Judas of Galilee

Biblical Record

Judas of Galilee appears only once in the Bible, in Acts 5:37. When the apostles were arrested for teaching in the name of Jesus and brought before the Sanhedrin (the supreme Jewish council), Gamaliel, a Pharisee and teacher of the law, cited him as an example in his address to the council (Acts 5:34-39).

Gamaliel first mentions a man named Theudas, who boasted himself to be somebody and gathered about four hundred men, but who was slain, and whose followers were scattered (Acts 5:36). He then says that "in the days of the taxing" Judas of Galilee rose up and "drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed" (Acts 5:37). This is all that Scripture records about him.

Significance Within Scripture

The account of Judas serves as one of the examples in Gamaliel's argument. Gamaliel urged the council to leave the apostles alone, reasoning that a movement of human origin would collapse on its own, whereas one from God could not be stopped (Acts 5:38-39). The council accepted his counsel, had the apostles beaten, and released them. Acts sets the dispersal of Judas's movement alongside the apostles' continued preaching of the gospel.

Interpretation and Issues

• Extrabiblical sources: The first-century Jewish historian Josephus is known to have recorded a Judas who led an uprising against the census conducted under the Roman governor Quirinius (Cyrenius). Scholars generally identify this man with the Judas of Acts and date the revolt to around AD 6. According to Josephus, he refused to pay taxes to Rome, insisting that God alone was the sovereign of Israel. Some connect him with the later Zealots (a Jewish faction that resisted Rome by force), though scholars differ on how far that connection extends.
• Chronological problem: Josephus places the uprising of Theudas in the mid-40s, after Gamaliel's speech, yet Gamaliel mentions Theudas before Judas. Several explanations have been offered: that this Theudas is a different person of the same name from the one in Josephus, that Josephus's account contains an error, or that the problem lies in Luke's account. Those who emphasize biblical inerrancy generally adopt one of the first two explanations.
• Nature of Gamaliel's statement: Gamaliel's words are the judgment of one individual as recorded in Acts. Interpreters differ on whether Scripture endorses them as a general principle or whether they should be read as practical advice given in a particular situation.
• Distinction from other men named Judas: This figure is distinct from Judas Iscariot, Judas the son of James (Thaddaeus), Judas the brother of Jesus, Judas of Damascus (Acts 9:11), and Judas Barsabas (Acts 15:22). Stories linking him with Simon the Canaanite, one of the twelve disciples, have no basis in the text.