Judas: The Graecized form of Judah.1. The patriarch
(Matthew 1:2,3)
2. Son of Simon
(John 6:71; 13:2,26) surnamed Iscariot, i.e., a man of
Kerioth
(Joshua 15:25) His name is uniformly the last in the list of
the apostles, as given in the synoptic (i.e., the first three)
Gospels. The evil of his nature probably gradually unfolded
itself till "Satan entered into him"
(John 13:27) and he betrayed
our Lord
(John 18:3) Afterwards he owned his sin with "an
exceeding bitter cry," and cast the money he had received as the
wages of his iniquity down on the floor of the sanctuary, and
"departed and went and hanged himself"
(Matthew 27:5) He perished in
his guilt, and "went unto his own place"
(Acts 1:25) The statement
in
(Acts 1:18) that he "fell headlong and burst asunder in the
midst, and all his bowels gushed out," is in no way contrary to
that in
(Matthew 27:5) The sucide first hanged himself, perhaps over
the valley of Hinnom, "and the rope giving way, or the branch to
which he hung breaking, he fell down headlong on his face, and
was crushed and mangled on the rocky pavement below." Why such a
man was chosen to be an apostle we know not, but it is written
that "Jesus knew from the beginning who should betray him"
(John 6:64) Nor can any answer be satisfactorily given to the
question as to the motives that led Judas to betray his Master.
"Of the motives that have been assigned we need not care to fix
on any one as that which simply led him on. Crime is, for the
most part, the result of a hundred motives rushing with
bewildering fury through the mind of the criminal."
3. A Jew of Damascus
(Acts 9:11) to whose house Ananias was sent. The
street called "Straight" in which it was situated is identified
with the modern "street of bazaars," where is still pointed out
the so-called "house of Judas."
4. A Christian teacher, surnamed Barsabas. He was sent from
Jerusalem to Antioch along with Paul and Barnabas with the
decision of the council
(Acts 15:22,27,32) He was a "prophet" and a
"chief man among the brethren."