Acts 5:36

For before these days rose up Theudas, giving himself out to be somebody; to whom. number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nought.

'FOR BEFORE THESE DAYS'-'Gamaliel's advice is somewhat akin to the old proverb about giving. man enough rope and he will hang himself. To show how regularly this happens, he gives first the example of Theudas, and then that of Judas the Galilean.' (Reese p. 224)

'ROSE UP'-i.e. incited. revolt.

'THEUDAS, GIVING HIMSELF OUT TO BE SOMEBODY'-Josephus mentions. revolutionary named Theudas (THOO duhs) but that particular man lived 10 or 15 years after Gamaliel gave this speech. In addition, of that man Josephus says that he "persuaded. great part of the people", hardly the Theudas mentioned by Gamaliel, who only had 400 followers. But the name Theudas, was common enough, and Josephus mentions no less than three insurrections as occurring shortly after the death of Herod the Great, that we can safely assume that another revolutionary named Theudas had existed.