Judas Of Galilee
Fausset's Bible Dictionary [1]
Led the rebellion in the days of the taxing under Pub. Sulp. Quirinus, A.D. 6, as Gamaliel notices ( Acts 5:37). A Gaulonite Pharisee of Ganiala; called "the Galilean," as his revolt began in Galilee. His watchword was, "we have no Lord or master but God"; so he stigmatized paying tribute to Caesar as treason to the Mosaic law. This illustrates how subtle was the trap laid for Jesus, that He might compromise Himself either with the people, who largely sympathized with this view, or with the Roman governor. Jesus too might be supposed to concur in Judas's watchword ( Matthew 22:15-22; Matthew 23:8-10).
A lawless multitude joined Judas, but was "dispersed" by Roman arms, but not finally destroyed until the destruction of Jerusalem. Stubborn love of freedom was their characteristic, so that they bore torments and death rather than call any man master. These "Gaulonites" (Josephus, Ant. 18:1, section 1, 6; B. J. 2:8, section 1) were precursors of the Zealots and Sicarii, through whose sanguinary fanaticism mainly Jerusalem fell. James and John sons of Judas led a revolt against the procurator Tib. Alexander, A.D. 47, and were crucified. In A.D. 66 Menahem, youngest son of Judas, at the head of a fanatical mob pillaged Masada and took Jerusalem, where he assumed kingly state, but was taken by the high priest Eleazar's partisans, tortured, and killed.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia [2]
( ὁ Γαλιλαίος , ho Galilaı́os ): Mentioned in Acts 5:37 as the leader of an insurrection occasioned by the census of Quirinius in 7 Ad (see Quirinius ). He, and those who obeyed him, it is said, perished in that revolt. Josephus also repeatedly mentions Judas by this same name, "the Galilean," and speaks of his revolt ( Ant. , Xviii , i, 6; XX, v, 2; BJ , II, viii, 1; xviii, 8; VII, viii, 1), but in Ant ., Xviii , i, names him a Gaulonite, of the city of Gamala. As Gamala was in Gaulonitis, not far from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, it may be regarded as belonging to that province. The party of Judas seems to have been identified with the Zealots.
