Judas Iscariot

From Ancient Greek Ἰούδας (Ioúdas) Ἰσκαριώτης (Iskariṓtēs)/ Ἰσκαριώθ (Iskariṓth); the original Hebrew or Aramaic term is unknown and the subject of much debate. For more information, see w:Judas Iscariot#Etymology.

Judas Iscariot

1. (Christianity) One of the twelve disciples of Jesus in the New Testament, who betrayed Jesus into the hands of the chief priests for 30 pieces of silver.

Judas Iscariot (plural Judas Iscariots)

1. A betrayer.
   • 1771, Tobias Smollett, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, London: W. Johnston, Volume 2, p. 209,

     —Ah (said he) she’s a Judas Iscariot, and has betrayed me with a kiss […]

   • 1969, The parliamentary debates

     It was far more generous treatment than they deserved, because, to speak frankly and strongly, these men had been the industrial Judas Iscariots to the rest of the working classes and to the working-class movement.

   • 2005, Eugene Montague MacDonald, A Short History of the Inquisition: What It Was and What It Did, page 254:

     But among these disciples there was a Judas Iscariot in the person of an ignorant and narrow-minded fanatic named De Francon, who played the same part in the martyrdom of Vanini as Mocenigo in the destruction of Bruno.