They were nomads that moved into Judah after the Assyrians took the Israelites captive around 700 BC. The bible talks about how they took advantage of the plight of God's people and are referred to as "bad seed". It explains the rift between the Pharisees and Sadducees that already existed when Jesus showed up. The former whored around with the war mongering Greeks (just like today except with Americans) and adopted Hellenistic culture, while the latter was conservative and traditional. Judas Iscariot was so named because his last name was not really a name but a description "ish kerioth", which meant "the man from Kerioth", which was a town in Judah where the imposters lived. It's been a while since I looked up all this stuff so I'm just shooting from the hip here. I can dig into my notes for sources if you're interested.
They were nomads that moved into Judah after the Assyrians took the Israelites captive around 700 BC. The bible talks about how they took advantage of the plight of God's people and are referred to as "bad seed". It explains the rift between the Pharisees and Sadducees that already existed when Jesus showed up. The former whored around with the war mongering Greeks (just like today except with Americans) and adopted Hellenistic culture, while the latter was conservative and traditional. Judas Iscariot was so named because his last name was not really a name but a description "ish kerioth", which meant "the man from Kerioth", which was a town in Judah where the imposters lived. It's been a while since I looked up all this stuff so I'm just shooting from the hip here. I can dig into my notes for sources if you're interested.
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