Judas Judas the one that would betray Jesus, one that honestly I have put off because of this is the one that betrayed Jesus. Before we deal with who he is, lets deal with who he is not. He is not someone that just got caught up in moment. Judas is said.. John 6:70 Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Luke 22:3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. John 17:12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, Perdition - 684 ἀπώλεια [apoleia /ap·o·li·a/] n f. From a presumed derivative of 622; TDNT 1:396; TDNTA 67; GK 724; 20 occurrences; AV translates as “perdition” eight times, “destruction” five times, “waste” twice, “damnable” once, “to die + 1519” once, “perish + 1498 + 1519” once, and “pernicious” once. 1 destroying, utter destruction. 1A of vessels. 2 a perishing, ruin, destruction. 2A of money. 2B the destruction which consists of eternal misery in hell. 1 Acts 1:25 to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” To his own place (εἰς τον τοπον τον ἰδιον [eis ton topon ton idion]). A bold and picturesque description of the destiny of Judas worthy of Dante’s Inferno. There is no n n: noun or neuter f f: feminine TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament TDNTA Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume GK Goodrick-Kohlenberger AV Authorized Version 1Strong, J. (1996). The exhaustive concordance of the Bible : Showing every word of the test of the common English version of the canonical books, and every occurence of each word in regular order. (electronic ed.) (G684). Ontario: Woodside Bible Fellowship. doubt in Peter’s mind of the destiny of Judas nor of his own guilt. He made ready his own berth and went to it. 2 His own place. Compare “the place in this ministry.” Τὸν ἴδιον, his own, is stronger than the simple possessive pronoun. It is the place which was peculiarly his, as befitting his awful sin — Gehenna. 3 --------------------------------------------- HIS NAME Judas’s name is a form of Judah. The name means “Jehovah leads,” which indicates that when he was born his parents must have had great hopes for him to be led by God. The irony of the name is that no individual was ever more clearly led by Satan than Judas was. His surname, Iscariot, signifies the region he came from. It is derived from the Hebrew term ish (“man”) and the name of a town, Kerioth—“man of Kerioth.” Judas probably came from Kerioth-hezron (cf. Joshua 15:25), a humble town in the south of Judea. He was apparently the only one of the apostles who did not come from Galilee. As we know, many of the others were brothers, friends, and working companions even before meeting Christ. Judas was a solitary figure who entered their midst from afar. Although there is no evidence that he was ever excluded or looked down upon by the rest of the group, he may have thought of himself as an outsider, which would have helped him justify his own treachery. The Galilean disciples’ unfamiliarity with Judas would have aided and abetted him in his deception. The others knew little about his family, his background, or his life before he became a disciple. So it was easy for him to play the hypocrite. He was able to work his way into a place of trust, which we know he did, because he ultimately became the treasurer of the group and used that position to pilfer funds (John 12:6). Judas’s father was named Simon (John 6:71). This Simon is otherwise unknown to us. It was a common name, obviously, because two of the disciples (Peter and the Zealot) were also named Simon. Beyond that, we know nothing of Judas’s family or social background. 2Robertson, A. (1997). Word Pictures in the New Testament. Vol.V c1932, Vol.VI c1933 by Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. (Ac 1:25). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems. 3Vincent, M. R. (2002). Word studies in the New Testament (Vol. 1, Page 3-447). Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc. Judas was ordinary in every way, just like the others. It is significant that when Jesus predicted one of them would betray Him, no one pointed the finger of suspicion at Judas (Matthew 26:22–23). He was so expert in his hypocrisy that no one seemed to distrust him. But Jesus knew his heart from the beginning (John 6:64). 