As supplement to the art. Judas (i. 906), it may be stated that this strange combination ' Judas Zelotes,' mentioned above as the reading of the Old Latin MSS in Mt 103, jg attested for Rome by the chronographer of the year 334, by the list of the canonical books of the year 382 ; and for Ravenna by the mosaics of the great Baptistry (5th cent.). From the oldest MSS of the Mar- tyrologium Hieronym,ianum, it would appear that also in the name of the 28th Oct. ' SS. Simon and Jude App. MM.' the latter name is not an abbreviation of Judas Jacobi, but of Judas Zelotes.
The meaning of the name ' Lebbseus ' is equally doubtful. The explanation corculum by Jerome (after the surname of Scipio Nasica) is not proved. For relationship with Levi the spelling Aevat-os and Aa/3i5 might be adduced, against it the double bb. A / at the beginning of a name may have the same origin as the L in Lulianus = Julianus, Lestus = Justus, etc. J. Lightfoot (Hor. Hcb. 325) derived ' Lebbseus ' from the home of the man, and so already Ishodad. Josephus (Ant. xiii. § 97) men- tions a town Letnba in Moab, which he calls Libba (xiv. 17 [v.l. Libias]). Dalman ( Words of Jesus, 50, Grammatik^, 178) compares Phcen. H2h (CIS i. 147), and Sinaitic 'xnS (Euting, Sin. Inschriften, 421) and denies affinity with Levi. Finally, the name Labbu ( = Nebo) may be compared in the Syriac Doctrine of Addai.
That there was another Judas besides the traitor among the Twelve is attested by Jn 14^^, and it is
LEGIOX
LEGS
23
possible that later his name was less used to avoid remembrance of the traitor and confusion Avith him, and that his original name ' Judas ' was re- placed by ' Thaddieus ' in Mk. and by ' Lebbaeus " in Mt. (if this be the true reading for Mt.). In Ac 1^ we have three names — Joseph, Barsabbas, Justus ; in a similar way we should get here three or even four — Judas, son of James, Lebba?us, Thadda?us. The testimony of Origen (c. Ccls. i. 62 [Berlin ed. i. 113]) is rather confused. Against Celsus, who mentioned ' publicans and saUors ' in the plural among the ten or eleven followers of Jesus, Origen says that by the sailors Cel^us may mean the sons of Zebedee ; but of publicans there was only Matthew among the Twelve. Even if the publican Xevq^ (so cod. A, Aeits P) followed Jesus, jet he was not of the number of the Twelve, ei jU'? ^'ard Tiva t^v dmypaxpiisv tov Kara. 'MapKov ei'a-)'7€\ioi'. Did Origen know the reading of D and its Latin allies in Mk. , and identify Lel> baeus with Levi ? *
LiTERATrRK. — See vol. L pp. 103, 457, 906 ; and below at end of art. THADDirs. Eb. NeSTLE.
LEGION (\eyiibv [Xeyetiv], a loan-word from the Latin Icgio, which meant originally a ' gathering ' of the citizen army of Rome). — The word ' legion' occurs in two contexts in the Gospels. One is in the scene at Gethsemane, when Peter cut off the ear of the high priest's slave (Mt 26^) ; the other occurs in the narrative about the man with the unclean spirit in the country of the Gerasenes (Mk o^-i', Lk S^'; but not in 'Matthew's account, which gives two men). In both cases the reference is to the large number of persons who compose a legion : in the one case the legions of angels are at the disposal of Jesus, if He asks for them ; in the other the great number of evil spirits can be de- scribed only by the name • legion.' The present writer cannot recall any such use of the word ' legion " in non-Christian authors. It seems certain also that in the NT the word is not a translation of any Aramaic word. The conclusion is that, if Aramaic is behind the passages where the word occurs, the expression was imported into that lan- guage from Greek, and reveals the great im- pression made on the minds of Orientals by the vast organized unity of the Roman army, with which they had become acquainted since the Roman occupation of Syria by Pompey (B.C. 64—63). At least three and often more (see Hardys Studies in Roman History, 181 If. ) legions were q^uartered in that province during the whole of the 1st cent. A.D., and the sight of these mag- aificent troops, as they marched in column along the great roads of the country, must have power- fully impressed the natives with the numbers and power of the Roman people. An innumer- able number of persons came to be spoken of as a legion.
The full strength of a Roman legion was about 3000 men, or about that of a modem infantry division, but the subdivision was different. In- stead of brigades, battalions, companies, and sec- tions, there were 10 cohortcs, each commanded by a trihunns militum, 3 mnnipuli in each cohors, and 2 ccnturiw in each mnnipulus. The uniform af all ordinary legionaries was the same. The legion was commanded by a Icgatus legionis [lieutenant-general). See also B.AJS'D.
LiTKRATrRE. — W. Ramsav, A Manual of Roman Antiquities, revised and parth" rewritt-en by R. LaDciani, 15th ed. (London, IS94) ch. xiL (on p. 459 f. there are references to other literature).