Judas

JU'DAS (praise). 1. The patriarch Judah. Matt 1:2-3. the loss, as he regarded it, of the 300 denarii which the ointment cost may have made him the more willing to accept the 30 shekels (the price of a slave) which he received for the betrayal of Christ. Matt 26:15. The best explanation of the awful crime is that of our Lord: he was under the influence of Satan. John 6:70-71. Judas returned after making the infamous bargain, and mingled again with the disciples. He was present at the paschal supper, though probably not at the institution of the Lord's Supper. His familiarity with the habits of Jesus enabled him to guide the attendant mob directly to the garden of Gethsemane, and there, with the moisture of Jesus' lips still wet upon his own, to give the command, "Take him." Matt 14:43-45. But when the deed was done there came on the reaction. He knew and confessed that he had betrayed "innocent blood." He could not endure the strain of a conscience on the rack. He flung the money to the priests and went and hanged himself, but was not suffered to present an unmangled corpse, for, the rope breaking, his body fell headlong and all his bowels gushed out. Comp. Matt 27:5 with Acts 1:18. The 30 shekels were not put into the treasury, since they were "the price of blood;" accordingly, the priests bought a field with them. Matt 27:7. This is the purchase attributed to Judas himself by Peter. Acts 1:18. Aceldama, where he committed suicide, is shown on the southern slope of the valley of Hinnom. Some have attempted to extenuate his guilt by supposing that he wished to hasten the crisis and to force Christ to set up his kingdom. But our Lord, the most merciful of beings, calls him "the son of perdition," for whom it would have been good "if he had not been born." He is branded in history as the most ungrateful of traitors, although the wisdom of God overruled his treason for the crucifixion of Jesus, whose death is our salvation. The one called Juda in Mark 6:3. A brother of James, and one of the apostles; called also Thaddaeus and Lebbaeus and Jude. Matt 10:3; Mark 3:18: Luke 6:16; John 14:22; Acts 1:13; Matt 13:55. Judas of Galilee, a leader of an insurrection "in the days of taxing" — i. e. the census — a.d. 6, and who, according to Gamaliel, was very successful for a time, but was ultimately completely defeated. Acts 5:37. We find in Joscphus an allusion to a man, who is there said to have been born in the city of Gamala in Gaulanitis, and to have been the founder of a new sect, which did not differ from that of the Pharisees save in a fanatical love of liberty and refusal to support the Roman state. The one whose house in Straight Street, Damascus, sheltered Paul during his blindness. Acts 9:11, Acts 9:17. This Judas may have kept an inn; it is unlikely that he was a disciple. Judas, surnamed Barsabas, a "chief man among the brethren," a "prophet," who was chosen along with Paul and Barnabas and Silas to carry the decisions of the council of Jerusalem, a.d. 50, to Antioch. Acts 15:22-33. JUDE was one of the apostles, and the brother of James the Less, Jude 1. He is called "Judas," Matt 13:55; John 14:22; Acts 1:13, and elsewhere "Lebbaeus," Matt 10:3, and "Thaddaeus." Mark 3:18. Epistle of, was written about a.d. 65. The author calls himself "a servant of Christ and a brother of James," who was a brother of Christ and was also called the Just and the bishop of Jerusalem. See James. The epistle is intended to guard believers against prevalent errors, and to urge them to constancy in the faith once delivered to the saints. This is done by a vivid exhibition of the terrors of God's judgments upon the wicked, and by a recurrence to that great principle of our religion, dependence on Christ alone, to keep us from falling. In Jude 9 we read: "Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said. The Lord rebuke thee." This incident is not elsewhere recorded in Scripture, and is probably quoted from the Apocalypse of Moses. In Jude 14 Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch, the seventh from Adam. There is a striking resemblance between 2 Peter and Jude. Both are warnings against errorists. JUDG'ES. They were appointed originally by Moses, at the suggestion of his father-in-law, to relieve him of a part of the duties of the chief magistracy. Ex 18:13-26. The judicial authority was primarily administered by the elders and by the heads of families. After the kingdom was established the king became the supreme source of justice, "consulting, very probably, on occasion, the high priest as to the interpretation of the Law, the right of asking counsel of God through the priest being claimed as a royal prerogative." — Ayre. See Num 27:21; 1 Sam 14:18 (ephod, not ark); 1 Sam 22:10, 1 Sam 22:13, 1 Sam 22:15; 1 Sam 23:6. But under him there were local judges, many of whom were Levites. 1 Chr 23:4. The great reform of Jehoshaphat included a sort of supreme court sitting in Jerusalem. 2 Chr 19:5-11. In later times the Sanhedrin was this court. Numerous exhortations are given in the Bible concerning judicial fairness. Deut 16:19; Prov 24:23; Ps 82. List of Judges, and probable Term of Service. Othniel, about b.c. 1400........................40 Under Eglon ......................................18 Ehud, etc ........................................80 Under the Philistines ............................unk. Shamgar ..........................................unk. Under Jabin ......................................20 Deborah and Barak ................................40 Under Midian ......................................7 Gideon ...........................................40 Abimelech .........................................3 Tola .............................................23 Jair .............................................18 Under the Ammonites ..............................18 Jephthah ..........................................6 Ibzau .............................................7 Elon .............................................10 Abdon .............................................8 Under the Philistines ............................40 Samson ...........................................20 Eli ..............................................40 Under the Philistines ............................20 Samuel, about ....................................12 Saul, the first king, b.c. 1091. It is only proper to add that the chronology of the Bible is very uncertain until we get to David's reign, and that these 15 specified Judges may not all have been successive. The period of the Judges was a semi-barbarous age, where might was right, and every one did what seemed good in his sight. But it was also a period of divine interpositions and deliverances. It was the heroic age of Jewish history. Judges, Book of, derives its title from the fact that it gives us the history of the Israelites under the administration of 15 Judges, viz. from 18 or 20 years after the death of Joshua to the time of Saul. The chronology is uncertain. This book has been well styled a commentary upon the text "Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." Prov 14:34. It may be divided into two parts: I. Chs. 3-16, an account of God's successive deliverances; II. Chs. 17-21, an account, detached from the preceding and out of chronological order, of the invasion of Laish by the Danites, in connection with the story of Micah and his priest, Jonathan, chs. 17 and 18; and an account of the revenge of the insult to the Levite, chs. 19-21, the whole prefaced with an introduction, chs. 1-3. The book is quite evidently a compilation from existent and trustworthy materials. Its date is uncertain.