XII. JUDAS of Gaulan, or the Gaulanite, opposed the enrolment of the Luke ii. 1. Acts v. 37.people which was made by Cyrenius1 in Judea; and raised a very great rebellion; pretending that the Jews were free, and ought to acknowledge no other dominion besides that of God2. Wherefore the followers of Judas chose rather to suffer all sorts of torments than to call any power whatsoever upon earth lord or master. The same Judas in the Acts of the Apostles is named Judas the Galileean. Gamaliel speaks of him in these terms, After Theudas rose up Judas of Galilee, in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished, and all as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. Judas was a Galileean, a native of the city of Gamala in the Gaulanitis; whence he is indifferently called Judas the Galileean and Judas Gaulanites. And as this country was under the dominion of Herod, whereas Judea was subject to the Romans, the Jews called the followers of Judas the Gaulanite, Herodians, and by this name they are mentioned in the Gospel. See above, the article Herodians.
As to what Gamaliel says, that Judas perished with all those who followed him, he must have been ill informed of the state of Judas’s party; since it is certain, that it subsisted long after Judas, and long after Gamaliel himself. The sect of the Herodians did not differ much from that of the Pharisees. It was distinguished from it only by its excessive love of liberty. It produced the two factions of the Sicarii or murderers and Zealots, who having kindled the flame of rebellion throughout all Judea, were the cause of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of the whole country. See Joseph. Antiq. l. xviii. c. 1, 2. We do not know either the time or manner of Judas the Gaulanite’s death.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. On the banishment of Archelaus to Vienne in Gaul, Augustus having appointed Publius Sulpitius Quirinus (who according to the Greek way of writing that name is by S. Luke called Cyrenius) to be president of Syria, sent him into the East to reduce the country which Archelaus had hitherto reigned over, into the form of a Province; and made Coponius procurator of Judea. The regestring of every man’s possession had been made eleven years before by Sentius Saturninus, but the laying and levying of the taxes according to it, was not put in execution till that country was reduced into the form of a Province by Cyrenius then Governour of Syria. The raising of these taxes was opposed by many of the Jews, who were headed by this Judas of Galilee. Prid. Connect. &c. Part ii. Book ix. ↩
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Joseph. Antiq. l. xviii. c. 12. In the year of J. C. 10, and 7, of the vulgar Æra. ↩