Judas

n.

1. One who betrays another under the guise of friendship.
2. judas A one-way peephole in a door.

[Middle English, from Late Latin Iūdas, Judas Iscariot, from Greek Ioudas, from Hebrew yəhûdâ, Judah.]

noun

One who betrays: betrayer, double-crosser, traitor. Informal rat. See trust/distrust.

1. Judas Iscariot ("man of Kerioth").

The son of Simon (John 6:71; 13:26) and one of the twelve disciples of Jesus (Matt 10:4; Mark 3:19). As the treasurer of the Twelve (John 12:4, 6; 13:29), he considered it a waste of money when Mary anointed Jesus' feet with precious oil; but, John said this was not out of solicitude for the poor, but because he was a thief (John 12:4ff).

After Jesus and his disciples went to Jerusalem, "Satan entered into" Judas (Luke 22:3) and he approached the priests, offering to deliver Jesus into their hands for thirty pieces of silver (Matt 26:14-15, cf Zech 11:12-13). At the Last Supper, Jesus foretold Judas' betrayal (Matt 26:25). Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matt 26:47ff; Mark 14:43ff; Luke 22:47-48). After Jesus' arrest, Judas was seized by remorse; he returned the money and hanged himself (Matt 27:3-5). With the money the priests bought a piece of land, which became known as "Field of Blood" (see ACELDAMA). The story in Acts (1:16ff) tells that Judas bought the land himself, then fell down and burst his guts.

2. A brother of Jesus.

3. The son of James, one of the twelve apostles elected by Jesus from among his disciples (Luke 6:16). Some commentators identify him with the author of the Epistle of Jude, although the latter calls himself the brother of James.

4. The Galilean; leader of an ill-fated revolt against the Romans, "in the days of the census". The story of his revolt is told in detail by Josephus (Antiq. XVII, 271 ff; Wars II, 56) and he was regarded as one of the founders of the extreme Jewish nationalist movement, the Sicarri. Judas is mentioned by Gamaliel in his warning to the Sanhedrin to leave the apostles alone, for if their belief is of human origin, like that of Judas, it will collapse without the Sanhedrin's interference, but if it is from God it cannot be overthrown (Acts 5:37).

5. Judas of Damascus. Paul, then still called Saul, stayed at Judas' house in the Straight Street, after his vision on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus.

6. See BARSABBAS No. 2

Concordance
JUDAS 1: Matt 10:4; 26:14, 25, 47; 27:3. Mark 3:19; 14:10,43. Luke 6:16; 22:3, 47-48. John 6:71; 12:4; 13:2, 26,29; 18:2-3, 5. Acts 1:16, 25
JUDAS 2: Matt 13:55. Mark 6:3
JUDAS 3: Luke 6:16. John 14:22. Acts 1:13
JUDAS 4: Acts 5:37
JUDAS 5: Acts 9:11
JUDAS 6: Acts 15:22, 27,32

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In folk religion, Judas the traitor and suicide is the ultimate hate-figure, and various supposedly evil or unlucky things are explained by reference to him: he was redhaired, he spilt the salt at the Last Supper, he was the thirteenth person present there and the first to leave the table, he hanged himself on an elder tree. In the north of England, c.1850, it was said that anyone with black hair and a red beard was ‘false by nature’, for that had been Judas's colouring (Denham Tracts, 1895: ii. 24). In such cases, the beliefs are generally on record earlier than their ‘explanations’ and/or often to be found without them; the appeal to (pseudo-) Scriptural authority seems likely to be a post facto rationalization.

The earliest surviving fragment of an English ballad concerns Judas (F. J. Child, English and Scottish Ballads, no. 23). Jesus sends Judas into Jerusalem with 30 pieces of silver to buy food; there he meets his sister ‘the treacherous woman’, who tells him he deserves to be stoned for believing a false prophet; he warns her to be silent, for Jesus would take revenge if he knew what she had said. At this point the poem becomes confused, but it seems likely that (with typical medieval chauvinism) a woman will be blamed for a man's crime.

