Etymology of the nickname 'Iskarit(h): the “one who saw a sign” [('I)sqar(^i)'^o/yisqar(^i)'^o] or the “one who slandered/betrayed a sign” [('I)sqar(^i)'^o/yisqar(^i)'^o]?

* The author acknowledges Saint-Petersburg State University for a research grant 23.38.96.2012.

Unlike some other Hebrew and Aramaic phrases and designations (including some of the apostles’ nicknames), rendered in Greek transliterations in the New Testament, the nickname of the betrayer Judas — Iskariot(h) — has been left without any interpretation in all four Gospels. Possibly it was done by the evangelists deliberately, for the nickname Iskariot(h) could arise before Judas’s betrayal — yet before “Satan entered into Judas” ( bk. 22:3; Jn. 13:2,26-27; cf.: Matt. 27:3-5) — and therefore not necessary bear negative character. On the other hand, the figure of Judas must evoke none other than negative associations from the very beginning. (Probably we meet with the same approach in the case of the high priest Joseph named Caiaphas in the Gospels without any further interpretation of this designation.¹) Judging by Jn. 6:71, 13:2,26, Judas’s nickname was patrimonial: ’louSa;

Slp®uo; ’loKapiMTOu², “Judas, (son) of Simon Iskariot”. In any case, in the Gospels this nickname was applied to Judas before his betrayal, and thus its content could be neutral or even positive. The designation Iskariot(h) is attested in two forms: "ToKapitoO and (о) ToKapi®Tqg³ ( vv. ll. : XKapimO. Екаргютрд⁴, resp. Peshitta: s^ekar-youta’). As was noted by J. E. Taylor, “Judas was designated by a Hebrew or Aramaic name transliterated as JoKapiroO and rendered in Greek form as loKapiwTqc”, but “the manuscripts show more of a tendency to standardize the epithet in Greek form rather than to retrieve or preserve the Hebrew or Aramaic form”.⁵ In the main manuscripts of the earliest Gospel — According to Mark— only the spelling JoKapiroO is attested (3:19, 14:10; also: Lk. 6:16).

The present paper derives Judas’s nickname Iskarioth (’loKapitoO) from the He-brew/Aramaic verb Про, saqar⁶/s^eqar⁷, “to look (at)”, “to gaze”, “to see”,⁸ and the noun л(1)х, ’ot/’dt, “sign”, widely used in Biblical Hebrew and attested in the Talmud⁹ (=Aramaic ЛХ, ХЛХ): тк про , saqar/s^eqar ’ot, resp. тхр)про(х) , (’i)sqar(i)’ot, i.e. the “one who saw/gaze upon a sign”¹⁰.¹¹ This could be one of those signs (oqpeia¹²), about which it was written or “not written” (cf.: Jn. 20:30) in the Gospels. A sign (especially, in heaven) was one of the most important confirmations of a prophet or a soterological, Messianic figure mission verity for the Jews at that time (see, e.g. : Matt. 16:1, 24:24-26,30; Mk. 13:21-22; Lk. 11:16, 21:11,25; Acts 2:19; Rev. 12; cf., e.g.: Josephus Flavius , Jewish Antiquities, II, 259; ibid. , 261 ff. and . Acts 21:38).

John (e.g.: 2:23, 4:48, 6:2,14,30; cf. also: 6:26)13 mentions those who «saw signs» (eQewpouu та oqpeia; 6:2) and came to be Jesus’s followers. The verbs 0s®ps® and opa® used in these passages correlate with the verb Про, saqar/seqar, “to look (at, on), gaze, see, watch”, and the noun oppstov (pl. oppsta) correlates with the word л(1)х, ’ot/’ot, “sign”. One can assume that Judas was possibly the one who “saw” a special “sign”, “believed” in Jesus as Christ, and hereupon came to be his disciple and got the nickname “Iskarioth”, i.e. the “one who (proclaimed that he) saw a sign”. The hypothetical usage of just the verb про, saqar/seqar in this designa- tion possibly implies the heavenly character of the sign; NB: the noun mpo, saqor, “astronomer”14, attested in Jewish Palestinian Aramaic, is derived from this very verb. For instance, Judas’s vision of a sign could be like that described in the apocryphal Gospel of Judas15 (Iskariot): “ ‘Lift up your eyes and look at the cloud and the light within it and the stars surrounding it. The star that leads the way is your star. ’ Judas lifted up his eyes and saw the luminous cloud, and he entered it. Those standing on the ground heard a voice coming from the cloud...”. As was noted above, the ex hypothesi “positive” character of Judas’s nickname could explain the evangelists’ renunciation of its interpretation (and possibly that is why John carries it over Judas’s farther, Simon).

