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THEUDAS

(Gk. Theudás)

Leader of a popular Jewish resistance movement put down by the Romans. In Acts 5:36 Gamaliel reports before the Jerusalem council that Theudas, purporting “to be somebody,” had rallied some 400 supporters for his cause; in the end, however, he was executed and his followers were scattered. In Gamaliel’s view this outcome justified a “wait-and-see” policy toward Peter and fellow witnesses: if they were not authorized by God, they would ultimately fail — like Theudas and Judas the Galilean (another frustrated rebel mentioned in Acts 5:37).

Josephus identifies Theudas as a prophetic pretender who incited a majority of Judean peasants to take up their possessions and follow him to the Jordan River (Ant. 20.97-98). Here he planned to part the waters by fiat and lead his people across, effecting either a Moses-style “exodus” from oppressive rule or a wilderness “exile” in preparation for a new Joshua-type “conquest” of the Promised Land. In any case, his seditious scheme was thwarted by an ambush from a Roman cavalry unit dispatched by the governor Fadus (44-46 c.e.). Theudas’ head was cut off and put on display in Jerusalem.

Bibliography. R. A. Horsley and J. S. Hanson, Bandits, Prophets, and Messiahs: Popular Movements at the Time of Jesus (1985, repr. Harrisburg, 1999), 160-67.

F. Scott Spencer

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

THEUDAS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)