Some Lenten customs were validated as being aimed against Judas. The Jack-o'-Lent effigy burnt on the beach at Polperro (Cornwall) in the early 19th century was explained thus, as was a more recent Ash Wednesday custom from Lincolnshire:

When I was about 15 years old, 70 years ago (= 1920s), they used to make an effigy of Judas from straw and hang it up on Boston market place near the old stocks. The idea was for folks to throw a clod of muck at it for betraying Jesus. If any of it was left at the end of Lent it was torn down or set fire to; that was to make sure it got finished properly. (Sutton, 1997: 55)

In Brighton (Sussex), where fishermen and their families enjoyed long-rope skipping in the fish-market on Good Fridays earlier in the 20th century, it was sometimes said to be instituted in memory of the rope with which Judas hanged himself (Simpson, 1973: 111). Devon people thought it lucky to break a piece of crockery on Good Friday, as its sharp edges would pierce the body of Judas (Wright and Lones, 1936: i. 81-2); no explanation is reported, but it may not be coincidental that in Elizabethan times the corpses of suicides were pelted with pottery shards.

The most recent and dramatic Judas custom was peculiar to the south end of Liverpool Docks in the 1950s. At daybreak on Good Friday crowds of children congregated round dummies made from old clothes, paper, straw, and a comic mask; the leader of each group hoisted this ‘Judas’ on a pole, and they went from house to house knocking against bedroom windows and shouting, ‘Judas is a penny short of his breakfast’ till a few coins were thrown down. By mid-morning the collecting ended, and bonfires were built in the streets to burn the Judases before 11 a.m., but police would often scatter the fires and carry off the Judases, to destroy them at the police station—at which the pursuing children would yell ‘Judas!’ at the police themselves. In any case, the fun had to be over by noon (Frank Turner, Folk-Lore 65 (1954), 47).

Liverpool people believed their custom arose from watching what was done on Spanish ships docking there in Holy Week (Opie and Opie, 1959: 259-60). Certainly it is very similar to customs common in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. An illustration in the Graphic (15 Apr. 1876), 36), shows Portuguese sailors ‘flogging Judas Iscariot’ in London Docks on Good Friday, and the Opies give other references to the overseas custom being observed on foreign ships in English docks. The Guardian (18 Sept. 1996), 17, gives further foreign examples of Judas customs. However, now that the Polperro record has been reinforced by one from Lincolnshire, there is a case for thinking English precedents contributed something to the Liverpool effigies.

Small aperture, peep-hole, or lattice in a door or shutter through which a person may look without being observed from the other side.

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - Judas, spion

idioms:

• judas kiss    judaskys

Nederlands (Dutch)
verrader, kijkgaatje (in deur)

Français (French)
n. - Judas, traître, judas (d'une porte)

idioms:

• judas kiss    baiser de Judas

Deutsch (German)
n. - Judas

idioms:

• judas kiss    Judaskuß

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) Ιούδας, (μτφ.) προδότης

idioms:

• judas kiss    το φιλί του Ιούδα

Italiano (Italian)
Giuda

idioms:

• judas kiss    bacio di Giuda

Português (Portuguese)
n. - Judas (m)

idioms:

• judas kiss    beijo (m) de Judas, traição (f)

Русский (Russian)
Иуда, предатель, глазок в двери

idioms:

• judas kiss    поцелуй Иуды

Español (Spanish)
n. - Judas

idioms:

• judas kiss    el beso de Judas

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - Judas, förrädare

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
犹大, 叛徒

idioms:

• judas kiss    犹大的一吻, 指口蜜附剑的伪善阴险行为

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 猶大, 叛徒

idioms:

• judas kiss    猶大的一吻, 指口蜜附劍的偽善陰險行為

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 가롯 유다(그리스도를 배반한 제자), 배반자

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - ユダ, 裏切り者

idioms:

• judas kiss    ユダの接吻, うわべだけの好意, 裏切り行為

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) يهوذا‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮בוגד, בוגד בחברו, עינית - חריר-הצצה בדלת, יהודה איש קריות‬

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