maybe some of those songs have bad meanings, but there not satanic! Just because someone is not christain and sings secular music doesn't mean there satanic, don't say stupid things, if you don't really know that. And they stay stuck in your head because you like the tune, not because it's some magic spell. You just sound judgmental!
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I agreed with everything that the comment 2nd top rated comment says (April 16th 11:16) as it gave a good meaning to the song until I got to the last few sentences...
Why stop listening to her? Because she supports gays?
She may very well still be religious, and some religious people do accept homosexuals, she would obviously be one of them.
Is the point you are trying to make is too stop listening to her because she is anti-christ? Well that is purely ridiculous. Or were you hinting towards her coming from the New York club scene? What's wrong with that. She had been surrounded by mixed belief and different types of people in that scene giving her a realistic view to life rather than that closed of version the Bible gives. I for one, believe her way of thinking is probably the most real way any popstar has thought in a while, she is certainly not obsessed with fame and constantly expresses the dark side of life in her songs, which seems to be the most prominent side to society at this time.
Once again, you are a closed off religious idiot.
But believe what you want, you can criticise but she's the one making the big bucks, not you.
I personally believe all Bible's should be burned and the Pope should be hung.
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