Could we start again, please

CANON HISTORY: Everything in the Bible (and all religion and ancient religious mythology for that matter) are treated as canon, basically. Once in a while something's treated as intentional misinformation or a misinterpretation/exaggeration, mostly to account for multiple versions of stories throughout different books, or for the sake of a gag. The author's actually very knowledgeable too, so can confirm, everything's well in tact there. Dante's Inferno is also canon, as in, Dante actually went to Hell and saw the things he wrote about. And then there's the actual manga where the main premise is Jesus and Buddha are vacationing from Heaven as roommates in present-day Tokyo and sometimes their friends and other figures visit them and everyone struggles to act like normal humanbeings.

But, a rundown of Judas-relevant events:
He was born about 3AD on a farm in Kerioth in southern Judea/now Israel which at the time was quite culturally different than northern Judea, where all the other Apostles originate. Different language, firmly Jewish as opposed to the Jewish with multi-god pagan-like beliefs of the north. Basically made up of former Egyptian slaves and other immigrants and regarded as lesser and outsiders by the northern parts. Because of the Roman occupation he was always very outspoken about injustices and got himself in a lot of trouble until he left home for Jerusalem and met up with Jesus and whoever else was traveling with him at the time, although Judas was one of the first few. As more followers gathered he looked after the group's finances.
It wasn't so much about religion at the start as opposed to protest and rebellion, wanting to instate Jesus as King of Judea and get rid of Herod who was a figurehead appointed by Rome and a tyrant. As they started to become an actual threat and more people pushed for violence rather than demonstration, and Jesus as a religious figure, Judas thought Rome would punish them by massacring the country, and that's what made him help Jerusalem's Sanhedrin counsel in Jesus's arrest and execution. Indeed as the story goes, he was paid 30 pieces of silver to tell them when and where to find him, and his betrayal was predicted during the Last Supper, after which he left to give up the information. Leading soldiers to Gethsemane he identified Jesus with a kiss and followed them to witness the trial. There's a few different versions of his death but in SYM Judas watched the trial and crucifixion, but ran away after Peter and Andrew spotted him, returned to Gethsemane, and hung himself from a tree.

AND THEN HE WENT TO HELL which was a pretty big shock because Hell doesn't exist in Judaism...... It's all pretty much a montage of just under 2000 years of torture as described by Dante, except that while he was often being gnawed on by Lucifer, sometimes he was left in the ice in Cocytus with Brutus and Cassius who took their frustrations out on him, or tortured in various other ways, not just physical but psychological. Apparently he's Lucifer's favourite because he makes it easy. There's also spooky theme music which is probably the worst torture of all. Several times he asked to be able to cash in on 5 indulgences Jesus gave each of the Apostles but was denied until sometime around 2010.

It isn't really made clear what kind of timeline SYM takes place in, as in, how much time actually passes, but upon Judas's first appearance it was his first Easter out of Hell, which was a few years into the series, and he was already out at the start, so it's probably been about two years in total up to the current events? Anyway, present-day manga events are mostly for referencing what happened in the past and what he does during that time is mostly hang around getting used to the way things are in the modern world. He spends most of his time with Peter and Andrew who try to keep an eye on him so he doesn't walk back into Hell, going between Heaven and Earth, visiting Jesus and Buddha. They do regular newfangled stuff like play MMOs, celebrate holidays, go see the cherry blossoms, volunteer, follow Jesus around so he doesn't do anything stupid, play some sportsball (like, Heaven has some kind of bizarre lacrosse-type sport? sportsball). The usual tone of the manga is very light-hearted, silly shenanigans, but generally when Judas shows up it gets...pretty dark pretty fast because of how he is.

CANON PERSONALITY: As the former treasurer among the Apostles, Judas is very careful with money. He absolutely hates spending unless it's going to a cause, and even then he has to be sure it's well spread-out. No buying the slightly better version for more, when the cheaper one will make their money stretch further. Just as the story in the Bible goes, in canon Jesus thinks back on Judas criticising him for using expensive ointment on his hair and feet, saying those are unimportant things, and the money could have gone to feeding the poor. In this case, he remembers how horrified and furious Judas was, to the point that the memory scares him into refusing to wash his hair. There's also the case of Judas being payed thirty bits of silver for his betrayal, which he intended to use to buy a field to farm food for the poor, not quite the story that tends to be, where it was out of greed. But hey that's because he's supposed to be a figure used for the monstrification of all Jews. Also because John (as in the beloved disciple) is an asshole and Judas hates his guts. They tend to fight a lot and John may or may not have put in a few little things to stick it to Judas. It's a point of contention between them and means they now fight all the more. Although Judas likes Buddha's disciple Ananda, who's close with John, so between the two groups they tend to have to put up with eachother quite a lot. It just doesn't usually end well.

Above all else, he wants to help people in need. If he could save them, he would, he wanted, tried and intended to, but at the very least he has to do everything in his power to help. If that means starving or otherwise harming himself, that's fine, everyone else is always put before himself. Not many could truly call it a fault, but for Judas, caring too much definitely is. More than the silver, his reason for betrayal was for being afraid Jesus and his followers were calling too much attention to themselves in an occupied country. He thought the Jews would all be killed because of them, unless they either stepped down, or pushed to make Yeshua king, but it seemed he would do neither. So the lives of thousands were put above the life of a friend. There is nothing he hates more than oppression, prejudice or cruelty, and any instruments in those things and he will always fight back against them. However, he believes himself to have become a coward and someone who would sit on the sidelines, afraid.

