A Christian living on Straight Street in Damascus
Judas
Named in 1 verse of Acts, first in Acts 9:11.
ἸούδαςJudas
The name means “Jude, same as Judah.” Hitchcock's Bible Names, 1869
About Judas Written by AI
Judas is mentioned in Acts 9:11 as a Christian living on Straight Street in Damascus. The context of the passage is Saul's (later known as Paul) conversion and his subsequent visit to Damascus (Acts 9:1 to 19). After Saul's encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, he was blinded and led into the city (Acts 9:8). In a vision, the Lord instructed Ananias, a disciple in Damascus, to go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and find Saul (Acts 9:11). The mention of Judas' house on Straight Street suggests that he was a Christian who provided lodging for believers visiting or living in Damascus. Straight Street was a well-known thoroughfare in the city, and Judas' house likely served as a meeting place for the early Christian community there. No further information is provided about Judas' background, occupation, or role in the church. His brief mention in the narrative highlights the hospitality and support of the early Christian community during the time of Saul's conversion and early ministry.
Drafted by an AI model for STEPBible's TIPNR (Tyndale House Cambridge, CC BY 4.0). Check it against the verses below.
Easton's Bible Dictionary, 1897
This entry is on the name Judas, and may cover more than one person or place by that name.
The Graecized form of Judah. (1.) The patriarch (Matt. 1:2, 3).
(2.) Son of Simon (John 6:71; 13:2, 26), surnamed Iscariot, i.e., a man of Kerioth (Josh. 15:25). His name is uniformly the last in the list of the apostles, as given in the synoptic (i.e., the first three) Gospels. The evil of his nature probably gradually unfolded itself till “Satan entered into him” (John 13:27), and he betrayed our Lord (18:3). Afterwards he owned his sin with “an exceeding bitter cry,” and cast the money he had received as the wages of his iniquity down on the floor of the sanctuary, and “departed and went and hanged himself” (Matt. 27:5). He perished in his guilt, and “went unto his own place” (Acts 1:25). The statement in Acts 1:18 that he “fell headlong and burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out,” is in no way contrary to that in Matt. 27:5. The sucide first hanged himself, perhaps over the valley of Hinnom, “and the rope giving way, or the branch to which he hung breaking, he fell down headlong on his face, and was crushed and mangled on the rocky pavement below.”
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Why such a man was chosen to be an apostle we know not, but it is written that “Jesus knew from the beginning who should betray him” (John 6:64). Nor can any answer be satisfactorily given to the question as to the motives that led Judas to betray his Master. “Of the motives that have been assigned we need not care to fix on any one as that which simply led him on. Crime is, for the most part, the result of a hundred motives rushing with bewildering fury through the mind of the criminal.”
(3.) A Jew of Damascus (Acts 9:11), to whose house Ananias was sent. The street called “Straight” in which it was situated is identified with the modern “street of bazaars,” where is still pointed out the so-called “house of Judas.”
(4.) A Christian teacher, surnamed Barsabas. He was sent from Jerusalem to Antioch along with Paul and Barnabas with the decision of the council (Acts 15:22, 27, 32). He was a “prophet” and a “chief man among the brethren.”
M. G. Easton, Illustrated Bible Dictionary, third edition (1897), public domain, from CrossWire. Shown as written; its Scripture quotes are from older translations.
Where the Bible names him
- Acts 9:11
“Get up!” the Lord told him. “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.
From STEPBible's TIPNR, Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0): names, family, references and the AI written article. Verse text is the BSB.