John 6:71. Now he spake of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot. Here we meet for the first time in this Gospel with the name Iscariot; and it will be observed that (as in John 13:26) it is connected not with the name of Judas (as in John 12:4; John 13:2; John 14:22) but with that of his father. In all probability the word signifies ‘man of Kerioth,' a town in the tribe of Judah (see Joshua 15:25). Apparently Judas was the only apostle not of Galilee, and the peculiarity of his name (identical with Judah and ‘the Jews') is certainly not overlooked by the Evangelist. Nay, more, not only is Judas of Kerioth, that town of Judah and the Jews, his father is so too. The double link of connection seems to deepen the thought.

For he it was that was about to betray him one of the twelve. Judas was not yet the traitor; ‘was about to' expresses only the futurity of the event; but how much is the criminality of the germ already springing up in his heart heightened by the closing remark, in which we see at once the anger and the pathos of the Evangelist, ‘being one of the Twelve' !

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Old Testament