An insurgent, Jew, mentioned by Gamaliel, A. D. 33, as of the preceding generation, Ac 5:36-37, and therefore not to be confounded with a Theudas of A. D. 44, mentioned by Josephus. The period following the death of Herod the Great was full of revolts. Theudas was also a common name, answering to the Hebrew Matthew, under which name Josephus speaks of an unsuccessful reformer who was burnt in the latter part of Herod's reign.

thanksgiving, referred to by Gamaliel in his speech before the council at Jerusalem (Ac 5:36). He headed an insurrection against the Roman authority. Beyond this nothing is known of him.

The insurgent mentioned by Gamaliel as having led 400 men, boasting himself to be somebody of importance. Slain at last. His followers were dispersed (Ac 5:36). Josephus describes such a Theudas (44 A.D.), under Claudius, i.e. ten years later than Gamaliel's speech. As Theudas preceded Judas the Galilaean according to Luke, he must have revolted at the close of Herod's reign (for Judas appeared in 6 A.D. after Archelaus' dethronement), a very turbulent period in which Josephus names three disturbers, leaving the rest unnamed; among the latter was probably Theudas; it is not strange that 50 years later another Theudas, an insurgent in Claudius' time, should arise.

Or Luke's Theudas may be Josephus' Simon, one of the three whom, he names in the turbulent year of Herod's death (B. J. 2:4, section 2; Ant. 17:10, section 6; 12, section 6; 20:4, section 2), Herod's slave who tried to make himself king in the confusion consequent on the vacancy in the throne. He corresponds to Luke's description of Theudas in his lofty notion of himself, in his violent death which is not true of the other two insurgents, in the fewness of his followers. Thus, Theudas would be his name, long borne, and so best known to Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem; Simon the name wherewith he set up as king, and so given by Josephus writing for Romans.

Mentioned by Gamaliel (Ac 5:36) as the leader of an unsuccessful rebellion of 400 men. Josephus (Ant. XX. v. 1) speaks of a Theudas who misled the people and gave himself out for a prophet, at least ten years after Gamaliel's speech; and also a little afterwards (

Theu'das

A Jewish impostor and insurgent who, with four hundred men, was destroyed. He was mentioned by Gamaliel before the Sanhedrim as an instance that what is not of God comes to nothing. Ac 5:36.

Theu'das

(God-given), the name of an insurgent mentioned in Gamaliel's speech before the Jewish council,

Ac 6:15

at the time of the arraignment of the apostles. He appeared, according to Luke's account, at the head of about four hundred men. He was probably one of the insurrectionary chiefs or fanatics by whom the land was overrun in the last year of Herod's reign. Josephus speaks of a Theudas who played a similar part in the time of Claudius, about A.D. 44; but the Theudas mentioned by St. Luke must be a different person from the one spoken of by Josephus.