750
THEUDAS
THIGH
'the mother of all Macedonia' {Anthol. Gr. ed. Jacobs, ii. p. 98, Epig. 14), although the name ' metropolis,' occurring on coins of the city, is ot later date. The Romans had docks (navalui) tliere (Liv. xliv. 10) ; the great Egnatian higlnvay tra- versed tlie city from west to east, the remains of arches at either end of a Ion" street still markin'' the site of its gates ; Cicero during Ins exile found friendly shelter there for seven montlis with Plancius the qu.Testor (Oral, pro Plane. 41 ; Ep. ad AH. iii. 8tl'.). In the first Civil war it supplied a basis of operations for Pompeius and the Senate (Die Cass. xli. 20) ; in the second it espoused the cause of Antonins and Octavianus (Pint. Brut. 4G ; Appian, Bell. Civ. iv. 118), which brouglit to it apparently tlie privilege of becoming a free city aUera! conditionls, Pliny, EN iv. 36), for there are several coins inscribed with the words eE— A- AONIKEfiN • EAEXeEPIAS, probably to be associ- ated with the victory at Philippi, from the reverse bearing the joint names of Antonius and Augustus. This privilege implied autonomy (hence the men- tion of Tiv dijfiov in Ac 17=), and the appointment of their own magistrates, who were m this instance desi'Tiated 7ro\iT(£px<". as is apparent from Ac \i ■ , where the term is rendered RULERS OF THE CiTY (whicli see). Tafel, in his comprehensive monograph IDe Tliessal. ein^que agro dissartatio gcugraphica, Berol 1839), follows out the fortunes of the city as under the later Empire a main bulwark against the Gothic and Slavonic invasions (of which lie enumer- ates six); and, during the Middle Ages, thrice captured,— by the Saracens in 904, by the Normans under Tancred in 1185, and by the Turks m 1430 It has still a population of about 70,000, whereof 20,000 are Jews. ..,,,„■
When St. Paul, along with Silas, visited Thessa-
lonica on his mission to Macedonia and Greece,
the Jews there, who were numerous and influential
enough to have founded a synagogue, were his
most active opponents. The discussions w^th them
on three Sabbaths persuaded few Jewsh hearers,
but a much larger number ('a great multitude )
of 'the devout Greeks'— i.e. proselytes— 'and of
the chief women not a few' (Ac 17*). But the
Jews, who were not won over, called to their aid
some worthless idlers of the market-place (d7oparoi),
excited a tumult, beset the house of Jason, and,
not finding there those whom they sought, dragged
Ja.son and others before the politarchs, accusing
tliera of having received disturbers of the world s
peace, and of contravening the imperial decrees by
owning another king in Jesus. Upon this alarm,
the politarchs took securities from the accused
and dismissed them; but tlie brethren at once
sent away Paul and SUas by night toBercea. The i
subsequent fortunes of the Church which their brief
ministry had formed called forth from the apostle
(courteously associating with himself Timothy as
well as Silvanus= Silas) the two Epistles to the
Thessalonians. See preceding two articles.
William P. Dickson. THEUDAS (eei'Sas ; the name is supposed to be a contraction of ee65upos).— In the speech of Gam- aliel contained in Ac 5^»- the speaker is represented as referring to the rebellion of a cerUin 1 heudas, who professed to be some one great: 400 men followed him ; but he was killed, and his following came to nothing. At a later date, Gamaliel goes on to say, Judas of Galilee arose at the time of the taxin" and his following too were scattered. In Josephus {Ant. XX. v. 1) we have an account of one Theudas. While Fadus was procurator, he tells us a certain magician whose name was rheudus persuaded a great part of the people to take their effects and follow him across the Jordan. He pre- tended he could divide the river by his power as a prophet. Fadus attacked him Buddenly, cut oH his
head, and dispersed his followers. It is perfectlj clear that if this Theudas be the same person as la mentioned in the Acts, the author of that book has been "uilty of an anachronism. For he puts into the mouth of Gamaliel, who must have spoken before A.D. 37, a reference to a revolt winch occurred about A.D. 45 or 46. This discrepancy is one of the chief dithculties in the Acts of the Apostles, and various suggestions have been made to account for it. , . ^i
1. Reference has already been made to tlie sug- gestion that the mistake arose through the blunder- mg use of Josephus (vol. i. p. 30). It is not necessary to add anything to what is said tliere, except tliat a careful reperusal of the passages does not tend to make the hypothesis more credible. _ .
2 Bishop Lightfoot (Smith's />£' i. 40) points out that Theudas ( = Thcodorus, Theodotus, or Theodorius) would be quite natural among the Jews as the Gr. equivalent to several Heb. names; and that Josephus {Ant. XVII. x. 8 ; BJ II. iv. 1) tells us of many disturbances which took place at this time without giving names. He also quotes an opinion of Wieseler's that Theudas may be the Gr. form of the name of Matthias, son of Marga- lothus, mentioned by Josephus (Ant. XVU. vi. 2). But the identification is hardly probable.