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Bible Dictionaries
Theudas
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or THEUDAS . Mentioned by Gamaliel ( Acts 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 (§ 2) speaks of the sons of Judas the Galilæao, the instigator of a rebellion in the time of Quirinius. Now St. Luke ( Acts 5:37 ) speaks successively of Theudas and Judas, and it is alleged that he erroneously put their names into Gamaliel’s mouth owing to a misreading of Josephus. But the difference between the writers is so great that it is impossible to suppose that the one account depends on the other. If St. Luke depends on Josephus, where did he get his number ‘400 men’ from? There may have been more than one Theudas, and Lightfoot suggests that the name might be used as the Greek equivalent of several different Hebrew ones. There certainly were, as Josephus tells us, many rebellions at this period. Or the name may be an interpolation in Josephus, taken from Acts by some Christian scribe (Blass); or one of the writers may have made a mistake in the name. But they could hardly be quoting, either from the other.
A. J. Maclean.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Theudas'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/t/theudas.html. 1909.
