theudas Summary and Overview

thanksgiving, referred to by Gamaliel in his speech before the council at Jerusalem (Acts 5:36). He headed an insurrection against the Roman authority. Beyond this nothing is known of him.

(God-given), the name of an insurgent mentioned in Gamaliel's speech before the Jewish council, #Ac 6:35-39| at the time of the arraignment of the apostles. He appeared, according to Luke's account, at the head of about four hundred men. He was probably one of the insurrectionary chiefs or fanatics by whom the land was overrun in the last year of Herod's reign. Josephus speaks of a Theudas who played a similar part in the time of Claudius, about A.D. 44; but the Theudas mentioned by St. Luke must be a different person from the one spoken of by Josephus.

THEU'DAS (thanksgiving), an insurrectionary chieftain mentioned by Gamaliel. Acts 5:36, Josephus mentions a similar character of this name, but his insurrection occurred some eleven years after Gamaliel's speech. An explanation of the difficulty is to identify Theudas with Matthias, an eloquent and popular Jewish teacher, who headed a band in the days of Herod and destroyed the Roman eagle set up by the king over the great gate of the temple, being outraged by Herod's impiety. "The name 'Matthias' in Greek would be 'Theodorus,' and this is equivalent to 'Theudas.'" But perhaps it is best to say that this Theudas was an obscure individual who is not mentioned elsewhere. The name was a common one.

The insurgent mentioned by Gamaliel as having led 400 men, boasting himself to be somebody of importance. Slain at last. His followers were dispersed (Acts 5:36). Josephus describes such a Theudas (44 A.D.), under Claudius, i.e. ten years later than Gamaliel's speech. As Theudas preceded Judas the Galilaean according to Luke, he must have revolted at the close of Herod's reign (for Judas appeared in 6 A.D. after Archelaus' dethronement), a very turbulent period in which Josephus names three disturbers, leaving the rest unnamed; among the latter was probably Theudas; it is not strange that 50 years later another Theudas, an insurgent in Claudius' time, should arise. Or Luke's Theudas may be Josephus' Simon, one of the three whom, he names in the turbulent year of Herod's death (B. J. 2:4, section 2; Ant. 17:10, section 6; 12, section 6; 20:4, section 2), Herod's slave who tried to make himself king in the confusion consequent on the vacancy in the throne. He corresponds to Luke's description of Theudas in his lofty notion of himself, in his violent death which is not true of the other two insurgents, in the fewness of his followers. Thus, Theudas would be his name, long borne, and so best known to Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem; Simon the name wherewith he set up as king, and so given by Josephus writing for Romans.