(b) Isrririot : the u.sual surname of Judas. 'Io-ko- piCiff, a transliteration from Heb. , is the best attested readiuir in Mk 3'» W", Lk 6'"; 'IffKapidrr/s, the Gra-cized form in Mt 26", Lk '22^ Jn 6" 13=- =" ; 6 'laKapLwryi in Mt in', Jn 12' 14". Eight of these passages refer («> .Iu.Ims; in two (Jn 6" 13=«) his father Simon is ealleil IseMiiot; once (Jn 14~) his
fellow-Api
istiiinuislied from his more
908
JUDAS ISCARIOT
JUDAS ISCARIOT
famous namesake as 'not the Iscaiiot.' Only in Jn 13- does the full phrase occur — ' Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.' Nestle thinks that otto KapidiTov, a reading of Codex Bez.Te, found four times in Jn instead of 'IffKapubr-ijs, is a paraphrastic rendering of Iscariot by the aiithor of the Fourth Gospel. Chase furnishes other evidence for this reading {The Syro-Latin Text of the Gospels, p. 102 f.), but argues that it cannot be part of the original text. His conclusion is that an early Syriac translator represented 'Itr/ca/jniTijs by this paraphrase (cf. ExpT ix. pp. 189, 240, 285).
Two facts already mentioned have an important bearing on the interpretation of 'IcrKaptwT-ijs : (1) the true reading, ' Simon Iscariot,' shows that the epithet Avas equally applicable to the father and the son, and this twofold use of the word suggests that it is a local name ; (2) the paraphrase oTro KapiuTov confirms the view that Judas is named after his place of abode (cf. Zahn, Dns Evanefc/iiim des Matthaus, p. 393). Cheyne says ' we should have expected airo nepiud,' yet admits that 'it is a plausible view' that 'la-Kapiiinjs is derived from Ish-Kerioth (ninp p-n), 'a man of Kerioth ' {Enci/. Bibl. ii. 2624). Dalman (The Words of Jcsns, p. 51 f.) thinks that 'la-Kapiu0 was the original reading, and points back to the Hebrew, whilst 6 a-n-d Kapi- lirou corresponds to the equivalent Aramaic nv-ipl or ninp ip'i Hence the surname Iscariot probably means 'a Kariothite.'
It is impossible to say with certainty where the Kerioth was situate of which Judas was a native. ( 1 ) On account of this difficulty, ChejTie conjectures that 'lepixi^Tris, 'a man of Jericho,' is the true reading. (2) The majority of scholars incline to the view that Kerioth is the Kerioth-Hezron or Hazor of Jos 15=^ (Vulg. Carioth) ; Buhl identifies the place with the modern Karjaten in South Judah {GAP p. 182). (3) Others suggest the Kerioth men- tioned in Am 2-, Jer 48^ (LXX KapiwO), — an im- portant city, either Kir-Moab, or Ar, the capital of Moab. Harper ('Am. and Hos.,' Int. Crit. Com. p. 42) says that 'the reference in the Moabite stone (1. 13) favours Ewald's view that it is another name for Ar. ' A less jjrobable opinion is that the town referred to is Kopiai or Kurawa (Jos. BJ I. vi. 5, IV. viii. 1 ; Ant. XIV. iii. 4) in North Judoea (Buhl, GAP p. 181). If any one of these towns was the birthplace of Judas, he was not a Galilrean.
(c) 'One of the Twelve.' — In the Synoptic Gospels this phrase is found only in the narrative of the Betrayal, and it is applied only to Judas. It marks the mingled sorrow and indignation of the Evan- gelists, that mthin that select circle there could be a .single treacherous heart. The simple formula is once changed by St. Luke {'22''), who adds to his statement that ' Satan entered into Jiidas ' these significant words : ' being of the number of the twelve' — i.e. counted among those whom Jesus called His friends, but about to become an ally of His foes, because in spirit he was 'none of liis' (cf. Mt 26»--", Mk 14'<'-=»-« Lk 22=--"). In the Fourth Gospel the phrase is used once of another than Judas ; like a note of exclamation, it ex- presses surprise that Thomas, a member of the Apostolic band, was a))sent when the risen Saviour appeared to His disciples (Jn 202'). gu^ gj. John also applies the phrase to Judas, giving it a position in which its tragic and pathetic emphasis cannot be mistaken : ' You— the twelve, did not I choose '; and of you one is a devil. Now he spake of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot ; for it was he that was about to betray him — one of the twelve' (6™-"). St. John's phrase {ds ^k tCiv SuS(Ka) differs slightly from that used by the Synoptists {eh rdv ouiSena) ; Westcott suggests that it marks ' the unity of the body to which the unfaithful member belonged ' {Com. inloc).
That Judas was 'one of the twelve' is an im- portant factor in the problem presented by his history. It implies that Jesus saw in him the material out of which an Apostle might have been made,— the clay out of which a vessel unto honour might have been shaped ; it implies that Judas, of free-will, chose to follow Jesus and to continue with Him ; and it implies that Judas heard from the Master's lips words of gracious warning against the peril of his besetting sin. On the other hand, the fact that Judas was ' one of the twelve ' does not imply that Jesus had the betrayal in view when He chose this Apostle and entrusted him with the common purse ; it does not imply that even in that most holy environment Judas was exempted from the working of the spiritual law that such ' evil things ' as ' thefts . . . covetings, . . . deceit . . . proceed from within, and defile the man' (Mk 7--'-); and it does not imply that there were no good impulses in the heart of Judas when he became a disciple of Jesus. Of Judas in his darkest hour the words of Lavater are true : he ' acted like Satan, but like a Satan who had it in him to be an Apostle.'