JUDAS ISCARIOT ('Ioaas Icricaptth'riis or 'lgKaina), the son of Simon Iscariot (John. vi. 71, xiii. 26), and one of the twelve apostles ; he is always enumerated last, with special mention of the fact that be was the betrayer of Jesus. If the now generally accepted explanation of his surname (rw7i? i.e., "man of Kerioth"; see Josh. xv. 25) be correct, he was the only original member of the apostolic band who was not a Galilwan. (For other suggested etymologies of the name see Winer's Bibl. Realworterb., s. v.) The circumstances which led to his admission into the apostolic circle are not stated ; according to the Fourth Gospel (vi. 64), his treachery had been foreseen by Jesus from the very first, but this is not suggested by the synoptists. The motives by which he was actuated in rendering to the Jewish authorities the petty and base service of enabling them to arrest his Master without tumult have been analysed by scholars with very various degrees of subtlety and insight. According to some his sole object was to place Jesus in a position in which He should be compelled to make what had seemed to His followers the too tardy display of His Messianic power ; according to others (and their view seems the best supported by the narrative of the Gospels) he was simply an avaricious and dishonest man, who felt that his opportunities for petty peculation - as keeper of the common purse, John xii. 6, xiii. 29 - were rapidly disappearing. As regards the effects of his subsequent remorse and the use to which his ill-gotten gains were put, the strikingly apparent discrepancies between the narratives of Matt. xxvii. 3-10 and Acts i., 18,19 have continually attracted the attention of Biblical scholars ever since Papias, in his fourth book, of which a. fragment has been preserved, discussed the subject ; the probability is that they simply represent divergent traditions, one of which has possibly been coloured by the history of Ahithophel. In ecclesiastical legend and in sacred art Judas Iscariot has taken a prominent place, being generally treated as the very incarnation of treachery, ingratitude, and impiety. The Middle Ages, after their fashion, have supplied the lacunae in what they deemed his too meagre biography. According to the common form of their story, he belonged to the tribe.of Reuben; before he was born his mother Cyborea had a dream that he was destined to murder his father, commit incest with his mother, and sell his God. The attempts made by her and her husband to avert this curse simply led to its accomplishment. At his birth he was enclosed in a chest and flung into the sea; picked up on a foreign shore, he was educated at the court until an act of murder committed in a moment of passion compelled his flight. Coming to Judxa, he entered the service of Pontius Pilate as page, and during this period committed the first two of the crimes which had been expressly foretold. Learning the secret of his birth, he, full of remorse, seeks the prophet who, he has heard, has power on earth to forgive sins. He is accepted as a disciple and promoted to a position of trust, where avarice, the only vice in which he has hitherto been unpractised, gradually takes possession of his soul, and leads to the complete fulfilment of his evil destiny. This Judas legend, as given by Jacobus a Voragine, obtained no small popularity ; and it is to be found in various shapes in every important literature of Europe. For the history of its genesis and its diffusion the reader may consult D'Ancona, La leggenda di 47 ergogna e la leggenda di Ginda, Bologna, 1869, and papers by W. Creizenach in Paul and Braune's Beitr. zur Gesch. der deutschen Sprache und Literatur, vol. ii., Halle, 1875, and Victor Diederich in Russiche Revue, St Petersburg, 1880. Cholevius, in his Geschichte der deutschen Poesie nach ihren antiken Elementen (Leipsic, 1854), pointed out the connexion of the legend with the CEdipus story. The popular hatred of Judas has found strange symbolical expression in various parts of Christendom. In Corfu, for instance, the people at a given signal on Easter eve throw vast quantities of crockery from their windows and roofs into the streets, and thus execute an imaginary stoning of Judas (see Kirkwall, Ionian Islands, vol. ii. p. 47). At one time (according to Mustoxidi, Delle cose corciresi) the tradition prevailed that the traitor's house and country villa existed in the island, and that his descendants were to be found among the local Jews. Details in regard to sonic Judas legends and superstitions are given in Notes and Queries, 2d series, v., vi., and vii.; 3d ser., vii.; 5th ser., vi.