Judas Iscariot

alternative Judas the Iscariot

1. biblicalOne 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.

plural Judas Iscariots · alternative Judas the Iscariot

1. A betrayer.

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

   1771, [Tobias Smollett], The Expedition of Humphry Clinker […], volume II, London: […] W. Johnston, […]; and B. Collins, […], →OCLC, page 209

   3 more examples

   Alf Bergan will speak to the long fellow. We’ll put a barleystraw in that Judas Iscariot’s ear this time.

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[11]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

   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.

   1969, parliamentary debates

   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.

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