Acts 5:37

Ἰούδας ὁ Γαλ.: here too an inaccuracy might have been charged against St. Luke, but it is to be noted that while Josephus speaks of Judas as a Gaulonite in one passage, Jos., Ant., xviii., 1, 1, he frequently, as both Belser and Wendt point out, speaks of him as a Galilean, cf. Ant., xviii., 1, 6; xx., 5, 2; B. J., ii., 8, 1, and 17, 8. But the name Galilean might easily be given to him because Galilee was the scene of his exploits, or because Gamala, his home, belonged to Lower Gaulonitis, which was reckoned as part of Galilee. The accuracy of St. Luke in the account of Judas is remarkable, for Gamaliel speaks of his insurrection as coming to nothing. He could so speak, say in 34 or 35 A.D., but not some ten years later, when the followers of Judas had again gathered together, and formed a kind of school or party, to say nothing of the rebellion of his three sons, James, Simon, and later, Menahem; see Belser, u. s., p. 61, so Lightfoot, u. s., Nösgen, and Alford's note.

As we consider the characteristics of such men as Theudas and Judas, it is difficult to suppose that the age which produced them could have produced the Messiah of the Gospels. He is, in truth, the Anti-Christ of Judaism. Instead of giving Himself out to be somebody, Jesus is meek and lowly of heart; instead of stirring revolt in Galilee, a burning furnace of sedition, His blessing is upon the peace-makers; instead of seeking a kingly crown, like Judas the Gaulonite, He withdraws from those who would take Him by force, and make Him a king; instead of preaching revolt and licence in the name of liberty for merely selfish ends, He bade men render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's; instead of defiantly bidding His followers to be in subjection to no man, and inaugurating a policy of bloodshed and murder, He bade them remember that whilst One was their Master and Teacher, they all were brethren. Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. iii., p. 80, E.T., well points out that we have a literary memorial of the views and hopes of the Zealots in the Assumption of Moses, which goes so far as to prophesy that Israel will tread on the neck of the eagle, i.e., the Romans, x. 8; but see also edition of Assumption of Moses by Prof. Charles, p. 42.

Acts 5:37. ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις τῆς ἀπογ., see Blass, in loco, on St. Luke's accuracy. We must be careful to distinguish this from Luke 2:1. The tribal method of numbering which forms an essential part of St. Luke's story in the Gospel may explain why no such serious disturbance followed as resulted from the Roman numbering and valuation which marked Quirinius' second Roman administration, “the great census,” ἡ ἀπογ. (in 6 8 A.D.), taken when Judæa had just become a part of the Roman province of Syria. This “great census,” taken after the Roman method, involved the imposition of a tax, Jos., Ant., xviii., 1, 1, and it was this impost which roused the indignation of Judas. To pay tribute to a foreign power was to violate an Israelite's allegiance to Jehovah: “We have no Lord and Master but God,” was the watchword of Judas and his followers. For the whole subject see Ramsay, Expositor, April and June, 1897, and Was Christ born at Bethlehem? (1898), e.g., pp. 107, 108, 127, 139. καὶ ἀπέστησε λαὸν : used here transitively, and here only in the N.T., cf. Deuteronomy 7:4, and in classical writers, Herod., i., 76. The verb ἀφίστημι is not found in any of the Gospels except St. Luke's, where it occurs four times, and in the Acts six times. It is not only one of the words characteristic of the two books, but also of St. Luke and St. Paul (so also μεθίστημι, see on Acts 19:26), as it is only found once outside St. Paul's Epistles (in which it is employed four times), viz., Hebrews 3:12; “drew away some of the people,” R.V. There is no word which actually expresses this as in T.R., where we have ἱκανόν = “much,” A.V. ὀπίσω αὐτοῦ : this prepositional use of ὀπ. is not found in classical writers, where the word is always an adverb. In the N.T. and LXX the prepositional use is derived from Hebrew אַחֲרֵי, cf. Acts 20:30; Luke 9:23; Luke 21:8. Blass, Grammatik des N. G., p. 126. διεσκορπίσθησαν : it is true that the sect revived under the name of Zealots, and played an active part in the Jewish wars, but there is no reason for charging St. Luke's account with inaccuracy (so Overbeck following De Wette). The fate of the leader and the dispersion of his followers was quite sufficient to point the moral which Gamaliel wished to draw.