a sect of the Jews. Their founder was one Judas, a native of Galilee, from which place they derived their name. Their chief, esteeming it an indignity for the Jews to pay tribute to strangers, raised up his countrymen against the edict of the emperor Augustus, which had ordered a taxation or enrollment of all the subjects of the Roman empire.

They pretended that God alone should be owned as Master and Lord; and in other respects were of the opinion of the Pharisees; but, as they judged it unlawful to pray for infidel princes, they separated themselves from the rest of the Jews, and performed their sacrifices apart.