A French Jesuit Bible researcher has advanced a thesis that claims that Judas did not betray Christ. Javier Leon Dufour told the Italian religious monthly Paolini Jesus that in consigning Christ to the high priests, Judas had hoped to encourage him to become a political as well as a spiritual guide. According to Fr Dufour Judas believed that God would have freed Christ before he died on the cross and his actions were "simply an error of judgement".