He's extremely negative and dwells on the bad. If he can ever see the positive side to things, it's usually followed up by a passive aggressive comment. He's easily worked up, whether it's anger, embarrassment, a depression, his emotions can get pretty extreme, and fast. But more than anything else, he focuses on the past. He can never let the subject of his betrayal go, he hates himself for what he did, and thinks everyone else should too, even though he's been forgiven. If something goes wrong, he just says 'well, I'm Judas, so of course I would ruin it', he even says "sorry for being Judas" when everyone forgets him and leaves him outside the apartment. Something intended to put himself down, but also to be passive aggressive towards Peter and Andrew for forgetting about him. He insists on sitting on the floor when there aren't enough seats at the table, because 'Judas sitting with Jesus again would be traumatic'. While he already puts his own wellbeing after that of others for the sake of helping them, he now sees himself as lower than dirt, so of course everyone matters more than him. He doesn't deserve to be happy and healthy, he shouldn't bother others with his presence. However, instead of trying in vain for further death, what he is truly in danger of is walking back into Hell and stands at the gate on almost a daily basis. Because after all, if he can't truly die, then he should at least suffer. Even more so, he feels buying his way out of Hell was wrong, and was therefore not true forgiveness. He doesn't feel at all accepted among his former friends, although his perception of all these things is entirely wrong, since he sees the worst in every situation.

Because of Andrew and Peter's influence and attempts at some sort of rehabilitation for Judas, he sometimes tries to joke or pull pranks. They come out pretty pathetic though, showcasing some more self-hatred or passive aggressiveness, or otherwise just not being a joke or working out at all. He was banned from playing MMOs with the disciples because of one such selfdetrimental joke upsetting everyone too much. Saying a negative thing and laughing after it is basically how he thinks jokes work. When he's not being dragged around by the brothers, he's been told he shouldn't go out on his own. The reason for this is worry that being so fresh out of Hell, he could very well be lost, others wanting to spend as much time with him as possible, and other such mundane things. But the way he takes it, of course, is that they distrust him. So, when left alone, he sits around fiddling on the computer (brooding while seeing what the others are doing without him), reading books, history or studying language. He hates lacking knowledge for not wanting to seem inferior to others, in life for having been a poor man with little education, seeing himself as an outsider because he was from the south and assuming the rest would think badly of him for it, and now for having missed so much time. It embarrasses him and makes him hate himself all the more for having such a weakness. Likewise, being a small man, his temper is that much greater for having to compensate for an unimpressive size. He's afraid of Lucifer, so avoiding him is high on the priority list. Brutus and Cassius intimidated him while they were trapped in the beast's jaws together, so he's also very glad to be away from them. Although he still fears they might someday come after him for calling for help whenever it seemed they were plotting something. Because of the torture in Hell, he's extremely skittish now, particularly surrounding physical contact. He doesn't like to be touched at all really, unless he's the one initiating it, but especially on his back, as it was so often torn. Conversely, since he's so used to seeing and experiencing horrible things, horror movies/games don't even make him blink, because they're not real, so, whatever.

Judas looks sickly because along with forgetting to eat or sleep quite often, he also loses sleep and his appetite out of guilt. As a religious and God-fearing man, he wishes for retribution for his great sins. But his guilt is not just for the betrayal. He has always felt personal guilt over anything, no matter the scale. He knows full well things like poverty and disease are not his fault, nor something he has control over, but to do the best he can in relieving it for some. And yet he feels so badly for its existence, and his existence free from (at least most of) them, and that he can't help on a large scale, that something like eating can be a huge source of anxiety. It's the reason he's so particular about money, too. He has always seen himself as a failure and generally 'a bad person', mostly inexplicably, but also certainly the guilt. Perhaps for having been told so in younger years, for he always remembers and takes such words to heart. For example, in the Bible passage at the Last Supper, after revealing Judas's betrayal, Jesus says, "The Son of man goeth as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born." which could be taken as either cursing or pitying Judas, perhaps both, but, even 1950 years later, Judas refers to it as something that truly disturbs him and makes him say it would be better for everyone if he'd never existed. Because of these feelings, he has also always wanted to die and it's very obvious he's severely depressed. Yeshua has to implore Buddha never speak of Judas's Gospel, because it reads more like a suicide note than anything.

On a better note, Judas is a nerd who likes math. He's like the Rain Man of accounting, he can figure out exceptionally accurate values of random objects instantly. It extends into addition/multiplication/etc, and he's just really good at mathematics in general. He watches people cook and adds up what they're spending, it's weird, a little creepy, Buddha is rightfully a little afraid of him. Especially over the internet. Behind a computer or phone, or even in something like a letter, if it's written in some form, his aggression becomes much less passive. He doesn't filter himself much, if at all, while normally he holds back, trying to be polite, and quiet, so as not to be any kind of nuisance. But in those forms, he doesn't think about it as much, because he doesn't have the immediate consequences or reason to be timid. He's an asshole on the internet.

SKILLS/ABILITIES: The only ability he really has is being absurdly good at math, it's definitely genius level, and he's very smart in general, but the math is just ridiculous. In particular, show him something and he can figure out how much it costs within just a couple seconds. It's a totally useless skill, except to someone as aggressively cheap as he is. In theory he's probably much the same with other mathematics, certainly with anything else accounting related, but he doesn't seem to bother to put it to use in any other way.
He speaks a bunch of languages too, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic and Egyptian would certainly be there for most in his original time and place, maybe a form of Arabic or Persian too or a little Roman, and he's learnt at least Japanese and English since leaving Hell.
Nothing else is particularly impressive, but he has plenty of survival skills, considering he traveled around homeless for three years and was about the only thing keeping everyone alive. Especially when it comes to farming! His family were farmers so he's very good with crops and manual labour, insofar as he can be when he's so small. He was also entirely self-taught in school-type subjects, reading/writing and second languages, so while he probably worked hard to do so, he absorbs information well.