TEODA (Θεοδάς, Theodas). — Leader of a messianic nationalist uprising that gathered approximately 400 men; but, after T. was killed, it had no further following (Act. 5:36 ff.; according to the “opto-Sa‘idian” translation, “T. declared himself Messiah”). Gamaliel the Elder recalled this event before the full Sanhedrin, stating that it had preceded the revolt of Judas the Galilean, which occurred on the occasion of the census of A.D. 6–7. The T. who, when Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judea (A.D. 44–46), attempted a new uprising, promising his numerous followers that he would repeat the miraculous crossing of the Jordan, was therefore another person (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XX, 5, 1); the revolt was suppressed by the Roman cavalry, and T. was beheaded.
The well-known historical accuracy of St. Luke is a sufficient guarantee in the present case as well, although Fl. Josephus does not expressly mention the T. of Acts (but perhaps alludes to him: Antiq. Iud., XVII, 10, 8). To assert that Luke invented everything or derived it from Fl. Josephus but committed an anachronism (Loisy, Krenkel, Schmiedel) is inadmissible: Josephus wrote Antiq. Iud. in A.D. 93–94, whereas Luke could have learned Gamaliel’s words from St. Paul, who had been his disciple, or from members of the Sanhedrin who had converted to Christianity. Nor are there sufficient grounds for supposing here an error on Josephus’s part (Belser) or a textual interpolation (Blass, B. Weiss). It is difficult to identify the T. of Acts with Theudion, who attempted to poison Herod, or with Mattathias, who tore down the golden eagle from the Temple gate (Antiq. Iud., XVII, 4, 2; 6, 2–4), since the messianic character of these uprisings is not evident.
T. is a hypocoristic form of Θεόδωρος or Θεόδοτος, corresponding to the Hebrew Matteo or Mattia (“gift of Yahweh”), very common personal names.