Descendants of Judas were also conspicuous for their fanatical Wolcnce. Two of his sons, .lames and Simon, were crucified by Til>erius .-Mex- ander (A.D. 40?-18). Another son, Meiiahem, a leader of the 'Sicarii' in Jerus. shortly K'fore th« war with Rome, sc<juired for a time much power but was finally slain by the high priest's party.
796
JUDAS ISCARIOT
JUDAS ISCARIOT
Still another descendant was Eleazar, who, after the fall of Jerus., defended the fortress of Masada, and persuaded his followers to die by their own hands rather than submit to Korae (fiJ VII. viii. and ix.). Schiirer (HJP I. ii. 4, 80) identifies Judas with the person of the same name who, after the death of Herod the Great, raised an insurrection near Sepphoris in Galilee (Jos. Ant. xvil. x. 5 ; BJ II. iv. 1) ; but Josephus does not identify them, and the earlier Judas appears to have been simply a marauder. G. T. Purves.
JUDAS ISCARIOT.— This is his usual designa- tion in the Synoptic Gospels : 'louSas 'IffKapninjs (Mt 26"), 'lovSat i 'laKaoiuiTris (Mt 10*), 'lovSas 6 (toXoi/- fieroi 'leKaoiiirris (Lk 22*), 'lovSas 'IffKaptud (Mk 3" 141", Lk 6"). St. John calls him ' the son of Simon ' (^i/iwm), thrice givin^; the epithet 'Iscariot' to Judas (12* 13^ 14), and twice (according to the best texts) to Simon (6" 13™). All four Btigniatize him as 6 irapaSoCis oiViy (Mt 10*), or is Kai irapiiuKtv airif (Mk 3"), or 8$ i^ivero tt/joSAtjjs (Lk 6"), or IfieWcv vapaStSdvat avrdy (Jn 6"), when they mention him for the first time. At the actual time of the treachery they use 6 xapaSidoii! avrbv, •who was betraying him' (Mt 26^-"*«, Mk 14«- «, Lk 22", Jn 13" 18»- »). See Ac 1".
Besides (1) his names, we are told (2) that he was called with the rest of the Twelve to be an apostle ; (3) that he was covetous and dishonest, and sold his Master to the hierarchy ; (4) that he effected the betrayal immediately after the Last Supper ; and (5) that on realizing the consequences of his act he destroyed himself.
Every one of these points has given rise to a large amount of discussion, and the real or appar- ent uncertainty thus produced has led some to the desperate exjiedient of rejecting the whole story as a myth. Judas is a Christian fiction to represent the treacherous Judaism which put Jesus to death ; and no one among the Twelve was really guilty of this enormity (Volkmar, Noack). Keim justly remarks that it is incredible that Christians should invent sucli a crime for an apostle. From Celsus onwards the foes of Christianity have made capital out of the sin of Judas (Orig. c. Cels. II. xii.); and to prove that he never committed it, would remove a weight from the heart of Christendom. The statements in the Gospels and Acts are in- explicable, however, if Judas, ' one of the Twelve,' never betrayed the Christ.
1. The name 'loi'Sas is a common one, being the Or. form of the Heb. name Judah. There are six persons before the time of Christ who bear this name, and six in the NT. But there is no con- fusion respecting the traitor. Discussion has been frequent merely as to the meaning of ' Iscariot,' and this question is practically settled. All other explanations may be rejected in favour of the view that it means ' man of Karioth ' or ' Kerioth ' ; 'Ish Keriyoth becoming 'IcncapnirT)?, as 'Ish Tob becomes Itrro^oi or'lrruBos (Jos. Ant. VII. vi. 1). This ex- plains how botn father and son have this name, Kerioth being the home of the famUy. This also explains the reading iiri xapvunov which X* and Bome other authorities have in Jn 6", and which D has in Jn 12* 13-* U". (See papers on ' Iscariot' by Nestle and Chase in Expository Times, December 1897, and January, February, and March 1898). Kerioth (LXX KapuiB) in Judah (Jos 15^) is com- monly assumed to be the place referred to in 'Iscariot.' It ia generally identified with the ruins el-^arjetein south of Hebron. See Kerioth- Eezron. In any case Judas is of S. Palestine, while the other eleven were of Galilee ; and this rnay have l)een one cause of estrangement between him and the rest. Juda^ans had a tendency to look down on Galilseans.
The life of Judas previous to his call, like thai of all the Twelve, is nidden from us ; and it is re- markable that the apocr. gospels make so little use of this attractive Geld of speculation. The Arabic Gusjiel of the Infancy makes the boy Judas a demoniac who bites (? the kiss), and the demon takes llight when Judas comes into contact \\'ith the boy Jesus (xxxv.) ; but this passage stands alone.
2. The Synoptists indicate that Judas was called with the remainder of the Twelve, and in all tlieii lists his name stands last in the last group of four, while in Ac his place is vacant (Mt 10', Mk 3", Lk 6'", Ac 1"). Mt and Mk place him next to Simon the Canansean, Lk next to the other Judas ; and it is possible that one of these was the traitor's companion when the Twelve were sent out two and two (Mk 6'). Like the others, he received power to cast out demons and heal diseases (Mt 10', Lk 9') ; and, like them, he seems to have been successful (Mk 6'^, Lk 9'). Lange conjectures that the enthusiast who said, ' I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest ' (Lk 9"), was Judas But Mt calls this man ' a scribe ' (8"), and it is most improbable that he was one of the Twelve, who seem to have been chosen before this took place.