4 --------- Sicarii Some believe that "Iscariot" came not from Aramaic but derived from the Greek word Sicarios which means "Dagger" these scholars speculate that Judas came from a family of terrorists who took as there surname the principal instrument of their trade. They are lead to believe that Judas was a fanatical Zealot who was attracted to Jesus because he expected him to lead a revolution5 ------------ From the time of the lex Cornelia published under Sulla sicarius as a tt. in Roman law denotes not only the assassin in the narrower sense but also more generally the violent murderer or inciter to murder;1 the weapon proves the intent.2 The lex Cornelia applied also against armed robbers (latrones) banded in groups. Among these, acc. to the Roman view, were guerillas in Italy and esp. the provinces who rebelled against the government without declaring war on Rome officially as hostes or without being considered worthy of a Roman declaration of war.3 As a punishment sicarii or latrones, esp. when they were slaves or provincials, were put to death by crucifixion in the imperial period.4 2. The Sicarii in Josephus. Josephus adopts the standpoint of Roman law when he calls the hated freedom- fighters of the first Jewish revolt (→ II, 884, 32 ff.) “robbers” (→ IV, 258, 18 ff.) and “assassins” (σικαρίους). He justifies the term sicarii by explaining that they carried 4 MacArthur, J , Twelve ordinary men 5 The Twelve - C Bernard Ruffin pg. 160 tt. terminus technicus. 1 Quint.Inst. Orat., 10, 1, 12: Per abusionem sicarios etiam omnes vocamus, qui caedem telo quocumque commiserint. Cf. T. Mommsen, Röm. Strafrecht (1899), 629. 2 Only the intentional deed came under the lex Cornelia, Mommsen, 626. esp. especially. 3 Pomponius acc. to Justinianus Digesta, 50, 16, 118 (ed. T. Mommsen [1870]): Hostes hi sunt, qui nobis aut quibus nos publice bellum decrevimus; ceteri “latrones” aut “praedones” sunt. 4 Paulus Sententiae, V, 23, 1 (ed. P. E. Huschke in Jurisprudentiae Anteiustinianae quae supersunt5 [1886], 551): … humiliores vero aut in crucem tolluntur aut bestiis obiiciuntur. daggers under their cloaks with which they stealthily stabbed their opponents in the bustle of pilgrimage feasts.5 Sicarii are first said to have appeared under the procuratorship of Felix. They are introduced as a new breed of robbers; their first victim was the then high-priest Jonathan.6 Later when the Jewish insurgents split up into groups after the victory over Cestius Jos. uses the term sicarii for the followers of Menahem who after his assassination retreated into the fortress of Masada, Bell., 4, 399–405, 516; 253, 275, 297, 311. He then uses it for the partisans who escaped to Egypt, 7, 409–419 and finally for the rebellious Jews in Cyrene, 7, 437–446. Yet he does not always keep to this special use.7,8 The depiction of the sicarii in Jos. is defective and not wholly consistent; hence their peculiar features do not emerge with clarity. In all probability the sicarii were neither an independent party9 nor the extreme left of the patriots.10 They were fighting groups banded together by an oath. the guerillas in the Zealot movement.11 What distinguished them was not doctrine—they shared this with Judas, the founder of the Zealot party12—but the courageous nature of their effort, which held life cheap, whether their own or that of others (τολμᾶν, Ant., 20, 165).13 The weapon of 5 Bell., 2, 254 f.: acc. to Ant., 20, 186 the weapon was as big as the Persian akinake but –mentioned in 1 QM 5:11 (כידן) was curved and like the Roman sica. The curved sword 14 is too big for assassination. 6 Bell., 2, 252, 256; acc. to Ant., 20, 185 f. the sicarii flourished esp. under Festus; acc. to Ant., 20, 204 Albinus extirpated many of them. Bell. Bellum Judaicum. 7 This also applies to the use of “Zealots” which later Jos. mostly reserves for the priestly group which fought in the temple, Bell., 5, 5–105. 8 Jos. uses interchangeably sicarii and bandits, the most common expression for the rebels, Bell., 2, 653; Ant., 20, 185 f., 208–210. In Ant., 20, 163–165 he has λῃστάς for definite assassins. Jos. Flavius Josephus, Jewish author (c. 37–97 A.D.) in Palestine and later Rome, author in Greek of the Jewish War and Jewish Archaeology, which treat of the period from creation to Nero, ed. B. Niese, 1887 ff. 9 So Jackson-Lake, I, 422 f.; Zahn.