TEODRA (Θευδάς, *Theodas*). — Leader of a messianic nationalist uprising that gathered about 400 men; but after T. was killed, the movement had no further following (*Acts* 5:36-37; according to the Coptic-Sahidic translation, T. declared himself the Messiah). Gamaliel the Elder recalled this event before the full Sanhedrin, stating that it occurred before the revolt of Judas the Galilean, which took place over the census of 6-7 AD. Therefore, this was another T. than the one (Josephus, *Antiquities of the Jews*, XX, 5, 1) who, when Cuspius Fadus was procurator of Judea (44-46 AD), attempted a new uprising, promising his numerous followers to repeat the miraculous crossing of the Jordan; the revolt was crushed by Roman cavalry, and T. was beheaded.
The historical accuracy of St. Luke is sufficiently guaranteed even in this case, although Josephus does not expressly mention the T. of the Acts (though he may allude to him: *Antiquities of the Jews*, XVII, 10, 8). To assert that Luke invented everything or derived it from Josephus but committed an anachronism (Loisy, Krenkel, Schmiedel) is inadmissible: Josephus wrote *Antiquities of the Jews* in 93-94 AD, while Luke could have known Gamaliel’s words even from St. Paul, who had been his disciple, or from members of the Sanhedrin who had become Christians. Nor are there sufficient grounds to suppose here an error on Josephus’ part (Belser) or a textual interpolation (Blass, B. Weiss). It is unlikely that the T. of the Acts is the *Teudion* who attempted to poison Herod or the Matthias who tore down the golden eagle from the Temple gate (*Antiquities of the Jews*, XVII, 4, 2; 6, 2-4), since the messianic character of these uprisings is not evident.
T. is a hypocoristic form of Θευδάς or Θευδάς, corresponding to the Hebrew names Mattathias or Matthias (ὁ δόσιος, κορ. ὁ δόσιος, common personal names).