THEODAS (Θεοδάς, Theodas). - Leader of a messianic nationalist insurrection who gathered about 400 men; but, once T. was killed, it had no further following (Acts 5:36ff.; according to the "opto-sa'idic" translation, T. declared himself Messiah). Gamaliel the Elder recalled this fact in the full Sanhedrin, saying it was earlier than the revolt of Judas the Galilean, which occurred at the time of the census of 6-7 A.D. Different, therefore, was the T. who (Flavius Josephus, Antiq. Iud., XX, 5, 1), when Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judea (44-46 A.D.), attempted a new insurrection, promising his numerous followers that he would repeat the miraculous crossing of the Jordan; the revolt was put down by the Roman cavalry, and T. was beheaded.
The noted historical accuracy of St. Luke is sufficient guarantee also in the present case, although Fl. Josephus does not speak expressly of the T. of Acts (but perhaps he alludes to him: Antiq. Iud., XVII, 10, 8). To assert that Luke invented everything or drew from Fl. Josephus but committed an anachronism (Loisy, Krenkel, Schmiedel) is inadmissible: Josephus wrote Antiq. Iud. in 93-94, whereas Luke could have known Gamaliel's words also from St. Paul, who had been his disciple, or from members of the Sanhedrin who had passed over to Christianity. Nor are there sufficient grounds to suppose here an error by Josephus (Belser) or a textual interpolation (Blass, B. Weiss). It is difficult that the T. of Acts is the Theudion who attempted to poison Herod or the Matthias who struck down the golden eagle from the gate of the Temple (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 Θεόδωτος corresponding to the Hebrew Matthew or Matthias ("gift of Yahweh"), very common personal names.
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Luigi Vagaggini