The Judas Tree (ballet) official website, this ballet is about "betrayal and guilt, individual and communal". The plot references the biblical betrayal story of the Kiss of Judas, which leads directly to the arrest of Jesus and his later crucifixion. In this same source it is said that MacMillan was also thinking of contemporary "instances of betrayal, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989." Since the protesting students demanding democratic reforms were taken down by the Chinese army, "in spite of politicians’ assurances that there would be no violence". The Royal Ballet website describes it like this: "The Judas Tree is MacMillan's final
Serpents in the Bible Eden. Throughout the Hebrew Bible, it is also used in conjunction with "saraph" to describe vicious serpents in the wilderness. The "tannin", a dragon monster, also occurs throughout the Hebrew Bible. In the Book of Exodus, the staffs of Moses and Aaron are turned into serpents, a "nāḥāš" for Moses, a "tannin" for Aaron. In the New Testament, the Book of Revelation makes use of "ancient serpent" and "the Dragon" several times to identify Satan or the devil. (; ) The serpent is most often identified with the hubristic Satan, and sometimes with Lilith. The story of the Garden of