Theudas [Theū'das]—false teacher. A Jewish impostor mentioned by Gamaliel before the Sanhedrin as the leader of an unsuccessful rebellion of four hundred men, who were destroyed with him (Acts 5:36). The identity of Theudas has occupied the attention of scholars since the time of Josephus, who also mentions a leader of this name at the head of an insurrection. The description Gamaliel gives us of Theudas as “boasting himself to be somebody” that is, some great personage, may agree with the account given by Josephus that Theudas was the Simon, previously a slave of Herod’s, who proclaimed himself king and burned Herod’s palaces. Theudas was his alias to conceal his servile origin.