Editing Judas Iscariot (section)

===Name and background=== 
[[File:Brooklyn Museum - Judas Iscariot (Judas Iscariote) - James Tissot (cropped).jpg|thumb|''Judas Iscariot'' (between 1886 and 1894) by [[James Tissot]]]]

The name "Judas" ({{lang|grc|Ὶούδας}}) is a [[Koine Greek|Greek]] rendering of the Hebrew name [[Judah (given name)|Judah]] ({{lang|he|יהודה}}, {{transliteration|he|Y<sup>e</sup>hûdâh}}, Hebrew for "praise or praised"), which was an extremely common name for Jewish men during the first century AD, due to the renowned hero [[Judas Maccabeus]].{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} Consequently, numerous other figures with this name are mentioned throughout the New Testament.<ref name="Oropeza"/>{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} In the Gospel of Mark {{bibleverse-nb||Mark|3:13–19|9}}, which was written in the mid-60s or early 70s AD, Judas Iscariot is the only apostle named "Judas".{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} {{bibleverse||Matthew|10:2–4|9}} shares this portrayal.{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} The [[Gospel of Luke]] {{bibleverse-nb||Luke|6:12–19|9}}, however, replaces the apostle whom Mark and Matthew call "[[Jude the Apostle|Thaddeus]]" with "Judas son of James".{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} [[Peter Stanford]] suggests that this renaming may represent an effort by the author of the Gospel of Luke to create a "good Judas" in contrast to the betrayer Judas Iscariot.{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}}

Judas's [[epithet]] "Iscariot" ({{lang|grc|Ὶσκάριωθ}} or {{lang|grc|Ὶσκαριώτης}}), which distinguishes him from the other people named "Judas" in the gospels, is usually thought to be a Greek rendering of the [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] phrase {{lang|he|איש־קריות}}, ({{transliteration|he|Îš-Qrîyôt}}), meaning "the man from [[Kerioth]]".{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Richard |last=Bauckham |title=Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company]] |location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |date=2006 |isbn=978-0802874313 |page=106}}</ref><ref>[https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/9033-judas-iscariot Jewish Encyclopedia Judas Iscariot]</ref> This interpretation is supported by the statement in the [[Gospel of John]] {{bibleverse-nb||John|6:71|9}} that Judas was "the son of Simon Iscariot".{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} Nonetheless, this interpretation of the name is not fully accepted by all scholars.{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} One of the most popular alternative explanations holds that "Iscariot" ({{lang|arc|ܣܟܪܝܘܛܐ}}, {{transliteration|arc|'Skaryota'}} in Syriac Aramaic, per the [[Peshitta]] text) may be a corruption of the Latin word {{lang|la|sicarius}}, meaning "dagger man",{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}}<ref>{{cite book |first=Bastiaan |last=van Iersel |title=Mark: A Reader-Response Commentary |publisher=Continuum International |location=Danbury, Connecticut |date=1998 |isbn=978-1850758297 |page=167}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Andrew Gabriel-Yizkhak |last=Roth bar Raphael |title=Aramaic English New Testament |publisher=Netzari Press |edition=5 |isbn=978-1934916421}}; Sedro-Woolley, Wash.: Netzari Press, 2012), 278fn177.</ref> which referred to a member of the [[Sicarii]] ({{lang|arc|סיקריים}} in Aramaic), a group of Jewish rebels who were known for assassinating people in crowds using long knives hidden under their cloaks.{{sfn|Gubar|2009|page=31}}{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} This interpretation is problematic, however, because there is nothing in the gospels to associate Judas with the Sicarii,{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} and there is no evidence that the cadre existed during the 30s AD when Judas was alive.<ref>Brown, Raymond E. (1994). ''The Death of the Messiah: From Gethsemane to the Grave: A Commentary on the Passion Narratives in the Four Gospels v.1 ''pp. 688–92. New York: Doubleday/The Anchor Bible Reference Library. {{ISBN|0-385-49448-3}}; Meier, John P. ''[[A Marginal Jew: Rethinking the Historical Jesus]]'' (2001). v. 3, p. 210. New York: Doubleday/The Anchor Bible Reference Library. {{ISBN|0-385-46993-4}}.</ref>{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}}

A possibility advanced by [[Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg]] is that "Iscariot" means "the liar" or "the false one", from the Hebrew {{lang|he|איש-שקרים}}. [[C. C. Torrey]] suggests instead the [[Aramaic]] form {{lang|arc|שְׁקַרְיָא}} or {{lang|arc|אִשְׁקַרְיָא}}, with the same meaning.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Torrey |first=Charles C. |date=1943 |title=The Name "Iscariot" |journal=The Harvard Theological Review |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=51–62 |doi=10.1017/S0017816000029084 |jstor=1507970 |s2cid=162707224 |issn=0017-8160}}</ref><ref name="Iskarioth">{{cite journal |first=Joan E. |last=Taylor |title=The name 'Iskarioth' (Iscariot) |journal=[[Journal of Biblical Literature]] |volume=129 |number=2 |pages=367–83 |doi=10.2307/27821024 |jstor=27821024 |year=2010}}</ref> Stanford rejects this, arguing that the gospel writers follow Judas's name with the statement that he betrayed Jesus, so it would be redundant for them to call him "the false one" before immediately stating that he was a traitor.{{sfn|Stanford|2015|page=}} Some have proposed that the word derives from an Aramaic word meaning "red color", from the root {{lang|arc|סקר}}.<ref>{{cite web |first=Katie |last=Edwards |url=http://theconversation.com/why-judas-was-actually-more-of-a-saint-than-a-sinner-56689 |title=Why Judas was actually more of a saint, than a sinner |magazine=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]] |publisher=The Conversation Trust |location=Melbourne, Australia |date=23 March 2016 |access-date=28 July 2018}}</ref> Another hypothesis holds that the word derives from one of the Aramaic roots {{lang|arc|סכר}} or {{lang|arc|סגר}}. This would mean "to deliver", based on the [[Septuagint]] rendering of Isaiah 19:4—a theory advanced by J. Alfred Morin.<ref name="Iskarioth"/> The epithet could also be associated with the manner of Judas's death, hanging. This would mean Iscariot derives from a kind of Greek-Aramaic hybrid: {{lang|arc|אִסְכַּרְיוּתָא}}, {{transliteration|arc|Iskarioutha}}, meaning "chokiness" or "constriction". This might indicate that the epithet was applied posthumously by the remaining disciples, but Joan E. Taylor has argued that it was a descriptive name given to Judas by Jesus, since other disciples such as [[Saint Peter|Simon Peter]]/Cephas (''Kephas'' "rock") were also given such names.<ref name="Iskarioth"/>