The addition of a prosthetic aleph (this phenomenon was not uncommon in Aramaic and Mishnaic Hebrew) to a stem can be explained by the inordinate length of the compound word; this gave rise to elision of the vowel farthest from the accent, thereby “creating a clash of syllables which necessitated its addition”.¹⁶ Let us also point out that in the Hebrew and Aramaic names and designations, composed from two words, a paragogic yod could be used for their combination in the united term; in particular, this phenomenon took place in the names of some leaders of the fallen angels in the Qumran Aramaic fragments of the Book of Watchers (=1 Enoch 1-36), dated paleographically to the II-I centuries BCE ( 4QEn^a'^c ar ), e.g. : 'winw, Saharl’el , “Moon of God”; ’wnn, Turi’el , “Mountain of God”; Vx’»’ , Yoml’el , “Day of God” (var.: Yamml’el , “Sea of God”); nm’»^ , Semlhazah , “The Name saw” or the “One who saw The Name”; ^х’л , Dani’el , “God has judged” or “Judge (from) God” (in Ezek. 14:14,20, 28:3, the spelling without a yod is attested— ^хп )¹⁷; ^К’ПП’ , Yhadl’el , “God will guide”, and others. The spelling of one of the fallen angels name Zeq(i) ’el , “Lightning flash of God” or “Shooting star (from) God”, is attested both with a conjunctive yod — 5х’р’т and without it — ^xp’t . In Greek transliterations of the fallen angels names a conjunctive yod is rendered by a yota ( e.g. : ^X’liu — Tvptqk/Tovptqk); in some cases a conjunctive yod , missing in Hebrew-Aramaic names, is reproduced in Greek and Ethiopic renderings of these designations ( e.g. : ^n»si — Paptqk, Rdmi’el , “Thunder of God”; and others).¹⁸

Let us also note that in the Washington Codex of the Four Gospels (V century), in Mk. 3:19, the spelling of Judas’s nickname without a yota is attested: 1окар®грд.

If the imperfect form of the verb¹⁹ was used in Judas’s nickname — ipD’ , yisqar (cf., e.g. , the Masoretic vocalizations of the Biblical Aramaic verbs in pe’al , imperfect 3 m. sg.: пзр' ( Dan. 7:25 ) ; abti’ ( Dan. 5:7); neti' ( Dan. 4:24)), then the reconstruction of an initial prosthetic aleph is unnecessary at all, for the Hebrew/Aramaic - D’ , yis- can be rendered in Greek as io- (cf., e.g. : ^niw’ , yisra’el — Topaqk). Thus, the designation mx(’)ipD’ can be precisely transliterated by the Greek letters as ’IoKap ( i ) ®9, i.e. Iskar(i)oth.

Co-existence of Aramaic and the Hebrew vernacular in Judea at the beginning of the Christian era allows one to admit a “mixed” Aramean-Hebrew character of certain designations, phrases, passages, etc. (especially those of the religious content) at that period (cf., e.g. : Ps. 22:2 and Mk. 15:34, Matt. 27:46; a variation of коор/коорг in different manuscripts in Mk. 5:41), including possibly the nickname “Iskariot(h)”.

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On the other hand, if the nickname Iskarioth bore a negative content, then it could be derived from the Hebrew/Aramaic verb np^ , saqar/s^eqar (“to lie, deceive, slander”, sc. “to violate (a treaty, etc.)”, “to betray” [the latter meaning is attested in Samaritan Aramaic²⁰]) and the same noun n(i)X , ’ot/’dt: Iskarioth is the “one who slandered/ resp. betrayed a sign”,²¹ i.e . the one who could bring false evidence against Jesus (cf.: Matt. 26:59 ff.; Mk. 14:55 ff.). In Jn. 6:70, Jesus himself defines Judas with the term SidpoZo^; this word can be interpreted as “slanderer”, “accuser”.²²